“A Monk is one who holds only to the commands of God in every time and place and matter. A monk is one who constantly constrains his nature and unceasingly watches over his senses. A monk is he who keeps his body in chastity, his mouth pure and his mind illumined. A monk is a mourning soul that both asleep and awake is unceasingly occupied with the remembrance of death.”

Saint John Climacus

Blessed

From the Life of the Elder Barsanuphius of Optina

On that trip, during one of our talks, the Elder took off the cap he wore in his cell and put it on me: “Let me see how my little child will look as a nun.”
I took this as a joke, because I had had no thoughts about monasticism. Even more – at the beginning of my acquaintance with the Elder I had asked him if, in his opinion, I could be saved in the world, because “I cannot and will not” enter a monastery, as I declared directly to him. I would like to present the Elder’s reply.

“It’s possible to be saved living in the world, only … be careful! Imagine an abyss, at the bottom of which there bubbles a turbulent stream. From the water, every so often, horrible monsters thrust their heads out and open their jaws wide to swallow whoever falls into the water. You know that you have to cross over this abyss, and a narrow, thin pole is thrown across it. What a horror! The pole could suddenly break under you or your head could start spinning, and you would fall right into the jaws of the terrible monsters. How frightful! Might you cross it carefully? With God’s help, of course. everything is possible, but it’s frightful all the same. Suddenly someone tells you: ‘Look, over there on the right, two or three steps away there’s a bridge built on firm piers, with iron handrails – why tempt God, why risk your life? Isn’t it simpler to go across by that safe path?’ Have you understood me? The abyss is the sea of life, which we all have to get across. The pole is the path of the layman, and the bridge, protected on all sides, firm and stable, is the monastery.”

I answered then, that if that bridge was inaccessible to me, then with God’s help I would cross by way of the pole. And the Elder had agreed with me. With that the conversation about monasticism had ended for the time being, and therefore the Elder’s joke now with the cap surprised me. And it must be said that a whole four and a half years went by after this joke before it was fulfilled in reality.

Nun Elena (Shamonina). “Recollections of the Elder.” Elder Barsanuphius of Optina.  By Victor Afanasiev. Plating: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2000.  543-4. Print.int.