Trials

52. In time of trial do not leave your monastery but stand up courageously against the thoughts that surge over you, especially those of irritation and listlessness. For when you have been tested by afflictions in this way, according to divine providence, your hope in God will become firm and secure. But if you leave, you will show yourself to be worthless, unmanly and fickle.

St. Maximus the Confessor Four Hundred Centuries on Love: #52

Within the hallowed walls of the monastery, among the quiet cloisters and the whispered prayers, in which the soul must be a refuge and a battleground, is the mettle of the monk tested, in the tempests of the mind which rage the fiercest; in the sacred solitude of contemplation is this proven.

Be as the sentinel on the monastery walls of your heart, which stands on watch against the relentless onslaught of inner turmoil. When times of trial come, and the winds of affliction howl, and the waves of temptation threaten to drown you, the call to leave the post may become strong. And yet Maximus the Confessor seems to sound out as a call to courage: 'To have a firm grip and to be unshaken in front of the wave that is about to come.' The monastery—with its disciplined rhythms, ascetic practices—becomes the crucible in which the monk's faith is made. It is a place of retreat, not from the world, but from the distractions that hinder communion with the Divine. Here, then, in this dread beauty of stone and silence, meets the monk the deepest abysses of his soul, wrestling with the stormy seas of his soul's life, unconquerable, dauntless. The higher the pressure of calamity, the more valuable does the show of endurance become. Yield not, therefore, to the siren song of despair nor its cacophony that beckons towards the whispering reeds of unrest. Stand instead as the beacon of fortitude with a heart steadfast in God’s providence.

For it is in these testings that the true essence of faith is disclosed. Like gold that is refined in the furnace, the soul is brought to trial through the fires of adversity, its great strength brought forth. Thus, in weathering the storms that beat upon, hope in God is an anchor, sure and steadfast, that grounds within when turbulence tends.

To abandon one's monastery under trial is to abandon not only one's calling, but one's very self. It is betrayal of the vows which were given, a fall from the noble path of self-discovery and spiritual growing. Fleeing from adversity, you show yourself to be unworthy of the mantle of the monk.

Therefore, let courage be your shield and steadfastness your sword. Stand resolute against the thoughts that surge over you, knowing that through endurance, your hope in God will be made firm. For it is in the crucible of trial that the true monk is revealed, with the unwavering faith and the indefatigable resolve, with the heart steadfast in divine love.