The Arena
An Offering to Contemporary Monasticism
being Volume V of the Collected Ascetic Treatises of
Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov
Chapter 6
GOD-PLEASING LIFE IN HUMAN SOCIETY MUST PRECEDE GOD-PLEASING LIFE IN
SILENCE AND SOLITUDE
A. Coenobitic vs “state-supported” monasteries
1. The author says that the beginner should choose a coenobitic over a state-supported
monastery.
a. The situation in Russia at the time was the result of the anti-monastic legislation
of the 18 century, which had closed many monasteries and placed all monasteries under greater or
lesser state control.
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- Most monasteries were funded directly by the government. Their typikon
was idiorrythmic: each monk kept his own property and money, had to buy or rent his own cell, was
paid for certain jobs in the monastery, and, even if there was a common refectory, was not required
to attend meals. He was required to attend church services only if he had an obedience related to
services or if his spiritual father directed him to, but not by the rule of the monastery. Needless to
say, this was a very poor kind of monastic life in itself, though, as the author says, one could still
practice the Gospel in such circumstances.
- Some monasteries were truly coenobitic: The monks owned all things in
common, everyone was expected to attend all church services and meals, no food was to be kept or
eaten in the cell, everything that was needed was provided, so that the monks were freed from
temporal concerns. This is the authentic monastic constitution, and such monasteries are obviously
preferable to those described above.
b. One can see the difference between these two types of monasteries illustrated in a
book called One of the Ancients, the biography of the Elder Gabriel of the Seven Lakes Monastery.
He lives as a novice at Optina and then moves to Moscow to accept a post at a state-supported
monastery. You will see the difference if you read the book.
B. Practicing the commandments in human society comes first.
1. Experienced ascetics – and they are rare who are suited for this, even among the
experienced - enter solitude in order to do battle with the fallen spirits in their territory, the
invisible realm.
2. Someone still under the domination of the passions cannot enter this realm without being
deceived and brought under the domination of the demons.
3. Cleansing from the passions can only take place by practicing the commandments of the
Gospel in human society.
4. Rejection of the fallen spirits must already be a constant set of one's soul, a fixed
direction of his free will, before entering their realm, the invisible universe.
5. The acceptance of fellowship with God, which is a free gift of the Redeemer, is possible
only in the context of Church life – the practice of the moral commandments, confession and Holy
Communion, etc. It comes, however, not at the beginning of one's conversion (contra the
Protestants), but at the end of the stage called praxis, in which the passions are overcome by God's
grace working through the ordinary life of the Church . In other words, those who are capable of
entering solitude are already in full possession of true sonship and true friendship with Christ; they
no longer live by fear of punishment or hope of reward, but are actuated solely by the love of Jesus
Christ. This is a very high spiritual state, apart from ecstasy and vision, miracles, etc., which often
are the by-products of such a state, but do not necessarily occur.
C. Evil spirits easily defeat the unprepared soul.
1. The fulfillment of the commandments in human society gives the ascetic the “clearest and
most exact experimental knowledge of fallen human nature and the nature of fallen spirits.” Note
that the bishop does not say, “visions of the fallen spirits” or reading about visions of fallen spirits,
give one the precise knowledge of the activity of the demons, but rather the practice of the
commandments. The one who unremittingly gives himself over to practicing the Gospel will develop
spiritual perception of the presence and activity of demons. This is what is needed, not visions.
2. The author reiterates the basic teaching that by the fall man entered into the same moral
category as the demons: rejected creatures hostile to God, doomed to burial in the prisons of hell.
The ascetic comes to understand the demons by dealing with fallen men, whose struggle with the
passions and sins are the clinical laboratory in which the demonic is studied and understood.
D. Quote from Ss. Barsanuphius and John
1. Only by enduring slights, annoyances, and humiliations from other people can we be freed
from the influence of feelings and sense – i.e. , can rise from a psychological inner life to a spiritual
inner life.
2. Our Lord Himself gave us a paradigm for this, for He lived among men and was subject to
all these things, before entering into hesychia on the Cross.
E. Those who practice the Gospel will succeed.
1. Even if you are in a well-ordered coenobitic monastery, you will fail if you do not study
and practice the Gospel. Even if you are in an irregular situation, you can be saved, if you practice
the Gospel.
2. We could translate this for our use by saying that one could be in a “good parish” and
perish, and one could be in a “bad parish” and be saved.
F. The scope for practicing the Gospel is unlimited
1. One could and should study the Gospel all one's life and never cease growing in the
practice of it.
2. One of Bishop Ignaty's great one-liners: The most perfect Christians, brought to a state
of perfection by divine grace, are imperfect in regard to the commandments of the Gospel.