Father Silouan the Athonite on Spiritual Fathers:

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In the Church another course lies open to us to seek out and obey the counsels of a spiritual father. This is what the Staretz (Elder) himself did, considering the humble path of obedience to be the trust-worthiest of all. He firmly believed that because of the faith of the one who turned to him, the spiritual father's counsel would always be right, beneficial, pleasing to God. His confidence in the efficacy of the Mysteries of the Church and the grace of the priesthood were the more confirmed after, one night in Lent on Old Russikon, during Evensong, he saw the spiritual father, Staretz Abraham, transfigured "in the image of Christ" and "ineffably radiant."

Filled with blessed faith, he lived the Mysteries of the Church in reality, but I remember he thought that on the psychological plane, too, it was not difficult to see the advantage of obedience to a spiritual father. He used to say that when a father confessor answers a question in the performance of his ministry he is at that moment untouched by the passion influencing his inquirer, and so he can see more clearly, and is more easily accessible to the action of God's grace.

A spiritual confessor's reply will usually bear the imprint of imperfection, but this is not because he lacks the grace of knowledge but because perfection is beyond the strength and grasp of the one inquiring of him. Notwithstanding its inadequacy, the spiritual instruction, if accepted with faith and effectively heeded, will always lead to an increase of good. This process is often subverted because the inquirer, seeing before him an "ordinary man," hesitates, loses his faith a little, and so does not accept the first word of his spiritual father and raises objections, putting forward his own opinions and doubts.

Staretz Silouan discussed this important matter with the Abbot Archimandrite Missail (d. 22 January 1940), a spiritual man favored and manifestly blessed by God. Father Silouan asked the Abbot, "How can a monk find out the Divine will?" "He must accept my first word as the will of God," said the Abbot. "Divine grace rests on him who does so, but if he resists me, then I, as a mere mortal, will back down." The idea behind Abbot Missail's reply is this: When asked for counsel, a spiritual father prays to God for understanding but he answers in his capacity as man, according to the measure of his faith. "I believed, and therefore have I spoken," wrote St. Paul. But "We know in part, and we prophesy in part."

When a spiritual father gives advice, or tells a man what to do, he himself is anxious not to sin and is on trial before God. The moment, then that he meets with an objection, or even some inner resistance on the part of his enquirer, he does not insist or presume to affirm that what he was saying was the expression of God's will. In his position as man, he withdraws.

This conception Abbot Missail expressed very clearly in his life. On one occasion he summoned a novice, Father S. and laid a complicated, difficult task of obedience on him. The novice readily accepted and, bowing low, moved to the door. On a sudden the Abbot called him. The novice stopped. Lowering his head on his chest, the Abbot quietly but meaningfully said, "Father S., remember, God does not judge twice, so when you do something in obedience to me, it is I who will be judged by God, but you will not be called to account."

When anyone objected, even if only mildly, to some commission or instruction from Abbot Missail, that generally strong-minded ascetic personality, in spite of his post as administrator, would usually reply, "Well, all right, do as you like," and did not repeat his injunction. And Staretz Silouan, likewise, when he met with resistance, would fall silent. Why is this so? On the one hand because the Spirit of God suffers neither violence nor argument. On the other, because the will of God is too great a matter to be contained or receive perfect expression in the words of a spiritual father. Only the man who accepts these words of his spiritual father with faith as being pleasing to God, who does not submit them to his own judgment, or argue about them, has found the true path, for he genuinely believes that "With God all things are possible." This is the way of faith, discerned and confirmed in the millennial experience of the Church. _______________________________________________________

Matt. xix:26. V1 II Cor. iv:13 vii I Cor. xiii:9.