Answers of the Great Masters of the Spiritual Life to the
Questions of Their Disciples.
Disciple: Why do we frown on the visible world?
Master: Because the visible world is a screen
that prevents us from seeing what is within us.
Disciple: It is not easy to reject the world.
Master: It is not; but unless we trample down
our tendency to be worldly, we cannot heal the weaknesses of the
senses.
Disciple: Where does freedom come into the
picture?
Master: Freedom and reason go together in the
spiritual life; without one, the other tends to deviate.
Disciple: How is that?
Master: Without reason, freedom cannot exist; what you have
is anarchy. Without freedom, reason tends to go wild.
St.
Isaac of Nineveh, 660 A.D.
(09-06-02) |