Answers of the Great Masters of the Spiritual Life to the Questions of Their Disciples.

Disciple: What is the beginning of the spiritual life?

Master: The fear of the Lord.  

Disciple: Is the fear of the Lord fragile?

Master: It is, in fact, a potent force but it cannot remain in the soul side by side with worldly distractions.  

Disciple: How come?

Master: When your heart serves the senses, your heart becomes distracted from the sweetness of the Lord.

Disciple: When the heart serves the senses, is this what you call love of the body?

Master: Yes. And when you love your body, you cannot be courageous and unafraid; and, in seeking God, one has to be brave. And bravery comes with faith.

Disciple: What distracts man most away from God?

Master: The love to be honored, which becomes for him a source of many griefs.

St. Isaac of Nineveh, 660 A.D.

(09-28-02)