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

Disciple: Fear of death is common to all men. How do you reduce this fearful feeling?

Master:  When God's graces increase in you, death becomes of no account to you.

Disciple: Is fear of God and dislike for suffering the same?

Master:  Yes, in fact, suffering is referred to as dying slowly; and if your suffering is for God's sake, it is considered slow martyrdom or white martyrdom.

Disciple: So fear of death and dislike for sufferings are signs of the absence of graces.

Master:  Yes. And the presence of graces looks at everything unpleasant to the body and other causes of sufferings as nothing compared with the hope of heaven.

Disciple: What else happens to a soul with decreasing graces?

Master:  Profane knowledge becomes for him more important than faith; trust in God is not present in all he does. And he begins to fear, not only death but, everyone who can hurt him.

St. Isaac of Syria

(04-09-03)