Status Updates From Letters from the Desert: A ...

This note of knowing oneself and one's vocation is struck over and over again. "One should do everything with discernment. To know one's limits is discernment . . . . Doing anything beyond one's measure, whether this be almsgiving or anything else, is lack of discernment. For this later brings one to turmoil, despondency, and murmuring."

serious. heartfelt. pastoral. but poor John can't catch a break. Barsanuphius is more tolerant of almost everybody else!

personalities aside, the intense devotion of these men to the pursuit of holiness is remarkable, to a degree that makes it almost alien. and yet the worries, anxieties, and inner conflicts on which they offer counsel are so familiar.