St. Silouan on the Unity of the Spiritual World

Before quoting the Staretz on the titled topic, there have been unresolved blog-keeping chores to clear from the list. There have been comments from two readers which I did not publish. Two of the comments from the first anonymous commenter had become testy and put the commenter in a negative light, for anger was shown, and also the confusion which accompanies. So, it seemed best to not publish these, for this site is a sharing of an unknown's progressive thoughts and of acknowledged beginner's attempts to plumb the spiritual ocean--not to be a trysting ground.

The other comment not published was well-written and rather an ecocanonical exposition or debate, and request for a kind of retraction of a term used. It seemed best, after conferring with the confessor, to not publish since the commenter has a site already to express his/her views on the topic. I was told to express this other view, this other perspective, and told to not use the term which caused the other person to be stirred. So I did, and was told that the view I represent or attempt to live out is valid, and the other person's view is valid for that category. Those who guide me desire a certain way, and those who guide the other desire the other way. Thus, there was no sense in drawing off of what are two credible but differing subsets of living the "one" hermit life. Debate can sometimes distract or dilute the spiritual essence.

The more I read of hermit lives, I do respect the reasons and desires for those who God wills to have public approval by their Bishops in a Mass, to have their vows professed publicly before their Bishops and be known as hermits in their Dioceses. God has use for public and private hermits, it appears, through the history of hermits. I also respect the reasons and desires for those who God wills to have very private consecrations, even if their Bishops have received their vows privately or held by designes in the Diocese. God and each hermit, and each hermit's Bishop and spiritual guides, ascertain the chosen path, through God's will.

I pray that my blogs are not read with the intent or result in causing division but rather of, as my confessor desired, giving a view of another valid form of hermit life. My Diocese takes more the private route, and this is not that they do not go along with Church law which provides for a public profession. Their view of hermit life is that of the more private path. I am in this Diocese, and I have no need to move to find one that is otherwise; both forms are valid and credible. We hermits need to be one with another, and to love and pray we grow in holiness, and to inspire one another in the spiritual, ineffable realities which fulfill and can transcend laws. The holy and necessary laws of the Church provide tandem paths for hermits.

Now, for the beautiful sharing of St. Silouan's thoughts on the unity of the spiritual world and the greatness of the saints.

The life of the spiritual world the Staretz recognized as one life, and because of this unity every spiritual phenonmenon inevitably reacts on the state of the whole spiritual world: if the phenonmenon be good 'all heaven' rejoices; if evil, 'all heaven' sorrows. Though every spiritual phenomenon inevitably leaves its mark on the whole spiritual world, that intangible communion in the existence of all things of which the Staretz wrote is chiefly peculiar to the Saints. Such awareness as this, which exceeds the bounds of human knowledge, he ascribed to the action of the Holy Spirit in whom the soul 'sees' and embraces the whole world in her love. The Saints partially receive this gift through the Holy Spirit while they are still on earth, but it increases when they pass away.