“Light to the monks,” says the Venerable. John Climacus, “Angels, and the light for the worldly is monastic life” (26 ff. and 31). But the very color of Christianity, the best expression of monasticism, is eldership. What is eldership, what is its essence - these questions have been renewed in our spiritual literature.

Oh, “what a great gift of God to belong to the number of companions of Christ, to walk the narrow path that our Savior and God walked, to bear a part the cross, which for my salvation was completely lifted up and sacrificed to the justice of God by the Lord - Jesus! What happiness, for the sake of Christ Jesus, with devotion to Him, either to suffer the loss of external goods: property, honor - or to endure illness in the body or sorrow in the soul! Devotees of sensuality, living only an external life, do not know this happiness; If you tell them about this gift of God’s goodness, they will not understand you” (Christ. Reader, June 1847; Letters of the Optina Elder Macarius to the nuns).