Avoidance: often this can be the fundamental reason that an individual gravitates towards solitude, religious, or otherwise. We do not want to be in the presence of others, because it is there that we stand revealed - not only in their eyes, but in our own. In our interactions with others, we begin to see our dominant passions and the poverty of our sin. Our weak spots, blind spots and hard spots become perfectly evident to us. It is for this reason that the desert fathers counsel spending many years in the common life because it is there that true purification takes place. It is in our day-to-day struggle with the movement of our own thoughts and emotions and interactions with others, that sin is overcome and virtue begins to grow. To flee into solitude, prematurely, and even with the highest spiritual aspirations, promises only danger. It is perilous to enter into deep silence alone. If one falls, there is no one to pick them up. If one is swallowed up by delusion, there is no one to set them aright. How can we repent without having the other as one to whom we can direct our compassion or who reveals our darker side?
Silence can never be an escape. In fact, silence can only be loved by one who has been freed from every impediment in order to encounter He who is Love and find true respite and peace in Him.
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Text of chat during the group:
The Evergetinos: Book Two - Hypothesis III, Part IV and Hypothesis IV, Part I
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXVI: On Discernment, Part VIII
The Evergetinos: Book Two - Hypothesis III, Part III
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXVI: On Discernment, Part VII
The Evergetinos: Book Two - Hypothesis III, Part II
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXVI: On Discernment, Part VI
The Evergetinos: Book Two - Hypothesis II, Part VII and Hypothesis III, Part I
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXVI: On Discernment, Part V
The Evergetinos: Book Two - Hypothesis II, Part VI
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXVI: On Discernment, Part IV
The Evergetinos: Book Two - Hypothesis II, Part V
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXVI: On Discernment, Part III
The Evergetinos: Book Two - Hypothesis II, Part IV
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXVI: On Discernment, Part II
The Evergetinos: Book Two - Hypothesis II, Part III
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXVI: On Discernment, Part I
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXV: On Humility, Part V
The Evergetinos: Book Two - Hypothesis II, Part II
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXV: On Humility, Part IV
The Evergetinos: Book Two - Hypothesis I, Part III and Hypothesis II, Part I
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