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 Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter IX: On Remembrance of Wrongs, Part II and Chapter X: On Slander or Calumny, Part I
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XXXIII, Part IV
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter IX: On Remembrance of Wrongs, Part I
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XXXIII, Part III
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter VIII: On Freedom from Anger, Part III
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter VIII: On Freedom from Anger, Part II
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XXXIII, Part II
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter VII: On Joy-Making Mourning, Part VII and Chapter VIII: On Freedom from Anger, Part I
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XXXII, Part IV and Hypothesis XXXIII, Part I
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter VII: On Joy-Making Mourning, Part VI
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XXXII, Part III
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter VII: On Joy-Making Mourning, Part V
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XXXII, Part II
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter VII: On Joy-Making Mourning, Part IV
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XXXI, Part II and XXXII, Part I
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter VII: On Joy-Making Mourning, Part III
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XXXI, Part I
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter VII: On Joy-Making Mourning, Part II
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XXX, Part I
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter VI: On the Remembrance of Death and Chapter VII: On Joy-Making Mourning
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