The Enlargement of the Heart

In the history of monasticism, the following phenomenon has been observed: whenever the word of God was born in the heart of a holy monk, by which God proclaimed to men the deep judgments of His will, generations of monks from the same monastery would repeat the word, interpret and explain his teaching. In this way, they served the word of their  Fathers, edified the Body of the Church, and wrought their personal salvation. Our holy Fathers Silouan and Sophrony form a unique phenomenon, a spiritual event, although they had nothing in common, according to the social and cultural standards of the world. Saint Sophrony compared his own work to that of a postman delivering the word of his own Father Silouan, but he himself also partook of the wondrous experience of the birth of man into eternal life through the vision of the ‘Countenance’ and the hearing of the ‘voice’ of Christ.