Abbot Moses Begins on Discernment

So when we had enjoyed our morning sleep, and to our delight the light of dawn shone on us again, we began once more to ask for the talk he had promised. Then the blessed Moses began: I see you burning with such an eager desire that I do not believe that very short interval of quiet, which I wanted to take from our spiritual conference and give to bodily rest, has been of any use for resting your bodies. And when I take note of your zeal, a greater anxiety presses on me too. For I must give all the more care and devotion to paying my debt, the more earnestly I see you ask for it, according to the saying: “When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is set before you, and put out your hand, knowing that you ought to prepare such things.” [a]

So, since we are going to speak of the excellence of discernment and of its power, the subject our talk last night had entered on as our discussion was ending, we think it best first to establish its excellence by the opinions of the fathers. When it has been shown what our predecessors thought and said about it, we will then bring forward some shipwrecks and mishaps, ancient and modern, of various people who were destroyed and hopelessly ruined because they paid it too little attention. After that, as well as we can, we must treat its advantages and uses. Once we have discussed these, we will know better how we ought to seek it and practice it, by weighing the greatness of its value and grace. For it is no ordinary virtue, nor one that can be freely gained by merely human efforts unless they are helped by the divine blessing. We read that the apostle counts it among the noblest gifts of the Spirit: “To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gift of healing by the same Spirit,” and shortly after, “to another the discerning of spirits.” Then, after the complete list of spiritual gifts, he adds: “But all these are worked by one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one individually as he wills.” You see, then, that the gift of discernment is no earthly thing and no slight matter, but the greatest prize of divine grace. Unless a monk has pursued it with all zeal, and secured the power to discern with unerring judgment the spirits that rise up in him, he is sure to go wrong, as if in the darkness of night and in dense blackness. He will not only fall into dangerous pits and over cliffs, but will also make frequent mistakes in matters that are plain and straightforward.