Our Answer to His Excuse

At this we were overwhelmed with no small confusion, and replied as follows: “Both the harshness of the place and the solitary life itself, which even a strong young man could scarcely put up with, ought to be enough to teach us everything; and indeed, without your saying anything, they do teach us and impress us a very great deal. Even so, we ask you to set aside your silence for a little, and in a more fitting way to plant in us those principles by which we may be able to take hold of the goodness we see in you, not so much by imitating it as by admiring it. For even if our coldness is known to you and does not deserve to obtain what we ask, at least the trouble of so long a journey ought to be repaid by it. We hurried here after our first beginnings in the monastery of Bethlehem, out of a longing for your instruction and a yearning for our own good.” [a]