My Advice

Then I replied: The counsel, or rather the authority, of the elder to whom we ought to bring our worries would give us a short way out of our difficulties. Whatever his verdict decides may put an end to all our troubles, like a divine and heavenly answer. And we need not doubt what the Lord gives us through the lips of this elder, both because of his merits and because of our own faith. For by the Lord’s gift believers have often received saving counsel from unworthy people, and unbelievers from saints, as the Lord grants it either for the merit of those who answer or for the faith of those who ask advice.

The holy Abbot Germanus seized eagerly on these words, as though I had spoken them not of myself but at the Lord’s prompting. We waited a little for the elder to come and for the approaching hour of the night service. When we had welcomed him with the usual greeting and finished reciting the proper number of psalms and prayers, we sat down again, as usual, on the same mats on which we had settled ourselves to sleep.