Obedience, combined with prayer, is the quickest and closest path to salvation. But there is nothing higher than prayer. It is the primary virtue. St. Gregory of Sinai was not afraid to call prayer God: no doubt because it makes us one with God, as all the writings of the Holy Fathers testify. Without prayer, no virtue can be true, because everything that is ours is impure, sinful, and of a spiritual nature.

As St. Macarius the Great speaks beautifully about this in his discourse 26 chapter 21: "So obedience especially manifests its saving power when it is imbued with prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ. Who, having been obedient to the Heavenly Father even unto death, also exalted Him by God. "In prayer, obedience necessarily gives birth to humility, which scorches demons, which is a treasury of virtues and without which salvation is impossible for anyone."

As St. Climacus says, many have received salvation without illumination, illumination and prophecy, but without humility no one will enter the palace of the Heavenly Kingdom. Moreover, spiritual wisdom also says: "That the vaults are high there, but the gates are narrow."

MY JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR OF THE CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS. THE HERMIT'S STORY.

Once I had a desire to enter the deepest places of the Caucasus Mountains and find a most silent, completely remote place, where no human foot could ever be, such that it could fully meet the requirements of a truly silent life. And I knew that such a place could not be found anywhere in this region, except in the ridges of the Kartalinsky Pass, which I once had to cross when we left the Black Sea province for the Kuban region, for reasons that the Lord knows, and which, perhaps, it would be indecent to declare, because, of necessity, I would have to enter into the sin of condemning many. Therefore, it will be best when we fulfill the word of the Holy Scriptures: "Let not our lips speak out the works of men" (Psalm 16:4).