Basil the Great: "A monk must be completely homeless."

(the word economy – oikonomiya – house-building, domestic order; oikos – homeless, homeless)

A monk does not go into social nowhere.

Therefore, in the seventh. What is the desert society? is a new abode, which is on earth, but not of the world. Monks, even hermits, lived in special clusters. Mary of Egypt is absolutely alone, but this is an exception that proves the rule.

Usually, it is not a kind of brotherhood, but a multitude of children around one father – a spiritual leader. These children do not communicate with each other, except at the behest of the elder. Their houses themselves testify to the complete frailty of the earthly - huts, dugouts.

Anthony the Great and, especially, Macarius the Great are surrounded by disciples. At St. Sergius of Radonezh, disciples also gather for spiritual guidance.

In the wilderness, a new society begins, but on new, as it were, foundations. Cutting off the will is the basic principle of this society. And the cutting off of the will is such that the monk seeks God's participation in his relationship with the leader, with the elder – otherwise it will not be possible to fulfill all the obediences.

For example, Paul the Simple was ordered to water a dry stick, and water had to be carried from afar (heat, heat). He waters it for a long time, but the Lord Himself attests to the necessity of this feat for the Church in His dispensation of the Lord, so the stick takes root, gives a leaf and bears unearthly fruit. And then the elder (mentor) gives the fruits of his unearthly to the other disciples with the words: "Eat the fruit of obedience."

In the same way, Seraphim of Sarov has an example with the Diveyevo originals – he has never been in Diveyevo, except mysteriously, i.e. he was replaced by an angel. And the Dieyev sisters ran to him for 15 km – as long as he said, but even after walking 15 km, they still had to stand in the cold at the threshold of the cell – some half an hour, some an hour, some more – depending on their location, advancement, etc.

Since Seraphim at that time was already living in a coenobitic monastery, i.e. everyone can see it, one neighbor in the cell decided to correct this, in his opinion, tyranny and began to do good deeds to the nuns, saying that it was the old man who was starving and freezing you, come to me in the vestibule and warm up. He had no more second thoughts, but when the monk learned about this, he drove him into a drinking binge and he was expelled from Sarov.

Obedience is a general principle of monasticism, and in order for life in the wilderness under the guidance of an elder to be beneficial, one must also have a special spiritual taste that reacts sensitively to two spiritual sweets: the sweetness of repentance and the sweetness of obedience.

The sweetness of the cell, the spiritual taste for solitude – without this there is no use.

As St. Theodore of Fermea wrote: "A man who has known the sweetness of the cell avoids his neighbor." Or St. Anthony: "If a man does not say in his heart, "I am alone in the world and God, he will not find peace."

Only some people are called to such solitude in God, but this is when their whole life turns into prayer – they do not need to force themselves to pray, prayer goes by itself, and this is God's gift.