The Church's view of this is expressed in the words: "Let us fast with a pleasant fast, pleasing to the Lord: true fasting is the alienation of the wicked, the abstinence of the tongue, the deferral of rage, the excommunication of lusts, the utterance, lies and perjury. Of these impoverishment the true fast is also favorable." To pass immediately to such a fast, having stepped over the first step of the "Lenten rule," is as impossible as to rise immediately to mental prayer without going through the first stage of oral prayer. This is not an abstract theological assertion, but a truth established by ascetic experience, and all the words that "it is better than not to eat quickly -- not to be angry, not to offend, not to envy" -- are empty words.

   Spiritual life without fasting is impossible. This truth, like everything else in monastic life, is not abstract and theological, but ascetic, for which it is paid with blood. The external rule is not perfect fasting, and therefore it is impossible to limit oneself to it, but the internal higher tasks of fasting are impossible without observing the external Lenten rule.

   And here, according to His humanity, the Saviour indicated by His example the meaning of fasting, not eating for 40 days in the wilderness, and the Apostles prayed with fasting, and the entire ancient Church applied fasting, and monasticism, continuing the work of the Saviour, the Apostles and the first Christians, created by its ascetic experience the perfect Lenten rule as the best way to achieve the inner tasks of impassibility. Here prayer is inseparable from fasting, and fasting is inseparable from prayer.

   Now let's move on to obedience. This is the main foundation of monasticism. In monastic terms, obedience is higher than fasting and prayer. The entire great building of the monastery rests on it. It permeates every movement of monastic life, it is the highest desirable virtue for every monk. Behind obedience there is everything -- prayer, self-denial, dispassion, humility, and podvig. It is not without reason that the Holy Fathers call obedience voluntary martyrdom. And this path of voluntary martyrdom is traversed by every monk. He renounces his will and entrusts it to the abbot and his spiritual father. He crucifies his will, his self-love, his pride. Reason, desire, feelings -- everything is given over to obedience. Obedience is not agreement with an authoritative opinion or obedience out of principle, it is an internal rejection of any independent action. Refusal not because "I must obey, although I do not agree," but because there can be no "disagreement" -- for I know nothing, and everything knows what I must do, my spiritual father.

   Unknown. Hold on. But if the spiritual father is mistaken. After all, he is not God. Is it really necessary to fulfill an obviously erroneous or ridiculous demand?

   Confessor. Yes, the ascetics say that it is necessary to fulfill even such requirements that may seem to the novice to contradict his salvation. And this is the truth. For where there is criticism, disagreement, there is one's own knowledge, one's own will, one's own decision, which is opposed to the knowledge, will, and decision of the elder, but the true novice knows nothing, has no will of his own, and has no solutions.

   Unknown. And if the elder demands something contrary to the teaching of the Church, if he falls away from Orthodoxy, must we also obey?

   Confessor. Of course not. The falling away of a confessor is his death, and a mortal is not obeyed.

   Unknown. But can not erroneous demands due to the inexperience or sinfulness of a spiritual father ruin a novice?

   Confessor. They cannot. True obedience will make everything salvific for the novice. Mistakes in spiritual guidance are dangerous for those who lack true obedience, and they can confuse and even ruin them. But a novice is out of danger to the end. Obedience will cover everything and transform everything for good. He will turn the most unreasonable and harmful into wise and useful. For obedience is humility, self-denial, impartiality, and love. And these virtues are always the sure path of salvation. In obedience, as in fire, all worldly habits, presumption, self-assertion, self-exaltation burn up. Obedience frees the heart from that worldly self-will that slavery of the passions passes off as freedom, and opens the way to that true state of freedom which is given only by the grace of God to His humble servants. Without obedience, there is no monasticism. It permeates in its spirit the entire monastic system, the entire rule and way of monastic life. Without obedience, there is no podvig, and all the seeming virtues of a monk are self-deception. Self-will nullifies prayer, fasting, and the struggle with the passions, and makes any podvig fruitless and even dangerous. Where there is no obedience, there begins a terrible spiritual illness, which in monastic language is called prelest. Podvig without obedience is the path to pride, which in a single hour turns the fruits of long ascetic labors into nothing. A monk is first and foremost a novice.

   The apostles were novices of the Savior. The original Church was established in obedience to the apostles, and through obedience, prayer and fasting, a monastery was created. Obedience, like prayer, fasting, and every virtue, has its own stages of ascent, its own path of development. A person cannot immediately become a doer of mental prayer and a passionless ascetic. He cannot immediately reach the highest levels of obedience. The monastery teaches prayer, fasting, and obedience. He does not demand anything by force and does not break, but saves the soul.

   This is what monasticism is. It is the most perfect creation of Christianity, not a distortion of it. This is the stronghold of the Church. A bulwark against the evil elements of the world. The Golden Apostolic Age, carefully preserved in Orthodox monasteries and carried undamaged through the long centuries of world history.

   Unknown. But again I ask you: does this mean that everyone must be monks?

   Confessor. No, not all.