After this conversation, Gregory immediately decided to sail to the Holy Mountain. Having visited all the monasteries, cells, sketes, and even the hard-to-reach cells of the hermits, he considered it fair to meet with all the fathers and give them due veneration for the sake of prayer and blessing. And, as he himself said, on Athos Gregory met a multitude of ascetics, adorned with prudence, modesty and many other virtues. All of them applied all their zeal to the work of virtue. When he asked whether they were engaged in mental prayer, whether they gave themselves over to sobriety and the guarding of the mind, they replied that they did not even know what mental prayer, the guarding of the mind, and sobriety were.

 Having walked around the entire Holy Mountain, the monk finally came to the skete of Magula, opposite the venerable monastery of Philotheus. There he met three monks: Isaiah, Cornelius and Macarius, who were engaged not only in active virtues, but also in a little contemplative ones. Having labored much together with his disciples, he built cells there. At a short distance from them, he built for himself a hesychastiry, in order to converse alone with the One God by means of mental prayer and propitiate Him with active virtues. It was then that the monk remembered the instruction of the honorable Arsenius, and what he had told him about the guarding of the mind, sobriety and mental prayer. Having subdued all the senses in himself, uniting his mind with the spirit and nailing himself to the Cross of Christ, he often repeated: "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Praying thus with tenderness and contrition of heart, with sighing from the depths of his soul, he constantly wept and tears flowed from his eyes like a river. For these tears, the Lord did not despise his prayers: "Thou shalt not despise a contrite and humble heart, O God" (Psalm 50:19), for: "the righteous cry out, and the Lord hears" (Psalm 33:18). Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, his soul and heart were inflamed, and having been changed by a good and wondrous change, enlightened by Divine grace, the monk saw that his cell was filled with light. Filled with joy and inexpressible gladness, shedding again streams of tears, he was wounded by Divine love, for truly the words of Him who said were fulfilled in him: "Action is the way to contemplation." For the monk left the flesh and this world, and was filled with Divine love. From that time on, the light unceasingly shone on the righteous, according to what is said: "The light of the righteous is always" (Proverbs 13:9). When I (Blessed Kallistos) and other disciples asked the ever-memorable one about the meaning of these words, he answered: "He who, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, is exalted in God, beholds as in a mirror all creation in the world, "whether in the body I do not know, whether outside the body I do not know," as the Apostle Paul says (2 Cor. 12:2), until someone prevents it, forcing him to come to his senses."

 Simply and completely without any curiosity, I asked him various questions when Gregory came out of the cell with a cheerful face and meekly looked at me. You, spiritual fathers, know how much more you love your last spiritual children in comparison with the first. In the same way, my blessed spiritual father showed more love for me as for his last spiritual child, and I whispered to him as a loving father. And he answered me thus:

 - The soul that clings to God and is wounded by His love will rise above every creature, will live above the entire visible world and will unite with the desire of God. She will not be able to hide herself, as the Lord Himself promised her, saying: "Your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly" (Matt. 6:4). And again: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16). For the heart trembles and rejoices, the mind is poured out, the face becomes cheerful and joyful, as the wise man said: "A cheerful heart makes the face cheerful" (Proverbs 15:13).

 I asked him again:

 "Divine Father, teach me, for the love of truth, what the soul is, and what the saints say about it.

 With his characteristic meekness, he answered:

 "My beloved spiritual child, do not seek that which is higher than you, and do not investigate that which is deeper, for in order to understand what you have asked me, you must cease to be an imperfect infant who cannot digest solid food. It is beyond your power to comprehend lofty concepts, just as the food of perfect men is of no use to tender babes, who need only milk.

 Falling at his feet and holding them tightly, I earnestly begged him to answer. Condescending to my earnest request, Gregory said: "He who does not see the resurrection of his soul will not be able to know exactly what an intelligent soul is."

 "Tell me, father, have you reached the measure of this ascent, that is, have you learned what a wise soul is?"

 -Yes.

 Then I asked him, for the love of the Lord, to teach me also what could be of great benefit to my soul. The divine and all-honorable Gregory, praised my zeal, taught me such a teaching.

 - When the soul uses all its zeal and with reason and discernment strives in active virtues, then, pushing aside all passions, it subdues them to itself. And when she has conquered the passions, she will be surrounded only by natural virtues, which follow her as a shadow follows the body. It is these virtues that will not only follow her, but will also teach and guide her to that which is supernatural, like climbing the spiritual ladder. And when the mind, by the grace of Christ, ascends to a higher natural state, then, enlightened by the radiance of the Holy Spirit, it will also shine into contemplation. Having risen above himself, according to the measure of grace given by God, he clearly and purely sees the nature of things, its connections and order, but not in the way that the external sages chatter, who have recourse only to the shadow of things and do not try to follow the essential energy of nature as they should, because, as the Scriptures say, "their senseless heart is darkened; calling themselves wise, they have become fools" (Romans 1:21). Then, the soul that has accepted the betrothal and grace of the Holy Spirit, little by little, by virtue of the multitude of contemplations that it has, leaves the former and ascends to the highest and Divine, as the Apostle Paul says: "Forgetting what is behind and stretching forward" (Phil. 3:13). The soul, truly cleansed in this way, puts aside all fear and timidity, and, clinging with love to the Bridegroom Christ, sees that its natural thoughts completely cease and fall away, as the Holy Fathers command. Having attained unprecedented and ineffable beauty, she converses alone with the One God, brightly illuminated by the brightness and grace of the Holy Spirit. Thus enlightened by infinite light, it moves only towards God Himself, and through this wondrous and new change it no longer feels the low, earthly and material body, because the soul appears transparent and light, without any additions or earthly attachments, with a nature pre-eminently intelligent, as our ancestor Adam was before his transgression. At first he was covered with the grace of that infinite light, and then for a hateful crime (O woe!) he was deprived of radiant glory and sanctification. So this precious animal, man, turned out to be naked.

 The monk also told me that a man who had attained such a height through the tedious study of mental prayer, and who had clearly seen and known his own state, into which he had come by the grace of Christ, saw the resurrection of the soul before the general resurrection, for which we all hope. The soul, thus purified, can say with the divine Paul: "Whether in the body I do not know, whether outside the body I do not know" (2 Corinthians 12:2), but it itself is perplexed and amazed at this, and cries out in amazement: "O the abyss of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His destinies, and how unsearchable are His ways!" (Romans 11:33). This is what that divine father told me.