Christian life as true marriage

Athonite vigil, the walk along a monastic footpath, Pascha, Holy Communion, the lamentation of repentance, the respite after the struggle, the presence of the Mother of God, the day of burial, the familiarity with death, with the earth, the sense that man, like a seed, conceals within him a force which bursts out and forges ahead when they try to imprison him with the threat of total destruction. The break-out from corruption, the breaking of shackles, the abolition of frontiers, free passage –"they will go in and out and find pasture"– balance in freedom, no-aggression because one is sated, the great defence achieved by throwing down one's arms, life beyond death, during out lige in the flesh. True communion in isolation, frenetic activity in stillness, mysteries of shouting performed in silence. A true marriage through virginity and the surrender of everything to God.