Once I asked Archimandrite Cyril (Pavlov): why do some
brothers from the monastery leave? He says: "Remember what Bishop Ignatius
said: the monk's fall begins only with the abandonment of his blessed monastic
rule." In the Lavra there was a rule: three canons, an akathist to the
Savior (on Friday the Akathist of the Mother of God), a chapter of the Gospel,
two chapters of the Apostolic Epistles and one kathisma.
This practice was for
many years, it even spread to Optina desert and other monasteries of the
Orthodox Church. And I saw with my own eyes that Father Cyril himself strictly
observed the rule. "Die, and fulfill the rule," are his words. An
hour before the fraternal dinner, exactly at noon, he came into the cell, and
the reading of the monastic rule began. The novices, monks - all came to his
cell for the rule, they even stood in the corridor...
St. Isaac the Syrian said that the rule at the Last
Judgment would stand between you and the devil like a copper wall. For the
omission of the rule, we give entrance to the soul of demons. Let the rule be
small, but always executable.
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