Part II: St Paul the Hermit on “The Modern Ascetic in a Secular Age”

A Discourse from the Desert

The cave is quiet after the seeker departs. Night gathers over the sands. St Paul sits in prayer for a long time, then slowly opens his eyes, as if perceiving someone unseen before him. His voice becomes both a whisper and a flame, carrying the weight of ancient wisdom into the age to come.

St Paul the Hermit Speaks:

Children of this age, listen with sobriety, for the path of asceticism has never been more necessary, nor more obscured, than it is in your generation.

You live in a world that no longer understands stillness, poverty of spirit, or watchfulness.

Your time is ruled by noise, by haste, by the constant demand to express yourselves, to justify yourselves, to display yourselves.

But the ascetic, the true ascetic, walks in the opposite direction.

1. The Modern Ascetic Must Wage War Where Others Make Peace

In the early days, we fled to the deserts because the world was a distraction.

But now the distraction follows you everywhere, even into your cell, into your pocket, into your very mind.

You cannot rely on geography to guard you.

The warfare has moved inward.

The noise of the age is carried inside the heart.

Thus the modern ascetic must learn a deeper silence,

a silence not dependent on environment but anchored in the remembrance of God.

This is a greater battle than the one I fought in my cave.

You must become deserts yourselves.

2. The Modern Ascetic Must Be Hidden in Plain Sight

In my day, the garments of a hermit were enough to flee attention.

In your day, even the appearance of piety draws curiosity or suspicion.

Therefore learn this:

The ascetic of the modern age must be hidden.

Hidden in humility,

hidden in obedience,

hidden in the unnoticed works of mercy,

hidden in the secret fast,

hidden in the prayer said behind closed doors.

If you attempt to live the ancient discipline with display or drama,

you will be devoured by illusion.

Hide your life in Christ, and the devil will not find you.

3. The Modern Ascetic Must Descend—Not Escape

Do not flee from the world with hatred.

Do not flee because you are tired of people.

Do not flee because institutions wound you.

Asceticism is not an escape from responsibility.

It is a deeper descent into the mystery of Christ’s own self-emptying.

You say you want the hesychasterion.

Good.

But first become a hesychasterion in your heart.

Let your silence be born from love, not from resentment.

Let your withdrawal be a descent into humility, not a flight into fantasy.

Let your solitude be a womb for prayer, not a hiding place from wounds.

If you flee the world out of bitterness,

you will carry the bitterness with you into the desert.

And the desert will expose it mercilessly.

4. The Modern Ascetic Must Resist the Secular Spirit Within the Church

I hear your lament that asceticism is treated with suspicion in your lands.

That fasting is humanitarian, not salvific.

That vigils are impractical.

That silence is pathology.

That the Philokalic Fathers are treated as strange relics.

That the mind of the world has entered even the sanctuary.

Do not be surprised.

In every age, the ascetical heart is misunderstood, even by the devout.

You cannot force the Church to rediscover her ascetic soul.

You cannot correct or convince those who do not hear this call.

But you can keep the spark alive in your own breast.

And I tell you truly:

One ascetic soul in the modern Church is worth a thousand programs.

The saints are born in hidden caves, not in committees.

5. The Modern Ascetic Must Carry Two Burdens: the World and His Own Weakness

It is not enough to fast.

Not enough to pray.

Not enough to rise for vigil.

The modern ascetic must carry two crosses:

The weakness of his own nature

We were stronger in body than you.

Your generation is fragile, anxious, wounded.

So be gentle with yourselves.

Asceticism is not violence against the body;

it is the healing of the heart.

And the weight of the world’s unbelief

You live in an age without foundations.

The passions are celebrated.

The ego is enthroned.

The world laughs at repentance.

Therefore your asceticism must be intercessory.

You must fast for those who do not know how to fast.

You must pray for those who cannot pray.

You must weep for those who do not weep.

This is a burden I did not know in my day.

But it is yours.

And it is holy.

6. The Modern Ascetic Must Cultivate Three Spiritual Weapons

Silence

For the world is built on noise.

Silence is your rebellion.

Tears

For the world knows only amusement.

Tears are your truth.

The Jesus Prayer

For the world is scattered in a thousand directions.

The Name gathers the heart into one flame.

Pray without ceasing.

Let the rope pass through your fingers until it becomes the memory of your body.

7. The Modern Ascetic Must Be Prepared to Stand Alone

The saints of old had deserts full of ascetics.

You have few companions.

Do not be troubled by this.

The path of holiness has always been walked in loneliness.

But you are not alone.

Christ walks before you.

The angels surround you.

The saints intercede for you.

The loneliness you feel is simply the echo of your true citizenship.

8. The Modern Ascetic Must Seek Christ, Not Virtue

Asceticism is not about attaining virtues, nor about becoming spiritual.

It is about loving Christ.

Fast because you love Him.

Keep vigil because you want to be awake when He passes by.

Repent because He is beautiful and you are wounded.

Enter silence because you long to hear His voice.

If you seek asceticism for its own sake, you will perish.

If you seek Christ, asceticism will become your joy.

9. The Modern Ascetic Must Learn the Prayer of Psalm 69

Let this psalm become your breath:

“My God,

draw me out of the deep waters.

Let not the waves overwhelm me.

Let not the abyss swallow me.”

This is the cry of your age.

Your enemies are not Romans or emperors.

Your enemies are distraction, fragmentation, comfort, vanity, noise, and the worship of the self.

Cry out with the psalmist and you will be heard.

The Lord hears those who stand neck-deep in the waters.

He draws them up by the hand.

10. The Modern Ascetic Must Know the End of All Things

And what is the end?

Not a hermitage.

Not a monastery.

Not silence.

Not ascetic prowess.

Not visions.

Not mystical sweetness.

The end is Christ Himself.

The One who dwells in the cave of your heart.

The One who sees your struggle.

The One who will not abandon you.

The One who calls you into the desert because He Himself is waiting there.

St Paul the Hermit: Final Counsel

If you would be an ascetic in this age,

become small,

become poor,

become hidden.

And Christ will reveal Himself to you

as He revealed Himself to the poor ones of every age.

The desert still exists.

It is simply harder to find.

Begin with the desert inside you.

When Christ sees that you are ready,

He will show you where to pitch your tent.