The Cell as a Place of Transformation and Salvation
The cell is a deeply personal place, a place to be solely with God. It is a place where the monk can pray “before God’s eyes alone” and not with the added perspective of other people. [20] Jesus’ life was filled with times for personal prayer away from both the crowds and those who were closest to him. He exhorted his followers to enter their own secret room and be present to their Abba. [21] As in Jesus’ personal prayer and solitude, time in the monk’s cell was not anti-social. On the contrary, the cell, as an environment of grace, enables the monk to experience his or her true humanity that authentically embodies the same presence of God experienced in the cell. The monk becomes a cell, a place of God’s presence. Stelios Ramfos underlines the deep theological significance of what takes place within the cell, for “the aim of human salvation clearly acquires a new meaning: it restores to the soul its origin and true content (author’s emphasis).” [22]
St. Theodore of Pherme said, “The man who has learnt the sweetness of the cell flees from his neighbor but not as though he despised him.” [23] Except for hermits, in the eremitic tradition of Antony, the cell is always related to the rest of the monastic community. As mentioned earlier, in the Pachomian model a monk was required to live in community and gain experience and maturity there before gaining permission to be in a cell that was separated from the community. The desert monks realized the essential rhythm between solitude and community. [24] Solitude and community were seen as complimentary, not competitive. This rhythm has atrophied in modern life. Our responsibilities and needs for productivity have pushed solitude and personal prayer to the margins of personal and public life. Solitude is seen as a benign option for the few, rather than an integral aspect of each person’s health and wholeness. The lack of civility, genuine conversation, and desire for collegial approaches to the challenges in our world reflect the absence of solitude in our lives. The outside of our lives reflects the inside of our lives.
The Cell as a Place a/Discipline
In addition to its solitude and silence, the cell is an environment for an ascetic discipline that makes space in a person’s heart and mind for God’s presence. It should not be neglected if one is serious about depending on God for assistance. The discipline of the cell is an attitude of openness, a continual willingness to abide in its environment and to persist in ascetic practice. [25]
“Abba Sisoes was sitting in his cell one day. His disciple knocked on the door and the old man shouted out to him saying, ‘Go away, Abraham, do not come in. From now on I have no time for things of this world.” [26]
“Someone said to Abba Arsenius, ‘My thoughts trouble me, saying, “You can neither fast nor work; at least go and visit the sick, for that is also charity.'” But the old man, recognizing the suggestions of the demons, said to him, ‘Go, eat, drink, sleep, do no work, only do not leave your cell.’ For he knew that steadfastness in the cell keeps a monk in the right way.” [27]
The “work” of the cell must have its own integrity in relation to the monk’s life outside the cell, yet persistence in the cell required trust. The fruits of that trust would lead to wisdom, transformation of self, and an inner healing of the monk and, through the monk, to the world.” [28] Fidelity to and regularity in the cell would help the monk look into every person and action outside the cell in a new way.
David G.R. Keller, Oasis of Wisdom: the Worlds of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
Notes:
20. Charles Cummings, O.C.S.O., Monastic Practices (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1986) 155.
21. Luke 9:18; Mark 1:35; and Matt 6:5-6, for example.
22. Stelios Ramfos, Like a Pelican in the Wilderness, trans. Norman Russell (Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2000) 34.
23. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection., trans. Benedicta Ward, S.L.G, (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1984) Theodore of Pherme 14, 76.
24. For a detailed study of the relationship between monastic solitude and community, see AM. Allchin, ed., Solitude and Communion (Oxford: SLG Press, 1983).
25. Cummings, Monastic Practices, 156-57,
26. Ward, Sayings, Sisoes 27, 218.
27. Ibid., Arsenius, 6, 10.
28. Cummings, Monastic Practices, 159.
