Elder many times people seeing our robes, tell us their pain....

Elder many times people seeing our robes, tell us their pain, their problem, and even confession. What should be our attitude towards them?

- From the outset, when they are addressing you for a problem, ask them: "Do you have a spiritual father?" And I say to people who come to ask me about a subject: "Go to your spiritual father and do what he told you."

People need to repent and have a spiritual confessor to cut the devil's rights. For a nun to hear once a woman's problem and then send her to the spiritual father, I understand that. But do not keep talking to her. Or, if a woman does not rest in her spirituality or has never gone to confession or is in a state of despair, let the nun hear it again and send her back to the spiritual father.

Unless the nun has an obedience to help them in this way, that is, by constantly listening to their problems, people are not helped at all.

They come here, find human consolation, but as soon as they leave the monastery and go home, they return to their lives and begin the same, and go to their spiritual father.

It is not right for them to tell the nun their issues. Because then they say "I said it, I'm ok", they falsely rest on their thinking and do not go to the spiritual father. This is the devil's trick, so as not to confess.

You have to understand what your mission is as a nun and not go on a mission, because you haven't understood what the nun's mission is. As monastics we have an obligation to pray for the problems of others; however, we are not obliged to deal with their problems.

The spiritual father has an obligation to do that, it is his responsibility. When he is discussing it with them, he is taking responsibility of them. He can follow them closely and provide a solution to their problems. That is , it takes work. This job is not for the monastics. They should only ask us to pray for them. Let them send us letters of names, let us pray with the komboskini.

St. Paisios the Athonite