The elder said to the brother: My son, the shadow is not man’s enemy, but the place where man hides from himself; and know that it is not the darkness of the world that keeps a man imprisoned, but the darkness he carries in his heart. Man grows accustomed to the shadow because the shadow asks nothing of him — it asks for no change, no truth, no repentance — but the light of Christ asks for everything, and precisely for that reason it heals everything. If you want to come out of the shadow, do not fight it; lift your eyes to Christ, for the shadow does not disappear when you strike it, but when the Light draws near. And if you are afraid, call upon the One who descended into hell to bring out those in darkness. Call upon the Most Holy Mother of God, for she is the only shadow that does not darken but refreshes the soul, and the Saints are those who lived in the light until their very shadow became prayer.
Then the elder spoke a word: My son, the shadow does not leave when you hate it, but when you stop calling it “home.”
Apophthegm
A brother said to the elder: Father, how can I stop hiding, when all my life I have grown used to the shadow?
The elder answered him: My son, the modern man does not hide only in the shadow, but in speed, in noise, in notifications, in distractions. He believes that if he does not stop, he will not be caught — but know that it is not God who pursues him, but his own soul crying after him. The modern man flees from silence because in silence he hears Christ calling him by name, and that call is stronger than all the voices of the world. But do not forget: on the day you stop running, you will discover that Christ was not pursuing you to judge you, but to embrace you; and the Mother of God was not looking at you as a wanderer, but as a tired son; and the Saints were not looking down on you, but waiting for you as a delayed brother.
Then the elder spoke a deep word: My son, the greatest sin of the modern man is not that he has fallen, but that he no longer has time to rise.
The brother trembled and said within himself:
How can I make time to rise, when the world pulls me down?
Pustia Inimii 