“Let the one who goes there be always truthful about his motives and not go there simply to have a good sleep or a day away from the tensions of life. Let him go there to enter the great silence of God, and to pray. If one enters for any other reason, however well rationalized, the poustinia will not be a blessing upon him; it might be a curse…
Thus the phenomenon of the Western poustinia will slowly unfold itself. As the apostolate grows in wisdom and grace we might be sent people who really wish to live as close as possible to the Russian ideal. Then again, perhaps this ideal is gone. It is too early to say. But I think that this hunger for the silence of God, this passivity of the silent soul, is going to come back…
I personally do not know how to adapt from the old to the new. But God does.”