“You are not of this world, you are in the world.” These words of the Lord recommend a very special ministry, that of being a sign, a reference to “the wholly other”. Formerly it was realized differently. At present it seems to show itself above the “desert” and the “city”, for it is called to surpass every form in order to express itself everywhere and in all circumstances. The West has regarded monasticism and the lay state as two forms of life; one responding to the counsels, the other, to the precepts of the Gospel [c.f. Kenneth Kirk, The Vision of God]. The unique absolute is then broken. On one side, the perfect advance; on the other, the weak stand, living by half measures. Certain ascetics justified conjugal life only because it brings forth virgins and peoples convents. The fundamentally homogeneous character of Eastern spirituality ignores the difference between “the precepts” and “the evangelical counsels”. It is in its total requirement that the Gospel addresses itself to all and everyone…. St. Nil thought all monastic practices were required of people of the world. As St. John Chrysostom said: “Those who live in the world, even though married, ought to resemble the monks in everything else. You are entirely mistaken if you think that there are some things required of seculars, and others for monks... they will have the same account to render.” Prayer, fasting, the reading of Scripture and ascetic discipline are imposed on all by the same prescription. St. Theodore of Studium in his letter to a Byzantine dignitary drew up the program of monastic life and specified: “Do not believe that this list is of value only for a monk and not entirely and equally for a lay person.”… St. Tikhon of Zadonsk wrote in the same vein to ecclesiastical authorities: “Do not be in a hurry to multiply the monks. The black habit does not save. The one who wears a white habit and has the spirit of obedience, humility, and purity, he is a true monk of interiorized monasticism.”
As formerly, martyrdom was transmitted to the monastic institution, so likewise today, it seems, monasticism creates a certain receptivity in the universal priesthood of the laity. The testimony of the Christian faith in the framework of the modern world postulates the universal vocation of interiorized monasticism.