Can calls to asceticism be lived out in the modern world?

[Sunny]

I have read many Orthodox books on the monastic life over the last 4 years, and before that for 20 years, the lives of Catholic saints and mystics, and I'm greatly drawn to the ascetic/monastic life.
However, when you're living in regular society I'm wondering who can be saved? If in order to save the soul you must sleep on the ground or a board, and live in extreme circumstances, what are the rest of us supposed to do? If they are barely saved as they say, will they alone be saved? Stillness and silence is the only way to tame our passions? What if you can't have much stillness and silence? My children are grown, but I watch my grandchildren almost every day. I do not ask these questions lightly. I have a tremendous burden of soul about it.

[Nina]

I have read many Orthodox books on the monastic life over the last 4 years, and before that for 20 years, the lives of Catholic saints and mystics, and I'm greatly drawn to the ascetic/monastic life.
However, when you're living in regular society I'm wondering who can be saved? If in order to save the soul you must sleep on the ground or a board, and live in extreme circumstances, what are the rest of us supposed to do? If they are barely saved as they say, will they alone be saved? Stillness and silence is the only way to tame our passions? What if you can't have much stillness and silence? My children are grown, but I watch my grandchildren almost every day. I do not ask these questions lightly. I have a tremendous burden of soul about it.

Dear Sunny,

I am in no way the right person to give you advise on this matter. You will be better off to hear the advise from the Fathers that might reply to you here.

However being near some very precious monastics for some time I figured out that they are very unequal. So I think that God calls different people for different purposes and in their unique ways they try to save not only their souls, but to bring others near God.

We are all here to save and be saved in our different ways. There are examples such as the one from the life of St. Anthony the Great. God revealed a man who pleased Him very much and whom St. Anthony went to see, only to find a regular, married man, a shoemaker, that went about his daily life sighing and asking God forgiveness for his sins and thinking that he was the worst sinner of the world. This amazed St. Anthony-and we are talking about St. Anthony the Great.

So please do not feel overwhelmed from what you read. Also the levels of spirituality and toil you are reading about are not achieved overnight. Those monastics made it the purpose of their life and worked very hard every day in achieving what they did.

Also everyone will be compensated according to their deeds which they fulfilled according to their abilities and knowledge. Trust that we will be judged by a Righteous Judge, Who will not ask for more than what we could have accomplished with our given talents.

What is very important at this stage for you is to talk to your spiritual father/confessor father and let him guide you on the path you like to follow, especially if you are looking into monastic life.

[Kris]

I have read many Orthodox books on the monastic life over the last 4 years, and before that for 20 years, the lives of Catholic saints and mystics, and I'm greatly drawn to the ascetic/monastic life.
However, when you're living in regular society I'm wondering who can be saved? If in order to save the soul you must sleep on the ground or a board, and live in extreme circumstances, what are the rest of us supposed to do? If they are barely saved as they say, will they alone be saved? Stillness and silence is the only way to tame our passions? What if you can't have much stillness and silence? My children are grown, but I watch my grandchildren almost every day. I do not ask these questions lightly. I have a tremendous burden of soul about it.

I have no personal experience of monasticism. But I'm sure the monastics who post here will agree with me when I say that that life carries with it a whole other host of burdens and temptations. And I would have thought that given the nature of the monastic life, such temptations are much more concealed and therefore harder to oppose than those faced by the rest of us living in the world.

In XC,
Kris

[Nina]

Oh... and I forgot to tell you Sunny that what my grandmothers did for me is so valuable! So please do not belittle what you are doing for your children and grandchildren. Actually God does not want you (if you are in the world) to be still and silent for much when you have your grandchildren to take care of. By teaching them to be respectable members of society, raising them in faith and making sure to nourish their body and soul you are already fulfilling your great mission as mother and grandmother.

I have to introduce you to my future husband and he will tell you how much my eyes light up when I think of my grandparents, how much reverence I feel for them who not only taught me the beauty of my faith, but left so many wonderful footprints in my life. God gave them those roles for a purpose and I thank Him and always remember my grandparents with love and ask God to recompense them as much as He can for the blessings they brought in my life.

And it is so strange, but when I meet an elderly monk or nun that invokes the same feeling like being around my grandparents.