Poustinia

POUSTINIA

Poustinia stands for prayer, penance, mortification, solitude, silence, offered in the spirit of love, atonement, and reparation to God. Poustinia is a Russian word meaning “Desert.” In many places it is a small out of the way place where a hermit prays, or people can stop by and meditate, like a prayer and meditation chapel at a church or hospital.


A poustinia is a place where you go to meet Christ in joyful solitude.

There is nothing to fear, for Christ is perfect love and perfect love casts out fear.

The poustinia is a prayer house which you enter to be alone with God, for the length of time approved.

The only book you should read is the Bible.

The poustinia is a place not only of a rendezvous with Christ, not only a time for solitude and silence, but also a time of penance, for when you lift your heart to the Lord in prayer you should, in a manner of speaking, lift both spiritual arms of penance and prayer, like Moses on the mountain.

Don’t get excited about it. Above all, be at peace, because you enter into a visit with Christ, into his solitude, peacefully. Set your soul in patience, waiting for the person who is taking you to the poustinia.

"Truly the desert will strip you. The Lord of the Desert will do that too. Truly you will be tempted even as he had been tempted. You will suffer as he has suffered, but you will also be filled with tranquillity –the tranquillity of God’s order."It is to be remembered that you are going to the desert for the following reasons:

TO FAST

TO LIVE IN SILENCE

TO PRAY SO THAT YOU MIGHT DIE TO YOURSELF QUICKER, SO THAT CHRIST MIGHT GROW IN YOU FASTER. SO THAT YOU MIGHT GIVE HIM TO THE WORLD FASTER TOO—THIS WORLD THAT IS SO HUNGRY FOR HIM

TO ATONE FOR YOUR SINS AND THOSE OF OTHERS

TO PRAY FOR MANKIND

TO PRAY FOR PEACE

TO PRAY FOR THE MISSIONS AND UNITY AMONG CHRISTIANS IN THE CHURCH.

TO BECOME SAINTS FASTER, THAT IS LOVERS OF CHRIST IN TRUTH AND IN DEED

TO IMITATE CHRIST

TO SAVE YOUR SOUL AND THAT OF OTHER’S

TO LEARN TOTAL SURRENDER TO GOD QUICKER.


PLEASE REMEMBER TO PRAY FOR US WHILE YOU ARE HERE.