All quotes from Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol, under the pseudonym "Father Maximos", are from the third chapter of The Mountain of Silence by Kyriacos Markides.
1) Is it egotistical to lock oneself up in a monastery to save one's own soul in favor of fighting for God in the world?
"The Gospel is very clear about this issue. Let me give you an example. Do you recall the incident when that young man went to Christ and asked Him, 'Lord, what must I do to save my soul?' And Jesus replied, 'Sell everything you have and join me.' In another part we hear Christ say, 'Nobody can be my disciple if he loves his mother or his father, or his daughter or his fields more than me.' And He gave the first injunction, 'Love the Lord Thy God with all they soul and with all thy heart.' That is, love God with your entire being. Just think of the Twelve Apostles. They were ordinary people that He picked from ordinary life, but they gave up everything in order to follow and live with Him."
We cannot obtain discretion by ourselves--it is a gift from God (1 Cor. 12:8-11). Nevertheless, we must always seek to obtain discretion in order to avoid errors and waywardness (The Conferences: 2.1.4).
In this conference Abba Moses shares a short discourse given by St. Anthony the Great on discretion. St. Anthony points out that when discretion is lacking, our thoughts and deeds fall into darkness (Matt. 6:22-23). How can we avoid such darkness? By obtaining the virtues and being filled with the gladsome Light Who is Christ. Only by discretion can we assure that the virtues will endure in us to the end (2.2.4; 2.4.4), because thoughts and deeds themselves proceed from discretion (2.2.6). We always have the free will to discretely allow or disallow whatever thoughts come into our minds. Thus, discretion is needed to preserve inner peace.
"And so, according to the opinion both of blessed Antony and of all the others, discretion was understood as that which would lead the fearless monk on a steady ascent to God and would always preserve the aforesaid virtues undamaged; as that with which the heights of perfection could be scaled with little weariness; and as that without which many of those who labor even with a good will would be unable to arrive at the summit. Discretion is the begetter, guardian, and moderator of all virtues." - Abba Moses (The Conferences: 2.4.4)
