The Bower of the Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos

Beyond the "bower" stretches the "outside" world, the world - a world certainly of God, filled with parents, brothers and sisters. Two worlds, seamlessly interwoven ...

The Holy Mountain is the place the Athonite rejoices ...

The Holy Mountain is a garden of graces ...

The Holy Mountain of the Saints gives the soul comfort ...

The soul lives as a rich man and its eyes "is filled with bread".

The soul stretches out its hand and eats honey ...

The soul's throat is sweetened by the life of God ...

The Athonite life is as a high as the stars in Paradise and as deep as the mystery of Christ ...

The Athonite life is secret and hidden away in the treasures of the cells ...

The Athonite life is hidden in the heart at worship

...

Anyone who has been, even but once, to the Holy Mountain, sees that the monk receives him with such a smile, with such love that he is made to feel that this smile and this love constitute an open window and the effulgence of a heart which cannot be any smaller at all than a whole heaven of a heart. [275]