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THEN I replied: The counsel or rather the authority of the Elder to
whom we ought to refer our anxieties would make a short way out of our
difficulties, and whatever is decided by his verdict, may, like a divine
and heavenly reply, put an end to all our troubles. And we need not have
any doubt of what is given to us by the Lord through the lips of this
Elder, both for the sake of his merits and for our own faith. For by His
gift believers have often obtained saving counsel from unworthy people, and
unbelievers from saints, as the Lord grants this either on account of the
merit of those who answer, or on account of the faith of those who ask
advice. And so the holy Abbot Germanus caught eagerly at these words as if
I had uttered them not of myself but at the prompting of the Lord, and when
we had waited a little for the coming of the Elder and the approaching hour
of the nocturnal service, after we had welcomed him with the usual greeting
and finished reciting the right number of Psalms and prayers, we sat down
again as usual on the same mats on which we had settled ourselves to sleep.
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