Letter 118: Severus refuses to turn ascetics into oracles for Conon's marriage decision.

Severus writes to Conon the silentiary because John, a fervent soldier of Christ, has asked an overbold question about Conon's daughter and the men seeking to marry her. John wanted Severus to put the names before holy elders and ascetic women so that they could say which suitor should be chosen. Severus refuses. Fathers with real discernment avoid such questions because they do not want to look like soothsayers or charlatans. Monastics should not be turned into fortune-tellers for household decisions. Some holy people do receive insight from God, but not because petitioners submit propositions to them like clients seeking an oracle. Grace overflows freely; it is not controlled by a questionnaire. Still, since Christ tells us to give to those who ask, Severus offers ordinary counsel. Conon should choose the suitor who is most correct in orthodox faith and most earnest about a devout, modest life. Everything else belongs in second place. It would be offensive to God to pass over clear judgments of faith and character and instead demand hidden signs or revelations. That is close to tempting the Lord. If Conon chooses by what is manifestly right, he may trust God for the future and do everything in the name of Christ.

John, the soldier of Christ, being ardent in every- thing, and fervent through abundance of faith, has thought fit to address an epistle to me containing a ^ Ec. V. 12. ^ Id. ix. lo. question that is overbold and passes beyond canonical limits about your modest daughter, and about those who are eager to take her in marriage. He gave in fact the names of those who are wooing her, and also in the name of your magnificence asked that the question might be brought before the holy old men, and before some of the women who have practised an ascetic life, in order that they may say to whom it is most fitting" for the grirl to be ioined in marriasre. But I, knowing that fathers who have the spirit of discretion turn deaf ears to such questions, in order that they may not seem to be bringing upon them- selves the reputation of soothsayers and charlatans, did not dare to write anything of the kind to them, lest perhaps I might even expose myself to sentence as an uninstructed person, for being clad in the philo- sophic and solitary garb and yet propounding to them questions suited for those that live in the world, which those attempt only out of compliance with the pleasure of those that ask, men who pass all their time in the royal city, and often turn their attention even in- expression. But we know a few of the fathers who return answer, being stirred by God, and not by the questions or the propositions,'^ but by abundant Spirit: of whom the sacred text says, " Speech in the heart of a man is as deep water, and a flowing river and a ^ Sebyanayuth dehltha = iQfXoBpy]o-Kf.ia (Col. ii. 23). The text needs a slight emendation. "- Trporao-eis. fountain of life."^ The wealth of grace is so to speak plentiful, and of its own accord it makes those that surround it outside share in any gift. If your great- ness had orone to some such men in order to visit them, you would perhaps at any rate have derived, not as the result of the question or of the proposition,^ but as the product of such plentiful store, something that would have been of service for the solution of the question and the understanding of the present matter. As to those who have received such grace from God let this suffice. But, since the utterance of our Saviour says in the Gospels, " To every one that asketh thee give,"^ whether it be a gift pertaining to the intellect, or one pertaining to the senses, it is necessary for me also who see few things, and, far from being able to foresee or preconceive the future, do not even know what lies at hand, to say what my advice is. It is that you should give the girl who has been brought up by you in faith and in the love of God to that one among all her wooers who has the most correct and orthodox disposition as regards faith in Christ, and sets himself most earnestly to lead a devout and modest life: for this all other things also follow as in the second line. In fact He is no liar who said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteous- ness, and all these things shall be added unto you":* since to speak the truth it is indeed an abominable ^ Pr. xviii. 4. ^ Trporacrts. ^ Lu. vi. 30. ^ Mt. vi. 33. thing, and one that does not greatly gratify God, or perhaps even excites His wrath, for us to pass over manifest judgments as to what it is right to do, and facts from which God's pleasure is especially to be seen, from whom everything whatsoever that is good comes down,^ and give directions by unknown things or by predispositions, and commit everything to revelations; for some have even applied this meaning to the words, " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."^ If you will turn your eyes towards the said object, and choose what it is right to do, you will not stray from the right course, seeing that you will obtain God as a surety for the future and for a good result. The Apostle also admonishes us saying, ** Whatsoever ye do whether in word or in deed, do all in the name of our Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father through Him