St. Ignatius Brianchaninov: Spiritual life and guidance in these last days

 The divine word and the words of the Holy Fathers are limitless, like sand in the ocean. By studying them without laziness, we can give instruction to those who come to us. Or it would be more proper to say that it is not we who give the advice (we are not worthy) but the Holy Fathers themselves inspired by the Holy Scriptures. All the holy ascetic writers of the last few centuries maintain that because of the general diminution of Spirit-inspired guides, the study of the Holy Scriptures (especially the New Testament) and the Fathers - as well as the assiduous and constant following of their advice in one’s life and in the guiding of others - is the only path to spiritual progress, given by God to the monastics of the last days. St Nilus announced that he would reject any monk who did not want to live according to this rule.¹ It is that important; it is that essential!

+St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, from The Field: Cultivating Salvation, chapter 34.
¹The Rule of St. Nilus of Sora

Father Arseny (Streltzof): The art of spiritual healing

 Father Seraphim never even mentioned the physical and spiritual help he was providing to other [Gulag] prisoners around him. He mostly talked about the importance of prayer for the soul of a man and for those around him. He spoke also about labor, but he never mentioned that he was helping others understand and make sense of their crooked ways. But I saw all this with my own eyes. I saw Father Seraphim - and perhaps you will think that I am overstating, but I think the image is right - as a restorer of souls who had been covered with dirt. Yes, he was a true restorer. Carefully, just like those who restore icons by removing layers of dried oil and dirt with a scalpel, taking care not to harm the original, Father Seraphim would carefully, gently approach a man and remove layers of sin from his soul, revealing first a small window of purity and then making this window bigger and bigger, and then finally clean up his whole soul. How careful you must be, how spiritually attentive to the injured soul not to harm it in trying to direct the man to the path of light. You must not hurt his pride, you must now show him how sinful he is - you could end up pushing him away so that he might think, "I am such a sinner that I cannot be saved!"

+Father Arseny (Streltzof), speaking of Hieromonk Seraphim, in Father Arseny A Cloud of Witnesses, chapter 12

Carl Jung: On spiritual guides

 

If we had good spiritual guides we would not need psychiatrists and psychoanalysts.

+Carl Jung, original source unknown, quoted in Jesus Christ: The Life of the World, by Monk Moses of Athos