With Pain and Love for Contemporary Man: The Spiritual Counsels of St. Paisios the Athonite - Volume 1

The New Generation - Part 12 of 18

“Today’s youth resembles a calf that is tied in a meadow, and constantly kicks and pulls on the rope to remove the stake and run away. Then, it breaks lose, runs off, and gets all tangled up; and finally, beasts come and devour it. When a child is young, it helps to apply the break [to place boundaries on their words and actions]. You see, for example, a mischievous young boy climbing a wall, where he may fall and hurt himself badly. ‘No, no,’ you shout; and you give him a slap or two. Next time, he will be careful — not because he will think of the danger, but because he will be afraid of being slapped. Today, no punishments are given out in schools, or even in the army. This is why young people are such a menace to their teachers and to the nation. In the army, in the old days [before 1950], the more austere the basic training was, the greater the bravery the soldiers would show in battle. A young person needs a spiritual guide, someone who will advise him and be eager to listen to his concerns, in order to proceed with spiritual security — without dangers, fears and dead ends. All of us, as we grow older, acquire experience from our own life and from the lives of others. But a young person lacks this experience.”