“We cannot afford to live without an advisor and governor”, said St. Gregory the Theologian. On the contrary, he thought it was a great decay to live without a spiritual father. Our egoism determines us to ignore our spiritual father and follow our own spiritual path. But how can we advance from a spiritual point of view when we despise our spiritual father, the delegate of Christ? When we trust only in our egoism?

Nobody is without fault, nobody is perfect so we all are in danger to be lead into confusion and commit errors. We all are like this, and we need advice, even the saints. Remember that St. Athanasius the Great was advised by his apprentice, Paul the Simple. And the Holy Apostle Paul, while he was a clairvoyant ruler, a patriarch, he accepted advices from his spiritual sons (see Acts 19:28-29 and Acts 21:17-27).

(Translation from Arhimandrit Vasilios Bacoianis, Duhovnicul și spovedania, traducere din lb. greacă de pr. Victor Manolache, Editura de Suflet, București, 2012, pp. 89-90)