There are occasions when, as monks, we look back nostalgically to earlier and seemingly holier and more ideal periods of monastic life in particular and the church in general. Saint Paul’s warning to the presbyters of Ephesus about savage wolves who will pervert the truth and who will come from among their own members should disabuse us of this illusion. Instead, from the earliest days of the church, unity, peace, concord, and the holiness and virtue from which these stem, have constantly been under threat, So, although there have been darker and lighter periods in the history of the church, no era has ever been spared the battle against sin and the presence of evil—even within the church. However, lightening the present darkness will not be achieved by bewailing the gloom but rather by individually recommitting to wholehearted repentance and ongoing conversion whereby we help redeem the age and dissipate—however modestly—the gloom and lighten the shadows.