Unwilling to Speak "from himself", a Priest May Remain Silent if God has not Revealed anything to him

From a conversation with Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh.

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh (1914 - 04.08.2003)

There are two examples from the life of Saint Ambrose of Optina that illustrate this. Twice, merchants from neighboring towns came to him for confession, confessed, had a long conversation with him, revealed their entire lives and souls, and waited for an answer. He told them, "I will pray and then I will answer."

And a day later, then another, then a third, in each case, the confessed person would come and say, "I need to go back to the city; why are you silent?" And two times Ambrose of Optina said, "I've been praying to the Mother of God these three days, asking her to reveal to me what to say. She is silent. What can I say?"

And you must respect this when you come to confession. A priest may say, "I can't tell you anything."

And here we shouldn't think, "Well, he doesn't care about me! I opened my whole soul to him, I brought the whole tragedy of my life, and he tells me, 'Well, go away now in peace. I'll give you a prayer of absolution and that's enough for you!'" This is not true. This means the priest responsibly refuses to say anything that isn't rooted in God, in prayer, in communication.

We must remember this, because it happens. If a priest is truly thoughtful and serious, then this must happen, because fabricating an answer is a crime.

Source 

Metropolitan Anthony on Prelest

Conversations with Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. "On Prelest".

Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom)

Very often, way too often people talk about prelest and use this word with some mysterious expression on their faces because they found this word in the writings of the Holy Fathers, which they should not be reading yet. I remember a very experienced priest telling me, "Do not let people who have not yet matured in Orthodoxy read "Philokalia,"  because they will think that they already know everything that is described in there in such simple terms. In reality, none of us often has the slightest idea of what is being described there in such simple words." And that takes us to the topic of prelest. People can be charmed by their imagination. They can be deceived. Prelest is derived from the words "flattery, lies." And a deluded man is a man who is imagining something while the real situation is different. That man thinks he knows the secrets of spiritual life, while in reality he only knows something about his emotional life.

There is a wonderful excerpt in Theophan the Recluse’s writings where he doesn’t speak about prelest but rather says that very often we, thanks to prayer, sacraments, deep reflection, and our attempts to live worthy of our Christian calling, start having some unexpected feelings or even corporal experiences – we feel warmth or some light rising in the soul.  And he says: all of that is only emotions and corporal experiences. He even says that if during prayer we see some golden light, we should know that that phenomenon is not divine but is of an emotional and corporal nature. For this reason, we should be very cautious in such matters and should live soberly instead of wondering whether it is prelest or not. In other words, we shouldn’t get intoxicated with our desire to live a spiritual life.

Saint Isaac of Syria says: if you see a novice who begins to ascend from earth to heaven, grab him by his legs and throw him to the ground, because if he rises too high, his fall will be ever more painful.  Thus, we should learn to live simply and soberly. As one priest told me, where there is simplicity, there are a hundred angels, where there is intricacy, there is none. We fall into prelest because we are lost in contemplation of ourselves. When we pray, fast, read, or have a conversation, we direct our attention to ourselves and think, "What am I like, what is happening in me now, what am I like in God’s eyes?" — but we cannot answer those questions ourselves. We can only say, "If what I am experiencing now is from You, oh Lord, strengthen it; if it is not from You, dispel it."