You can recognize a truly spiritual person not so much by the words he speaks as by the mysterious light he leaves behind him. You will never hear him judging anyone. While we so often find faults in those around us, he sees his own weaknesses and condemns himself, with pain and sincerity. Of his neighbor he will speak with forbearance; of himself, with great humility. He will have no taste for idle talk or the noise of the world. When he opens his mouth, he will speak of Christ, of the beauty of the saints’ lives, of the mercy of God, and of the things that nourish the soul. And sometimes he will choose silence, because he has discovered that in the depths of silence God speaks more clearly than in thousands of words. His gaze will have something pure and deep about it, as though it carried another world within it. In his presence you will feel a peace you cannot explain. Sometimes, near souls who have reached high measures of the spiritual life, this peace becomes so strong that it is as if the very air around them grows sweet, and the grace of God lets the fragrance of the Kingdom be glimpsed for a moment. His humility will be visible in everything: in the way he looks, in the way he walks, in the way he listens. He will not seek to be noticed, and precisely for that reason he will become unforgettable. He will not try to impress anyone, and precisely for that reason he will reach hearts. But his true measure will be seen when he meets the weakness of another. He will not reject you when you become hard to understand. He will not draw back when your weaknesses come to light, when you fall, when you fail, or when you can no longer even understand yourself. He will not love only the beautiful and luminous part of your soul; he will also have patience with the darkness you carry. He will not try to drag you by force out of the depth into which you have fallen. He will descend with you to the place where you are. He will stay beside you in your silences, in your fears, in your weaknesses, in all the places where you feel unworthy of love. He will not be frightened by your “hell,” because the one who has truly known Christ knows that no human hell is deeper than the mercy of God. He will keep a fragment of hope for you when you yourself can find none, and he will gently remind you that God does not cease to work even in the darkest places of the soul. For true love does not love only the person you are when you are strong, luminous, and balanced. It also loves the person you are when you are crushed. And the spiritual person will not bind you to himself, but will lead you gently toward Christ. He will not say, “You cannot do without me,” but will remind you: “You are not alone. God has not abandoned you.” If he must rebuke you, he will not do it harshly, but with a spiritual nobility that will wound you and heal you at the same time. From his words contempt will not flow, but love. He will not humiliate you; he will help you see more clearly the path toward God. The humble person has a power the world does not understand. He does not attract by the brilliance of his gifts, nor by the beauty of his face, nor by the force of his words, but by something far rarer: the presence of God that rests in his heart. That is why, when you meet such a soul, you feel you would like to remain near him. He draws you like an unseen magnet. Not because he binds you to himself, but because through his humility, gentleness, and peace he reveals to you, without ostentation, the face of Christ. Perhaps this is one of the greatest proofs of spiritual love: not that he always speaks beautiful words to you, but that he can see you entirely - with your light and your darkness, with your strength and your weakness - without condemning you. He will descend into your hell and rise again with you. And the human soul always recognizes, even without words, the fragrance of Heaven. (Nun Ierusalima)