Month: September 2013

I thought we’d conclude this series of sayings from the Desert Fathers with a bit of a bang…

Hyperichuius said, “Snatch your neighbour from his sins, so far as you can, and refrain from condemning him, for God does not reject those who turn to him. Let no evil word about your brother stay in your mind, so that you can say, ‘Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors’ (Matthew 7:12).”

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

I’ll be back with regular blogging tomorrow. See you soon 🙂

Now therefore, Christians, since we know from the holy Scriptures and from divine revelation how great is the grace God gives to those who truly run to Him for refuge and blot out their former sins by repentance, and also how according to His promise He rewards them with good things and neither takes vengeance according to justice nor punishes them for their former sins, let us not despair.

For as He promised by the prophet Isaiah, He will cleanse those who have lived in sin and will make them bright and white like clean wool and snow, and glad with the blessings of heaven. Moreover, God asserts by the prophet Ezekiel that he does not desire their destruction when He says, “I do not desire the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his evil ways and live (Ezekiel 33:11)”

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

A hermit said, “All chatter is unnecessary. Nowadays everyone talks but what is needed is action. That is what God wants, not useless talking.”

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

A brother asked a hermit, “Abba, look here, I ask my elders questions, and they talk to me for the good of my soul, and I remember nothing they say. Is it any use asking questions when I gain nothing by it? I am deeply sinful.”

There were two empty vessels nearby. The hermit said, “Take one of those vessels and put oil in it, rinse it, pour out the oil, and bring the vessel back.” He did so. He said, “Do it again.” He did so.

After he had done it several times, the hermit said, “Now take both vessels and see which is cleaner.” He answered, “The one into which I put oil.”

The hermit said, “It’s the same for the one who asks questions. Although you remember nothing that you have heard, your soul will be cleaner than that of someone who never even asks questions.

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

[Poemen] said, “Experience is good. By experience, men are tested.” He also said, “If a man preaches but does not practise what he preaches, he is like a well of water where everyone can quench their thirst and wash off their dirt, but which cannot clean away the filth and dung that is around it.”

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

A hermit was fasting and not eating bread, and he went to visit another hermit. By chance some other pilgrims came there and the hermit made them a little vegetable soup.

When they sat down to eat, the fasting hermit took a single pea which he dipped in the soup and chewed it. When they got up from the table, the hermit took him to one side and said, “Brother, if you visit someone, don’t make a display there of your way of life. If you want to keep your own rule, stay in your cell and never go out.”

The brother accepted the advice, and thenceforth behaved like other people and ate what was put before him.

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

One of the brothers said, “When I was in Oxyrhinchus, the poor came on Friday evenings to eat the love-feast. When they went to sleep afterwards, only one of them had a covering. He put half the blanket underneath him and the other half on top; but he was still very cold. When he went to relieve himself, I heard him grumbling and moaning about the cold and he consoled himself like this:

‘Thank you, Lord. How many wealthy men are in prison, sitting in irons or with shackled feet, so that they cannot even go out and relieve themselves when they want to. But I am like an emperor, I can stretch my legs and walk wherever I like.’

“I was standing there and heard what he said and I went in and told the brothers, and they were very edified to hear it.”

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V