"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Hyperichius said, “Keep praising God with hymns, and meditating continually, and so lighten the burden of the temptations that attack you. A traveler carrying a heavy burden stops from time to time to take deep breaths, and so makes the journey easier and the burden light”
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
A brother said to Sisois, “I want to guard my heart.”
He said to him, “How can we guard the heart if our tongue leaves the door of the fortress open?”
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
This month’s theology on Tap was brought to a close by Deacon Ray Arnold with his talk entitled “Getting right with God: Making the most of your Lent”. The talk, the Q&A session and the audience response are all available for download below.
Main Talk (Download)
Q&A (Download)
Response (Download)
I had my last meeting for the Young Adult Commission recently – we’ve got some more great talks lined up for the next Theology On Tap!
A grumbler is not a monk. Anyone who gives evil for evil is not a monk. An irritable man is not a monk
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
A hermit said, “the prophets wrote books. Our predecessors came after them, and worked hard at them, and then their successors memorized them. But this generation copies them onto papyrus and parchment and leaves them unused on the window-ledge.
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
Once there was a meeting of monks in Scetis, and they discussed the case of a guilty brother but Pior said nothing.
Afterwards he got up and went out, took a sack, filled it with sand, and carried it on his shoulders. He put a little sand in a basket and carried it in front of him.
The monks asked him, “What are you doing?” He answered, “The sack with a lot of sand is my sins; they are many, so I put them on my back and then I shall not weep for them. The basket with a little sand is the sins of our brother and they are in front of me, and I see them and judge them. This is not right. I ought to have my own sins in front of me, and think about them, and ask God to forgive me.”
When the monks heard this, they said, “This is the true way of salvation”
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
I’m sneaking in a non-Desert Fathers related post because I’m sure most Catholics are going to be increasingly pestered with more questions as to how a Pope is elected. So, if you want to sound smart you can either read about it over at Shameless Popery, or watch this snazzy video: