"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
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
A brother was restless in his community and he was often irritated. So he said, “I will go and live somewhere by myself. I will not be able to talk or listen to anyone and so I shall be at peace, and my passionate anger will cease.” He went out and lived alone in a cave.
But one day he filled his jug with water and put it on the ground. Suddenly it happened to fall over. He filled it again, and again it fell. This happened a third time. In a rage he snatched up the jug and smashed it.
Coming to his senses, he knew that the demon of anger had mocked him, and he said, “Here am I by myself, and he has beaten me. I will return to the community. Where you live, you need effort and patience and above all God’s help.” So he got up, and went back.
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
Evagrius said that there was a brother who had no possessions except a Gospel book and he sold it in order to feed the poor. He said something worth remembering: “I have sold even the word that commands me to sell all and give to the poor”
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
Poemen said, “The character of the genuine monk only appears when he is tempted”
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
A hermit said, “Chastity is born of tranquility, and silence, and inner prayer”
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
Today’s quotation comes from a Desert Mother, Syncletica:
“Just as one cannot build a ship unless one has some nails, so it is impossible to be saved without humility”
– Syncletica of Alexandria