Restless Pilgrim

[Synclectica] also said, “If you have begun some good work, you should not be turned from it by the enemy’s attempts to hinder you, indeed your endurance will overthrow the enemy. Sailors beginning a voyage set the sails and look for a favourable wind, and later they meet a contrary wind. Just because the wind has turned, they do not throw the cargo overboard or abandon ship; they wait a while and struggle against the storm until they can set a direct course again. When we run into headwinds, let us put up the cross for our sail, and we shall voyage through the world in safety.”

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

Syncletica also said, “If you are troubled by illness, do not be miserable, even if you are so ill that you cannot stand to pray or use your voice to say psalms. We need these tribulations to destroy the desires of our body; they serve the same purpose as fasting and austerity. If your senses are dulled by illness, you do not need to fast. In the same way that a powerful medicine cures an illness, so illness itself is a medicine to cure passion. A great deal is gained spiritually by bearing illness quietly and giving thanks to God.

“If we go blind, let us not be upset. We have lost one means of excellence, yet we can contemplate the glory of God with the inward eyes of the soul. If we go deaf let us remember that we shall no longer hear a lot of silly talk. If suffering has weakened the strength of your hands, you still have inner strength against the enemy’s attacks.If the whole body is afflicted by disease, your spiritual health is still increasing”

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

Some Greeks once came to give alms in the city of Ostracinus: and they asked the stewards of the church to show them who was most in need. The stewards led them to a leper to whom they offered money. But he did not want it, and said, “Look here, I have a few palm leaves to work, and I plait them, and so I get enough to eat.”

Then the stewards took them to the house of a widow who lived with her daughters. When they knocked on the door, one of the daughters ran to open although she was naked. Her mother had gone out to work as a laundress. They offered the daughter clothing and money. But she refused to accept it, and said that her mother had told her, “Trust in God’s will. Today I have found work to supply us with enough to live on.” When the mother came back, they asked her to accept alms but she refused and said: “I have my God to care for me. Do you want to take him away from me now?” They realized her faith, and glorified God.

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

They said of one monk that he had lived in the world and had turned to God; but was still goaded by desire for his wife; and he told this to the monks. When they saw him to be a man of prayer and one who did more than his duty, they laid on him a course of discipline which so weakened his body that he could not even stand up.

By God’s providence another monk came to visit Scetis. When he came to this man’s cell he saw it open, and he passed on, surprised that no one came to meet him. But when thought that perhaps the brother inside was ill, and returned, and knocked on the door. After knocking, he went in, and found the monk gravely ill. He said, “What’s the matter, abba?”

He explained  “I used to live in the world, and the enemy still troubles me because of my wife. I told the monks, and they laid on me various burdens to discipline my life. In trying to carry them out obediently, I have fallen ill and yet the temptation is worse.”

When the visiting hermit heard this, he was vexed, and said, “These monks are powerful men, and meant well in laying these burdens upon you. But if you will listen to me who am but a child in these matters, stop all this discipline, take a little food at the proper times, recover your strength, join in the worship of God for a little, and turn your mind to the Lord. This desire is something you can’t conquer by your own efforts. The human body is like a coat. If you treat it carefully, it will last a long time. If you neglect it, it will fall to pieces.”

The sick man did as he was told, and in a few days the incitement to lust vanished.

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

They told a story of a hermit who was dying in Scetis. The brothers stood around his bed, and clothed him, and began to weep. But he opened his eyes and began to laugh; this happened three times. So the brothers asked him, “Abba, why are you laughing when we are weeping?”

He told them, “I laughed the first time because you fear death; I laughed the second time because you are not ready for death; I laughed the third time because I am passing from labour to rest, and yet you weep.” As he said this, he closed his eyes and died.

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

A hermit said, “We are not condemned if bad thoughts enter our minds, but only if we use them badly. Because of our thoughts we may suffer shipwreck, but because of our thoughts we may also earn a crown.”

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

She said, ‘”Let not the sun go down upon your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26). Likewise, if you wait until the sun is going down on your life, you will not know how to say, “Sufficient until the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:34). Why do you hate the man who has harmed you? It is not he who has harmed you but the devil. You ought to hate the sickness, not the sick man.

-De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V