Meeting Preparation
They used to say about Poemen that when he was ready to go out to the meeting for prayer, he first sat by himself for an hour in self-examination, and then went.
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
An open treasury is quickly spent
Syncletica said, “An open treasury is quickly spent; any virtue will be lost if it is published abroad and is known about everywhere. If you put wax in front of a fire it melts; and if you pour vain praises on the soul it goes soft and weak in seeking goodness”
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
Pray without ceasing
Some monks called Euchites, or ‘men of prayer’, once came to Lucius in the ninth region of Alexandria.
He asked them, “What manual work do you do?” They said, “We do not work with out hands. We obey St. Paul’s command and pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17). He said to them, “Don’t you eat?” They said, “Yes, we do.” He said to them: “When you are eating who prays for you?” Then he asked them, “Don’t you sleep?” They said “Yes, we do.” He said, “Who prays for you while you are asleep?” and they could not answer him.
Then he said to them, “I may be wrong, brothers, but it seems to me that you don’t do what you say. I will show you how I pray without ceasing although I work with my hands. With God’s help, I sit down with a few palm leaves, and plait them, and say, “Have mercy upon me, O God, after they great mercy: and according to the multitude of they mercies do away with mine iniquity” (Ps 51:1). He asked them, “Is that prayer, or not” They said, “It’s prayer all right.”
He said, “When I spend all day working and praying in my heart, I make about sixteen pence. Two of these I put outside the door, and with the rest I buy flood. Whoever finds the two pennies outside the door prays for me while I am eating and sleeping: and so by God’s grace I fulfil the text, “Pray without ceasing”.
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
Happy Pi Day!
Today is 3/14 which makes it Pi Day!
Papa Francisco
Thanks to Alexandra for sending me this picture:
Well played Holy Spirit, well played…
When evil thoughts come…
A brother came to Poemen and said to him, “Many thoughts come into my mind and put me in danger.”
He sent him out into the open air, and said, “Open your lungs and do not breathe.”
He replied, “I can’t do that.”
Then he said to him: “Just as you can’t stop air coming into your lungs, so you can’t stop thoughts coming into your mind. Your part is to resist them.”
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
Pope Francis
There’s some fine commentary going on at the moment in the Catholic Blogosphere concerning our new Pope Francis…
Transcript available here
I’m not really going to add to all this commentary. All I’m going to say is that I’m over the moon that we have a Pope from Latin America and that I’m excited to have a Pope who has had connections with the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church. He comes across as welcoming and humble. Thanks Cardinals!