Tag: Desert Fathers

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

A hermit was living in a cave in the Thebaid with one well-tested disciple. It was usual for him to teach the disciple during the evening and show him how the soul should progress, and after the address he used to pray and send him away to sleep.

Some devout laymen who knew of the hermit’s ascetic life happened to visit him. He gave them counsel and they went away. Then he sat down after the evening prayers as usual to instruct the brother. But while he was talking, sleep overcame him.

The brother waited for the hermit to wake and end with the usual prayer. But he went on sleeping and the brother went on sitting for a long time and in the end the disciple felt he must go and sleep, though he was uneasy about it. So he pulled himself together, and resisted the temptation, and went back to sit by the hermit. 

A second time he was forced away by the longing for sleep, but he sat down again. This happened seven times, and still he went on resisting it.

In the middle of the night the hermit woke up, and found him sitting nearby and said, “Haven’t you gone away yet?” He said, “No, you did not send me away, abba.” The hermit said, “Why did you not wake me up?” He answered, “I did not dare to nudge you for fear of upsetting you.” They both got up and began to say the morning prayers. After that the hermit sent the disciple away.

When the hermit was sitting alone, he was shown a vision of a glorious place, with a throne in it, and the throne had seven crowns. He asked the angel who showed him the vision, “Whose crowns are those?” and he replied, “They are the crowns of your disciple. God had given him this place and throne because of his goodness and tonight he has been granted these seven crowns.”

The hermit was amazed and called his disciple to him with wonder and said, “Tell me what you did all night.” He answered, “Alas, abba, I did nothing.” The hermit could see that he was being humble and concealing something, and said, “Look here, I can’t rest until you tell me what you did and thought last night.” But the brother was not aware that he had done anything and could not say a word. Then at last he said to the hermit, “Indeed, abba, I did nothing, except that seven times I was driven by wandering thoughts to go way and sleep; but you had not sent me away as you usually do, so I did not go.” Then the hermit at once understood that every time he resisted the temptation, God bestowed a crown on him.

To the disciple he said nothing, thinking it best for his soul, but he told other directors of souls to teach us how God can bestow crowns upon us even for resisting little temptations. It is good that a man discipline his whole self for God’s sake. As it is written, “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by storm” (Matthew 11:12)

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

A brother fell into temptation, and in his struggle he stopped keeping the monastic rules. When he later tried to start keeping the basics of the rule, he was hampered by his suffering; and he said to himself, “When shall I be as I once was?” In this gloomy state of mind he could not make himself begin the monastic office. So he went to a hermit and told him what had been happening. When the hermit heard of his sufferings, he told him this story by way of example:

A man had a plot of land. Through his carelessness brambles sprang up and it became a wilderness of thistles and thorns. Then he decided to cultivate it. So he said to his son, “Go and clear that ground.”

So the son went to clear it, and saw that the thistles and thorns had multiplied  So his resolve weakened, and he said, “What a lot of time I should need to clear and weed all this.” So he lay down and went to sleep. He did this day after day.

When his father came to see what he had done he found him doing nothing. He said to him, “Why have you done nothing till now?”

The boy said to his father, “I was coming to work, father, when I saw this wilderness of thorn and thistle, and I was too intimidated to start, and so I lay on the ground and went to sleep.”

Then his father said to him, “Son if you had cleared each day the area on which you lay down, your work would have advanced slowly and you would not have lost heart.” So the boy followed his father’s advice and in a short time the plot was cultivated.

The hermit added, “So, brother, do a little work and do not be discouraged, and God will give you grace and bring you back to your proper way of life.” The brother went away and patiently did what the hermit had told him. So he found peace of mind, and made progress with the help of the Lord Christ.

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

[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