What’s wrong with the world
Dear Sir:
Regarding your article ‘What’s Wrong with the World?’
I am.
Yours truly,
Tag: Humility
Be Wiser
Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so
– Lord Chesterfield
How to be humble
Don’t worry, this isn’t my article. Humility is something I’ve rarely been accused of, despite my repeatedly pointing it out to others…
The article How to be humble first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net
Sharing the light
There was a hermit in Scetis who lived in a satisfactory way, but he was not good at remembering what he heard. So he went to John the Short to ask him about his forgetfulness. He listened to John, went back to his cell and forget what he had been told.
He came a second time and asked him the same question, listened, went back, and forgot what he had heard the moment he reached his cell. Many times he went backwards and forwards, but could never remember. He happened to meet John and said, “Do you know, abba, I’ve forgotten all you told me? I don’t wan to disturb you, so I didn’t come again.”
John said to him, “Go and light a lamp,” and he lit it. John said, “Bring more lamps and light them from the first,” and he did so.
John said to him, “Was the first lamp harmed, because you used it to light others?” He said, “No.”
“In the same way,” he replied, “John would not be harmed. If all the monks of Scetis should come to me, it would not keep me from God’s love. So come to me whenever you want, and don’t hesitate.”
So, by patience on both sides, God cured the forgetfulness of the hermit. This was the work of the hermits of Scetis, to strengthen those who were attacked by passion; their experience in conflict with themselves meant that they were able to help others along the way.
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
Sheep and Goats
Some people once came to a hermit in the Thebaid to ask him to cure a demoniac whom they brought with them.
After the hermit had been asked to do this for some time, he said to the demon, “Go out of God’s creature.”
The demon answered, “I will, but first let me ask you a question; tell me, who are the goats and who are the sheep?”
The hermit said, “The goats are people like myself; who the sheep are, God alone knows.”
The demon shouted aloud at the words, crying, “Look here, I am going out because of your humility” and he went out at that moment.
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
What is humility?
A hermit was asked, “What is humility?” He said, “It is if you forgive a brother who has wronged you before he is sorry.”
-De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
Desert Fathers: Our sins and the sins of others
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