Tag: Desert Fathers

While the Bridegroom tarried, they slumbered and slept: Give ear, ye prudent, to our Lord’s parable, for it is all light. All of them slept, both the foolish and the wise — Which signifies that the good and the wicked die until the
resurrection. The same sleep comes upon the ten of them, which is as much as to
say, That death is the same for all creation without distinction. One was the sleep of the wise and of the foolish, For one is death, both of the righteous and of sinners. The good die, as the wise virgins slept; And the bad die, as the foolish also slept. Behold, all creation looketh for the coming of the Bridegroom,
Christ, Who cometh at the end with His angels. But since He hath tarried, all generations slumber and sleep With the sleep of death, while looking for when He cometh.

They went down to Egypt and provided food when famine reigned; they came to the obstinate sea, and taught it wisdom with a rod; they went out into the hostile desert and adorned it with a pillar; they entered the furnace, fiercely heated, and sprinkled it with their dew; into the pit where they had been thrown an angel entered and taught its wild beasts to fast.

What we need is a little labor! Let us endure this labor that we
may obtain mercy.

Acts of charity, almsgiving and all the external good works do not
suppress the arrogance of the heart; but noetic meditation, the
labor of repentance, contrition and humility — these humble the
proud mind.

Wine makes glad the heart of man’ (Ps. 104:15). But you who have
professed sorrow and grief should turn away from such gladness and
rejoice in spiritual gifts. If you rejoice in wine, you will live
with shameful thoughts and distress will overwhelm you.

It is better to eat meat and drink wine and not to eat the flesh
of one’s brethren through slander.

Go and have pity on all, for through pity, one finds freedom of
speech before God.

Even a pious person is not immune to spiritual sickness if he does not have a wise guide — either a living person or a spiritual writer. This sickness is called “prelest”, or spiritual delusion, imagining oneself to be near to God and to the realm of the divine and supernatural. Even zealous ascetics in monasteries are sometimes subject to this delusion, but of course, laymen who are zealous in external struggles undergo it much more frequently. Surpassing their acquaintances in struggles of prayer and fasting, they imagine that they are seers of divine visions, or at least of dreams inspired by grace. In every event of their lives, they see special intentional directions from God or their guardian angel. And then they start imagining that they are God’s elect, and often try to foretell the future. The Holy Fathers armed themselves against nothing so fiercely as against this sickness — prelest.

When despondency seizes us, let us not give in to it. Rather,
fortified and protected by the light of faith, let us with great
courage say to the spirit of evil: “What are you to us, you who
are cut off from God, a fugitive for Heaven, and a slave of evil?
You dare not do anything to us: Christ, the Son of God, has
dominion over us and over all. Leave us, you thing of bane. We are
made steadfast by the uprightness of His Cross. Serpent, we
trample on your head.”

First of all it must be understood that it is the duty of all
Christians – especially of those whose calling dedicates them to
the spiritual life – to strive always and in every way to be
united with God, their creator, lover, benefactor, and their
supreme good, by Whom and for Whom they were created. This is
because the center and the final purpose of the soul, which God
created, must be God Himself alone, and nothing else – God whom
Whom the soul has received its life and its nature, and for Whom
it must eternally live.