Two philosophers who visited Anthony

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Administrator
Two philosophers who visited Antony
Two philosophers who had heard of Antony’s fame once came to visit him. After a discussion on several subjects they despised Antony as ignorant and illiterate and returned home. Not content with insulting him thus, they plotted to drive him from his cell by magic charms and demonic assistance. Driven by envy and spite, they set in motion an army of demons, such that every day many people began coming to Antony as to a servant of God. For some he traced the sign of the cross on their breast and forehead, for others he lay prostrate in prayer. Even the strongest demons were unable to come near, and they went back to those who had sent them, having achieved nothing. They sent some more powerful demons against him, who returned exhausted. They sent the most powerful and violent demons possible against the soldier of Christ, but they could not prevail against Antony’s strong resistance. None of their wiles succeeded, their magic arts and necromancy were all in vain, and the evidence forced them to concede that there was great power in the Christian profession, since their shadowy demons had not been able to do Antony any harm, nor been able to drive him from his dwelling.
Overawed and astonished, the philosophers came back forthwith to the holy Antony and after confessing to him how their spite and malice had been behind the great battle they had brought against him, they asked to become Christians. Antony asked them the date when they had begun their battle, and when they told him he said that he had been attacked by the most bitter and stinging thoughts on that day.
We know that this same blessed Antony frequently prayed at such length that he was often taken up into ecstasy. We have heard him saying at sunrise, “Why are you dragging me back, O rising sun, from the brilliance of the one true light!”
De Vitis Patrum, Book IV, Chapter 55 (Cassian, Conference 8, Chapter 18)
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Two Monks Travelling

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Administrator

We continue with another story on the lack of discretion:

Two monks travelling through the desert who decided that they would not partake of any food unless God himself brought it to them.

What can I say about those two brothers who lived in the distant desert where Antony used to live, and who, casting discretion to the winds, went for a long journey through the desert having decided that on no account would they take any food unless it were given them by God himself? As they were wandering through the desert, half dead with hunger they saw in the distance some Mazices, a race of people more savage and cruel than any other. They shed blood not only in pursuit of plunder, but simply because of their ferocious nature. But contrary to their reputation for ferocity, they came forward offering the two brothers bread. One of the brothers, guided by discretion, accepted it thankfully as if from the hand of God. He reckoned that the food was divinely provided, for it must have been by an act of God that these bloodthirsty people were now offering fainting people the means of sustaining life. But the other one refused the food because it had been offered to him by human beings. Weakened by lack of food, he died.

However blameworthy their original decision may have been, one of them, guided by discretion, can be seen to have put right what he started foolishly. The other persisted in his stubborn presumption, and brought upon himself the death which the Lord had wanted to save him from.

De Vitis Patrum, Book IV, Chapter 44 (Cassian, Conference 2, chap.6)

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An Old Man called Heron

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Administrator

A story of an old man who fell because he lacked the virtue of discretion.

 Some definite examples may help to reinforce this, so I remind you of a certain old man called Heron, who by paying no attention to discretion brought to nothing all his earlier labours and, what is more, came to a miserable end. A few days ago by the tricks of the devil he was cast down from the heights to the very depths. For he had spent fifty years in the desert, maintaining an extremely strict way of life, preserving the hiddenness of solitude more than anyone else. He worked so very hard, and yet he has been deceived by the deceiver, coming to disaster by such a grievous fall that he has plunged all the desert-dwellers into the deepest grief. He would have run much less risk of falling if he had only practised the wisdom of discretion. Instead, he always practised fasting with such a rigorous spirit and kept so immutably to the hidden solitude of his cell that he would not even relax his strict abstinence on Easter Day. For such a great feast as Easter all the hermits would come together in church, all except him alone, lest he should be seen to have relaxed his rule simply by taking a little extra food.
Such presumption led him into mistaking the angel of Satan for an Angel of light, whom he welcomed with the deepest veneration. He obeyed the angel’s commands and cast himself headlong into a very deep well, thinking that he was about to demonstrate how greatly his virtues were going to be rewarded by coming out of the well unharmed. The brothers with great difficulty managed to get him out of the well half dead, but he died three days afterwards. And what was even worse, he persisted obstinately in his delusions, and no one could convince him that he had been led astray by the devil.

De Vitis Patrum, Book IV, Chapter 43 (Cassian, Conference 2, chap.5)

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Which Virtue?

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Administrator

A number of seniors gather round the holy Antony for mutual encouragement: 

On one occasion a number of the seniors went to the blessed Antony in the Thebaid to confer together in the search for perfection. They continued talking from vespers until daylight, the question of discretion taking up the greater part of the night. The question which they discussed at such length among themselves was: Which virtue or monastic observance could keep a monk unharmed from the attacks of the devil, and surely carry him by assured means on the right path to God? Each one gave his own opinion as to what he thought best. Some said the practice of fasting and vigils, others nakedness and contempt of worldly possessions, others a withdrawn life into the hidden parts of the desert, quite a few put the quest for charity first, which they defined as service to humanity consisting of the pious practice of giving hospitality to brothers and strangers. After spending the greater part of the night in devout discussion of this nature, the blessed Antony at last replied to them all.

“All the things you have mentioned are useful and necessary for anyone thirsting after God. But the countless circumstances and experiences of so many brothers do not allow of us giving precedence to any single one of these virtues. I have often seen brothers who observe certain practices becoming deceived in the end, because they did not observe discretion in the good thing which they had undertaken. The chief cause of their fall has been that far from being governed by their superiors, they failed to grasp the necessity for discretion, which is able to teach a monk a royal road that prevents them from overdoing ascetic practices on the one hand, while safeguarding them from falling into vice on the other. In everything that we do, discretion must come first. We must be quite clear about this: no virtue can be perfectly begun and continued without the grace of discretion.”

After what Antony had said, they all agreed that discretion was the way to lead a monk fearlessly to God step by step, for it ensured that none of the virtues they had talked about could ever become harmful. Discretion is the mother and guardian and governor of every virtue.

De Vitis Patrum. Book IV, Chapter 42 (Cassian, Conference 2, chapter 2)

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In Search For Humility

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Administrator

Abba Pinuphius in the search for humility flees from the monastery and settles a long way off:

We saw abba Pinuphius who used to be presbyter of a very large coenobium not far from the city of Panephysus in Egypt. He was held in great respect for his age, his life and his priesthood, and was honoured by all. But he saw that because of all that he was unable to preserve his humility, so he fled, alone, from the coenobium into the furthest reaches of the Thebaid. There he took off his monastic clothes and put on secular garments, before seeking out the monastery of Tabennisi, which he knew to be the strictest of all the monasteries, and which he thought would be far enough away for him not to be recognised. He stayed for a long time outside prostrating himself before the brothers, begging each one with many prayers that he might be admitted. When he was at last admitted, not without some scorn for being an old man who would not be suitable for many tasks, he was ordered to work diligently in the garden. A brother who was quite a junior was put over him who believed he should take charge of him completely. This brother not only instructed him in everything to do with the management of the garden but in all the tasks which were universally regarded as hard and humiliating. He carried them all out conscientiously every day, and many of them at night, for he got up quietly so that no one would see him, and no one would be able to guess who had been doing them. Three years went by, and he was being sought throughout Egypt by the brothers, when at last he was seen by a brother who was visiting from Egypt. He could hardly recognise him because of the coarseness of his clothing and the menial work he was doing. He was bent forwards over a hoe, preparing the ground for vegetables, then carrying dung on his shoulders to be laid around their roots. The brother hesitated as he watched, and delayed making himself known to him for quite some time, but at last he moved closer, and recognising his voice as well as his face he at once cast himself at Pinuphius’ feet. The brothers were astounded.

“Why,” they asked, “are you doing this to him? He has only recently joined us from the world, and is the lowest in rank of all of us.”

The visitor justified what he had done by telling them Pinuphius’ name and they were even more astounded by this marvel than before, for the name of Pinuphius was already well known among them. They all begged his pardon for their ignorance, and for keeping him all this time in the ranks of the juniors and children. But he wept and grieved greatly because by the envy of the devil he had been discovered and would not any longer be able to carry on in humility and lowliness. The brothers took him back weeping and reluctant to his own monastery, keeping a very careful eye on him lest he slip away and flee in the same way as before.

            After a little while the desire for lowliness arose in him once more, and in the silence of the night he fled not just to a neighbouring province but to lands completely unknown to him. He took ship intending to settle here in Palestine, believing that he would be more securely hidden if he went to places where even his name had never been heard of. When he got here he came to our monastery, quite near the cave in which our Lord was born of the Virgin. He was able to conceal himself here for a while, but like ‘a city set on a hill’, in the Lord’s words (Matthew 5.14), he could not stay hidden for long, for there were always brothers coming from Egypt to pray at the holy places. He was recognized, and with many prayers they brought him back unwillingly to his own coenobium again.

From De Vitis Patrum, Book IV, Chapter 30 (Cassian, Institutes, Bk.4, chap.30)

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How To Conduct Ourselves At Feasts

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Administrator

  Titus Flavius Clemens (c.150 – c. 215), known as Clement of Alexandria, was a Christian theologian who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature. Among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. Clement is regarded as a Church Father, like Origen. He is venerated as a saint.

 HOW TO CONDUCT OURSELVES AT FEASTS

The Spirit, distinguishing from such revelry the divine service, sings, “Praise Him with the sound of trumpet;” for with sound of trumpet He shall raise the dead. “Praise Him on the psaltery;” for the tongue is the psaltery of the Lord. “And praise Him on the lyre.” By the lyre is meant the mouth struck by the Spirit, as it were by a plectrum. “Praise with the timbrel and the dance,” refers to the Church meditating on the resurrection of the dead in the resounding skin. “Praise Him on the chords and organ.” Our body He calls an organ, and its nerves are the strings, by which it has received harmonious tension, and when struck by the Spirit, it gives forth human voices. “Praise Him on the clashing cymbals.” He calls the tongue the cymbal of the mouth, which resounds with the pulsation of the lips. Therefore He cried to humanity, “Let every breath praise the Loan,” because He cares for every breathing thing which He hath made. For man is truly a pacific instrument; while other instruments, if you investigate, you will find to be warlike, inflaming to lusts, or kindling up amours, or rousing wrath.

In their wars, therefore, the Etruscans use the trumpet, the Arcadians the pipe, the Sicilians the pectides, the Cretans the lyre, the Lacedaemonians the flute, the Thracians the horn, the Egyptians the drum, and the Arabians the cymbal. The one instrument of peace, the Word alone by which we honor God, is what we employ. We no longer employ the ancient psaltery, and trumpet, and timbrel, and flute, which those expert in war and contemners of the fear of God were wont to make use of also in the choruses at their festive assemblies; that by such strains they might raise their dejected minds.

(ANF, Vol. 2, St. Clement of Alexandria,The Instructor, Book 2, Chap 4)

 

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The marvellous patience of abba Mutius

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Administrator

The marvellous patience of abba Mutius.

(cf. V.xiv.8) Desiring to renounce the world, abba Mutius sought out a monastery, bringing with him his small son of about eight years of age. They lay out side the gates for a long time before they were granted permission to enter. And when they were received they were immediately separated from each other, so that the sight of his son would not constantly remind the father how much he had given up, and how rich he used to be, and even make him forget that he was a father at all. In order to test still further whether he placed obedience higher than the bonds of family, his son was neglected, dressed in rags rather than proper clothes, subjected to slaps and blows from various people, often before the father’s very eyes. The father could see that the innocent child did not deserve these blows, and he never saw the child’s cheeks without them being stained with the dirty traces of his tears. Day by day he saw the child treated thus, but he endured it all for the love of Christ and in the virtue of obedience, with a stiff and unbending heart. He no longer thought of him as his son, for he had offered him to Christ along with himself, nor did he concern himself about his present injuries, but rather rejoiced that the child did not distract him from his own mental determination and fixed purpose.

Aware of this, the abbot decided to test his constancy still further. He saw the child weeping one day and pretending to be angry he order the father to pick him up and throw him in the river. As if commanded by the Lord he quickly picked the child up and straightaway carried him to the river to throw him in. In the fervour of his faith and obedience this would have been carried out completely, if it had not been for the abbot having ordered some of the brothers to patrol the riverbank carefully in order to rescue the boy. No sooner had the boy been thrown in than they pulled him out of the streambed, thus saving the boy from the effect of the deed which the father had performed at the abbot’s command.

(ibid. chap.28) His faith, obedience and devotion were instantly accepted by God, as was at once verified by a testimony from God. For it was revealed to the senior almost immediately that what he had done was to fulfill the obedience of Abraham (Genesis 28.) Some time later the abbot passed away from this world, praising Mutius before all the brothers because of his obedience, and leaving him as his successor and abbot of the monastery.

 

DE VITIS PATRUM, BOOK IV, Chapter 28 (Cassian, Institutes, Bk.4, chap.27)

 

 

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They Meditate Constantly

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Administrator

Manual work, and the offices of the third, sixth and ninth hours.

 They keep to their manual work privately in their cells without ceasing, but not so as to neglect their study of the psalms or other parts of Scripture. They meditate on them constantly all day, spreading over the whole day what we are accustomed to observe at definite fixed times.

(ibid. chap.3) But they do mark the third, sixth and ninth hours with three psalms apiece. We know that the prophet Daniel poured forth prayers to God at these same three hours in his chamber with the windows open (Daniel 6.10). There are good reasons why these times of day have been specially set aside for religious observances. For at these hours the promises were fulfilled and the great matters of our salvation were accomplished.

At the third hour the holy Spirit descended upon the apostles as the prophets had foretold, giving them the knowledge of tongues (Acts 2.4).

At the sixth hour the spotless victim, Jesus Christ our Lord, was offered up to the Father, mounting the cross for the salvation of the world to wipe out the sins of the human race. At this same hour, Peter’s vocation to the gentiles was revealed to him as he stood in ecstasy, for he witnessed the gospel vessel coming down from heaven, and the cleansing of all the living creatures in it, as he heard the divine voice saying to him, ‘Rise, Peter, kill and eat’ (Acts 10.9 et seq.). The fact that the vessel was let down by the four corners signifies nothing other than the four Gospels.

At the ninth hour Christ went down to the lower regions and extinguished the impenetrable darkness of Tartarus by his own shining splendour, bursting open the gates of bronze and breaking the iron bars, taking back with him to heaven the captive band of saints, and by the removal of the fiery sword (Genesis 3.24) restoring to paradise its original inhabitant. At this same hour Cornelius the centurion stood in prayer and knew by the message of an Angel that his alms and prayers had been accepted by God (Acts 10.3).

It is clear then from these examples that just as these holy men and apostles devoted these hours to religious observances so should we do likewise. If we had no rule binding us at the very least to some definite times for these devout duties, we would spend all day wrapped up in forgetfulness, idleness and useless pastimes.

From: De Vitis Patrum, Book IV, Chapter 20 (Cassian, Institutes, Bk.3, chap.2)

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Whenever they reproach you

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Administrator

“Blessed are ye whenever they reproach you and persecute you, and say every evil word against you falsely on account of Me.  [Mt. 5:11]

Saint Chrysostom: “It is as if He said, ‘Though they call you sorcerers, deceivers, pestilent, or whatever else, happy are you.’ What could be newer than these commands? Wherein the very things which all others flee from, these He declares to be desirable; I mean to be poor, mourning, persecuted, and evilly reported….He who is evil spoken of is so far from miserable, but happy. See again the prize: ‘Your reward is great in the heavens.’ Now do not be discouraged that He does not mention a kingdom. For although He gives different names to His rewards, yet He brings all into His kingdom.” [Ib., P.G. 57:190 (cols. 228).]

(The Orthodox New Testament, Volume 1, Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, Colorado)

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The Persecuted for Righteousness

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Administrator

“Blessed are they who have been persecuted on account of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.  [Mt. 5:10]

Saint Chrysostom: “‘On account of righteousness,’ that means, on account of virtue, for protection given to others, and for piety. For it is always His custom to speak of righteousness as the entire philosophy of the soul, that is the true philosophy of the spiritual life of virtue, discipline, and doctrine.” [Ib., P.G. 57:190 (cols. 228).]
     

Saint Gregory of Nyssa: “Here is the goal of the battles fought for God, here the reward of the labors, the prize of our sweat, which is to be held worthy of the kingdom of the heavens….Now earth is a place of variation and flux,…but by saying the ‘kingdom of the heavens,’ He shows the absolute immutability of the gift that is held out to our expectation. Now what does poverty have to do with persecution, since the first beatitude and the eighth have the same prize, ‘the kingdom of the heavens’? How do we explain this? It all hangs together, for they all converge on precisely the same goal….
      “The man who has truly received the faith…looks not to the things he has left behind, but to those that come hereafter. He does not turn back his eyes to the pleasures that are past. He is not pained by the loss of earthly things, but gladdened by the gain of heavenly ones. Therefore he will readily accept every form of torture as a means that will help him to attain to the joy before him: the fire, as a purification from matter; the sword, as disrupting the union of the mind with what is material and carnal. Every device for inflicting pain he will receive eagerly as an antidote against the dangerous poison of pleasure. For a man who suffers cannot enjoy pleasure. Hence, as sin entered through pleasure, it is exterminated by the opposite. So if men persecute others for confessing the Lord and invent the most intolerable tortures, they bring, through these sufferings, a remedy to souls, for by applying pain they heal the disease caused by pleasure.” [Ib., Sermon 8, 18:167, 168, 171, 172.]

(The Orthodox New Testament, Volume 1, Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, Colorado)

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