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Sayings of the Fathers (Systematic Collection, Latin)

tr. Chadwick, 1958; selections

11. Part 11: That It Is Right to Live Soberly

A brother asked Abba Arsenius to speak a word to him. The old man said to him: “As far as you can, strive to make your inner progress as God would have it, and by it conquer the passions of the outer man.”

He also said: “If we seek God, he will appear to us: if we hold him, he will stay with us.”

Abba Agatho said: “A monk ought not to let his conscience accuse him about anything.”

When this Abba Agatho was on his death-bed, he remained motionless for three days with his eyes open. The brothers shook him, saying: “Abba, where are you?” And he said: “I am standing in the presence of God’s judgement.” They said to him: “Are you afraid?” And he said: “Mostly I have worked as much as I could to keep the commandments of God. But I am a man, and I do not know whether my works will be pleasing in God’s sight.” The brothers said to him: “Do you not trust in your works? For they were obedient to God’s will.” And the old man said: “I do not presume, except I come before God: for the judgements of God are not the judgements of men.”

When they still wished to ask him to speak, he said to them: “Of your charity do not talk to me, for I am busy.” And at the words, he breathed forth his spirit with joy. And they saw him welcoming his spirit as a man greets his dear friends. In everything Abba Agatho kept a careful guard, and he used to say: “There is no virtue which a man can acquire without taking guard.”

They said of Abba Ammoi that when he went to church, he did not let his disciple walk with him, but made him follow a long way behind. And if the disciple drew near to ask him something, he gave him a rapid answer and drove him back at once, saying: “I am afraid that while we are talking for the soul’s good, some irrelevant words will be spoken: and that is why I do not let you walk by my side.”

Abba Ammoi began by saying to Abba Aesius: “How do you see me now?” And he said: “Like an angel, father.” And later he said again: “Now how do you see me?” And he said: “Like Satan: for even if you speak a good word, it is like a sword to me.”

Abba Allois said: “Unless a man say in his heart, Only I and God are in the world, he shall not find rest.”

He also said: “If a man wills, in one day he can come by the evening to a measure of divinity.”

Abba Bessarion said when he was dying: “A monk ought to be all eye, like the Cherubim and Seraphim.”

Abba Daniel and Abba Ammoi were once on a journey together. Abba Ammoi said: “Do you think sometime we shall rest in a cell, father?” Abba Daniel said to him: “Who can take God away from us? God is abroad in the world, and he is in the cell likewise.”

Abba Evagrius said: “It is a great thing to pray without hindrance. It is a greater, to sing psalms without hindrance.”

He also said: “If you always remember your death and do not forget the eternal judgement, there will be no sin in your soul.”

Abba Theodore of the ninth region of Alexandria said: “If God reckons to us the carelessness of our times of prayer, and the captivity of our minds to other things during our psalmody, we cannot be saved.”

Abba Theonas said: “Our mind is hindered and held back from contemplating God, because we are imprisoned in our bodily passions.”

Some of the brothers once came to tempt Abba John the Short, for he never let his mind wander among worldly thoughts, and he never spoke for the world’s sake. They said to him: “Thanks be to God, it has rained hard this year, and the palm-trees have had enough water to begin to bear; and so the brothers who are engaged in bodily labour will find fruit from their labour.” So Abba John said to them: “So it is when the Holy Spirit comes down into the hearts of saintly men. They grow green and fresh, and in the fear of God put forth leaves.”

They said of this Abba John that he once made enough material for two baskets, and twisted it all into one basket, but did not see what he was doing until he tried to hang them on the wall. For his mind was occupied in the contemplation of God.

14A. Abba John the Short also said: “I am like a man sitting in the shade of a tall tree, who sees wild beasts and snakes coming at him and knows his danger and rushes to climb the tree to safety. I sit in my cell, and see temptations coming at me: and when I cannot stand up to them I rush to pray God, and so I find safety from the enemy’s attack.”

There was an old man in Scete, with a reasonable rule of bodily life, but not at all careful in remembering what he heard. So he went to Abba John the Short to ask him about forgetfulness. He listened to Abba John, went back to his cell. and forgot what he had been told. He came a second time and asked him, listened, went back, and forgot what he had heard the moment he had reached his cell. Many times he went backwards and forwards, but could never remember.

He happened to meet the old man and said: “Do you know, father, that I again forgot what you told me? I did not wish to trouble you, so I did not come again.” Abba John said to him: “Go, light a lamp.” And he lit it. And he said: “Bring more lamps and light them from the first.” And he did so. And Abba John said to the old man: “Was the first lamp harmed, because you used it to light others?” And he said: “No.” “So John is not harmed: even if all the monks of Scete should come to me, it does not keep me from God’s love. So come to me whenever you want, and do not hesitate.”

And so, by patience on both sides, God cured the forgetfulness of the old man. This was the work of the men of Scete, to strengthen those who were attacked by passion; their own experience in the moral struggle enabled them to help others along the road.

A brother asked Abba John: “What am I to do? A brother keeps coming and takes me away to help with the work which he is doing: but I am wretched and sick, and am too weak for it. How then am I to obey God’s commandment?” The old man answered him: “Caleb the son of Jephunneh said to Joshua the son of Nun¹ ‘I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me with you to that country: and now I am eighty-five. Then I was strong: and I am still just as capable of beginning and ending a battle.’ And so do you go, if you can finish the work as well as you begin it. If you cannot, sit in your cell and lament your sins. And if they find you weeping when they come, they will not force you to go out with them.”

Abba Isidore, who was the priest in Scete, said: “When I was a young man and stayed in my cell, I made no limit to the number of psalms which I used in the service of God. Night and day alike were spent in psalmody.”

Abba Cassian told a story of an old man, living in the desert, who asked God to grant that he never fell into a doze when the conversation was edifying: but that, if anyone spoke with back-biting or hate, he should immediately fall asleep, and so he would not listen to the poisonous words. He said that the devil strove earnestly to make men speak idle words, and assailed all spiritual teaching.

In this connexion he gave the following example: “When once I was talking to some brothers for the good of their souls, they fell into a drowsiness so deep that they could not even keep their eyelids open. I wanted to show them that this was the devil’s work, so I started gossiping: and at once they lost all drowsiness and began to enjoy what I was saying. But I said sorrowfully: ‘We were talking of the heavenly till just now, and your eyes were drooping into heavy slumber: but the moment the talk is frivolous, you all begin to listen avidly. I beg you then, dear brothers, since you know that this is the work of an evil demon, to look to yourselves, and beware of sleep whenever you are doing or hearing the things of the spirit.’”²

When Abba Poemen was a young man, he once went to an old man to ask him three questions. When he arrived at the old man’s cell he forgot one of his three questions, and went back to his own cell. And he was just stretching out his hand for the key of his cell when he remembered the question which he had forgotten. He left the key lying there, and returned to the old man. The old man said to him: “You have travelled fast to get here, my brother.” And Poemen told him: “When I was stretching out my hand for the key, I remembered the question: so I did not open my cell door, but immediately returned to you.”

The distance between the cells was very great. The old man said to him: “Truly you are Poemen,³ shepherd of sheep: for your name shall be renowned in all Egypt.”

Abba Ammon came to Abba Poemen, and said to him: “If I go to my neighbour’s cell, or if he comes to mine, we are both frightened of unsuitable conversation, which may harm our monastic purpose.” And the old man said to him: “You are right. Young men need to be on their guard.” Abba Ammon said to him: “What about old men?” And Abba Poemen said to him: “Old men who make progress, and are stable, do not find these unsuitable words in their mouths and so they do not say them.” And Abba Ammon said: “If I need to talk with my neighbour, do you think I should talk to him about the Scriptures, or about the sayings and judgements of the elders?” And the old man said to him: “If you cannot keep silence, it is much better to talk about the sayings of the elders than about the Scriptures. For the danger is no small one.”

Abba Poemen was asked about pollutions. He replied: “If we strengthen our moral life and make earnest efforts, we shall not find pollutions in ourselves.”

They used to say of Abba Poemen that when he was soon to go out for the divine office, he first sat by himself for an hour in self-examination, and then went out.

Abba Poemen said that a man asked Abba Paysio this question: “What am I to do to my soul? It has become incapable of feeling and does not fear God.” And he said to him: “Go, and put yourself under a man who does fear God: and when you live with him, you will learn to fear God also.”

He also said: “The beginning and the end is the fear of the Lord. For thus it is written, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’: and, when Abraham built an altar the Lord said to him: ‘Now I know that thou fearest God.’”⁴

24A. He also said: “If a man makes a new heaven and a new earth, he still cannot be safe from temptation.”

He also said: “Depart from any man who is always scornful in his conversation.”

He also said: “I once asked Abba Peter, the disciple of Abba Lot: ‘When I am in my cell, my soul is at peace. But if some brother arrives and tells me what is being said outside, my soul is troubled?’ And Abba Peter told me that Abba Lot said: ‘Your key has opened my door.’

And I said: ‘What does that mean?’ And he said: ‘If someone comes to visit you, you ask him: How are you? Where do you come from? How are such-and-such brothers faring, did they receive you or not? Then you are opening the door for your brother to talk, and you hear words which you do not want to hear.’ And I said to him: ‘That is so. But what shall a man do otherwise, when a brother visits him?’ And the old man said: ‘True teaching is always in sorrow. Where sorrow is not, you cannot keep a watch on the mind.’

And I said to him: ‘When I am in my cell, sorrow is with me. But when anyone visits me, or when I go out of my cell, I am sorrowful no longer.’ And the old man said: ‘You are not yet stable in sorrow, you use it as a transitory and expedient feeling.’ And I said: ‘What does that mean?’ And he said to me: ‘If a man labours for something as vigorously as he can, he finds it ready to hand whenever he needs it for his spiritual profit.’”

A brother asked Abba Sisois: “I long to guard my heart.” The old man said to him: “And how can we guard the heart if our tongue leaves the door of the fortress open?”

Abba Silvanus was once living on Mount Sinai. His disciple, who was about to go off on some necessary task, said to the old man: “Bring water, and water the garden.” The old man went to draw water: and he covered his face with his cowl, so that he could see only his feet. By chance a visitor arrived to see him at that moment: and looking at him from a distance, marvelled at the sight. And he went up to him and said: “Tell me, Abba, why did you cover your face with your hood, and so water the garden?” And the old man said to him: “So that my eyes should not see the trees, and my mind should not be disturbed from its work by the sight.”

Abba Moses asked Abba Silvanus: “Can a man live every day as though it were the first day of his religious life?” Abba Silvanus answered: “If a man is a labourer, he can live every day, nay every hour, as though it were the first day or hour of his religious life.”

Some brothers once asked Abba Silvanus: “What way of life did you practise to be endowed with such prudence?” And he answered: “I never let any embittering thought remain in my heart.”

Abba Serapion said: “The imperial guards while on duty in the emperor’s presence must keep their eyes to the front and not turn their heads to one side or the other. And the monk, in God’s presence, must keep his attention all the time upon the fear of God and so none of the enemy’s wickednesses can affright him.”

31A. Saint Syncletice said: “My sons, we all know the way to be saved, and fail to travel it because we do not care.”

Saint Syncletice said: “Let us live soberly. For through our bodily senses, willy-nilly, robbers come in. The inside of the house is sure to be blackened when the smoke that is climbing up the outer walls finds the windows open.”

She also said: “We ought to be armed at all points against the demons. They come at us from outside; and are invited by the inner man if the soul is weak. Sometimes a ship is crushed by the battering of heavy seas; sometimes it is sunk because the bilge water steadily rises within. And in the same way we are sometimes condemned because we have committed wicked acts, and sometimes because the inner thoughts are evil. So we must watch for the assaults of unclean spirits, and cleanse the thoughts of the heart.”

She also said: “We have no security in this world. The Apostle said: ‘Let him that standeth, take heed lest he fall.’⁵ We are sailing on uncharted seas; as the Psalmist David said: ‘Our life is like a sea.’ Yet some seas have dangerous reefs, some are full of sharks, some seas are calm. We seem to be sailing in calm waters, while men of the world are sailing in rough weather. And we are sailing in daylight, led by the Sun of righteousness, while they are being driven along in the night time—the night of ignorance. Yet it often happens that worldly men, sailing in darkness and through storms, are so afraid of the danger that they save the ship, by calling upon God and by watchfulness: while we, in our calm waters, become negligent, get off the proper course of righteousness, and are sunk.”

Abba Hyperichius said: “Let your mind be ever upon the kingdom of heaven, and you will soon win its inheritance.”

He also said: “The life of a monk should be like that of the angels, in burning up sin.”

Abba Orsisius said: “I think that unless a man has a good watch on his heart, he will become forgetful and careless in his conversation. And so the enemy gets a footing in him and overthrows him. A lamp will give light if it has oil and a trimmed wick. But if the oil is forgotten, it goes slowly out and little by little the shadows creep in upon it. If a mouse comes to it and tries to eat the wick before it is quite out, it is thwarted by the heat of the dying flame. But when it sees that the light is gone and the wick is cool, it knocks the lamp to the floor. If the lamp is earthenware, it is smashed, if it is brass, it is reparable.

If the soul is negligent, the Holy Spirit goes from it little by little, until it has grown quite cold: and then the enemy devours the soul’s purpose, and wickedness puts an end to it. If a man through his Godward affection is a good man and has merely been caught in temporary negligence, the merciful God stirs the mind to remember the punishment waiting for sinners in the next life; and henceforth the mind takes trouble to be earnest and watches itself carefully, until the time of its visitation.”

An old man visited another old man. In their conversation one said: “I am dead to the world.” And the other said: “Do not be self-confident until you die. You may say about yourself that you are dead: but Satan is not dead.”

An old man said: “A monk ought every day to examine himself morning and evening, how far he has kept the Lord’s will. He ought to be leading a penitential life all his days. That was the way Abba Arsenius lived.”

An old man said: “If you lose gold or silver, you can find something as good as you lost. But the man who loses time can never make up what he has lost.”

An old man said: “Before soldiers or hunters start on expeditions, they do not consider whether some will be wounded and others unhurt. Each one fights for himself alone. That is how the monk should be.”

An old man said: “No one can harm the man at the emperor’s side: and Satan cannot harm us if our souls are fixed upon God: as it is written, ‘Draw nigh to me, and I shall draw nigh unto you.’⁶ But because we are so often puffed up with pride, it is easy for the enemy to snatch away our wretched soul to carnal passion and its ignominy.”

42A. An old man said: “A man must work so that his work does not perish. However much he does, it is no use if it is impermanent. It is work that is little and lasting which shall stand.”

42B. An old man said: “Sometimes I do a great work, sometimes a little. And I have regard to the results in my thoughts and deeds.”

42C. An old man said: “Waking or sleeping, whatever you do, you will not fear the devil if God be before your eyes. Even if temptation stays with a man, so does God’s power stay with him.”

42D. An old man said: “When you wake in the morning, tell yourself this: ‘Work, my body, for your food. Be earnest, my soul, to win your inheritance.’”

A brother said to an old man: “I see no battle in my heart.” And the old man said: “You are like double doors: anyone who likes can go inside, and come out again when he likes, and you are unaware of what is happening. If you had a door and shut it, you would not let wicked thoughts come in, and then you would see them standing outside the door and fighting against you.”

They said of an old man that his thoughts suggested to him: “Let be today; tomorrow you shall do penance.” And he contradicted them thus: “No, I do penance today, and tomorrow the Lord’s will be done.”

An old man said: “Unless the inner man live soberly, the outer man is uncontrollable.”

An old man said: “Satan has three powers, which lead to all the sins. The first is forgetfulness, the second negligence, the third concupiscence. If forgetfulness comes, it begets negligence: negligence is the mother of concupiscence: and by concupiscence a man falls. If the mind is serious, it repels forgetfulness, negligence does not come, concupiscence finds no entry—and so with help from Christ’s grace, he shall never fall.”

An old man said: “Take care to be silent. Empty the mind. Attend to your meditation, in the fear of God, whether you are resting in bed or at work. If you do this, you will not fear the assaults of demons.”

An old man said to a brother: “The devil is like a hostile neighbour and you are like a house. The enemy continually throws into you all the dirt that he can find. It is your business not to neglect to throw out whatever he throws in. If you neglect to do this, your house will be so full of mud that you will not be able to walk inside. From the moment he begins to throw, put it out again, bit by bit: and so by Christ’s grace your house shall remain clean.”

An old man said: “When the donkey’s eyes are covered, it walks round the mill-wheel. If you uncover its eyes, it will not go on walking in the circle. And if the devil succeeds in covering a man’s eyes, he lowers him into every kind of sin. But if man’s eyes are uncovered, he can more easily escape.”

The old men used to say that on the mountain of Abba Antony, seven monks took turns at the time of the grape harvest to drive away the birds from the fruit. One old man among them, on the day when it was his turn to guard the grapes, used to shout: “Go away—ill thoughts within, birds without.”

A brother collected palm-leaves in his cell. And as soon as he sat down to plait them, his mind suggested to him that he should go visit one of the old men. He meditated on it, and said: “I will go in a few days.” And then his mind suggested: “Suppose he dies during the next few days, what will you do?” “I will go now and talk with him, because it is summer time.” And again he thought: “No, it is not the proper time yet.” Then he said: “It will be time when you have cut the reeds for the mats.” And he said: “I will spread out these palm-leaves and then go.” Then he said: “But today it is fine weather.”

So he rose, left his pile of palms, took his cloak, and went out. But nearby was another old man, a man of prophetic vision. When he saw the brother hurrying out, he called to him: “Prisoner, prisoner, where are you running to? Come here to me.” He came: and the old man said to him: “Go back to your cell.” The brother described to him the ups and downs and indecisions of his mind, and then went back to his cell. And as soon as he entered it, he fell down and did penance. And suddenly the demons shrieked aloud: “You have conquered us, monk, you have conquered us.” And the mat on which he lay was singed as though by fire, and the demons vanished away like smoke; and so the brother learnt their wiles.

They told a story of an old man who was dying in Scete. The brothers stood round his bed, and clothed him, and began to weep. But he opened his eyes and began to laugh; it happened three times. So the brothers asked him: “Tell us, Abba, why do you laugh at our weeping?” And he told them: “I laughed the first time because you fear death; I laughed the second time because you are not ready for death; I laughed the third time, because I am passing from labour to rest, and yet you weep.” And so saying, he closed his eyes and died.

A brother who was living in his cell once came to one of the fathers and said that he was grievously troubled by his thoughts. And the old man said: “You have thrown on the ground a mighty weapon, which is the fear of God, and taken in your hand a stick made of reeds, which is wicked thoughts. You must take to yourself the fire which is the fear of God. And when the wicked thought approaches you, the fear of God will destroy it as a fire burns reeds. Wickedness cannot overcome men who fear God.”

One of the fathers said: “Unless you first hate, you cannot love. Unless you hate sin, you cannot live righteously. As it is written: ‘Eschew evil and do good.’⁷ But mental purpose is needed for all this. Adam, though in Paradise, disobeyed God’s command: Job, living in a dung-hill, kept it. It seems that God requires from man a good purpose, the purpose of fearing him always.”

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