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As much as I love the Sayings of the Desert Fathers that are clear and easy to understand, I have a special place in my heart for the ones that are more ambiguous. We looked at one such Saying the other week, where Abba Arsenius was complaining of the distractions of nature. That story was … Continue reading A Closed Door Policy: A Reflection on Abba Sisoes 24

As we’ve seen throughout this series so far, many of the Desert Fathers rose to an odd kind of fame during their lifetimes. Committed as they were to lives of humility, they nonetheless gained big reputations and were sought out by everyday citizens and follow monks alike. There’s clearly a conflict here, and it’s one … Continue reading Reputation and Reality: A Reflection on Abba Silvanus 10

As we’ve already seen in the past week or so, one of the ways Desert spirituality differs most from that common today is in how it relates to the idea of sin. Whereas our culture, still hungover from a centuries-long obsession with sinfulness and hell-fire, treats the idea of sin with a lot of disdain … Continue reading The Light Burden: A Reflection on Ephesians 2.1-10 and Abba John the Dwarf 21

As someone who grew up in the optimistic days of the 1990s, one of the things, among the many, that is surprising and disappointing to me about where we are at as the first quarter of the twenty-first century draws to a close is the lack of what was once considered basic human decency. There’s … Continue reading On Soft-heartedness: A Reflection on Amma Syncletica 11

As we’ve seen, the Desert Fathers were mostly concerned with very practical matters. The Sayings recorded and passed on to posterity are not about doctrine — in fact, many of them would find themselves on opposite sides of the ancient schisms that divided the Eastern Churches, yet we see no indication of that from these … Continue reading On Real Virtue: A Reflection on Abba Isidore of Pelusia 4