Ten sayings of St Anthony the Great…

from the blog post at Ora et Labora: The Thirty-eight Sayings of St Anthony the Great

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers:

1. When the holy Abba Anthony lived in the desert he was beset by accidie, and attacked by many sinful thoughts. He said to God, “Lord, I wand to be saved but these thoughts do not leave me alone; what shall I do in my affliction? How can I be saved?” A short while afterwards, when he got up to go out, Anthony say a man like himself sitting at his work, getting up from his work to pray, then sitting down again and plaiting a rope, then getting up again to pray. It was an angel of the Lord sent to correct and reassure him. He heard the angel saying to him, “Do this and you will be saved.” At these words, Anthony was filled with joy and courage. He did this, and he was saved.

2. When the same Abba Anthony thought about the depth of the judgments of God, he asked, “Lord, how is it that some die when they are young, while others drag on to extreme old age? Why are there those who are poor and those who are rich? Why do wicked men proper and why are the just in need? He heard a voice answering him, “Anthony, keep your attention on yourself; these things are according to the judgment of God, and it is not to your advantage to known anything about them.”

3. Someone asked Abba Anthony, “What must one do in order to please God?” The old man replied, “Pay attention to what I tell you: whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes, whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not easily leave it. Keep these three precepts and you will be saved.”

4. Abba Anthony said to Abba Poemen, “This is the great work of man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath.

5. He also said, “Whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” He even added, “Without temptations no-one can be saved.”

6. Abba Pambo asked Abba Anthony, “What ought I to do?” and the old man said to him, “Do not trust in your own righteousness, do not worry about the past, but control your tongue and your stomach.”

7. Abba Anthony said, “I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning, “What can get through from such snares?” Then I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Humility.’”

8. He also said, “Some have afflicted their bodies by asceticism, but they lack discernment, and so they are far from God.”

9. He said also, “Our life and our death is with our neighbor. If we gain our brother, we have gained God, but if we scandalize our brother, we have sinned against Christ.”

10. He also said, “Just as fish die if they stay too long out of water, so the monks who loiter outside their cells or pass their time with men of the world lose the intensity of inner peace. SO like a fish going towards the sea, we must hurry to reach our cell, for fear that if we delay outside we will lost our interior watchfulness.”

also available at Biblicalia

The Apostle Philip baptized this black man…

An Icon of Saint Philip the Deacon with the Ethiopian Eunuch, by Ann Chapin (2008)

from the Prologue of Ohrid:

The Apostle Philip baptized this black man, a eunuch. Following his baptism the eunuch returned to his home and began to preach Christ. He was the first Apostle of Faith among the blacks in Ethiopia.

“Then the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, get up and head south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route. So he got up and set out. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, that is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury, who had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning home. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the Prophet Isaiah. The Spirit said to Philip, `Go and join up with the chariot.’ Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the Prophet and said, `Do you understand what you are reading?’ He replied, `How can I, unless someone instructs me?” So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him. This was the scripture passage he was reading: `Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will tell of his posterity? For his life is taken from earth.’ Then the eunuch said to Philip in reply, `I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this? About himself, or about someone else?’ Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this scripture passage, he proclaimed Jesus to him. As they traveled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, `Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized?’ Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and he baptized him. When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but continued on his way rejoicing. Philip came to Azotus, and went about preaching the good news to all the towns until he reached Caesarea” (Acts of the Apostles 8: 26-40).

The eunuch died a martyr and became worthy of the Kingdom of God.

Why does the Giver of life flee…

“An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, ‘Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.’” (Mt. 2:13).

Why does the Giver of life flee before mortal men?  Could God, the Lord of life and death, not have been able to command an angel to take the soul of King Herod, instead of commanding Joseph to flee from Herod right into Egypt?  Almighty God could have done this, but what would it have achieved?   Maybe it would have been more satisfying to our superficial human understanding, but it would have over set the most wise plan of our salvation.  How could the terrible distortion of human nature by sin upon sin have been demonstrated by the Gospel, and also the necessity of man’s salvation by God’s direct action been made clear, were God, that night, to have cut short Herod’s evil intentions by death?  How would the pit of sin in which mankind had fallen, estranged itself from the true God as its guide, have become evident to the spiritually blind, had it not happened that God Himself fled before men?

~Saint Nikolai of Zhicha: “Homily IV On the Nativity”