A monk came to Abba Sisoes and said:
“What should I do, Abba, for I have fallen from grace?”
And he replied, Get up again.”
The monk came back shortly after and said:
“What shall I do now, for I have fallen again?”
And the old man said to him,
“Just get up again. Never cease getting back up again!”
– Sayings of the Elders
We fall – into sin, fear, sorrow, despair…. We can all name the many places and ways in which we have fallen. Sometimes we fall through our own doing, other times through the actions or words of another, and still other times simply by the changes and chances of life. For most of us the real question is not whether we will fall but whether we will get up again. The spiritual journey is one of continually getting back up again.
Interrupting the Silence 
Sadly my knees are more bruised from falling than from prayer . . Lord have mercy
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Yes, “Lord have mercy.” That is our prayer in our falling and in our getting up again. Peace be with you.
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Once we get beyond the aura of “mystical” glamor, the teachings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers are almost pedestrian in their common sense. Almost.
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Their “pedestrian” common sense reminds me that the teachings of the mystics and desert mothers and fathers is not a means of escaping the world, but the means to truly engage the world. Sometimes I would prefer to escape! Peace be with you Joe.
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Get up, get up! Good words for the New Year (or end of the year, too). I go to the abba or amma and ask “for a word,” and here I find it.
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I am glad you found a word. Seems the words of the desert mothers and fathers speak truth in every age and place. Peace.
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