Jesus got up early, while it was still very dark, and left the security of the house to go to this deserted place, this wilderness place. My guess is that nobody wants to go to that place and yet we’ve all been there. I wonder what your deserted place is today. What parts of your life are dry, barren, empty, and desolate?
Category: Desert Spirituality
Lent with the Desert Fathers: Fasting From Words
A Word from the Desert Abba Macarius the Great said to the brothers at Scetis, when he dismissed the assembly, 'Flee, my brothers.' One of the old men asked him, ‘Where could we flee to beyond the desert?' He put…
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Lent with the Desert Fathers: Detaching From Another’s Scorn or Praise
A Word from the Desert "A brother came to see Abba Macarius the Egyptian, and said to him, ‘Abba, give me a word, that I may be saved.’ So the old man said, ‘Go to the cemetery and abuse [insult]…
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Lent with the Desert Fathers: Is it Yours?
A Word From the Desert "The same Abba Agathon was walking with his disciples. One of them, finding a small green pea on the road, said to the old man, ‘Father, may I take it?’ The old man, looking at…
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Lent with the Desert Fathers: Detachment and Simplicity
A Word From the Desert Abba Zosimos said, “In time, through neglect, we lose even the little fervor that we suppose we have in our ascetic renunciation. We become attached to useless, insignificant, and entirely worthless matters, substituting these for the…
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Lent with the Desert Fathers: How Should One Fast?
A Word from the Desert “Abba Joseph asked Abba Poeman: ‘How should one fast?’ And Abba Poeman said: ‘For my part I think it is better that one should eat every day, but only a little, so as not to…
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Lent with the Desert Fathers: A Series on Fasting and Simplicity
Each Friday through Lent I will be posting about a particular aspect of the practices of fasting and simplicity as seen through the lens of the desert tradition. The posts will include a saying from the desert fathers, a reflection…
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Clothes Really Do Make the Man, and the Woman
"The Lord clothes his chosen souls in the garments of the ineffable light of his kingdom, the garments of faith, hope, love, joy, and peace, the garments of goodness and kindness and all comparable things. They are the divine garments…
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A Spiritual Pilgrimage
You need a spiritual pilgrimage. Begin by closing your mouth. - The Sayings of the Egyptian Fathers (Quoted by John McGuckin in The Mystical Book of Chapters, 47).
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Judging and Sentencing
One day, Abba Isaac the Theban went to a monastic community and he saw a brother doing wrong, and he condemned him. As he returned to the desert, an angel of the Lord came and stood in front of the door…
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Interrupting the Silence 