Select­ed Say­ings on ​“Dis­cre­tion”

Excerpt from The Desert Fathers

Hunter and Bow

A hunter hap­pened to come by and saw Antony talk­ing in a relaxed way with the broth­ers, and he was shocked. 

The her­mit want­ed to show him how we should some­times be less aus­tere for the sake of the broth­ers, and said to him, ​“Put an arrow in your bow, and draw it.”

He did so, and Antony said, ​“Draw it fur­ther,” and he drew it further. 

He said again, ​“Draw it yet fur­ther,” and he drew it some more. 

Then the hunter said to him, ​“If I draw it too far, the bow will snap.”

Antony answered, ​“So it is with God’s work. If we always go to excess, the broth­ers quick­ly become exhaust­ed. It is some­times best not to be rigid.” 

The hunter was ashamed when he heard this, and prof­it­ed much from it. The broth­ers were encour­aged and went home.

A Col­laps­ing House

Amma Syn­clet­i­ca said, ​“It is dan­ger­ous for a man to try teach­ing before he is trained in the good life. 

“A man whose house is about to fall down may invite trav­el­ers inside to refresh them, but instead they will be hurt in the col­lapse of the house. 

“It is the same with teach­ers who have not care­ful­ly trained them­selves in the good life; they destroy their hear­ers as well as them­selves. Their mouth invites to sal­va­tion, their way of life leads to ruin.”

Take Care of Both…

[Amma Syn­clet­i­ca] also said […] ​“Do you fast four or five days on end and then lose your spir­i­tu­al strength by eat­ing a feast? That real­ly pleas­es the devil! 

“Every­thing which is extreme is destruc­tive. So do not sud­den­ly throw away your armour, or you may be found unarmed in the bat­tle and eas­i­ly cap­tured. Our body is the armour, our soul is the war­rior. Take care of both, and you will be ready for what­ev­er comes.”

One thing to me, and the oppo­site to another

Poe­men once asked Joseph, ​“What am I to do when temp­ta­tions attack me? Do I resist them, or let them come in?” He said, ​“Let them come in and then fight them.” So he went back to his cell in Scetis. 

By chance, a man from the The­baid told the broth­ers in Scetis that he had asked Joseph the same ques­tion, ​“When temp­ta­tion comes, do I resist it, or do I let it in?” and that he had said to him, ​“On no account let it in, but cut it off at once.”

When Poe­men heard that Joseph had said this to the man from the The­baid, he went back to Joseph at Pane­ph­ysis and said to him, ​“Abba, I entrust­ed my thoughts to your care: and you said one thing to me, and the oppo­site to the monk from the Thebaid.”

Joseph said, ​“You know that I love you?” He answered, ​“Yes.” He said, ​“Didn’t you tell me to say what I thought as though I was talk­ing for my own good? If temp­ta­tions come, and you deal with them with­in your­self, they will strength­en you. I said this to you as I should say it to myself. But there are oth­er men for whom it is bad that pas­sions should enter, and they must cut them off at once.”

If You See Your Soul Being Harmed…

A broth­er asked Poe­men, ​“I am suf­fer­ing dam­age to my soul by being with my abba. What do you advise me to do? Should I con­tin­ue to stay with him?” Poe­men knew that his soul was being harmed by his abba, and he was sur­prised that he even asked whether he ought to stay with him. He said to him, ​“If you want to stay with him, do so.”

The broth­er went away and stayed with his abba. But he came a sec­ond time to Poe­men, and said, ​“My soul is very heavy.” But Poe­men did not say to him, ​“Leave your abba.”

He came a third time, and said, ​“Indeed, I can no longer stay with him.” Then Poe­men said, ​“Now you are saved, go, and stay with him no longer.” He went on, ​“If you see your soul being harmed by some­thing there is no need to ask what to do. What we should ask about rather is our secret thoughts, to get them test­ed by oth­ers. But there is no need to ask about obvi­ous sins; they must be cut off at once.”

Ene­mies

[Poe­men] also said, ​“Evil can­not dri­ve out evil. If any­one hurts you, do good to him and your good will destroy his evil.”

A Spoiled Well

[Poe­men] also said, ​“If a man preach­es but does not prac­tise what he preach­es, he is like a well of water where every­one can quench their thirst and wash off their dirt, but which can­not clean away the filth and dung that is around it.”

Unique­ly Alike

[Poe­men] also said, ​“Sup­pose there are three men liv­ing togeth­er. One lives a good life in still­ness, the sec­ond is ill but gives thanks to God, the third serves the needs of oth­ers with sin­cer­i­ty. These three men are alike, it is as if they were all doing the same work.”

False Peace and True Peace

A broth­er said to a great her­mit, ​“Abba, I want to find a monk who agrees with me and I’ll live and die with him.”

He said, ​“Your search is good, my Lord.”

The broth­er repeat­ed what he want­ed, not under­stand­ing the irony of the hermit. 

But when the her­mit saw that he real­ly thought this was a good idea, he said to him, ​“If you find a monk after your own heart, do you plan to live with him?”

The broth­er said, ​“Yes, of course I want this, if I can find one who agrees with me.”

Then the her­mit said to him, ​“You do not want to fol­low the will of any­one, you want to fol­low your own will, and that is why you will be at peace with him.”

Then the broth­er saw the sense of what he said, and pros­trat­ed him­self in pen­i­tence, say­ing, ​“For­give me. I was very proud of myself, I thought I was say­ing some­thing good, when in fact there was noth­ing good about it at all.”