Desert Wisdom 
Collection of the Wisdom of the Desert Fathers. St.Benedict pointed to the the writings of the early Desert Fathers, specifically mentioning the St. Basil and John Cassian (RB 73:5) as sources for “further perfection.”
As you labour with your body, so you must labour with your mind
If you pray with your lips but your mind wanders, how do you benefit? ‘When one buildeth, and another pulleth down, what profit have they then but labour?’ As you labour with your body, so you must labour with your intellect, lest you appear righteous in the body while your heart is filled with every… Read More ›
We are like children learning to walk
Until we have acquired genuine prayer, we are like people teaching children to begin to walk. Try to lift up, or rather, to enclose your thought within the words or your prayer, and if in its infant state it wearies and falls, lift it up again. …If you constantly train your mind never to wander,… Read More ›
We are dependent on the grace of God
The roof of any house stands upon the foundations and the rest of the structure. The foundations themselves are laid in order to carry the roof. This is both useful and necessary, for the roof cannot stand without the foundations and the foundations are absolutely useless without the roof – no help to any living… Read More ›
We were created for Eternal Life
We were created for eternal life by our Creator, we are called to it by the word of God, and we are renewed by holy Baptism. And Christ the Son of God came into the world for this, that He should call us and take us there, and He is the one thing needful. For… Read More ›
The Power of Faith
Now it happened one year that the Nile did not rise enough to water all our fields, and a multitude of the poor came to Abba Aaron weeping and saying, “Our holy father, we and our children are going to die because the waters have not risen!” He said to them,”Believe in God and He… Read More ›
Attain Perfection in Your Profession
Therefore it is beneficial and proper for each person, in accordance with the orientation that he has chosen and the grace that he has received, to strive most zealously and diligently to attain to perfection in the work that be has undertaken. He may praise and admire the virtues of others, but he should never… Read More ›
What is humility?
Humility is to look on oneself as dust and ashes. The humble says, “Who am I? And who considers me to be anything? Who am I to deal with people for I am powerless?” He does not say, “What” or “What is this?” but walks submissively in his ways, never deeming himself equal to others. And… Read More ›
On Humility
After praying that God would take away his passions that he might become free from care, Abba John the Dwarf went and told an old man; ‘I find myself in peace, without an enemy,’ he said. The old man said to him, ‘Go beseech God to stir up warfare so that you may regain the affliction and… Read More ›
That for which I was sent is accomplished
Moses, the Libyan, was a very gentle and exceedingly lovable man who was accounted worthy of the gift of healing. He told me: When I was a youth in the monastery, we dug a large cistern twenty feet across. Eighty of us had been digging away there for three days and we had gone about a cubit farther than… Read More ›
Truly, this is the way of love
A brother once went out on a pilgrimage from the monastery of Abba Poemen, and came to a hermit, who lived in love towards all and received many visitors. The brother told the hermit stories of Abba Poemen. And when he heard of Poemen’s strength of character, he longed to see him. The brother returned to Egypt. And… Read More ›