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.”
Submit yourself to your father
While he was sitting one day in Scetis, Abba Zacharias had a vision. He went to tell his father, Carion, about it. The old man, who was an ascetic, did not understand this matter. He got up and beat him soundly, saying that it came from the demons. But Zacharias went on thinking about it,… Read More ›
You have done well
It was said of Abba Zeno, that when he was living in Scetis, he came out of his cell by night, going in the direction of the marshes. He spent three days and three nights wandering at random. At last, tired out, his strength failing him, he fell down as though he were dying. Behold,… Read More ›
Struggle with the eight main passions: Gluttony
XI. For it is impossible for the fiery impulses of the body to be extinguished until the shoots of the other principle vices have themselves been cut off at the root… Whoever is unable to check the desire to gormandize (to eat gluttonously) will be incapable of curbing the urges of burning lust. The chastity… Read More ›
Struggle with the eight main passions: Fasting
V.1. … a uniform rule concerning the manner of fasting cannot easily be kept because not all bodies have the same strength, nor is it, like the other virtues, achieved by firmness of mind alone… 2. Nonetheless there is one end of abstinence in all these instances — that no one, according to the measure… Read More ›
On the Origin of Lent
Howbeit you should know that as long as the primitive church retained its perfection unbroken, this observance of Lent did not exist. For they were not bound by the requirements of this order, or by any legal enactments, nor confined in the very narrow limits of the fast, as the fast embraced equally the whole… Read More ›
Renouncing the World
A brother renounced the world and gave his goods to the poor, but he kept back a little for his personal expenses. He went to see Abba Anthony. When he told him this, the old man said to him, ‘If you want to be a monk, go into the village, buy some meat, cover your… Read More ›
Keep death before your eyes every hour
Therefore, brothers, let us strive with all our heart, bearing death before our eyes every hour, and every moment imagining the fearful punishment. But these things the mind comes to perception and the soul is weighed down weeping, but it is also made contemplative and prepared to be turned toward God, undistracted by earthly things…. Read More ›
We ought to weep, in order that we may persevere
Some Fathers went to Panephysis to see Abba Joseph and ask him what kind of reception they should give to the brethren to whom they gave lodging, whether they ought to mix with them and speak freely with them. Before they asked him, the old man said to his disciple, ‘Consider what I am going… Read More ›
Weep for the Sinner
A brother questioned Abba Poemen in this way, ‘My thoughts trouble me, making me put my sins aside, and concern myself with my brother’s faults.’ The old man told him the following story about Abba Dioscorus, ‘In his cell he wept over himself, while his disciple was sitting in another cell. When the latter came… Read More ›
Hold to the Cross as our sail
Abbess Syncletica said, ‘When you have to fast, do not pretend illness. For those who do not fast often fall into real sicknesses. If you have begun to act well, do not turn back through constraint of the enemy, for through your endurance, the enemy is destroyed. Those who put out to sea at first… Read More ›