Tag: Macarius
Because of Your Humility
As Abba Macarius was returning to his cell from the marsh carrying palm-leaves, the devil met him with a sharp sickle and would have struck him but he could not. He cried out, “Great is the violence I suffer from you, Macarius, for when I want to hurt you, I cannot. But whatever you do,… Read More ›
Souls that love truth and God
Souls that love truth and God, that long with much hope and faith to put on Christ completely, do not need so much to be put in remembrance by others, nor do they endure, even for a while, to be deprived of the heavenly desire and of passionate affection to the Lord; but being wholly… Read More ›
The Mark of Christianity
This is the mark of Christianity–however much a man toils, and however many righteousnesses he performs, to feel that he has done nothing, and in fasting to say, “This is not fasting,” and in praying, “This is not prayer,” and in perseverance at prayer, “I have shown no perseverance; I am only just beginning to… Read More ›
Who Cares for All Creation
When Abba Macarius was speaking openly to the brothers, he said: One time when I was in the wadi gathering palm branches, an antelope came up to me, tearing out its fur, weeping as though it were a he-goat, its tears flowing to the ground. It threw itself down on top of my feet and… Read More ›
Good and Evil
One day Abba Macarius the Egyptian went up from Scetis to the mountain of Nitria. As he approached the place he told his disciple to go on ahead. When the latter had gone on ahead, he met a priest of the pagans. The brother shouted after him, saying, ‘Oh, oh, devil, where are you off… Read More ›
Pursue Hospitality in Every Way
All guests who arrive should be received as Christ, for he himself will say, I was a stranger and you took me in. Proper respect should be shown to all, especially fellow monks and pilgrims. (RB 53: 1-2) Pursuing hospitality in every way, and do not turn your eye away or send the poor man… Read More ›
No one knew about it
Abba Peter said this about the holy Macarius: One day he came to the cell of an anchorite who happened to be ill, and asked him if he would take something to eat, though the cell was stripped bare. When the other replied, “Some sherbet,” that courageous man did not hesitate, but went as far… Read More ›
Keeping the Commandments
If a man does not possess great humility in his heart and in his body and does not use moderation in all things and submit to reproval and constrain himself in everything and keep his death before him day after day and renunciation of the material world and renunciation of all fleshly things, he cannot… Read More ›
Macarius on Humility
Abba Macarius told this tale about himself, “When I was a young man in my cell in Egypt, they took me and made me the cleric for the village. But I didn’t want that and fled to another neighborhood. There I was joined by a devout secular who shared with me the labor of the… Read More ›