Abba Antony said “Whatever you find in your heart to do in following God, that do, and remain within yourself in Him.”1
“Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.”2 Abba Moses knew the cell was essential for the ascetic life of the monk. There must be a specific place for encountering God and one’s self. But the “place” was not an end in itself. Abba Ammonas said, “A man may remain for a hundred years in his cell without learning how to live in the cell.”3 There was also the “sitting.” The enclosure of the cell and remaining in the company of God within the cell are partners that make ascetic life possible.
“Abba Andrew said, ‘These three things are fitting for the monk: exile, poverty and endurance in silence.”‘4 The place for anachoresis is the cell, but as Abba Antony exhorted, patience makes remaining”…. within yourself in Him” possible. It is the “time” of the ascetic life. 5
A brother asked an old man, “What shall I do, father, for I am not acting at all like a monk, but I eat, drink, and sleep carelessly; and I have evil thoughts and I am in great trouble, passing from one work to another and from one thought to another?” The old man said, “Sit in your cell and do the little you can untroubled. For I think the little you can do now is of equal value to the great deeds which Abba Antony accomplished on the mountain, and I believe that by remaining sitting in your cell for the name of God, and guarding your conscience, you also will find the place where Antony is.”6
The time in the cell was always related to the reason for being in the cell. The monk’s path was a way directed toward seeking God and it was a lifelong journey. Although all monks were walking this same path there was no single method or body of teaching leading to the destination. Walking the path was always a personal journey, even though it was in the company of others. The ammas and abbas could share their wisdom gained from life experience, but each monk must persist in his or her personal spiritual work. When a brother asked Abba Antony to pray for him, the abba replied, “I will have no mercy on you and neither will God have any, if you yourself do not make an effort and if you do not pray to God.”7
To modern ears this may sound harsh. But Antony reminds his brother that he must rely not on the merits or experience of others. The Christian’s path to transformation requires personal collaboration with the Spirit. Abba Agathon said: “Prayer is hard work and a great struggle to one’s last breath.”8
Yet “the great struggle;’ like the cell, was not an end in itself. The movement was always toward God and love of neighbor. The “hard work” developed single-minded intent, rather than self-effacing inflexibility. A monk was not only to be patient, but patient with his- or herself.
It was said of Antony that one day he was relaxing with the brothers outside the cell when a hunter came by and rebuked him. Antony said, “Bend your bow and shoot an arrow,” and he did so. “Bend it again and shoot another,” and he did-and again and again. The hunter said, “Father, if I keep my bow always stretched it will break.” “And so it is with the monk,” replied Antony; “if we push ourselves beyond measure we will break; it is right for us from time to time to relax our efforts.”9
The turning of one’s heart and will to God did not take place in one sector of life; it was and is a way of life. It was not an enhancement of life; it was the gradual movement toward authentic human life, itself. Although many people came to visit the ammas and abbas out of curiosity, their monastic life was not a” fad.” The desert was not a spiritual” theme park.” These men and women were not offering a “quick fix” or a prescription to be applied by others.
They did not have a systematic way; they had the hard work and experience of a lifetime of striving to re-direct every aspect of body, mind, and soul to God, and that is what they talked about. That, also, is what they meant by prayer: prayer was not an activity undertaken for a few hours each day, it was a life continually turned toward God.10
The patience and persistence of desert ascetic life was hard work, but not gloomy. It was empowered by God’s love and vision for each person. The dedication and guarding of time in the cell produced a new vision of life, God’s vision. Roberta Bondi, in a beautifully pastoral reflection on the desert tradition, writes:
The love of the monastics was also extravagantly patient and extravagantly hopeful, based as it was on the patience and hope of God. . ..Whatever happened, (they) knew that (they), and all people, live out of and in the love of God.11
And, as the Syrian monk Pseudo-Macarius knew from his years of patient experience in the desert:
As near as the body is to the soul…. so much nearer is God present, to come and open the locked doors of our heart and to fill us with heavenly riches. (God’s) promises cannot deceive, provided we only persevere to the end. Glory be to the compassionate mercies of (God) forever! Amen.12
There is encouragement here for our busy lives and those parts of our society that seem hopelessly polarized. If we can develop patience in our relationship with God then we will learn to value patience in our relationships with other people. It will affect how we listen to each other and how we resolve conflicts. Persistence in our personal prayer helps us to be present to God and await God’s movement in our lives. This same stature of waiting will help us become more present to the persons we encounter each day, especially in times of pain and misunderstanding. Patience is the virtue that makes civility and mutual love possible.
~David G.R. Keller, Oasis of Wisdom: The Worlds of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
1. The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers, trans. Benedicta Ward, S.L.G. (Fairacres: SLG Press, 1975) xviii.
2. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, trans. Benedicta Ward, S.L.G. (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1984) Moses 6, 139.
3. Ibid., Ammonas, 96, 180.
4. Ibid., Andrew 1, 37.
5. Stelios Ramfos, Like a Pelican in the Wilderness (Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Monastery Press, 2000). See discussion on 42.
6. Ward, Wisdom, 23.
7. Ward. Sayings, Antony 16, 4.
8. Ward. Wisdom, xii.
9. Ibid., xv.
10. Ibid., xii.
11. Roberta C. Bondi, To Love as God Loves (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987) 108-9.
12. Intoxicated with God: The Fifty Spiritual Sermons of Marcarius, trans. George C. Maloney, S.J. (Denville: Dimension Books, 1978) homily 11, 82.
