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Topic of the Week:

How to Start and End Each Day

“The 4th-century monk [Saint Anthony of Egypt] taught his disciples to keep eternity always in their minds, reflecting on it in the morning and at night.”

How to start and end each day, according to St. Anthony of Egypt

Adult/Family:

“One day, time will run out. Our eyes will not be able to look upon the holy icons or the life-creating mysteries of Christ, our ears will grow deaf to the beautiful chant of the Liturgy, our hands will not be able to make the sign of the cross anymore nor touch holy things, our tongue will not taste the body and blood of Christ, our lips will not kiss the saints. No, we will grow cold, and our muscles will contract, and we will stiffen, we will be laid in the casket with our faces covered before we are covered by the ground from which we came.

On that day, the Apostle Paul says, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” (5:10)

‘Prepare your heart for your departure,’ Saint Isaac says. ‘If you are wise, you will expect it every hour. Each day say to yourself, ‘See the messenger who comes to fetch me is already at the door. Why am I sitting idle? I must depart forever. I cannot come back again.’ Go to sleep with these thoughts every night, and reflect on them throughout the day. And when the time for departure comes, go joyfully to meet it, saying, ‘Come in peace. I knew you would come, and I have not neglected anything that could help me on the journey.” (Saint Isaac the Syrian, Homily 65)

Preschool/Elementary School:

Abba Moses asked Abba Silvanus, “Can a person make a fresh start each day?” Abba Silvanus said, “If he is diligent, a person can make a fresh start every day and every hour.” The Book of the Elders, Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Middle School:

“Conscience is a small God. Before going to bed, render a short account to yourself: how you spent the day, what you did, when you sinned, what should have been done. Be demanding towards yourself.” -Saint Gabriel of Georgia

High School:

The 4th-century monk taught his disciples to keep eternity always in their minds, reflecting on it in the morning and at night….

One spiritual discipline that he taught his monks was to begin and end each day with a reminder of their own mortality. This was meant to encourage them in the practice of virtue, as they didn’t know when they would die….

He instructed his monks to have eternity always present to their minds, and to reflect every morning that perhaps they might not live till night, and every evening that perhaps they might never see the morning; and to perform every action, as if it were the last of their lives, with all the fervor of their souls to please God.

This may be a sobering thought, but it does create a much greater sense of urgency in the life of virtue. Often we can be slothful… we might say to ourselves, “I will be better… tomorrow!” However, do we really know if we will live another day?…

The only time we have is the present moment and it is there that we can become a saint. Let us remember that and begin and end each day with that simple fact in mind.”

Excerpted from How to start and end each day, according to St. Anthony of Egypt