Madness And Civilization I

The Sayings Of The Desert Fathers

Cistercian Publications

1975

"A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying, 'You are mad, you are not like us.'" (Abba Anthony)

Anthony the Great

1. Accidie

This is the question:

What must I do to be saved?

When Saint Anthony

experienced accidie

he asked it courageously. 

2. Attention

This is a question:

Why are there both rich and poor?

When Saint Anthony

received his answer to it,

he did not ask any more.

3. Ground

Have the grounding ground

under your feet at all times, 

live the sacred texts,

and do not easily leave

your heuristic hermitage.

4. Work

This is the great work:

take the blame for your faults and

expect temptation

to be your dark passenger

until the end of your days. 

5. Temptation

Experiencing

temptation in this life is

the sine qua non

of heavenly membership.

You can't have it without it. 

6. Control
Abba Pambo asked

the great Abba Anthony:

"What ought I to do?"

His three-fold answer ended

with emphasis on control. 

7. Humility

"Humility" was

the answer that a voice gave

to Anthony when

he (groaning) asked how to get

through all the enemy's snares. 

8. Discernment

Asceticism

without discernment keeps one

far away from God.

Somatic affliction is

only part of the process. 

9. Community

Gaining a brother

is the same as gaining God.

Sometimes hermitic

life can be meaningless if

cut off from community.

10. Intensity

The intensity

of hermitic life is lost

once solitary

being is slowly replaced

with secular loitering.

11. Desert

Hearing, speech, and sight

are the three conflicts that one

can simply avoid

by living in the desert

of their own isolation. 

12. Hermeneutics

Only Anthony

the Great could create something

from the nothingness

of their demonic visions. 

He knew his hermeneutics.

13. Brethren

The brethren will stretch

but not break only if their

own personal needs

are met by an elder who

is both older and wiser. 

14. Amends

We are not told what

sin the young monk committed

that caused him to weep. 

Sometimes God only gives us 

five days to make our amends. 

15. Better

Is it better to 

be thoroughly insulted

or sincerely praised?

If you are an empty cell,

then better does not matter. 

16. Hyperbole

What is great about

Saint Anthony is his use

of hyperbole. 

Of course he prays for the monk,

he just does it differently. 

17. Ignorance

It is not without

significance that Abba

Joseph did not know. 

Those so named have found the way

through semantic ignorance. 

18. Door

If you lack a door

then you do not have a cell

to be silent in. 

And if you have a door make

sure that it is always closed. 

19. Invalids

"We cannot do this

and we cannot do that" is

said by invalids. 

Invalidity of this

kind requires food and prayer.

20. Renunciation

To reject the world

requires a radical

renunciation. 

Pulling this off is next to

impossible, but worth it. 

21. Authority

Abba Anthony

sent the tempted monastic
back from where he came. 
Those monks who had cast him out
received him with guilt and shame. 

22. Movements

The natural and
gluttonous and demonic
movements must be known. 
They each affect us toward
bodily sin and evil. 

23. Weakness

If men were weak when

Saint Anthony was alive,

how weak are we now?

This question should humble us

and cause us to seek His grace. 

24. Equality

There was an urban

doctor who gave to the poor

and sang the Sanctus.

Even the Angels agreed

he was Anthony's equal. 

25. Sanity

The time is upon

us when the mad men think we

are out of our minds.

To protect our sanity

we enter cells and lock doors. 

26. Moses

Abba Anthony

went out into the desert

to talk with Moses.

He knew that the primary

of all sources would teach him. 

27. Enough

"It is enough for

me to see you, Father" said

the silent Father. 

This text allows us to see

how silence answers questions. 

Of Whom The World Was Not Worthy

The Wisdom Of The Desert
Thomas Merton
New Directions
1970

“Of whom the world was not worthy: wandering in deserts, in mountains and in dens and in caves of the earth.” 

(Hebrews 11:38) 

I.
What should he do now?
Don't place any confidence
in private virtue.
He must control his hunger,
and he must control his tongue.

II.
Sit in submission.
Live as clean as possible.
Always be thankful.
These are the ways to practice
the silent presence of God.

III.
Keeping his heart safe
can be done by faithfully
listening to it.
It alone knows what is best.
Only then can he do good.

IV.
There are more than three
wise men found in the Bible.
Noah, Job, Daniel
can be added to the list
of those who knew to adore.

V.

Hating vanity

and a very easy life:

the sine qua non

of freedom from distracting

communitarian strife. 

VI.

If Abbot Pambo

is right, then he won't even

begin to begin

at the beginning during

this life of obedience.

VII.

Brother to Elder:

"How is the fear of God gained?"

Elder to Brother:

"It is gained through poverty,

humility, and mercy."

VIII.

Hermit to Hermit:

"Be careful not to water

any vegetables."

The young cenobites could not

outwit these wise old serpents. 

IX.

This is the monk's work:

love the Lord and hate evil.

This is how it's done:

obeying, meditating,

and walking with Enoch's God. 

X.

He does not argue.

“You know what you are saying”

is the end of it. 

And if someone speaks the truth,

he simply lets his Yes be.

XI.

Determination

diminishes once his own

cell is abandoned. 

The no-longer-I reminds

him to remain where he is. 

XII.

First he must flee men,

then he can be led toward

his own salvation.

This penultimate step is

the rooting of not sinning. 

XIII.

If he asked Father

Moses of old for a good

word, would he tell him

to sit within his cell like

Abbot Moses in Scete?

XIV.

How does the elder

know that the laughter he hears

is not an answer

in the presence of the Lord

of the heavens and the earth?

XV.

If he thinks his tongue

is a stone within his mouth,

then he can carry

it easier than Abbot 

Agatho did for three years. 

XVI.

It is not anger

that is the matter with him,

but rather whether

it ever gets to his lips. 

Silence keeps demons afraid. 

XVII.

It was much better

for the brother not to sell

the book he stole from

Abbot Anastasius.

He returned then retained it.

XVIII.

If you lose yourself

through your anger while trying

to correct someone,

you only gratify your

own passionate ambition. 

XIX.

At least eating red

flesh and drinking fresh red wine

is not as bad as

devouring your brother

by detracting his person. 

XX.

It’s better to have 

a cellar cave in on you,

than participate 

in acts that violate your 

level of maturity.  

XXI.

The difference between 

a monk and a perfect one 

can be summed up thus: 

“...you would not even have looked 

...to see that we were women.” 

XXII.

The brother showed him

his lacerated body

that the dogs and birds

were both responsible for.

With devils its even worse. 

XXIII.

Abbot Macarius

spoke to Abbot Theodore

about the one thing

that is needful to truly

profit from his three good books. 

XXIV.

To pray for fourteen

years without ceasing to rid

oneself of anger

is to apply Ephesians
chapter four verse twenty six. 

XXV.

The most manual

monks are those intimately

tried by temptations.

The measure of their manner

is measured by their manners. 

XXVI.

Patiently knowing

one's working limitations

is the hidden key

to getting anywhere in

our own virtuous labours. 

XXVII.

Like a transplanted

tree that does not bear its fruit,

so is the moving

monk who does not remain still. 
He can never be planted. 

XXVIII.

Solitude is both

the furnace of Babylon

for those seeking God,

and an ancient pillar of

cloud for those God is seeking. 

XXIX.

The only response

to those who are traders in

words, and to those who

seek to glory in the words

of another, is silence.

XXX.

Once you put into

practice the things that you write

about, then further

hand waving with words is no

longer a necessity. 

XXXI.
Abbot Moses once

tried fooling a follower

into believing

that he was a heretic

in order to avoid him. 

XXXII.

There is gluttony
of the flesh and of the soul.

To overcome both

one must fast, but in two ways:

avoid food and avoid fools. 

XXXIII.
Martha embodied
Paul's pragmatic principle

"If any man will

not work, neither let him eat."
She's Mary's sine qua non:

there's no "best part" without her. 

XXXIV.

Serapion sold

his copy of the Gospels

and gave the money

to the poor because the book

told him to sell and to give. 

XXXV.
To pray "O God, we
worked hard for the food we eat,

so, thanks for nothing,"
is simply another way 

to pray like Abbot Sisois. 

XXXVI.
To attribute all

things, both good and evil, to

the dispensation

of God's wisdom is the way

that one turns the other cheek.

XXXVII.

"There once was a great

hermit in the mountains" is

all you need to know. 

Being touched by Poeman's words

is the basis for greatness. 

XXXVIII.

To pass through the gate

requires rejecting the

turn to the subject.

This makes you realize that no

one ever gets insulted. 

XXXIX.

Once upon a time

in the valley of the cells

a monk spoke vainly.

It is better to use salt

than it is to speak of it. 

XL.

Those who sin remain

within the monastery

of necessity.

Abbot Bessarion taught

as much when he walked away. 

XLI.

He carries on his 
back a basket full of holes

that sand falls out of. 

What is the basket, what are

the holes, and what is the sand?

XLII.
What do we do when
we lose our nerve when sitting
alone in our cells?

If we don't despise, condemn, 
nor rebuke, then God gives peace. 

XLIII.

He who said that "Thou

shall not fornicate" also

said "Thou shalt not judge."

Bourgeois hermits must show more

compassion toward themselves. 

XLIV.

Abbot Ammonas

said: "Sit in your cell and eat

a little each day."

In this way we ask the Lord

to be merciful to us. 

XLV.

Abbot John the Dwarf

became what he was because
he was no angel.

Dionysius taught us 
about the hierarchy. 

XLVI.

The thoughts in our heart

will rot from the inside out

if not acted on. 

This is a warning to those

called upon to contemplate. 

XLVII.

Tolstoy's Three Hermits
represent our silence and

sickness and service. 

They all prayed: "Three are you, three

are we, have mercy on us."

XLVIII.

When you try to drive
out malice with malice you

remain in the same. 
Abbot Pastor was very
pastoral with this wisdom. 

XLIX.

What does it mean to

be a true monk according

to Abbot Pastor?

Don't quarrel | Don't be angry |

Don't return evil in turn. 

L.

When distracting thoughts
appear our job is to say

no to each of them.

Trying to prevent them is

like trying to catch the wind. 

LI.

Discretion is like

an axe that cuts down a tree

with only one swing. 

Those who lack it hack away

until they are exhausted.