The Teachings of St.

from the Alphabetical Sayings

of the

St. Herman Orthodox Church

Littleton, Colorado

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1. When the holy Abba Anthony lived in the desert 37.He also said, “Nine fell away after many he was beset by akedia, and attacked by many labors and were obsessed with spiritual pride, sinful thoughts. He said to God, “Lord, I want to for they put their trust in their own works and be saved, but these thoughts do not leave me being deceived they di not give due heed to the alone; what shall I do in mine affliction? commandment that says, „Ask your father and How can I be saved? A short while afterwards, he will tell you‟ (Deuteronomy 32:7).” when he got up to go out, Anthony saw a man like himself sitting at his work, getting up from 38.And he said this, “If he is able to, a ought his work to pray, then sitting down and plaiting a to tell his elders confidently how many steps he rope, then getting up again to pray. It was an takes and how many drops of water he drinks in angel of the Lord sent to correct and reassure his cell, in case he is in error about it.” him. He heard the angel saying to him, “Do this and you will be saved.” At these words, Anthony was filled with joy and courage. He did this, and he was saved.

2. When the same Abba Anthony thought about the depth of the judgments of God, he asked, “Lord, how is it that some die when they are young, while others drag on to extreme old age? Why are there those who are poor and those who are rich? Why do wicked men prosper and why are the just in need?” He heard a voice answering him, “Anthony, keep your attention on yourself; these things are according to the judgment of God, and it is not to your advantage to know anything about them.” [see Deuteronomy 29:29]

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34.Abba Anthony once went to visit Abba Amoun 3. Someone asked Abba Anthony, “What must one in Mount Nitria and when they met, do in order to please God?” The geronda Abba Amoun said, “By your prayers, replied, “Pay attention to what I tell you: the number of the brethren increases, Whoever you may be, always have God before and some of them want to build more cells your eyes; whatever you do, do it according to where they may live in peace. How far away the testimony of the Holy Scriptures; from here do you think we should build the in whatever place you live do not easily leave it. cells?” Abba Anthony said, “Let us eat at the Keep these three precepts and you will be ninth hour and then let us go out for a walk in saved.” the desert and explore the country.” So they went out into the desert and they walked until 4. Abba Anthony said to Abba , sunset and then Abba Anthony said, “Let us “This is the great work of a man: always to take pray and plant the cross here, so that those the blame for his own sins before God and who wish to do so may build here. Then when to expect temptation to his last breath.” those who remain there want to visit those who have come here, they can take a little food at 5. He also said, “Whoever has not experienced the ninth hour and then come. If they do this, temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of they will be able to keep in touch with each Heaven.” He even added, “Without temptations other without distraction of mind.” The distance no one can be saved.” is twelve miles. 6. Abba asked Abba Anthony, “What ought

I to do?” And the geronda said to him, 35.Abba Anthony said, “Whoever hammers a lump “Do not trust in your own righteousness, do not of iron, first decides what he is going to make of worry about the past, but control your tongue it, a scythe, a sword, or an axe. Even so we and your stomach.” ought to make up our minds what kind of virtue

we want to forge or we labor in vain.” 7. Abba Anthony said, “I saw the snares that

the enemy spreads out over the world and 36.He also said, “Obedience with abstinence gives I said groaning, “What can get through from men power over wild beasts.” such snares?” Then I heard a voice saying

to me, “Humility.”

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8. He also said, “Some have afflicted their bodies 30.Some say of Anthony that he was by , but they lack diakrisis “Spirit-borne,” that is, carried along by the (discernment), and so they are far from God.” Holy Spirit, but he would never speak of this

to men. Such men see what is happening 9. He also said, “Our life and our death is with in the world, as well as knowing what is going our neighbor. If we gain our brother, we have to happen. gained God, but if we scandalize our brother,

we have sinned against Christ.” 31.One day Abba Anthony received a letter from 10.He also said, “Just as fish die if they stay too Emperor Constantius, asking him to come to long out of water, so the monks who loiter and he wondered whether he outside their cells or pass their time with men of ought to go. So he said to Abba Paul, the world lose the intensity of hesychia (inner his , “Ought I to go?” He replied, “If you peace). So like a fish going towards the sea, go, you will be called Anthony, but if you stay we must hurry to reach our cell, for fear that if here you will be called Abba Anthony.” we delay outside we will lose our nepsis (interior watchfulness). 32.Abba Anthony said, “I no longer fear God, but I love Him. For love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). 11.He also said, “He who wishes to live in solitude in the desert is delivered from three conflicts: 33.He also said, “Always have the fear of God hearing, speech, and sight; there is only one before your eyes. Remember Him who gives conflict for him and that is with porneia death and life. Hate the world and all that is in (fornication). it. Hate all peace that comes from the flesh. Renounce this life, so that you may be alive to 12.Some brothers came to find Abba Anthony God. Remember what you have promised God, to tell him about the visions they were having, for it will be required of you on the Day of and to find out from them if they were true or Judgment. Suffer hunger, thirst, nakedness, if they came from the . They had a be watchful and sorrowful; weep and groan donkey which died on the way. When they in your heart; test yourselves to see if you are reached the place where the geronda was, worthy of God; despise the flesh, so that you he said to them before they could ask him may preserve your souls. anything, “How was it that the little donkey died

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anything.” And the other replied, “It is enough on the way here?” They said, “How do you for me to see you, Father.” know about that, abba?” And he told them, “The demons showed me what happened.” 28.They said that a certain geronda asked God to So they said, “That was what we came to let him see the Fathers and he saw them all question you about, for fear we were being except Abba Anthony. So he asked his guide, deceived, for we have visions which often turn “Where is Abba Anthony?” He told him in reply out to be true.” Thus the geronda convinced that in the place where God is, there Anthony them, by the example of the donkey, that their would be. visions came from the demons.

13.A hunter in the desert saw Abba Anthony 29.A brother in a was falsely accused enjoying himself with the brethren and he was of fornication and he arose and went to shocked. Wanting to show him that it was Abba Anthony. The brethren also came from the necessary sometimes to meet the needs of monastery to correct him and bring him back. the brethren, the geronda said to him, “Put an They set about proving that he had done this arrow in your bow and shoot it.” So he did. thing, but he defended himself and denied that The geronda then said, “Shoot another,” and he he had done anything of the kind. Now Abba did so. Then the geronda said, “Shoot yet Paphnutius, who is called Cephalus, happened again,” and the hunter replied, “If I bend my to be there, and he told them this parable, bow so much I will break it.” Then the geronda “I have seen a man on the bank of the river said to him, “It is the same with the work of buried up to his knees in mud and some men God. If we stretch the brethren beyond measure came to give him a hand to help him out, they will soon break. Sometimes it is necessary but they pushed him further in up to his neck.” to come down to meet their needs.” When the Then Abba Anthony said this about Abba hunter heard these words he was pierced by Paphnutius, “Here is a real man, who can care penthos (compunction), and greatly edified by for souls and save them.” All those present the geronda, he went away. As for the brethren were pierced to the heart by the words of they went home strengthened. the geronda and they asked forgiveness of the brother. So, admonished by the Fathers, they took the brother back to the monastery

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14.Abba Anthony heard of a very young monk 24.It was revealed to Abba Anthony in his desert who had performed a miracle on the road. that there was one who was his equal in the Seeing the old men walking with difficulty along city. He was a doctor by profession and the road, he ordered the wild asses to come whatever he had beyond his needs he gave to and carry them until they reached Abba the poor, and everyday he sang the Sanctus Anthony. Those whom they had carried told with the angels. Abba Anthony about it. He said to them, “This monk seems to me to be a ship loaded 25.Abba Anthony said, “A time is coming when with goods, but I do not know if he will reach men will go mad, and when they see someone harbor.” After a while, Anthony suddenly who is not mad they will attack him saying, began to weep, to tear his hair and lament. „You are mad, you are not like us.‟” His disciples said to him, “Why are you weeping, Father?” And the geronda replied, 26.The brethren came to Abba Anthony and “A great pillar of the Church has just fallen laid before him a passage from Leviticus. (he meant the young monk), but go to him The geronda went out into the desert, and see what has happened.” So the disciples secretly followed by Abba Ammonas, who knew went and found the monk sitting on a mat that this was his custom. Abba Anthony went and weeping for the sin he had committed. a long way off and stood there praying, crying in Seeing the disciples of the geronda he said, a loud voice, “God, send , to make me “Tell the geronda to pray that God will give me understand this saying.” Then there came a just ten days and I hope I will have made voice speaking with him. Abba Ammonas said expiation [for my sin].” But in the space of five that although he heard the voice speaking with days he died. him, he could not understand what it said.

15.The brothers praised a monk before 27.Three fathers used to go and visit blessed Abba Anthony. When the monk came to see Anthony every year and two of them used to him, Anthony wanted to know how he would discuss their thoughts and the salvation of their bear insults; and seeing that he could not bear souls with him, but the third always remained them at all, he said to him, “You are like a silent and did not ask him anything. After a long village magnificently decorated on the outside, time, Abba Anthony said to him, “You often but destroyed from within by robbers.” come here to see me, but you never ask me

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22.Abba Anthony said, “I believe that the body 16.A brother said to Abba Anthony, “Pray for me.” possesses a natural movement, to which it is The geronda said to him, “I will have no mercy adapted, but which it cannot follow without the upon you, nor will God have any, if you yourself consent of the soul; it only signifies in the body do not make an effort and if you do not pray a movement without passion. There is another to God.” movement, which comes from the nourishment 17.One day some old men came to see and warming of the body by eating and Abba Anthony. In the midst of them was drinking, and this causes the heat of the blood Abba . Wanting to test them, the to stir up the body to work. That is why the geronda suggested a text from the Scriptures, Apostle said, “Do not get drunk with wine for and, beginning with the youngest, he asked that is debauchery” (Ephesians 5:18). And in them what it meant. Each gave his opinion as the Gospel the Lord also recommends this to he was able. But to each one the geronda said, His disciples, “Take heed to yourselves lest “You have not understood it.” Last of all he said your hearts be weighed down with dissipation to Abba Joseph, “How would you explain this and drunkenness” (St. Luke 21:34). But there saying?” And he replied, “I do not know.” is yet another movement which afflicts those Then Abba Anthony said, “Abba Joseph has who fight, and that comes from the wiles and found the way, for he has said, „I do not know.‟” jealousy of the demons. You must understand what these three bodily movements are: one is 18.Some brothers were coming from Scetis to see natural, one comes from too much to eat, Abba Anthony. When they were getting into the third is caused by the demons. a boat to go there, they found a geronda who also wanted to go there. The brothers did not 23.He also said, “God does not allow the same know him. They sat in the boat, occupied by warfare and temptations to this generation as turns with the words of the Fathers, Scripture he did formerly, for men are weaker now and and their manual work. As for the geronda, cannot bear so much.” he remained silent. When they arrived on shore they found that the geronda was going to the cell of Abba Anthony, too. When they reached the place, Anthony said to them, “You found this geronda a good companion for the journey?” Then he said to the geronda, “You have brought 10 7

many good brethren with you, father.” 20.A brother renounced the world and gave his The geronda said, “No doubt they are good, goods to the poor, but he kept back a little for but they do not have a door to their house and his personal expenses. He went to see Abba anyone who wishes can enter the stable and Anthony. When he told him this, the geronda loose the ass.” He meant that the brethren said said, “If you want to be a monk, go into the whatever came into their mouths. village, buy some meat, cover your naked body with it and come here like that.” The brother did 19.The brethren came to the Abba Anthony and so, and the dogs and birds tore at his flesh. said to him, “Speak a word; how are we to be When he came back the geronda asked him saved?” The geronda said to them, “You have whether he had followed his advice. He showed heard the Scriptures. That should teach you him his wounded body, and Saint Anthony said, how.” But they said, “We want to hear from “Those who renounce the world but want to you, too, Father.” Then the geronda said to keep something for themselves are torn in this them, “The Gospel says, „If anyone strikes you way by the demons who make war on them.” on one cheek, turn to him the other also‟ (St. Matthew 5:39). They said, “We cannot do that.” 21.It happened one day that one of the brethren in The geronda said, “If you cannot offer the other the monastery of Abba Elias was tempted. cheek, at least allow one cheek to be struck.” Cast out of the monastery, he went over the “We cannot do that either,” they said. So he mountain to Abba Anthony. The brother lived said, “If you are not able to do that, do not near him for awhile and then Anthony sent him return evil for evil.” And they said, “We cannot back to the monastery from which he had been do that either.” Then the geronda said to expelled. When the brothers saw him they cast his disciple, “Prepare a little brew of corn him out yet again, and he went back to Abba for these invalids. If you cannot do this, or that, Anthony saying, “My Father, they will not what can I do for you? What you need is receive me.” Then the geronda sent them a prayers.” message saying, “A boat was shipwrecked at sea and lost its cargo; with great difficulty it reached the shore; but you want to throw into the sea that which has found a safe harbor on the shore.” When the brothers understood that it was Abba Anthony who had sent them this monk, they received him at once. 8 9