A Daily Lent

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent – March 28, 2015 The brothers praised a monk before Abba Antony. When the monk came to see him, Antony wanted to know how he would bear insults; and seeing that he could not bear them at all, he said to him, “You are like a village magnificently decorated on the outside, but destroyed from within my robbers.” [Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers , p. 4] Endurance for the Desert Christians invited reflection on what they believed about themselves. Were they able to bear up underneath insults and humiliations? No one likes to be embarrassed, insulted, or humiliated. It is, well . . . embarrassing, insulting, and humiliating!! But there are few things as helpful as embarrassments, insults, and humiliations to reveal to us what we truly believe about ourselves. They offend our sense of fairness and rightness, as we tell ourselves things like, “I don’t deserve this!” We want to be seen as a particular kind of person, with certain q...

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent – March 27, 2015 Someone asked Abba Antony, “What must one do in order to please God?” The old man replied, “Pay attention to what I tell you: whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes; whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not easily leave it. Keep these three precepts and you will be saved.” [Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers , p. 2] These are Abba Antony’s three keys to life: in every moment, attend to God, who is present always and everywhere; let the scriptures shape your heart so that all you do issues from an interior that has been molded by God’s Word; and have a sense of stability and consistency about your life . . . no flitting around. The third part of Antony’s saying is particularly relevant this week related to endurance and perseverance. It is reflected, a couple of centuries after Antony, in the vision Benedict of Nursia had for his...

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent – March 26, 2015 JOHN THE DWARF asked God to mitigate his passions. He became calm and imperturbable. He told a hermit, “I now rest in peace. There is no struggle between my flesh and my spirit.” The hermit replied, “Pray that the Lord will start a new war in you. Struggle is good for the soul.” When the old conflicts returned John did not pray that God would take them away. Instead, he prayed, “Lord, give me the strength to survive this battle.” [Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert , p. 118] One prevalent modern-day heresy related to Christianity is that if you are faithful, you’ll never have to struggle in life. . . . or if you pray correctly, or pray enough, you’ll never experience tragedy. . . . or if you just believe enough, God will make you prosperous – health, wealth, and all the “good things” of life. Abba John the Dwarf – who was something of a Desert Father’s version of Simon Peter, always putting his foot in his mouth – t...

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent – March 25, 2015 Antony of Egypt was the first of the Desert Christians. I related some of Antony’s story in the first days of this year’s Lenten devotionals, so I won’t repeat his life story here. But it is important to know that 36 years elapsed from the time of Antony’s first entry into the desert to attend to his life with God, until the days when he took disciples (novices) whom he would mentor as a spiritual father (Abba). 20 of those years were spent in extreme solitude and silence, as Antony’s life was formed by the discipline and wisdom of the wilderness. Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, a friend and student of Antony’s, wrote The Life of Antony in order to record some of Antony’s experiences from the desert. He writes a great deal about Antony’s struggles in the desert, the daily battles Antony engaged with the darkness within himself, as well as with demonic forces. During one extended period of time, Antony’s struggle with the dark...

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent – March 24, 2015 AMMA SYNCLETICA said, “If you start a good work, do not let the enemy discourage you. Your endurance will defeat the enemy. When sailors encounter unfavorable winds they do not toss their cargo overboard or abandon ship. They struggle against the storm for a while and then reestablish their course. If you run into a headwind, raise a cross as a sail and you will continue your voyage in safety.” [Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert , p. 119] By and large, I find that modern folks give up far too quickly. We don’t seem to have the willingness to stick with things over a long haul. My sense is that we are distracted, that we chase after the next “shiny thing” that appears on the screen of our brain, and that we quickly move on to something new and different in order to stimulate ourselves. I also find that this inability to stick with things reflects an existential boredom with life, a boredom with the way things are. We live...

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent – March 23, 2015 A MONK VISITED ABBA SISOES and told him he had fallen from grace. “What should I do, Abba?” Sisoes replied, “Get up again.” After a while, the monk returned to ask, “What can I do now? For I have fallen again.” “Get up again,” the old man said to him, “Never stop getting up.” [Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert , p. 386] We are too easily overcome by our failures. We are too quick to think of our own sin as unforgiveable, as – what MUST be so – the pinnacle of all sin. We live with a human economy of grace – which does not really represent God’s grace at all – that believes God’s resources are limited, that there is a scarce supply of God’s grace, God’s mercy, and God’s forgiveness. It is, in fact, a flaw in our thinking from which it is very difficult to recover. Jesus’ disciples spoke from that same framework of scarcity: “How many times should I forgive the one who sins against me? Seven times?” (Mt. 18:21 – 22...

The Fifth Sunday of Lent – March 22, 2015 Amma Syncletica: "In the beginning there are a great many battles and a good deal of suffering for those who are advancing towards God and afterwards, ineffable joy. It is like those who wish to light a fire; at first they are choked by the smoke and cry, and by this means obtain what they seek . . . : so we must kindle the divine fire in ourselves through tears and hard work." [Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers , pp. 230, 231] This week, our readings from the Desert Fathers and Mothers illumine the spiritual discipline of endurance. To be honest, endurance may not be as much of a spiritual practice as it is one fruit of ongoing spiritual practice. One doesn’t set out to become a person of endurance so much as one cultivates the soul in a way that allows endurance to be formed within us. The Apostle Paul writes that endurance is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22 – 23). Fruit grows when we tend the ...