Abba Macarios the Great - 4.0

We are continuing with lessons from the Desert Saints of Christianity.  I will continue to post several of the sayings of one of the desert fathers or mothers.  Read them over and find one that interests you.  Use that one saying as something to mull over in silent reflection and meditation.

Essentially you will be using it like a zen koan.  You will be doing lectio divina - this time it will be with a short aphorism from the Apophthegmata (Sayings of the Fathers).  Repeat it inside, over and over.  Listen for what the Spirit has to teach you from these aphorisms.

We will work with these sayings for a few weeks.  Be sure to journal what you hear.  This will leave a path for you to follow later, when you want to see where you have been and how you have developed.  On-line Journal at:  http://my-diary.org/  Don't forget it has features to remind you daily to write.  It can be made public or private, as well.

Here are some sayings from the Apophthegmata Patrium to read and contemplate for our daily practice of spiritual direction + spiritual formation.

11. When Abba Macarius was returning from the marsh
to his cell one day carrying some palm-leaves, he met the
devil on the road with a scythe. The latter struck at him as
much as he pleased, but in vain, and he said to him, 'What is
your power, Macarius, that makes me powerless against
you? All that you do, I do, too; you fast, so do I; you keep
vigil, and I do not sleep at all; in one thing only do you beat
me.' Abba Macarius asked what that was. He said, 'Your
humility. Because of that I can do nothing against you.'

12. Some Fathers questioned Abba Macarius the
Egyptian, 'Why is it that whether you eat, or whether you
fast, your body is always emaciated?' The old man said to
them, 'The little bit of wood that is used to poke the vine
branches when they are burning ends by being entirely burnt
up by the fire; in the same way, man purifies his soul in the
fear of God, and the fear of God bums up his body.'

13. One day Abba Macarius went up from Scetis to
Terenuthis and went into the temple to sleep. Now there
were some old coffins of the pagans there. Taking one, he
put it under his head as a pillow. The devils, seeing his
audacity, were filled with jealousy and to make him afraid
they called out, as though addressing a woman, 'So and so,
come to bath with us.' Another devil replied from beneath
him, as though among the dead, 'I have a stranger on top of
me, and I cannot come.' But the old man was not afraid. On
the contrary, he knocked on the coffin with assurance,
saying, 'Awake, and go into the darkness, if you can.'
Hearing this, the devils began to cry out with all their might,
'You have overcome us. 'Filled with confusion, they fled.

14. It was said of Abba Macarius the Egyptian that one
day when he was going up from Scetis with a load of
baskets, he sat down, overcome with weariness and began to
say to himself, 'My God, you know very well that I cannot
go any further,' and immediately he found himself at the
river.

15. A man of Egypt had a paralytic son. He brought him
to the cell of Abba Macarius, and put him down at the door
weeping and went a good distance away. The old man
stooped down and saw the child, and said to him, 'Who
brought you here? 'He replied, 'My father threw me down
here and went away.' Then the old man said to him, 'Get up,
and go back to him.' The child was cured on the spot; he got
up and rejoined his father and they returned to their own
home.

Ciao!

+Tom