Sayings of the Desert Fathers

The question remains, though, is a devout Catholic a saint? And is it even necessarily the way to become a saint, or can it become its own stick? By stick, I meant place you get stuck.

This is a very famous story of the Desert Fathers, and I'll just read it.

Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, Abba, as far as I can, I save my little office.

I fast a little.

Yeah.

And there's books of the sayings of the desert fathers and mothers.

Yes, yes.

And they're beautiful and sometimes almost hilarious.

In this time and place, a literary genre emerged that was similar in form to parables and proverbs, teaching through story to impart wisdom.

These were gathered together in a text called The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, or the Apophthegmata Patrum, which includes sayings from both the Desert Fathers and the Desert Mothers.

Now, I thought that this idea of solitary stillness, solitary times of practicing communion with Jesus or with God, and what we would call in A Course in Miracles, uh, the right mind as well, well, I felt that this related very well to our practice with A Course in Miracles because ultimately A Course in Miracles is a solitary practice.

It's between ourselves and our right mind and our wrong mind.

But they have, like, 1,700 years of, like, the study of, like, pneumatology, right? The study of the Holy Spirit, Christocentric, like, contemplation.

I mean, I don't know if you guys have ever read Thomas Merton's The Desert Fathers, and they're-

No.

It's, um, it's a collection of writings from the Desert Fathers, the, the, the Egyptian...

There was a group [laughs] Such a rabbit trail.

I love this episode.

The great-

...

So I started reading.

I bought a volume of Benedict Awards alphabetical collection of The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, which are these just little pithy sayings and stories that help you navigate the terrain of wilderness.

Do you know what I mean? Of barrenness, of desert, of stripping.

And I would read them consistently, and I just found them to be so life-giving and helpful to me because it was true.

... will have come out by the time this show airs.

Yeah.

So the book is The Work of the Soul: 40 Days with the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers.

The first book that I wrote on the Desert Fathers and Mothers was called Streams in the Wasteland.