By Way of the Desert: 365 Daily Readings, ed. Bernard Bangley (Continuum, 2007) The Desert Fathers and Mothers were (Christian) people who from early church times sought solitude in desert-places. Their aim: to get away from the temptations and distractions of 'the world' to seek the truth about God, themselves, and the human condition. They were utterly committed to silence, and spiritual integrity, and have been an inspiration to many. They mainly lived in the Sinai and Egyptian deserts, somewhere near an oasis. Of course, the practice of solitary living to find God/the truth is not limited to Christianity. I'm reading a book about the Buddhist forest-dwellers in Thailand, who are well-known for the same reason. This devotional book summarizes 365 sayings of these special people, together with a Scripture and thought-for-the-day. Some of the names here are well known - Antony, and Evagrius for example. Others I've never heard of. A couple of samples to whet your appetite: * Abba Euprepius said, 'Love of material things sets us up for spiritual failure. Therefore, if you lose something, be grateful. The loss frees you from care.' Obedience to one's superior/s is important: * Joseph of Thebes said, 'God recognizes three honorable things. The first is when someone who is weak accepts temptations with gratitude. The second is behavior that is pure and unadulterated with human motive. The third is when a disciple obeys a spiritual father, surrendering all self-will.' Why seek aloneness? * Abba Antony said, 'When you sit quietly alone you escape three wars: hearing, speaking, and seeing. The one thing you will fight all the time is your own heart.' And the final one, for December 31: * 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 again'. (Wasn't it Winston Churchill who made a speech like that to an assembly of school-boys?) You could do worse than contemplatively meandering through this little book over a whole year! Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher July 2008.
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