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Monday February 02 2026, 08H27
Præsentatio Domini Sollemnitas
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On one occasion the brothers saw that Abba Joseph was sad, and that he was greatly distressed, and they asked him to tell them about his sorrow, and what was the cause thereof, but he was unable to speak to them; and they began to say each man among them to his companion, ' What are the suffering and grief which possess the old man, for behold, we have dwelt with him for many years, and we never before saw him in such grief and suffering as this? Perhaps we have in some way offended him. ' Then they threw themselves on their faces before the feet of the old man, saying, Peradventure we have offended you in some matter, O father, [and if we have] forgive us for Jesus' sake.' And the old man made answer to them in a state of grief, saying, ' Forgive you me, O my brothers, for I am not offended by you, but I am grieved by myself, because I see that I am going backwards rather than forwards, and that I am the cause of offence and loss, not only to myself but also to all the others. For I see that at this present we are trafficking, and are losing in respect of our souls very much more than we ever gained at any time of the profit of the fear of our Lord, because shamelessness and fearlessness have gained dominion over us. For in times past when the fathers were gathered together to each other they were wont to form bands and ascend into the heavens, but we are lax folk, and are dead in our sins. Whensoever we draw near to each other we come to speak that which is hateful about one another, and one by one we are raised up that we may descend to the bottom of the deepest abyss. And we do not make to sink ourselves and each other only, but also the fathers who come to us, and the strangers who gather together to us, and also the people who are in the world who visit us as if we were solitary monks, and as if we were holy men, and to these last we become a cause of stumbling and loss. For thus also did Abba Sylvanus and Abba Lot say to me: 'Let us not abide here any longer.' And when I asked them, 'Why do you depart from us?' they spake to me as follows: 'Up to this day we have benefited by our abiding with the fathers, but from the time of Abba Pambo, and Abba Agathon, and Abba Petra, and Abba John, the commandments of the fathers have been held lightly, and we do not observe the ordinances and the laws which our fathers laid down for us. And by assemblies together we suffer loss over and over again through the useless things which are spoken among us. And when we sit down at table, instead of doing so in the fear of God, and with gratitude, and eating that which God has prepared for us with praise and thanksgiving, we occupy ourselves by conversing together and telling insipid stories; and as we sit at table in this fashion we become so much changed that we do not even hear what is being read to us on account of the noise of the profitless talk which we hold with each other. And besides this, after we have risen up from eating, we converse together with empty talk. What benefit is it to us to live in the desert, seeing that we profit nothing thereby? ' And Abba L6t said, ' Many times have I heard from brothers who are strangers, and from the people who live in the world, and who come to visit us, that we hold the commandments of the fathers lightly, and they have said of us, 'We should never have thought that they were monks!'' And one of the brothers who were strangers said, ' I have come to the fathers on several occasions, and [I see that] year by year they certainly observe less and less the early rules and conduct of the fathers.' What now do you wish? Will you correct your lax behaviour, and observe carefully the commandments of our fathers, or must I also depart from you?' And it came to pass that when the brothers heard these things, they beat the board for assembling the monks, and the whole brotherhood gathered itself together, and Abba Joseph spake to them all the words which are [written] above. And when all the brothers heard the words of Abba Joseph, and learned the reason of his pain and grief, and that he wished to depart from them, they cast themselves down upon their faces weeping, and they expressed their contrition to him, saying, 'Forgive us, O father, for the sake of Jesus. We have made God angry by our deeds, and we have caused your holiness grief.' Then each of the fathers said, ' Would that you hadst rebuked us on the very first day wherein you did hear [about us] from the fathers, and that they had not departed from us! And would, too, that we had roused ourselves up from our slumber and sluggishness! But what are we to do? For the old men and the holy men do not teach us, and they do not even take their proper places in our congregations, or when we sit at meat. Very many of us wish to hear the histories and commandments of the fathers read, either while we are sitting at table or between one sitting and the next, but we are never able to hear a word of their talk.' And Abba Elijah said, 'Abba Abraham and Abba John spake much at table, and at the time of reading, and at the time of the service; and they began to become excited against each other, and the one said, ' Father, such and such a man is excited, and the other said, ' Such and such a man makes us excited. ' Now when Abba Joseph saw that the whole brotherhood was stirred up, he made supplication to them, and besought them, saying, ' I beseech you, O my brothers, to cease from your commotion, for God has called us to peace, and I therefore beg you to come and pray, and to make supplication unto God that He may make to pass by us the legions and the host of the enemy. For, behold, I see them standing up in wrath and anger, with their swords drawn, and they wish to destroy us all if God does not stand up to help our wretchedness.' And when he had said these things he was able, with some difficulty, to quiet them, and Abba Joseph himself began to sing the words of the harpist David, saying, 'Their swords will enter their own hearts, and their bows will be broken, and God will make them like a wheel and as dust before the wind. And God will arise and all His enemies will be scattered. O God, deliver me, O Lord, remain to help [me]' (Psalm xxxvii, 15; lxxxiii, 13; lxviii, 1; vii, 1). And when they had recited the Psalms of the spirit altogether, and had made an end of the service, they said, ' O holy God, O holy mighty One, O immortal holy One, have mercy upon us'; and they all knelt down in prayer. And as they were praying they heard the voices of the devils in the air, and the sounds of armour and of horses, and of many horsemen, and they also heard the voices of the devils who were saying to one another, ' you will not have mercy upon them.' And again they said, 'O luckless monks, why do you stand up against us?' If we were to do [what we could do] to you not one of you would be found on the face of the earth! We will never be absent from you, and we will never cease from you.' And after the filthy legion had been driven away by the secret power, and the wicked devils rested from their wickednesses, all the fathers rose up from the earth whereon they had been poured out in prayer, the earth having been adorned by their tears, and they all offered repentance to Abba Joseph, saying, 'Forgive you us, and pray for us that the Lord may forgive us, for we have sinned and have provoked Him to wrath,' Then Abba Joseph said to them: 'Rouse yourselves, O my brothers, and take good heed to your souls, for, behold, you have heard with your ears the sound of the chariots of the Adversary, who threatens us and seeks to destroy us. Let every man be reconciled to his neighbour, and forgive you every man from his heart the offence [which he has committed]. And bind you yourselves with the love of our Lord, with an urgent mind, and a pure heart, to the Lord and to each other. And draw near to God that He may draw near to you, and stand up against the Adversary, who is Satan. If you will observe the commandments of the fathers, I will become a surety (or pledge) for you that Satan will not be able to injure you, and that the Barbarians will not come here; but if you will not observe them, believe me, O my beloved, this place will be laid waste.' And they offered repentance each to the other, and they became reconciled to each other, and lived in love and in great peace; and they laid down ordinances among themselves on that day to the effect that no man should henceforth conduct himself with negligence and without absence of fear; and that they should neither do nor say anything at the table which was alien [to their mode of life]; and that if any man be found hereafter despising and holding lightly the commandments of the fathers in such a way that he become an occasion of offence and a cause of loss, first to himself, and next to those who dwell with him, and then also to the strangers who come to us, he will know that he is bringing a punishment upon himself, and that he will become an alien to all the brotherhood. And Abba Joseph sent a brother to bring back Abba Sylvanus and Abba L6t, and when these fathers knew what had taken place among the brothers, and that they had laid down ordinances to keep the commandments of the fathers, they praised God, and they rose up, and came, and [when] they saw Abba Joseph they saluted him and wept; and Abba Joseph told them everything which had taken place, and they glorified God Who had not rejected those who feared Him. And as regards the canons and the ordinances which they had laid down among themselves, the brothers observed and performed them all the days of their life; and they died at a good old age, [after] living lives which were well-pleasing to God.
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