|
|
| Tabula |
Saturday January 10 2026, 22H41
Paulus Eremita, Mon. 3 lect.
Who we are | Recent postings 
|
One of the old men told the following story, saying: There was a certain monk who dwelt in the desert, and he lived a life of strict and severe rule, and he was famous among men, and he could even cast out devils and heal the sick. And it came to pass that, through the agency of Satan, the passion of fornication was stirred up against him, and because he was not sufficiently humble to reveal his war to the old men who were before him, in a few days' time he fell into fornication with a woman who used to come to him continually for assistance. Now having fallen, he despaired about himself, and he rose up to go to the world, and he was sad and grieved concerning his fall; and he meditated, saying, 'I will go into the desert which is further away, and I will not see any man, and I will not be seen of any, and there I will die like the wild animals.' And when he had gone, and he was wandering about in the desert and in the mountains, he used to cry out by night and by day, saying, 'Woe is me! woe is me!' And he ceased not to weep and to groan. Now there was in that desert a certain solitary old man who dwelt in a cleft in the rock, and when he heard the sound of the weeping and lamentation, his mercy for him revealed itself, and he went forth and met him, and they saluted each other. And the old man answered and said to him, Why do you weep in this fashion?' And the young man said, 'Because I have angered God, and because I have fallen into fornication.' Then was the old man astonished, and he said, 'O how greatly did I fear and tremble at your lugubrious voice. For I thought that you hadst been entrusted with the governorship of the brothers, and that you hadst governed unjustly, or that you hadst squandered in an unseemly manner the work of the community. For the harlot repented, and for the unbeliever there is a foundation, and the thief is a son of the kingdom, but Ananias and Sapphira were slain because they stole the money of the community of the brothers, and thus is slain the soul of every one who with fraud or carelessness squanders the possessions of the religious houses. But be you of good courage, O brother, and go back again to your cell, and make your entreaty to God as you repent, and He will establish you in your former grade.' Then the monk went back to his place, and he shut himself in, and never again undertook to talk with any man, except him that handed in to him his food through the little window of his cell, and there he remained until the end of his life, and he attained to a most exalted state of perfection.
|
|
|
