Love Thy Neighbor

Poemen said, "There is no greater love than that you should lay down your life for a neighbor. When you hear a complaint against you and you struggle with yourself, and do not begin to complain in return, when you bear an injury with patience and do not look for revenge, that is when you lay down your life for your neighbor."

~~Love Thy Neighbor by David Lanham

The Heart of a Statue

John told this story: Anub and Poemen and some others who were born of the same mother were monks in Scetis. Some savage Mazicae came and sacked Scetis. The brothers fled and went to a place called Terenuthis; they stayed there a few days in an old temple while they discussed where to live.

Anub said to Poemen, "Of your kindness, let me live apart from you and our brothers, so that we do not see each other during this week."

Poemen said, "Let us do as you wish." So that is what they did.

There was a stone statue in the temple. Every day at dawn Anub got up and pelted the face of the statue with stones and every day at evening he said to it, "Forgive me." Every day for a week he did this: and on Saturday they met again.

Poemen said to Anub, "I saw you throwing stones at the face of the statue every day this week, and later doing penance to the statue. A true Christian would not have done that."

Anub answered, "I did it for your sake. When you saw me throwing stones at the statue's face, did it speak? Was it angry?"

Poemen said, "No."

Anub said, "When I did penance before the statue, was it moved in its heart? Did it say, 'I won't forgive you?'"

Poemen answered, "No."

Anub said, "Here we are, seven brothers. If we want to stay together, we must become like this statue, which is untroubled by the injuries done to it. If you will not become like this statue, see, there are four doors to this temple, and each of us may go in any direction he chooses."

At these words, they fell upon the ground before Anub, and said to him, "Let it be as you say, abba. We will do what you tell us."

Poemen described what happened afterwards, "We remained together all of our lives, doing our work and everything else as Anub directed us. He appointed one of us as steward, and we ate whatever he put before us; no one could have said: 'Bring us something else to eat,' or 'I will not eat that.' So we passed our lives in quiet and peace."



~~Photo by Griffin Logue

Endure Wicked Thoughts

Joseph questioned Poemen on the subject of the impure thoughts within the heart. Poemen said, "If you shut a snake or scorpion in a box, in the end it will die. Wicked thoughts, which the demons scatter, slowly lose their power if the victim has endurance."

~~Scorpion by Ozgur Ustundag

Practice What You Preach

Poemen said, "Teach your heart to follow what your tongue is saying to others." He also said, "Men try to appear excellent in preaching but they are less excellent in practising what they preach."

Psalm 18:29-30

Poemen said, "The will of man is a wall of brass, and a stone barrier between himself and God. If he puts it aside, he can say the words of the psalm, 'By the help of my God I shall leap over the wall' and, 'as for my God, his way is undefiled' (Psalm 18: 29-30). If good conduct helps the will, then a man will do good."

Psalm 42:1

Poemen said, "It is written, 'As the hart longs for the waterbrooks, so longs my soul for you, O my God' (Psalm 42:1). Indeed the harts in the desert eat many snakes and when their venom makes them burn with thirst they come to the waters to assuage their burning thirst. It is the same for monks: in the desert, they are burned by the poison of the demons and they long for Saturday and Sunday to come so that they can go to the springs of water, that is, to the Body and Blood of the Lord, to be purified from the poison of the evil ones."

~~A Thicket of Deer at the Stream of Plaisir-Fontaine, 1866, by Gustave Courbet, 1819-1877

Psalm 51:11

Poemen said, "Try, so far as you can, to wrong no man, and keep your heart pure towards everyone."

Psalm 51:11: Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Mortify Self-will

Poemen went with Anub to the country of Dioclos. Walking past the tombs they saw a woman beating her breast and weeping bitterly. They paused to see her. When they had gone a little further, they met a man and Poemen asked him, "What is the matter with the woman over there, that she weeps so bitterly?"

He said, "Her husband is dead, and her son, and her brother."

Poemen said to Anub, "I tell you, that unless a man mortifies all his self-will and has this kind of grief, he cannot be a monk. The whole life and attention of that woman is wrapped up in grief."

St. Arsenius the Great

~~Icon of Saints John Climacus, John of Damascus and Arsenius the Great

They used to say of Arsenius that no one could understand the depths of his monastic life. Once when he was living in Lower Egypt, and suffering from importunate visitors, he decided to leave his cell. He took nothing with him and said to his disciples, Alexander and Zoilus, "Alexander, you go on board a ship, and you, Zoilus, come with me to the Nile, and find me a little boat that is sailing to Alexandria, and then go and join your brother."

Zoilus was sad at this, but said nothing, and so they parted, Arsenius went down to the district near Alexandria, and there fell gravely ill. His disciples said to each other, "Do you think one of us has upset him? Is that why he has left us?"

They examined themselves but could not see any way in which they had been ungrateful to him, or had ever disobeyed him. When Arsenius had recovered from his illness, he said to himself, "I will go back to my brothers."

So he went to the place called Petra, where Alexander and Zoilus, his servants were. While he was by the river bank, he met an Ethiopian girl, who came up and touched his cloak. He rebuked her but she said, "If you are a monk, go to the mountain."

At these words he was stricken to the heart, and said to himself, "Arsenius, if you are a monk, go to the mountain." On the way his disciples Alexander and Zoilus met him, and fell at his feet. Arsenius also threw himself on the ground and they all wept. Then Arsenius said, "Didn't you hear that I was ill?"

They said to him, "Yes, we heard about it."

He said, "Then why didn't you come to see me?"

Alexander said, "We were upset by your going away from us, for many people were shocked about it and said, 'they must have disobeyed the hermit or surely he would not have left them.'"

Arsenius said to them, "Yes, I knew that would be said, but now it shall be said, 'The dove found rest for her foot, and so returned to Noah in the ark.'" The feelings of his disciples were healed by this, and they stayed with him until the end of his life.

When he lay dying, they were very distressed. He said to them, "The hour is not yet come, but when it does come I will tell you. You will be judged with me before the judgement seat of Christ, if you let anyone else touch my dead body."

They said, "Whatever shall we do? We don't know how to clothe or bury a dead body."

Then Arsenius said, "I suppose you know enough to tie a rope to my leg and pull me up the mountain?"

When he was about to commit his soul to God, they saw him weeping, and said, "Abba, are even you afraid of death?"

He said, "Yes, indeed. The fear which possesses me now has been with me since I became a monk: and I am very much afraid." So he slept in peace.

Arsenius always used to say this, "Why words, did I let you get out? I have often been very sorry that I have spoken, never that I have been silent."

When Poemen heard that Arsenius had departed this life, he wept and said, "You are blessed, Arsenius, for you wept for yourself in this world. Whoever does not weep for himself in this world, shall lament for ever in the next. We cannot escape lamentation; if we do not lament here of our own will, we shall later be forced to lament against our will."


Feastday: July 19, 450
Confessor and hermit on the Nile, Arsenius, who was born in Rome in 354, was the tutor of the children of Emperors Theodosius I the Great, Arcadius, and Honorius. At that time, Arsenius was a Roman deacon recommended for the office by Pope St. Damasus; he served at Theodosius' court in Constantinople for about ten years and then became a monk in Alexandria, Egypt. Inheriting a fortune from a relative, Arsenius studied with St. John the Dwarf and became a hermit in the desert of Egypt. In 434, he left Scetis and went to the rock of Troe, near Memphis, Egypt, and to the island of Canopus near Alexandria. He died at Troe. Arsenius is sometimes called "the Roman" or "the Deacon."

Life is No Picnic

Before Poemen went to Egypt, there was a hermit there who was very famous. But when Poemen came up from Scetis with his monks, the people left this hermit in favor of Poemen. The hermit was jealous and criticized Poemen and his group. When Poemen heard this, he was sorry, and said to his monks, "What can we do about this hermit? These people have made us suffer by leaving him and visiting us who are nobody. How can we soothe his mind?"

Poemen continued, "Make something to eat, and take a little jug of wine; we will go and eat with him, perhaps we'll be able to heal his mind." So they took the bread that they had made ready, and went to the hermit's cell.

When they knocked, his disciple answered the door and said, "Who are you?"

They said, "Tell the abba, 'Poemen is here, and he wants to be blessed by you.'"

The disciple told the hermit, who returned the message, "Go away, I am busy."

But they persevered and said, "We won't go away till we have had the hermit's blessing."

Seeing their perseverance and humility, the hermit was stricken with remorse and opened the door to them. They went in and ate with him. While they were having supper, the hermit said, "Indded, I have heard less than the truth about you. I see that you do a hundredfold more than I was told." So he became their friend in that moment.

Good Mourning

In Egypt once when Poemen was going somewhere he saw a woman sitting by a grave and weeping bitterly. He said, "If all the delights of the world should come to her, they would not bring her out of her sorrow. Just so should the monk always be weeping in his heart."

The Solution is Silence

Poemen said, "Whatever hardship comes upon you, it can be overcome by silence."

When Wretched With Lust . . .

A brother came to Poemen and said to him, "What am I to do, abba? I am wretched with lust. I went to see Hybistion and he told me: 'You must not let this passion live in you any longer.'"

Poemen said to him, "Hybistion lives like the angels in heaven, and he does not know about these things. But you and I are full of lust. If a monk controls his stomach and his tongue, and stays in solitude, he can trust that he is not yet lost."

Already Dead

Paesius, the brother of Poemen, loved one of the monks and Poemen did not like it. So, he went and visited Ammonas, and said to him, "My brother Paesius loves someone else and I don't like it."

Ammonas said to him, "Poemen, are you still alive? Go and sit in your cell, and think to yourself that you have been in your grave a year already."

~~photo by Victoria Logue

The Sound of SIlence

Poemen said, "Whatever hardship comes upon you, it can be overcome by silence."

At Peace

A brother asked Poemen, "What am I to do for I become weak just sitting in my cell?"

Poemen said, "Despise no one, condemn no one, revile no one: and God will give you quietness, and you will sit at peace in your cell."

Endure the Fight

Poemen said about John the Short that he asked the Lord to take away his passions. So his heart was at rest, and he went to a hermit and said, "I find that I am at peace, with no war between flesh and spirit."

The hermit said to him, "Go and ask the Lord to stir up a new war in you. Fighting is good for the soul."

When the conflict revived in him, he no longer prayed for it to be taken away, but said, "Lord, grant me the strength to endure this fight."

~~Spiritual Warfare by Laurie Cooper

The Demon of Lust

Poemen said, "As a bodyguard is always standing by to protect the Emperor, so the soul should always be ready to fight the demon of lust."

~~Lust by William Blake

Good Mourning

Once a brother in a community sinned. In the same region there was a hermit who had not gone out of his cell for a long time. The abbot of the community went to the hermit and told him of the monk's offense. The hermit said, "Expel him."

So, the monk was expelled from the community, and he flung himself into a ditch and wept. Some other monks happened to go by on their way to see Poemen, and they heard the sinful monk groaning in the ditch. They climbed down and found him despairing with grief and they asked him to go with them to see Poemen. He would not, saying, "I shall die here."

The brothers went to Poemen and told him about it. He asked them to go back to the monk and say, "Poemen wants you." They did what he said, and the monk came to Poemen. When he saw how the monk was suffering, Poemen got up and kissed him, and hospitably invited him to eat with him.

Meanwhile, Poemen sent one of his brothers to the hermit with this message, "I have heard of you and for many years I have wanted to meet you, but we were both too idle to arrange a meeting. But now, by God's will, let us take this chance; make the tiring journey so that we can meet." Poemen had a rule about not going out of his cell.

When the hermit heard the message, he said, "He would not have sent to me unless God had inspired him to do so." He got up and went.

They greeted each other gladly and sat down. Poemen said to him, "There were two men and they were each mourning for a dead man. But one left the dead man he was mourning for, and went to weep for the other's."

The old hermit was stricken when he heard this, and remembered what he had done. He said, "Poemen is in heaven. I am only on the earth."

Reap What You Sow

A brother said to Poemen, "If I give my brother something, for instance a piece of bread, the demons made the gift worthless by making me think that it was done to please men."

Poemen said to him, "Even if it is done to please men, we still ought to give our brothers what they need." Then he told him this parable:

"In a town there were two farmers. One of them sowed seed, and gathered a poor harvest; the other was idle and did not sow, and had no harvest to gather. If famine came, which of them would survive?"

The brother answered, "The one who sowed seed, even if the harvest was poor."

"It is the same for us," said Poemen. "We sow a few seeds, and they are poor, but in the time of famine we shall not die."