The Weight of Our Sins

Once there was a meeting of monks in Scetis, and they discussed the case of a guilty brother but Pior said nothing. Afterwards, he got up and went out, took a sack, filled it with sand, and carried it on his shoulders. He put a little sand in a basket and carried it in front of him. The monks asked him, "What are you doing?"

He answered, "The sack with a lot of sand is my sins, they are many, so I put them on my back and then I shall not weep for them. The basket with a little sand is the sins of our brother and they are in front of me, and I see them and judge them. This is not right. I ought to have my own sins in front of me, and think about them, and ask God to forgive me."

When the monks heard this, they said, "This is the true way of salvation."

A Fool and Heretic

Once a provincial judge heard of Moses and went to Scetis to see him. They told Moses that he was on his way, and he got up and fled towards a marsh. The judge and his entourage met him, and asked him, "Tell me, old man, where is the cell of Moses?"

"What do you want to see him for?" Moses asked. "He is a fool and a heretic."

The judge came to the church and said to the clergy, "I have heard about Moses and I came to see him. But I met an old man on the way to Egypt, and I asked him where the cell of Moses was and he said, 'Why are you looking for him? He is a fool and a heretic.'"

The clergy were distressed and said, "What sort of person was your old man who told you this about the holy man?"

They said, "He was an old man, tall and black, wearing the oldest possible clothes."

The clergy said, "That was Moses. He said that about himself because he didn't want you to see him."

The judge went away very impressed.

Blessed Assurance

Macarius once went down from Scetis to a place named Terenuthis, and he climbed into an old pagan burial place to sleep. He put one of the bodies under his head as a pillow. The demons hated him when they saw his assurance and tried to frighten him by calling out, "Lady, come with us to bathe."

Another demon answered from underneath Macarius, as though he were the dead woman, "I have a pilgrim on top of me, and can't move."

Macarius was not frightened, but confidently thumped the body, saying, "Get up and go if you can."

When the demons heard it, they cried out and said, "You have defeated us," and they fled in confusion.

~~Demons by Jeff Coles, 2007

Soul Peace

A brother said to Pistamon, "What am I to do? I am anxious when I sell what I make."

Pistamon replied, "Sisois and others used to see what they made. There is no harm in this. When you sell anything, say straight away the price of the goods. If you want to lower the price a little, you may and so you will find peace."

The brother said, "I have enough for my needs from other sources, do you think I need worry about making things to sell?"

Pistamon answered, "However much you have, do not stop making things, do as much as you can, provided your soul is at peace."

Lord, Give Me Strength

They said of Sarah that for thirteen years she was fiercely attacked by the demon of lust. She never prayed that the battle should leave her, but she used to say only "Lord, give me strength."

True Austerity

Benjamin, who was a priest in Cellia, said that some brothers went to a hermit in Scetis and wanted to give him some oil. But the hermit said, "Look, there is a little jar of oil which you brought me three years ago. It is still where you put it."

Benjamin said, "When we heard that, we were amazed by the hermit's austerity."

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."