Abba John the Dwarf said, 'If a king wanted to take possession of his enemy's city, he would begin by cutting off the water and the food and so his enemies, dying of hunger, would submit to him. It is the same with the passions of the flesh: if a man goes about fasting and hungry the enemies of his...

The first, the basic definition of man is that he is the priest. He stands in the center of the world and unifies it in his act of blessing God, of both receiving the world from God and offering it to God--and by filling the world with this eucharist, he tranforms his life, the one that he receives...

The Eucharist is a liturgy. And he who says liturgy today is likely to get involved in a controversy. For to some--the 'liturgically minded'--of all the activities of the Church, liturgy is the most important, if not the only one. To others, liturgy is aesthetic, and a spiritual deviation from the...

A mother came here with her little child, posessed with a devil, who said to his mother, 'Get up woman, let us go away from here.' She replied, 'I cannot walk any futher,' and the little child said to her, 'I will carry you myself.' I wondered at the devil's tricks and how eager he was to make them...

A brother at Scetis commited a fault. A council was called which Abba Moses was invited, but he refused to go to it. Then the priest sent someone to say to him, 'Come, for everyone is waiting for you.' So he got up and went. He took a leaking jug, filled it with water and carried it with him. The...