Once the order was given at Scetis, 'Fast this week.' Now it happened that some brothers came from Egypt to visit Abba Moses and he cooked something for them. Seeing some smoke, the neighbours said to the ministers, 'Look, Moses has broken the commandment and has cooked something in his cell.' The...

It is not accidental, therefore, that the biblical story of the Fall is centered again on food. Man ate the forbidden fruit. The fruit of that one tree, whatever else it may signify, was unlike every other fruit in the Garden: it was not offered as a gift to man. Not given, not blessed by God, it...

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...

I am just beginning to really get grounded in solitude, so that if my life were to be on the way of ending now, this would be my one regret. Loss of the years of solitude that might be possible. Nothing else

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...