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"body": "When Abba Macarius dwelt in the great desert, he was the only one living as an anchorite, but lower down there was another desert where several brothers dwelt. The old man was surveying the road when he saw Satan drawing near in the likeness of a man and he passed by his dwelling. He seemed to be wearing some kind of cotton garment, full of holes, and a small flask hung at each hole. The old man said to him, 'Where are you off to?' He said, 'I am going to stir up the memories of the brethren.'...The old man remained watching the road until he saw him coming back again. When the old man saw him, he said to him: 'Good health to you.' The other replied: 'How can I be in good health?' The old man asked him what he meant, and he replied, 'Because they all opposed me, and no one received me.' The old man said, 'Ah, you did not find any friends down there?' He replied, 'Yes, I have a monk who is a friend down there. He at least obeys me and when he sees me he changes like the wind.' The old man asked him the name of this monk. 'Theopemtus,' he replied. With these words he went away. Then Abba Macarius got up and went to the desert below his own. When they heard of it the brothers took branches of palm to go to meet him. Each one got ready, thinking that it was to him the old man was coming down. But he enquired which was the one on the mountain called Theopemptus, and when he had found out he went to his cell. Theopemptus received him with joy. When he was alone with him the old man asked him, 'How are you getting on?' Theopemptus replied, 'Thanks to your prayers, all goes well.' The old man asked: 'Do not your thoughts war against you?' He replied: 'Up to now, it is all right,' for he was afraid to admin anything. The old man said to him, 'See how many years I lived as an ascetic, and am praied by all, and though I am old, the spirit of fornication troubles me.' Theopemptus said, 'Believe me, abba, it is the same with me.' The old man went on admitting that other thoughts still warred against him, until he had brought him to admit them about himself. Then he said, 'How do you fast?' He replied, 'Till the ninth hour.' 'Practice fasting a little later; meditate on the Gospel and the other Scriptures, and if an alien thought arises within you, never look at it but always look upwards, and the Lord will come at once to your help.' When he had given the brother this rule, the old man then returned to his solitude. He was watching the road once more when he saw the devil, to whom he said, 'Where are you going this time?' He replied, 'To arouse the memories of the brothers,' and he went away. When he came back the saint asked him, 'How are the brothers?' He replied that it had gone badly. The old man asked him why. He replied, 'They are all obdurate, and the worst is the one friend I had who used to obey me. I do not know what has changed him, but not only does he not obey me any more, but he has become the most obdurate of them all.",
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"body": "There is within us the very image of God: 'life and the kingdom...the treasures of grace.' If shame is part of our answer to the question, 'How do I feel about who I am?' this path reminds us that the truth of who I am is not found on the surface. Who I am is not to be mistaken for the 'garments of skin'-- the various strategies, identities, and designs with which we seek to clothe ourselves. The deepest mode of the spiritual life is one that searches for God, that asks, seeks, and knocks, in order to find the Kingdom. That is a search that takes us beneath layers of shame, beneath our false identities, into the very place where the image of God and the true self reside. This is a difficult journey.",
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"body": "Speaking to adolescents, I have often used this imagery of the inner temple to help them understand the Church's teaching regarding sexual intimacy. There is a 'narthex' of the soul, our 'outer courtyard.' This most public part of our lives represents the face we show the world. It is a place of casual encounters, some of which bring joy, some of which we quickly reject. A few of the people we encounter in this way may be invited into friendship, into the 'inner courtyard' or 'nave' of the soul. That invitation is extended to those who can be trusted to value us, to respect the honor they have been given, and to acknowledge that they are guests here. We also have a 'holy place' that is our most intimate and delicate place. Into some portion of that place, we invite the most intimate of all human relationships--a spouse. The Church surrounds that relationship with rules and norms, not out of a fascination with a legalistic morality; instead, it is the deepest care of the soul that the Church seeks to guard. If this place is violated, particularly on a regular basis--as it is violated by sexual contact outside marriage--it begins to lose its ability to function. The result is a loss of the true self, an alientation from who we truly are, and an inability to find God. In plain terms, if the most intimate part of the soul is turned into the most public part of the soul, the mystery is trampled underfoot. We become lost. The darkness that results manifests itself in a myriad of ways, none of them healthy or life-giving.",
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