Alphabetical sayings of the desert fathers
Here are some alphabetical sayings of the desert fathers:
A - "Abba Anthony said, 'Whoever hammers a lump of iron, first decides what he is going to make of it, a scythe, a sword, or an axe. Even so we ought to make up our minds what kind of virtue we want to forge or we labor in vain.'"
B - "Abba Poemen said, 'As the body cannot live without nourishment, so the soul cannot be safe without prayer.'"
C - "Abba Moses said, 'Flee always, keep death before your eyes, and remember the everlasting judgment.'"
D - "Abba Arsenius said, 'I have often repented that I have spoken, but never that I have been silent.'"
E - "Abba Pambo said, 'If you have a heart, you can be saved.'"
F - "Abba John the Dwarf said, 'We have put aside the easy burden, which is self-accusation, and have loaded ourselves with the heavy one, self-justification.'"
G - "Abba Poemen said, 'Do not give your heart to that which does not satisfy your heart.'"
H - "Abba Anthony said, 'I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning, 'What can get through from such snares?' Then I heard a voice saying to me, 'Humility.'"
I - "Abba Poemen said, 'A man may seem to be silent, but if his heart is condemning others, he is babbling ceaselessly. But there may be another who talks from morning till night and yet he is truly silent, that is, he says nothing that is not profitable.'"
These sayings reflect the wisdom and teachings of the early Christian monks and hermits who lived in the deserts of Egypt and Syria in the 3rd to 5th centuries.
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