Humorous stories in the sayings of the desert fathers

One day, a young monk approached an elder in the desert and asked, "Father, how can I attain true humility?" The elder replied, "Go and sit on the roof of your cell and throw down bread crumbs for the birds. If you do this every day and do not consider yourself better than the birds, you will begin to understand humility."

Another time, a group of monks were discussing the importance of silence in their spiritual practice. One of the monks, known for his love of talking, exclaimed, "I can keep silent for hours on end!" The other monks looked at him skeptically, and one of them said, "That's because no one will listen to you even if you do talk!"

In another amusing incident, a young monk asked an elder how he could overcome his tendency to fall asleep during prayer. The elder replied, "Every time you feel drowsy, take a handful of pebbles and place them in your mouth. When you start to nod off, the discomfort of the pebbles will wake you up!" The young monk tried this method and found himself more alert during prayer, but he also discovered that he had inadvertently swallowed a few pebbles in the process.

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