March 22, 1998
Being
Blessed by Giving Charitably
This week's selection is about showing mercy to others and is
from an anonymous father of the desert:
BEGIN: A monk had a brother living in the world who was poor, and so he supplied him with
all he received from his work. But the more the monk supplied, the poorer the brother
became. So the monk went to tell an old man about it. The old man said to him, "If
you want my advice, do not give him anything more, but say to him, 'Brother, when I had
something I supplied you; now bring me what you get from your work.' Take all he brings
you, and whenever you see a stranger or a poor man, give him some of it, begging him to
pray for him."
The monk went away and did this. When his secular brother came, he spoke to him as the old
man had said, and the brother went sadly away. The first day, taking some vegetables from
his field, he brought them to the monk. The monk took them and gave them to the old men,
begging them to pray for his brother, and after the blessing he returned home. In the same
way, another time, the brother brought the monk some vegetables and three loaves, which he
took, doing as on the first occasion, and having received the blessing he went away.
And the secular brother came a third time bringing many provisions, some bread, and fish.
Seeing this, the monk was full of wonder, and he invited the poor so as to give them
refreshment. The he said to his brother, "Do you not need a little bread?" The
other said to him, "No, for when I used to receive something from you, it was like
fire coming into my house and burning it, but now that I receive nothing from you, God
blesses me."
Then the monk went to tell the old man all that had happened, and the old man said to him,
"Do you not know that the work of the monk is of fire, and where it enters, it burns?
It helps your brother more to do alms with what he reaps from his field, and to receive
the prayers of the saints and thus to be blessed." END
from "The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers," by Sr. Benedicta Ward,
(Oxford: SLG Press, 1986), pp. 43-44
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