March 29, 1998
How the
Ancients Understood
What It Meant to Be a Monk
This selection is from St. Macarius the Great, born about A.D.
300. A former camel driver, he spent most of his monastic life in Scetis where the Coptic
Monastery of St. Macarius stands to this day with a very active community and monastic
life.
BEGIN: One day, Macarius the Egyptian went from Scetis to the mountain of Nitria for the
offering of Abba Pambo. The old men said to him, "Father, say a word to the
brethren." He said, "I have not yet become a monk myself, but I have seen monks.
One day when I was sitting in my cell, my thoughts were troubling me, suggesting that I
should go to the desert and see what I could see there. I remained for five years,
fighting against this thought, saying, perhaps it comes from demons. But since the thought
persisted, I left for the desert.
"There I found a sheet of water and an island in the midst, and the animals of the
desert came to drink there. In the midst of these animals I saw two naked men, and my body
trembled, for I believed they were spirits. Seeing me shaking, they said to me, 'Do not be
afraid, for we are men.' Then I said to them, 'Where do you come from, and how did you
come to this desert?'
"They said, 'We come from a monastery and having agreed to gather, we came here forty
years ago. One of us is an Egyptian and the other a Libyan.' They questioned me and asked
me, 'How is the world? Is the water rising in due time? Is the world enjoying prosperity?'
"I replied it was, then I asked them, 'How can I become a monk?' They said to me, 'If
you do not give up all that is in the world, you cannot become a monk.' I said to them,
'But I am weak, and I cannot do as you do.' So they said to me: 'If you cannot become like
us, sit in your cell and weep for your sins.'
"I asked them, 'When the winter comes are you not frozen?' And when the heat comes do
not your bodies burn?' They said, 'It is God who has made this way of life for us. We do
not freeze in winter, and the summer does us no harm.'
"That is why I said that I have not yet become a monk, but I have seen monks."
END
from, "The Desert Christian," by Sr. Benedicta Ward, New York:
MacMillan Publishing Co., 1975, pp. 125-126
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