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1. Somebody asked Antony, ‘What shall I do in order to please God?’ He replied, ‘Do what I tell you, which is this: wherever you go, keep God in mind; whatever you do, follow the example of holy Scripture; wherever you are, stay there and do not move away in a hurry. If you keep to these guide-lines, you will be saved.’
2. Pambo said to Antony, ‘What shall I do?’ Antony said, ‘Do not trust in your own righteousness. Do not go on sorrowing over a deed that is past. Keep your tongue and your belly under control.’
3. Gregory said, ‘God asks three things of anyone who is baptized: to keep the true faith with all his soul and all his might; to control his tongue; to be chaste in his body.’
4. Evagrius said, ‘Some of our predecessors used to say that a dry and regular diet combined with love will soon bring a monk to the harbour where the storms of passion do not enter.’
5. He also said, ‘A monk was told that his father had died. He said to the messenger, “Do not blaspheme. My Father cannot die.” ’
6. Macarius said to Zacharias, ‘Tell me, what makes a monk?’ He said, ‘Isn’t it wrong for you to be asking me?’ Macarius said to him, ‘I am sure I should ask you, Zacharias my son. There is something that urges me to ask you.’ Zacharias said to him, ‘As far as I can tell, abba, I think anyone who controls himself and makes himself content with just what he needs and no more, is indeed a monk.’
7. They used to say about Theodore of Pherme that he kept these three rules before all others: poverty, abstinence, and avoiding the company of other people.
8. John the Short said, ‘I will invent a man composed of all the virtues. He would rise at dawn every morning, take up the beginning of each virtue, and keep God’s commandments. He would live in great patience, in fear, in long-suffering, in the love of God; with a firm purpose of soul and body; in deep humility, in patience, in trouble of heart and earnestness of practice. He would pray often, with sorrow of heart, keeping his speech pure, his eyes controlled. He would suffer injury without anger, remaining peaceful, and not rendering evil for evil, not looking out for the faults of others, nor puffing himself up, meekly subject to every creature, renouncing material property and everything of the flesh. He would live as though crucified, in struggle, in lowliness of spirit, in good will and spiritual abstinence, in fasting, in penitence, in weeping. He would fight against evil, be wise and discreet in judgement and chaste in mind. He would receive good treatment with tranquillity, working with his own hands, watching at night, enduring hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness and labour. He would live as though buried in a tomb and already dead, every day feeling death to be near him.’
9. Joseph of Thebes said, ‘Three things are seen to be honourable by God. The first is when temptations come on someone who is weak, and are accepted thankfully. The second is when every action is pure before God, mixed with no human motive. The third is when a disciple remains obedient to a spiritual father, and gives up all his self-will.’
10. Cassian told this story about John, who was the father of a community because he was great in his way of life. When he was dying, he was cheerful, and his mind was set upon the Lord; his brothers stood around him and asked for a sentence that would sum up the way to salvation, which he could give them as a legacy by which they might rise to the perfection that is in Christ. With a sigh he said ‘I have never obeyed my own will, and I never taught anyone to do anything which I did not do myself first.’
11. A brother asked a hermit, ‘Tell me something good that I may do it and live by it.’ The hermit said, ‘God alone knows what is good. But I have heard that one of the hermits asked the great Nesteros, who was a friend of Antony, ‘What good work shall I do?’ and he replied, ‘Surely all works please God equally? Scripture says, Abraham was hospitable and God was with him; Elijah loved quiet and God was with him; David was humble and God was with him.’ So whatever you find you are drawn to in following God’s will, do it and let your heart be at peace.’
12. Poemen said, ‘To be on guard, to meditate within, to judge with discernment: these are the three works of the soul.’
13. A brother asked him, ‘How ought we to live?’ Poemen replied, ‘We have seen the example of Daniel. They accused him of nothing except that he served his God.’
14. The same hermit said, ‘Poverty, suffering and wise discernment are the three parts of a hermit’s life. It is written that there were these three, Noah, Job and Daniel. Noah is the type of those who own nothing, Job of those who are suffering, Daniel of those who judge wisely. Where there are these three qualities, there God dwells.’
15. Poemen said, ‘If a monk hates two things, he can be free of this world.’ A brother inquired, ‘What are they?’ He said, ‘Bodily comfort and conceit.’
16. They used to say of Pambo that in the hour of his death he said to the holy men standing round, ‘From the time that I came into this solitude, and built my cell and lived in it, I do not remember having eaten anything I have not worked for. I have not said anything that I regretted saying. But still I go to the Lord, as one who has not yet made a beginning in the service of God.’
17. Sisois said, ‘Be despised; put your self-will behind your back; be free of worldly concerns, and you will have peace.’
18. When Chame was dying, he said to his sons, ‘Do not live with heretics. Do not take any notice of judges. Do not open your hands to get, but let them be stretched out to give.’
19. A brother said to a hermit, ‘How does the fear of God come into the soul?’ He said, ‘If there is humility and poverty, and no judgement of others, the fear of God will be present there.’
20. A hermit said, ‘Let fear and humility, fasting, and weeping, take root in you.’
21. Some of the hermits used to say, ‘Whatever you hate for yourself, do not do it to someone else. If you hate being spoken evil of, do not speak evil of another. If you hate being slandered, do not slander another. If you hate him who tries to make you despised, or wrongs you, or takes away what is yours, or anything like that, do not do such things to others. To keep this is enough for salvation.’
22. A hermit said, ‘This is the life of a monk: work, obedience, meditation, not to judge others, not to speak evil, not to murmur. For it is written, “You who love God, hate the thing that is evil” (Ps. 97:10). This is monastic life: not to live with the wicked, not to see evil, not to be inquisitive, not to be curious, not to listen to gossip, not to use the hands for taking, but for giving; not to be proud in heart or bad in thought, not to fill the belly, in everything to judge wisely. That is the life of the true monk.’
23. A hermit said, ‘Ask God to give you inner grief of heart and humility. Always look at your own sins, and do not judge another’s. Be the servant of all. Do not make friends with a woman, or a boy or a heretic. Do not be self-confident. Control your tongue and appetite, and do not drink wine. If anyone speaks to you on a controversial matter, do not argue with him. If he speaks well, say, “Yes.” If he speaks ill, say, “I don’t know anything about that.” Don’t argue with what he has said, and then your mind will be at peace.’