From the Fathers of the Desert
Book XXI
Diverse Sayings
xvii. One came to the abbot Marcarius, in the great heat of noon, burning with thirst, and asked for water to drink. "Let this shade," said he, "suffice thee, for many a wayfarer on land or on sea is now in want of it, and hath no pleasure of it."
Macarius reminds, as do most of the fathers, or the unbelievable comfort that we live in here in this country. I have lived, for the most part, my whole life beneath the so-called poverty level established by some bureaucrats in Washington, and yet I live as a king of many empires compared to millions around the world, and certainly I can't fathom the renunciation of comfort that so gripped these holy men of old. I might fantasize about such heroic efforts, but few American Christians, including myself will ever really know what it is to be "poor in spirit."
Diverse Sayings
xvii. One came to the abbot Marcarius, in the great heat of noon, burning with thirst, and asked for water to drink. "Let this shade," said he, "suffice thee, for many a wayfarer on land or on sea is now in want of it, and hath no pleasure of it."
Macarius reminds, as do most of the fathers, or the unbelievable comfort that we live in here in this country. I have lived, for the most part, my whole life beneath the so-called poverty level established by some bureaucrats in Washington, and yet I live as a king of many empires compared to millions around the world, and certainly I can't fathom the renunciation of comfort that so gripped these holy men of old. I might fantasize about such heroic efforts, but few American Christians, including myself will ever really know what it is to be "poor in spirit."