Three Counsels - St Anthony the Great

Someone asked Abba Anthony: "What should I do to please God?" The old man replied: "Observe these commandments of mine: wherever you go, always keep God before your eyes; whatever you do or say, base it on the Scriptures; and wherever you once dwell, do not easily depart from it. If you do these three things, you will be saved.

A man who wants to please another man is prepared to do a lot. A change of attitude, a change of behaviour - everything is on the table, especially if there is a tangible gain in sight.

But what should a person do if he wants to please God? 

Whoever put this question to Anthony received an answer consisting of three tips.

1. Always have God before your eyes - that is, live with the awareness that God exists and that your every action, your every word, your every thought is clear and obvious to Him. There are no secrets from God.

This injunction is not meant to make me believe that I am a participant in some "God's Reality Show" or that I am under some kind of constant surveillance.

Keeping God always before my eyes does indeed mean that I should remember Him in all my actions and treat Him with seriousness and respect. 

Having God always before my eyes is also not an invitation to build some kind of neurotic vision of Christianity (I recently read such a term somewhere on Facebook in reference to a more traditionally understood religiosity). It is an invitation to show the same respect to the personal God as to a loved one. To include God in one's plans and actions in the same way that one includes a husband, wife and children in one's daily life. ....

2. Whatever you do or say, base it on Scripture - this sounds like a big nudge to modern man, who is often unfamiliar with Scripture, and even if he is, he does not necessarily see it as a source of inspiration for his words and actions.

This reference, however, is a testimony to the way in which St Anthony and his contemporaries approached the Word of God. For them, it was not just one of the many "cultural texts" which, of course, are worth reading, but with which they should not concern themselves... For them, the way to study Scripture was to go into the desert and learn it by heart, if not in its entirety, then at least in fragments. Their journey into the desert usually began with inspiration from the words of Scripture.

In addition, they came with the quite reasonable conviction that the more in line with Scripture their words and actions were, the closer they were to what God was calling his followers to do.

3. Wherever you live, don't just leave - in a world as interconnected as ours, this seems impossible. After all, many modern people move at least several times in their lives. It is increasingly difficult to achieve stability, understood as a fixed place in the world.

But this injunction can be understood more sincerely, even though monks did indeed attach themselves firmly to their goals and cared deeply about what the Rule of St Benedict developed into the vow of stabilitas loci. A broader understanding will be concerned primarily with perseverance. Especially perseverance in the pursuit of the good. Perseverance in the pursuit of heaven. 

It can be expressed, for example, in faithfully getting up every morning and starting the day with prayer. It can be expressed in devoting 15 minutes a day to reading the Scriptures. It can be expressed in ...

This injunction is also about developing the ability to see your resolutions through to the end. Not getting discouraged too easily.

It can also be about not giving in to the volatility and instability that is so fashionable today, but building your life on something sustainable.

Mind your own business - St Anthony the Great

The same Abba Anthony, once reflecting on the depth of God's judgments, asked: "Lord, why is it that some die in early youth and others live to a ripe old age? Why is it that some live in poverty and others become rich? Why do the wicked get rich and the good get poor?" And he heard a voice saying: "Anthony, be careful: for all these things are the judgments of God, and it would not do you any good to understand them".

If you were looking for a summary of this apophthegm, you could use the sentence: Mind your own business, Anthony. Concentrate on yourself and trust that God knows what He is doing.

Of course we understand Abba Anthony and his thoughts very well. We may have done it ourselves more than once or twice, wondering why the world is the way it is.

The question of why is quite ingrained in human nature. My metaphysics lecturer used to say that it is the origin of all philosophy, of all the quest for knowledge. 

As human beings we want to know. We want to overcome our ignorance. We want to know.

To say that something cannot be explained, that there is some knowledge that we do not deserve, that there is some knowledge that may not even work for us.... That doesn't convince us. It goes against the part of our nature that is driven by that inner why of ours?

And yet that is the message this apophthegm gives us. There are things - the "judgments of God" - that are beyond our capacity to understand. Which we do not need to know and understand. Which we should accept in order to express our trust in God.

Someone will say - a convenient explanation by which to spread ignorance.

Is this really so?

The real meaning of this apoftegma lies in understanding two things.

The first is that if we constantly focus on 'important things', such as the great questions posed by Antony, we will in time lose the ability to work on ourselves. What is always important is 'something else'. And that other, in time, robs us of the ability to open ourselves to God, with the result that we neglect the pursuit of holiness.

The second is very natural. When we are constantly focused on others, we quickly begin to see things that are not the case. The state of preoccupation with others can also be a source of sins: slander, gossip, jealousy.... All these sins have their origin in an excessive focus on others. Therefore, not caring about what does not belong to us is to our own detriment. So it is worth guarding against them.

But what seems to me most important in all this is the implicit reminder: Trust in God; His judgments cannot be measured by human standards, and His justice is greater than any human concept of justice.

Trust!

Abba Anthony the Great

Image source

Abba Anthony is also known as St Anthony the Great or St Anthony the Abbot. He was born in Egypt around the year 250. He came from a wealthy family, but after the death of his parents he gave away all his possessions and began the life of an ascetic. He spent several years in the family home and then moved to an ancient tomb some distance from his home village. There he began to attract people who wanted to imitate his way of life.

He changed his residence several times, but each time his followers found him and followed him. They formed the first groups of Anachorets.

During his life he went to Alexandria twice. Once to support the Christians there during the persecution. The second time to support the Patriarch Athanasius in his dispute with the Arians. It was Athanasius who wrote his life.

What is striking is the great discrepancy between the way St Anthony is represented in iconography and the image of him that emerges from the writings that have survived. Iconography focuses on images of the monk, sometimes very fantastic, attacked by Satan and depicted as various monsters. In contrast, his writings are full of peace.

Undoubtedly, St Anthony experienced the action of Satan in his life. This action was clear and often painful. All the battles he had to fight became a source of strength for him. For painters, these battles are mainly the inspiration for images that are meant to inspire the imagination. For Anthony, however, they were primarily internal.

Satan does not act openly. Such action would be detrimental to him. He prefers subtleties, half-truths and subtle inspirations to 'standing with his visor open'. But original sin makes us vulnerable to his actions. In each person, Satan finds a "beachhead" from which to launch his attacks. He acts through temptation, which concerns the particular weakness that man carries within him. He encourages man to succumb to this weakness until it becomes an addiction, and then he brings evil into man's life and into the lives of those around him. A common tactic of his is to present evil as something good. He wants to confuse minds and consciences with his actions.

But man is not defenceless. He can seek out and recognise his weaknesses. He can also identify the places from which Satan attacks the innocence of another person. There is, however, a danger in this method - because in a defensive struggle, the same methods are very often used by the attacker out of necessity.

The hermits, including Saint Anthony, fought this battle in a different way. They looked for the influence of Satan within themselves and fought on that basis. This battle has a special characteristic. It can only be undertaken out of love for God. It involves great difficulties and the benefits are sometimes elusive and hard to see. This motivation (love of God) is important because it is impossible to fight Satan effectively if the motive for this fight is the pursuit of perfectionism or any other selfish motivation.

What was this like for St Anthony?

Once, when he fell into discouragement and inner darkness, he had a vision of someone like him quietly interspersing his work with prayer. This encouraged him to persevere. When he wanted to delve into God's orchestration of individual people, to look for patterns in the workings of divine providence, he received a vision telling him to stop. Thus Anthony experienced two temptations: despair and complacency in judging God's judgments. His victory over them was not on the basis of his strength, but as a result of God's clear help. His ability to resist temptation, then, is an ability that is well transformed into a strong habit of relying on God's help.

Anthony was characterised by a constant search for closeness to God. This closeness, however, turns out to be difficult - in the sense that a close life with God becomes a source of light that illuminates all that is unholy in us. It offers an experience of weakness that can become a source of despair. This was the experience of our Saint, who, with God's help, found the way to overcome this temptation. It is the recognition of one's own powerlessness - humility. The paradox of this situation is that the encounter with evil in oneself becomes the gateway to the triumph of God. For Anthony, then, temptation became an opportunity not so much for a fall as for a victory made possible by God and his grace. He sums up this experience by saying "No one can enter the kingdom of God without being tried. Take away the temptation and no one will be saved".

This is the first lesson we receive from him. To learn to call the sin in our lives by its name, to recognise it as our weakness, and to entrust it to God so that he may, by his grace, free us from this weakness.

The asceticism of the monks

What we owe in a special way to the monks of the desert is their teaching on asceticism. It is not, in fact, a structured teaching, but rather a set of guidelines developed for the needs of certain people. Within these guidelines, however, there are some specific concepts with which it is useful to become familiar.

Desert

It meant total isolation. Going into the desert meant leaving everything you had 'in the world'. The desert did not only have a geographical meaning, implying a place of departure. The desert also had a spiritual meaning - it signified the rejection of evil, selfishness, all that the world brings.

The desert is a way that is described many times in the pages of Scripture. It was the way of Abraham, who walked through the desert to the Promised Land and only reached it by leaving everything behind. It was the way of Moses and the chosen people. The prophets were associated with the desert: Elijah and John the Baptist. Christ also prepared for his public appearances by spending time in the desert.

The desert is also a place of temptation and difficulty. In a way, it symbolises the kingdom of Satan. The scorching heat, the emptiness - all these are symbols of his work and power.

The exodus into the wilderness was to defeat Satan at the very heart of his kingdom. The weapons were repentance, mortification and humility. And the fruit of the struggle was a renewed paradise to flourish in that desert through the development of angelic life.

The Word

Going out into the desert was like going out into the battlefield. And it was necessary to prepare oneself for battle. Each monk therefore underwent a novitiate under the guidance of an 'old man'. The word 'old man' does not refer to age. It is used to emphasise the experience and wisdom of the monk.

The old man was the one who guided the novice with the 'word'. It was a special grace and gift.  It was given with prudence. More than once a young monk had to wait for such a "word" and earn it by humility, perseverance and faith.

The true "word" could also be silence, which the novice had to learn.

The old man's "word" was tailored to the current need and situation. It was a response to a specific problem. The old man who was the "giver of the word" is here understood as the "bearer of God", and his word is understood as the word of God himself.  Such a word, once spoken, must be fulfilled. And this is the task of the disciple. It is he who must face the word of the old man. He must ponder it in his heart and put it into practice.

Hesychia

Hesychia is the ideal to which every monk aspires. The Greek word, which is difficult to translate, means above all a particular way of silencing everything that comes from the world. This silence is disturbed by temptations, the intensity and nature of which are adapted to the individual.

The attainment of hesychia is achieved through struggle. Man must master the desire to possess through poverty, the desire to exalt himself through humility, the desire to satisfy himself through fasting.

But the most important thing is humility. It alone can defeat Satan. Humility is what Satan fears the most. It is the best help to achieve hesychia - peace of heart based on serenity.

Holiness

Holiness is the universal vocation of all Christians. It is not reserved for monks.

This is the conviction we have today, but it was very difficult for monks to come to the conviction that holiness could be achieved by a way of life that seemed less perfect than the monastic vocation.

Among the various vocations, the monastic way of life stands out in a special way because of its radicalism of life, which is expressed above all in the uncompromising acceptance of the Gospel.

For the monks it was clear that there is only one treasure for man: God. For this treasure it is worth selling everything and leaving everything behind to gain it. And this was the true meaning of their lives.

Everyday life of monks

To get to know our desert treasure hunters better, today we are going to take a look at what their daily lives were like. This is important for a better understanding of the later parts of this series.

When we begin to talk about monks today, we unconsciously relate the subject to familiar examples of monastic life as we know it today. It must be said at once that today's religious orders and congregations have accustomed us to a decidedly greater activity of monks on behalf of the community of the Church. In the times to which our series relates, things were very different.

The word monk itself comes from the Greek monachos, which can be translated as 'one'. Our heroes were also called anachorets (from the Greek anachoreo - I go away) or eremites (from the Greek eremos - forsaken, alone). Despite these terms, we will not meet absolute hermits in the desert. This is mainly because there was a paradox in desert life: the more a monk wanted to isolate himself from the world, the more he needed outside help. A monk who chose hermitage - to cut himself off completely from the world - could not survive without a disciple to provide him with food and water.

Monks also met for the Eucharist, sometimes for communal prayer or to buy food. But their relationships were not as close as those in modern monasteries. There was not as strict a concept of superiors and subordinates within the community as there is today.

So what was the life of a monk like?

The beginnings

Feeling the call to live in the desert, he began his journey by finding an elder (Abba - father) who had 'eaten his teeth' of monastic life. The Abba would become the novice master who, by subjecting the candidate to various tests, would teach him everything necessary for the young monk to become independent and able to begin his individual struggle for salvation.

Cell

The dwelling of a desert monk is a far cry from a modern monastic cell. A cell was very often described as a cave in which the monk lived. Another type of cell was a building made of stone poured with mud and covered with branches.

The cell was often divided into two rooms. One for prayer and the other for work and rest. There may also have been a garden near the cell where the monk grew vegetables for his own use.

The furnishings of a cell were usually very modest (although even then there were cases of non-compliance). It consisted of a mat to sleep on, a jar of water and sometimes a hearth to cook a meal.

However, the cell was not just a material place for the monk to live. It was also a means of asceticism, an exercise in virtue. This is why monks often admonished each other not to leave their cells. In fact, leaving the cell often meant leaving the monastic life.

The order of the day

A monk would begin the day with prayer. This was followed by work, which lasted until 9am (about 3pm in our reckoning). This hour was meal time (the only meal of the day). The monk would then rest for a while before returning to work. Work was followed by prayer, spiritual reading (if the monk could read and had a book). Evening was the time for more prayer. Sometimes the fathers would meet in the evening to discuss spiritual matters. Nights were often spent in prayer vigils, often lasting until the morning.

On Saturday evenings the monks of the area would meet for the Eucharist, followed by an agape.

Work

Work occupied an important place in monastic life. The obligation to work is repeatedly emphasised in the accounts of life in the desert. Each monk was obliged to support himself by the work of his own hands.

The most common occupations were manual labour of various kinds - a result of the background of most monks. The monks chose their activities in such a way that they did not interfere with prayer. So monks weaved ropes, made baskets, made mats.... These jobs were sufficiently mechanical that the prayer formulae could be repeated.

Sometimes, however, a monk with the necessary skills and training would take on work such as transcribing texts.

Meals

As well as eating once a day, it was not uncommon for monks to fast, especially when they faced temptation. It was not uncommon for a monk to eat only every other day, sometimes even every third day.

Simple food was eaten. Baked bread every few months, barley cakes, vegetables, fruit.... No meat was eaten. Occasionally a little wine was on the menu, but water was the daily drink.

Visits were an exception - when a monk received guests, he did not betray his fast in any way and welcomed them as best he could so as not to offend their hospitality.

Prayer

Monks usually prayed twice a day. In the morning and in the evening. On each occasion they recited 12 psalms. Scripture was the foundation of their prayer life. Many of them knew it by heart. They used it in both personal and community prayer.

In general, a specific ideal of the monks' prayer life was to strive for "perpetual prayer". This ideal was achieved by repeating simple formulas from the Psalms or the Gospels.

People and places

 We already know a little about the times in which our heroes lived. This time we will take a look at them. 

Perhaps it is not yet time to focus on individual characters and their life stories, but it will be good to understand the social groups from which those who left everything and went to the desert came. We will also talk about the main centres of monastic life, because although we are talking about the monks of the desert, this does not mean that they did not form specific communities.

But first the people.

In the beginning, the monks were recruited mainly from among the inhabitants of Egypt, but over time, as the news of people seeking God in the desert spread further and further, people from all over the Mediterranean appeared among them. Mostly from Palestine, Syria, Greece, Asia Minor, etc. People from Rome or Gaul also appeared, though less frequently.

In terms of social background, they were mostly recruited from among the common people. Many of them were former farmers, shepherds, camel drivers or representatives of other trades practised by the poor. There were also people from urban backgrounds, but they were in the minority. Their origins are reflected in their way of life and the peculiar culture that developed among them.

Among the monks, we also find what we would now call the marginalised. There was no shortage of thugs, criminals, prostitutes... People who sought redemption and atonement for their sins in monastic life. But that was not all. Among the desert monks we know, we also find representatives of the Roman aristocracy, intellectuals - with an almost elite education for the time.

Nevertheless, the majority were simple people. As a result, when we turn to the collections of their speeches, written down by those who benefited from their teachings, we get content that is concrete and untainted by sophisticated rhetoric.  Far from being a disadvantage, this is the special charm of the wisdom of the Fathers who, while remaining simple men, attained a rich spiritual life and wished to share it as best they could with others who were similar to them in simplicity, using the simplest language.

As far as family life is concerned, we encounter different situations in the desert. We meet monks who have never lived in marriage, couples who have separated by mutual consent, those who have lived in white marriages. Sometimes we meet those who have decided to go to the desert together, living in separate communities (male and female). For the desert was a place for all.

And speaking of place. When we speak of the desert, we think of the areas around the Nile Valley, the Judean Desert or the Sinai Desert and the area around Gaza. We derive this knowledge from the known statements of the Fathers themselves, which are unfortunately not very precise. Archaeological research would probably help to deepen this knowledge, but let us not deceive ourselves - the monks are far outnumbered by research into the culture of the Pharaohs and the ancient Egyptians. So we are left with the testimony of the Fathers themselves, who often mention the most important centres of monastic life in the desert.

And so we learn of groups of monks around Nitria, in the area of the ancient soda mines. To the south of this, there was a real city made up of cells inhabited by monks, called Celia.

Some 65 kilometres to the south, even deeper in the desert, was Sketis. Another place where monastic life was born and flourished. Over time, Sketis became the centre and standard for monastic life.

In addition to these places, we can also hear about Ferme, Fayum or Tebaida. There was also no shortage of centres in urban areas. Whatever the location, however, the aim was always the same. It was about getting away from the "worldly" life and concentrating on God. The communities, in turn, came about naturally because they were formed by people who came to a place, attracted by the fame of the monk who lived there, who became a kind of founder of the community and its master. The desert conditions also meant that living in communities was simply safer.

What a times...

 The origins of desert monasticism lie in the late third and early fourth centuries. This was the last period of the great persecution of Christians. Especially in Egypt, the persecution was very bloody and cruel.

The situation calmed down when Constantine the Great, Emperor of the Western Empire, who was sympathetic to the Christians, came to power and together with Licinius, Emperor of the Eastern Empire, issued an edict of tolerance, granting religious freedom to all the inhabitants of the Empire. The Great Persecution was practically a thing of the past (it would only return once more, when Julian the Apostate came to power). Instead, other problems arose from within Christianity itself.

The first half of the fourth century was the time of the first serious doctrinal disputes. These were caused by Arius, a priest from Alexandria. Arius' teaching included a false view of the Trinity and a rejection of the deity of Jesus Christ. As Alexandria was a port city and Arius himself a popular figure, his theses spread very quickly across the Mediterranean and beyond, causing much unrest among Christians. One measure of this unrest became the fights and battles between the followers of Arius and the followers of the bishops who professed belief in the one and eternal Trinity and that Jesus Christ was both God and man.

The unrest surrounding Arianism became so significant that the Emperor Constantine led the convening of the First World Council, which was held in Nicaea in 325. This council brought together some 250 bishops or their representatives. As a result of their deliberations, the teachings of Arius were condemned and declared heretical. There is also an event associated with the Council which is linked to the well-known and popular bishop, Nicholas of Myra. He was a strong opponent of the theses put forward by Arius, and it is said that when Arius was speaking before the Emperor and the assembled bishops, Nicholas stood up and struck him in the face because he could not bear to deny the divine nature of Jesus Christ. As this happened in the presence of the Emperor, Nicholas was imprisoned for a time, but was soon released.

The Council's decisions did not end the controversy, and factionalism continued for a long time. They had an impact on the lives of the monks of the Egyptian desert, who, while remaining adherents of the doctrine promulgated at the Council, were not infrequently expelled from their cells and forced to leave Egypt.

It is interesting to note that the unrest did not in any way diminish the popularity of monastic life. Moreover, in the second half of the fourth century, pilgrims from Western Europe, from Rome, Spain or Gaul, arrived in the desert. This is related to the beginnings of monasticism in the West. It was not uncommon for imperial visitors to learn the rudiments of monastic life from desert monks, who would later return to their homelands and transplant the experience they had gained in Egypt to Europe, thoughtfully and appropriately adapted.

Life in the desert was fraught with danger. Attacks on the monks were not uncommon. All thanks to the wild peoples of the desert. The invasions of the Bedouin tribes on Sketis - the informal capital of Eastern monasticism - contributed to the decline of desert monastic life, which was never revived to the same extent as at the height of its popularity.

The end of the era of the desert monks is closely linked to the Christological disputes of the fifth century. Admittedly, the disputes themselves did not make much of an impression on the monks and, with a few notorious exceptions, they did not get involved in the affairs of the Council of Ephesus (431) and the disputes between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius. However, it happened that Dioscurus, an unscrupulous man and supporter of the thesis that Christ had only one divine-human nature, became Patriarch of Alexandria. (The Church teaches that both natures, divine and human, are fully present in Christ). Through influence and intrigue of various kinds, he involved the monks in ongoing theological disputes. He even led the monks to break up the Council of Ephesus in 449. Several Council Fathers were killed as a result of this tragic event. 

After the Council of Chalcedon (451) proclaimed the doctrine of two natures united in the one person of Christ, the monks "dug in their positions" and became a bastion of monophysitism (the view that Christ has only one nature). This initially led to a division between the two camps, which were relatively gentle with each other, but over time the Monophysites gained the upper hand and by the end of the fifth century there was monastic life in the Egyptian desert, but it was no longer linked to Christianity, which was united around the person of the Bishop of Rome.

And it was a text with a lot of historical and theological content. But those were the times, and if we are to continue to search for our treasures in the wilderness, we need to be aware of this, at least in general terms. Why? Because those to be discussed are children of that time, just as we are children of the 20th and 21st centuries. And just as we are influenced by access to television, the Internet and the older experiences of communist times, so the events I have described today influenced those who sought an encounter with God in monastic life.