Saying of the Desert Christians: Life Together 1

from:http://www.cin.org/dsrtft8.html

Amma Syncletica said, "We ought to govern our souls with discretion and to remain in the community, neither following our own will nor seeking our own good. We are like exiles: we have been separated from the things of this world and have given ourselves in one faith to the one Father. We need nothing of what we have left behind. There we had reputation and plenty to eat; here we have little to eat and little of everything else."

Some thoughts

One of the things that I most appreciate about the Desert Christians is their stark lack of compromise. True, that often led them to an unhealthy extremism. But their lack of compromise throws into stark relief our own wishy-washiness where we excuse, justify and rationalize all sorts of compromises. Not that compromise is bad, quite the opposite. But the question I always am left with in reading these Sayings is this: do I compromise too much?

Praise be to God that even so, He still loves me. Look at all the cads and scoundrels of the Hebrew Scriptures who are reported to have been loved by God and who loved Him.