Care Of The Sick

October 3, 2015 | A Word From the Desert

A brother questioned an old man, saying, ‘Here are two brothers. One of them leads a solitary life for six days a week, giving himself much pain, and the other serves the sick. Whose work does God accept with the greater favour?’ 

The old man said, ‘Even if the one who withdraws for six days were to hang himself up by his nostrils, he could not equal the one who serves the sick.’

Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Artwork: Phyllis Nicoll