I Am A Beginner

September 2, 2015 | A Word From the Desert

The old men used to say, ‘When you see a young man ascending up to heaven through his own will, seize him by the foot and pull him down, for this is good for him.’

A brother who had withdrawn and taken the habit shut himself up immediately, saying, ‘I am an anchorite’  When they heard him say this, the old men came to drive him away and made him go the round of all the brethren’s cells, bowing before them and saying, ‘Forgive me, for I am not an anchorite, but a beginner’.

Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Artwork: Phyllis Nicoll