𐌳𐌱𐌱𐌳, Ⳓ𐌹𐍛𐌴 𐌼𐌴 𐌳 𐍪𐌏𐍂Ⲇ

A brother asked Abba Macarius, “My father, I have committed a transgression.” Abba Macarius said to him, “It is written, my child, ‘I do not desire the death of a sinner so much as his repentance and his life’ [Ezek 33:11, 1 Tim 2:4, 2 Pet 3:9]. Repent, therefore, my child; you will see Him Who is gentle, our Lord Jesus Christ, His face full of joy for you, like a nursing mother whose face is full of joy for her child. When he raises his hands and his face up to her, even if he is full of all kinds of uncleanness, she does not turn away from that bad smell and excrement but takes pity on him and lifts him up and presses him to her breast, her face full of joy, and everything about him is sweet to her. If, then, this created person has pity for her child, how much greater is the love of the creator, our Lord Jesus Christ, for us! The Virtues of Abba Macarius the Great, §23 ❌

Part 2. https://youtu.be/cfeTcBFluE4?is=P0ym46JX86Gica-i

Part 1. https://youtu.be/xQIAOKQHkFQ?is=JF1WEq-wiNFjUImS

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As the portrait painter keeps an eye upon the king’s face and draws, and when the king’s face is towards him, attending to him at his painting, he draws the portrait easily and well, but when he turns his face away, he cannot draw, because the face is not gazing at the painter; in like manner Christ, the good artist, for those who believe Him and gaze continually at Him, straightway portrays after His own image a heavenly man. Out of His own Spirit, out of the substance of light itself, the ineffable light, He paints a heavenly image, and bestows upon it its good and gracious Spouse. If a man does not gaze constantly at Him, overlooking everything else, the Lord will not paint His image with His own light. We must therefore gaze upon Him, believing and loving Him, throwing away all else, and attending to Him, in order that He may paint His own heavenly image and send it into our souls, and thus, wearing Christ, we may receive eternal life, and even here may have full assurance and be at rest. 5. As the golden coin, if it does not receive the imprint of the king’s image, does not come upon the market, and is not stored in the king’s treasuries, but is discarded, so the soul, if it has not the image of the heavenly Spirit in light unspeakable, even Christ imprinted on it, is not fit for the treasuries above, and is discarded by the good merchants of the kingdom, the apostles. He who was invited, and did not wear the wedding garment, was cast out as an alien into the alien darkness, for not wearing the heavenly image. This is the mark and sign of the Lord imprinted upon souls, being the Spirit of light unspeakable. And as a dead man is useless, and of no use to those of the place, and so they carry him outside the city and bury him, so the soul which does not bear the heavenly image of the divine light, the life of the soul, is cast away and discarded; for a dead soul is of no use to that city of the saints, not bearing the luminous and Divine Spirit. For as in the world the soul is the life of the body, so in the eternal heavenly world the life of the soul is the Spirit of the Godhead. Without the life of the Spirit, this soul is dead to those above, and of no use. Abba Macarius the Great, Homily XXX, §5. ❌

As the portrait painter keeps an eye upon the king’s face and draws, and when the king’s face is towards him, attending to him at his painting, he draws the portrait easily and well, but when he turns his face away, he cannot draw, because the face is not gazing at the painter; in like manner Christ, the good artist, for those who believe Him and gaze continually at Him, straightway portrays after His own image a heavenly man. Out of His own Spirit, out of the substance of light itself, the ineffable light, He paints a heavenly image, and bestows upon it its good and gracious Spouse. If a man does not gaze constantly at Him, overlooking everything else, the Lord will not paint His image with His own light. We must therefore gaze upon Him, believing and loving Him, throwing away all else, and attending to Him, in order that He may paint His own heavenly image and send it into our souls, and thus, wearing Christ, we may receive eternal life, and even here may have full assurance and be at rest. Abba Macarius the Great, Homily XXX, §4. ❌

There was a story that some philosophers once came to test the monks. One of the monks came by dressed in a fine robe. The philosophers said to him, ‘Come here, you.’ But he was indignant, and insulted them. Then another monk came by, a good person, a Libyan by race. They said to him, ‘Come here, you wicked old monk.’ He came to them at once, and they began to hit him, and he turned the other cheek to them. Then the philosophers got up and did homage to him, saying, ‘Here is a monk indeed.’ They made him sit down among them and asked him, ‘What do you do in this desert other than we do? You fast: and we fast also. You chastise your bodies and so do we. Whatever you do, we do the same.’ The monk replied, ‘We trust in God’s grace, and keep a watch on our thoughts.’ They said, ‘That is what we cannot do.’ They were edified, and let him go. The Sayings of the Desert Father, On Patience, §16. ❌

The Lord Himself, Who is the Way, and is God, when He came for thy sake, not for His own, to be a pattern to thee of every good thing—see to what humiliation He came, having taken the form of a servant, Who is God, the Son of God, King, the Son of the King, giving healing remedies and curing those that are wounded, when He Himself appeared outwardly as one of the wounded. But do not despise His divine dignity when thou beholdest Him outwardly humbled as one like us. It was for our sake that He appeared thus, not for His own. Consider, at the hour when they cried, Crucify Him, crucify Him, and the multitude came together, how He was humbled beyond all men. In the ordinary world, if there be a malefactor, and he receives sentence from the magistrate, He is then abhorred by the whole people, and set at nought. So was the Lord at the hour of the cross. As a man that was going to die, He was held of no account by the Pharisees. And when they spat in His face, and put on Him the crown of thorns, and buffeted Him, what further humiliation could He have undergone? It is written, I gave My back to the smiters, and I hid not My face from shame and spitting, and my cheeks from buffeting. If God condescends to such insults and sufferings and humiliation, thou, who art by nature clay and of mortal nature, howsoever thou mayest be humbled, thou wilt never do anything like Thy Master. God for thy sake humbled Himself, and thou wilt not be humbled for thine own sake, but art proud and puffed up. He came to take upon Him thy afflictions and thy burdens, and to give Thee His own rest; and thou art unwilling to bear troubles and to suffer in order to gain healing for thy wounds. Glory be to His patience and long-suffering for ever. Amen. Abba Macarius the Great, Homily XXVI, §24-25. ❌

Abba Macarius the Great, Homily XXVIII, §7. ❌

Abba Macarius the Great, Homily XXVIII, §3. ❌

Abba Isaac the Syrian, Homily 37.

Abba Macarius the Great, Homily XXVII, §22. ❌

Abba Macarius the Great, Homily XXVII, §6. ❌

Saint John of Sinai, The Ladder of Divine Ascent. ❌

Abba Macarius the Great, Homily XXVII, §4. ❌

Abba Macarius the Great, Homily XXVII, §1. ❌

Abba Macarius the Great, Homily XXVI, §18. ❌ * Apologies for a long period of silence. With God’s help, we hope to resume posting of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers on this Channel.