fugit mundi

January 17, 2018 techdecisions

-Domenico Ghirlandaio (workshop), Temptation of St. Anthony, after Martin Schongauer’s woodcut, c.1490

I read the Biography of St Anthony of the Desert, by St Athanasius in the Avila Institute course “Wisdom of the Saints: from St Athanasius to St Bernard of Clairvaux“. I would recommend. This is a foundational text for the Christian.

As a general disclaimer, general, I would either a) take such a course when reading documents thousands of years old, steeped in the history, context, language, translation, etc., which they inescapably are. Take a good guide. You’ll need them. Or, b) [feeling the theme? do yourself a favor. take the hint. 🙂 ] a good guide, exceedingly generous, patient, and interested solely (souly 🙂 in your benefit, and edification, erudition.

-by Br. Bartholomew Calvano, OP

“St. Anthony of the Desert, aka the Great, aka the Abbot is considered the Father of Monasticism. Not because he was the first monk but because he was the first to venture deep into the wilderness. St. Athanasius reports that although there were monks in Egypt before Anthony, they all remained near their homes. Anthony lived with an old man for a time to learn how to be an ascetic. When he resolved to head into the deep desert, he asked this same old man to join him. The old man, however, “declined on account of his great age, and because as yet there was no such custom.” So Anthony set off into the desert alone.

By his journey into the desert, St. Anthony models the fugit mundi (flight of the world) that characterizes true monastic life. This flight of the world is not the flight of a coward nor the avoidance of hardship or the total abandonment of all people. The monk who flees the world cares deeply for those in the world. In fact, by fleeing the world the monk enters into a spiritual combat for those still in the world.

This spiritual combat was clearly evident in the life of St. Anthony. The three traditional sources of temptation are the world, the flesh, and the devil. By fleeing the world, St. Anthony avoided the first. By disciplining his body through fasting and other mortifications he quieted the second. His main struggle in the desert, then, was with the devil. St. Anthony was frequently visited with the torments of demons. It was for this combat that he fled into the desert.

There then he passed his life, and endured such great wrestlings, ‘Not against flesh and blood’ (Ephesians 6:12), as it is written, but against opposing demons, as we learned from those who visited him. For there they heard tumults, many voices, and, as it were, the clash of arms. At night they saw the mountain become full of wild beasts, and him also fighting as though against visible beings, and praying against them. And those who came to him he encouraged, while kneeling he contended and prayed to the Lord. Surely it was a marvellous thing that a man, alone in such a desert, feared neither the demons who rose up against him, nor the fierceness of the four-footed beasts and creeping things, for all they were so many. But in truth, as it is written, ‘He trusted in the Lord as Mount Sion,’ with a mind unshaken and undisturbed; so that the demons rather fled from him, and the wild beasts, as it is written (Job 5:23), ‘kept peace with him.’

Although he had few worldly cares, St. Anthony had many tribulations from evil spirits. The monk fights more intensely the spiritual battle that all Christians must fight. Indeed, whenever each of us, be we monk or layman, advances in holiness, the demons increase their temptations and hinder us by evil thoughts. However, we need not fear these temptations of the devils since they will fail if we persevere in prayer, fasting, and faith in the Lord. We see that even in the midst of his spiritual struggles, when others would come to visit Anthony, he was able to encourage them. One of the greatest gifts that holy men and women receive through struggling in the spiritual combat is this ability to encourage and strengthen others who come to them for help. It is why so many of the stories of the Desert Fathers show men and women seeking them out in the wilderness and why even today monasteries are excellent places to make a retreat and to receive spiritual direction from holy monks.

One of the helps that St. Anthony recommended in this spiritual combat is to make use of the sign of the cross. He gave this advice: “the demons make their seeming onslaughts against those who are cowardly. Sign yourselves therefore with the cross, and depart boldly, and let these make sport for themselves.” For St. Anthony, the sign of the cross is not simply a habitual action used to begin prayer, but rather a powerful defense that fortifies a Christian to resist the temptations of evil spirits. The sign of the cross invokes both the cross by which Christ overcame the power of the devil and also the name of the Holy Trinity. As St. Anthony says, “Where the sign of the Cross is, magic is weak and witchcraft has no strength.” We, therefore, should not be casual in making the sign of the cross, but recognize the great power present in the sign we make. Furthermore, we should make this sign as frequently as we are tempted and recall the price which Christ paid to redeem us. For then we will have no need to fear temptation since we will boldly advance under the protecting shadow of the cross.”

“This is the great work of a man; always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath.”
-St. Anthony the Great

“Our life and our death is with our neighbor. If we gain our brother, we have gained God, but if we scandalize our brother, we have sinned against Christ.”
-St. Anthony the Great

“The illusions of this world soon vanish, especially if a man arms himself with the Sign of the Cross. The devils tremble at the Sign of the Cross of our Lord, by which He triumphed over and disarmed them.”
-St. Anthony the Abbot

“The devil is not so much interested in getting us to do evil as in getting us to do nothing.”
-St. Antony the Abbot

“One should not say that it is impossible to reach a virtuous life; but one should say that it is not easy. Nor do those who have reached it find it easy to maintain.”
–St. Antony Of The Desert

“The more a man uses moderation in his life, the more he is at peace, for he is not full of care for many things.”
-St. Anthony the Great

Love,
Matthew

Summa Catechetica, "Neque enim quaero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam." – St Anselm, "“Si comprehendus, non est Deus.” -St Augustine, "Let your religion be less of a theory, and more of a love affair." -G.K. Chesterton, “When we pray we speak to God; but when we read, God speaks to us.” -St Jerome, "As the reading of bad books fills the mind with worldly and poisonous sentiments; so, on the other hand, the reading of pious works fills the soul with holy thoughts and good desires." -St. Alphonsus Liguori, "And above all, be on your guard not to want to get anything done by force, because God has given free will to everyone and wants to force no one, but only proposes, invites and counsels." –St. Angela Merici, “Yet such are the pity and compassion of this Lord of ours, so desirous is He that we should seek Him and enjoy His company, that in one way or another He never ceases calling us to Him . . . God here speaks to souls through words uttered by pious people, by sermons or good books, and in many other such ways.” —St. Teresa of Avila, "I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men and women who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, and who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity… I wish you to enlarge your knowledge, to cultivate your reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, to learn to view things as they are, to understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism, and where lie the main inconsistences and absurdities of the Protestant theory.” (St. John Henry Newman, “Duties of Catholics Towards the Protestant View,” Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England), "We cannot always have access to a spiritual Father for counsel in our actions and in our doubts, but reading will abundantly supply his place by giving us directions to escape the illusions of the devil and of our own self-love, and at the same time to submit to the divine will.” —St. Alphonsus Ligouri, "The harm that comes to souls from the lack of reading holy books makes me shudder . . . What power spiritual reading has to lead to a change of course, and to make even worldly people enter into the way of perfection." –St. Padre Pio, "Screens may grab our attention, but books change our lives!" – Word on Fire, "Reading has made many saints!" -St Josemaría Escrivá, "Do you pray? You speak to the Bridegroom. Do you read? He speaks to you." —St. Jerome, from his Letter 22 to Eustochium, "Encounter, not confrontation; attraction, not promotion; dialogue, not debate." -cf Pope Francis, "God here speaks to souls through…good books“ – St Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, "You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his progress.” -St Athanasius, "To convert someone, go and take them by the hand and guide them." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP. 1 saint ruins ALL the cynicism in Hell & on Earth. “When we pray we talk to God; when we read God talks to us…All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection.” -St Isidore of Seville, “Also in some meditations today I earnestly asked our Lord to watch over my compositions that they might do me no harm through the enmity or imprudence of any man or my own; that He would have them as His own and employ or not employ them as He should see fit. And this I believe is heard.” -GM Hopkins, SJ, "Only God knows the good that can come about by reading one good Catholic book." — St. John Bosco, "Why don't you try explaining it to them?" – cf St Peter Canisius, SJ, Doctor of the Church, Doctor of the Catechism, "Already I was coming to appreciate that often apologetics consists of offering theological eye glasses of varying prescriptions to an inquirer. Only one prescription will give him clear sight; all the others will give him at best indistinct sight. What you want him to see—some particular truth of the Faith—will remain fuzzy to him until you come across theological eye glasses that precisely compensate for his particular defect of vision." -Karl Keating, "The more perfectly we know God, the more perfectly we love Him." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP, ST, I-II,67,6 ad 3, “But always when I was without a book, my soul would at once become disturbed, and my thoughts wandered." —St. Teresa of Avila, "Let those who think I have said too little and those who think I have said too much, forgive me; and let those who think I have said just enough thank God with me." –St. Augustine, "Without good books and spiritual reading, it will be morally impossible to save our souls." —St. Alphonsus Liguori "Never read books you aren't sure about. . . even supposing that these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Let me ask you this: Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup?" -St. John Bosco " To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer." —St. Thomas Aquinas, OP. "Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us. Both are good when both are possible. Otherwise, prayer is better than reading." –St. Isidore of Seville “The aid of spiritual books is for you a necessity.… You, who are in the midst of battle, must protect yourself with the buckler of holy thoughts drawn from good books.” -St. John Chrysostom