Daily Reading for January 17 • Antony, Abbot in Egypt, 356
Whenever a large crowd such as this came to his cell, Antony was never put out. He listened patiently to all they had to tell him and treated each person gently and with immense courtesy. And they recognized that the Living Word informed all his actions and his every utterance. Among those who came to him were many who had all manner of afflictions both of mind and body; and Our Lord healed them by the hand of this blessed man. Moreover God graced his words to them so that everyone found consolation and fresh strength to suffer their particular lot. The sick endured their illness in patience, the proud became humble, the arrogant changed their ways at the very sight of such a holy man. He used to tell them: “We should own nothing superfluous but love Christ alone: neither possessions, nor family, not even our own soul. For if God himself did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for our sins, how much more just is it that we, having tasted and known his Divine grace, should surrender our souls to him. And this we should do, not for his sake for that is not what is wanted: but to save our very lives!”
When he spoke in this way, many were persuaded to give up the world and all its busy ways and hide themselves away where monks lived.
From Life of Antony Abbot by Athanasius of Alexandria, quoted in Wisdom of the Cloister: A Monastic Reader, edited by John Skinner (Image Books, 1999).