Some Christians may have heard of The Prayer of St. Francis, a poetic petition commonly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, in which the speaker asks God for the strength to avoid seeking consolation, understanding, or love so that he might instead offer these graces to others (Our Catholic Prayers). One can observe a similarity between the actions of characters in The Desert Fathers, and the above principles denoted in The Prayer of St. Francis. The actions of the religious men and women in The Desert Fathers suggest that their unique dedication to God encourages them to renounce earthly opportunities for consolation, understanding, and temporal love. The abstention from these worldly comforts not only refines the souls of these holy men and women, but also beautifully mirrors the infinite longing for God experienced by the human soul, which—apart from God—remains inconsolable.
The monks, nuns, and hermits in The Desert Fathers reflect that human beings should not expect lasting consolation, whether physical or spiritual, while on earth. A group of monks abstain wholly from eating meat (Desert Fathers 30), and another monk abstains from eating anything at all for a week (30). Still another hermit resolves never to drink anything—even water (30), and a seriously ill hermit refuses to eat anything offered to him, and even wishes that God would grant him “sickness for thirty years more” (30). These extreme examples of refusal to seek consolation from physical deprivation or pain can appear shocking and perhaps even foolish. However, these holy people persevere for a good reason. As the monk Hyperichius explains, fasting helps one to control the desire to sin and “lifts [one’s] soul from the depths” of desires for other earthly pleasures (27). Not only do these religious men and women abstain from bodily satisfactions, but they also appear to disdain emotional and spiritual comforts while on earth, instead allowing themselves to bear a near constant sorrow. For example, one hermit writes that tears should follow one as constantly and closely as one’s shadow (17), and another discloses that all people should “lament always,” perpetually crying “Woe is me” ( 17). A man named Evagrius admonishes monks to meditate on the misery of souls in Hell, to concentrate on loss and pain, and to focus on the coming judgment of God (12), and the monk John mourns the laughter of a fellow brother (13). While the monks in Desert Fathers tend to avoid seeking either physical or spiritual consolation for themselves, they do attempt to console others, feeding each other (29), praying for each other (38), and helping each other to resist temptation (44). By reaching out to others, the monks avoid focusing on themselves, instead concentrating on loving God and their fellow human beings. The Prayer of St. Francis emphasizes that it is only in the giving of oneself that one can receive, and the monks in Desert Fathers live out this truth in their denial of comfort for their own bodies and minds and their attention to their neighbor’s needs.
The men and women in Desert Fathers seek to console their neighbors and tend to their needs, but they do not necessarily seek to be understood by them. Whether following the monastic or hermitic lifestyle, the characters in The Desert Fathers often live in extreme discipline. In addition to the practice of fasting, the monks commit themselves to other practices that may appear confounding or even absurd. For example, one monk wraps his hands in a cloak before touching his “old mother,” in order to avoid any tempting memories or thoughts of the female body (31). It may seem insensible or even uncaring for a son to refuse to touch the woman who gave birth to him, but his apparent rejection of family ties and natural affection is a fairly common theme throughout Desert Fathers. In another situation, an invalid nun instructs her brother to avoid visiting her, in order to keep him away from the “company of women” (30). The disciplines of the monks involve not only the avoidance of family members, but it can also include efforts to make life more difficult for themselves than it already is. One hermit, who lives in the desert, finds himself exhausted by the twelve-mile journey necessary for him to obtain water, but after an angel prompts him, he moves his cell “five miles further” from the spring (70). The austere living practices of the religious people in Desert Fathers can be extremely difficult for those on the outside to understand. Nevertheless, though the mission God has given these men and women may cause them to be misunderstood, or even to become targets of “reproach and derision” by those around them, even their “close friends,” shying away from God’s will is not an option for them, no matter what others may think (Jeremiah 20:8-10 ESV). As one experiences rejection or has one’s motives routinely misinterpreted, one can be filled with a fervent longing for a companion who can empathize, even in the remotest sense. It can be extremely difficult to deny this strong urge to be understood. While we might long for understanding from others, it is more important that we leave our vindication to God, Who understands us far better than any human being ever could on a fallen earth.
The fallen nature of the world not only diminishes the capacity of humans to understand one another fully, but it also accounts for another imperfect element of life on earth from which the monks abstained— experiences of temporal love. While it may be presumed that those in religious orders practice celibacy, sexual love was only one form of temporal love from which the holy men and women in Desert Fathers abstained. Both men and women make continuous efforts throughout the work to fight against the sin of lust (Desert Fathers 36). Many strictly avoid the company of the opposite sex in order to keep from falling into temptation (30). Furthermore, as in previous examples, several of the holy men and women avoided being near or physically touching close relatives such as parents or siblings (30-31). Perhaps a more shocking illustration of forsaking earthly love lies in the story of a man who desired to reject the world for the monastic life, and so, when instructed by his abbot, threw his beloved child into a hot oven (146-147). The father’s action shows an extreme example of the importance of renouncing earthly love, even that of one’s own child, for God’s sake. Earthly love, whether between parent and child, man and woman, brother and sister, will always fall short of the perfect and complete love of God. True love requires sacrifice, and sometimes we are called to love sacrificially by giving up temporal experiences of love during our time on earth. In the biblical account of the Seven Maccabees, a condemned Jewish man explains that his hands were given to him by the same God for Whose sake he loses them and from Whom he hopes to receive them once again in Heaven (2 Maccabees 7:10-11 NRSV). The choice of the religious men and women in Desert Fathers is much the same. Sometimes, we are called to give up chances for earthly fulfillment of our desire for love, while hoping to receive them fully from God in Heaven, whether that be our loved ones whom we must eventually give up through death, or relinquishing the experience of carnal love in order to live a life of celibacy.
It may be that many times during one’s faith journey, God will ask one to give up chances for earthly consolation, understanding from others, and even temporal love. As illustrated in the lives of the religious men and women in Desert Fathers, and as iterated in The Prayer of St. Francis, the Christian life can often be paradoxical: it is “in giving that we receive,” in pardoning others that we are pardoned ourselves, and it is in dying that we are “born into eternal life” (Our Catholic Prayers). However, what is not paradoxical is the fact that it is our tears and our loneliness due to struggles in our earthly life that can turn us toward God, and in our broken and dejected state, He is more than overjoyed to receive us (Psalm 51:17 ESV). When a child scrapes his knee, he looks at the other children and finds no consolation there, but then his mother spreads her arms lovingly and the child runs to her and pillows his head on her breast. Similarly, human beings are not to rely entirely on things of the world for consolation, understanding, or love, but on God. When trials and difficulties injure us, we must run into Jesus’ arms and pillow our head on His breast, as the apostle John did at the Last Supper (John 13:23 ESV).
Works Cited
Our Catholic Prayers. “The Prayer of St. Francis.” Our Catholic Prayers, Copyright 2021, https://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/the-prayer-of-st-francis.html. Accessed 2 February 2021.
The Bible. English Standard Version, Crossway, Good News Publishers, 2001.
The Bible. New Revised Standard Version, Harper Catholic Bibles, Harper Collins, 2007.
The Desert Fathers. Translated by Benedicta Ward, Penguin Classics, 2003.
