Nov 10 2008
Refuge from temptations
“I am like a man sitting in the shade of a tall tree, who sees wild beasts and snakes coming at him and knows his danger and rushes to climb the tree to safety. I sit in my cell, and see temptations coming at me: and when I cannot stand up to them, I rush to take refuge in God by prayer, and so I find safety from the enemy’s attack.”
– Abba John the Short, commemorated 9 November
Sometimes, perhaps, I don’t see the wild beasts and snakes coming, and that is why I do not seek refuge and get devoured. But it seems to me that usually it is inattention, either accidental or deliberate. I may have some vague awareness of their approach, and yet I really don’t want to have to think about it, and so I get devoured. Sometimes I even have the presumption to think I am ready to stand up to them when I am not, with the same result.
