Teachings on the life in Christ of our holy father Anthony the Great

1. Let everyone who takes up a labour like ours care above all never to weaken in diligence and, having rested from his toils, not to think: I have been labouring for a long time now. It is better to set about it every day as though on this very day we had begun the monastic struggle, and so to increase our zeal day by day. A person’s life is nothing before the ages to come, and all that is ours is nothing compared with eternal life. In this world a person buys every thing for its proper price, and everything can be exchanged for something of equal worth; but eternal life is bought for a little, for so it is written: “As for the days of our years, in them are seventy years; and if men should be in strength, eighty years; and the greater part of them is labour and trouble” (Psalm 89, the prayer of Moses the man of God, 10). So if we remain in our labour throughout these eighty years, or even a whole hundred years, we shall not receive a hundred years of being in the Kingdom, but shall inherit a being unto the ages of ages in the Kingdom of Heaven in exchange for these wretched hundred years lived in this world in a way pleasing to God! And we shall receive eternal life for our labour in this world not here but in the heavens; and our corruptible and mortal body we shall leave here, while there we shall gain an incorruptible and immortal one. So let us never rest from our toils, and let us not think how long we have been labouring or what a great thing we have done, since the Apostle Paul says this too: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18).

2. It will likewise be better if, looking at the world we have renounced, we do not think how much we have left behind, since it — this world — is exceedingly small before the heavens. Therefore, even if we were the lords of the whole earth and renounced it, we should still not have paid the price of the Kingdom of Heaven; for as one who gives one drachma of copper hopes in time to receive a hundred drachmas of gold, so the owner of the whole world, in renouncing it, gives up something very small in order to receive a thousandfold. And if the whole earth cannot be compared with one portion of the Kingdom of Heaven appointed for a person, then one who leaves a single plot of land has lost nothing, even if along with that land he had left a house and a great deal of gold. So let him neither boast nor be faint-hearted. And with this we must remember that if, for the love of good and for the gaining of virtue, we do not leave everything we have in this world, then all we have gained may fall to the one to whom we do not want to leave anything at all, as Ecclesiastes said long ago: “For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good?” (Eccl. 4:8). So is it not better to leave everything we have in this world for the sake of virtue and the love of good, and for this little to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven for eternal life?

3. For the same reason none of us should be taken over by the desire to acquire, for what profit is there in gaining what we shall not be able to take with us when we leave this world? Should we not therefore strive to gain only what will follow us into that world? And such things are prudence, justice, self-restraint, courage, hospitality, love, mercy to the poor, faith in Christ, gentleness, freedom from anger… If we carry these virtues before us as we go into that world, our way will be open, and no one will take from us that possession of ours by which we prepare a refuge for ourselves there, in that land which the meek are to inherit (Matt. 5:5).

4. With such a thought let every Christian instruct himself every day, and still more he who has become a servant of the Lord and is bound to serve his heavenly King. As a servant will not dare to say, I worked yesterday, and so today I shall not work, and will not count up the past days in which he toiled without rest, but will go on working as before in the days that follow, and day by day, as it is said in the Gospel, will diligently fulfil his duty in order to please his master and not be punished, so we too, who have become servants of the Lord by our own will, must labour patiently for our Lord day after day and strive not to spend a single day in sloth, since this will not be forgiven us by the Lord for the sake of the labour of days gone by, and His wrath may fall upon us for idleness. For we have heard from Ezekiel too that “if the righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and dies in his sin which he has done, in it also he shall die…” (Ezek. 18:26). In the same way Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the Lord, destroyed in one night all his former labour.

5. So let us set about spiritual labour bravely and never rest from our toils, and the Lord will help us in every good work, as Holy Scripture confirms: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). And to this end, that is, so that faint-heartedness may not take hold of us, it will be good if we remember these words of the Apostle Paul too, when he says: “I die daily” (1 Cor. 15:31). For if we are in expectation of death every day, then we shall not sin. And what the holy apostle said — I die daily — teaches us this: every single day, when we rise from sleep, we should think that we shall not live until evening, that death may overtake us at any moment; and before going to sleep we should think that we shall not wake again, since by nature too it is so ordered: we do not know the limit of our life, nor do we know what measure providence has measured out to us for each single day. If we set ourselves in this way and meet every day with this thought, then we shall do nothing unseemly — we shall neither sin, nor be inflamed with foul desire, nor be angry with anyone for nothing, nor begin to acquire property in this world; but in the daily expectation of death we shall become free from love of money, shall not be enslaved to greed, and shall forgive everyone everything. And let us not let the craving for a woman, or any other foul desire, pass through our heart even for a moment, but let us at once drive the evil desire away from us and always fight temptation with the thought of the day of judgement; for if we have a great fear of God and the remembrance of the eternal torments to come, this will make us wary of bodily pleasures and will help us to raise up again our soul that has bent toward a fall.

6. So if we set about labouring for the salvation of the soul and enter upon the way of virtue, let us “forget those things which are behind and, reaching forth unto those things which are before, press with care toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,” as the Apostle Paul commands (Phil. 3:13–14). And let no one turn back like Lot’s wife, lest he perish as she did, and all the more because the Lord Himself said: “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). And to turn back is nothing else than to regret the world we have left and to return again to vain worldly wisdom.

7. Do not be afraid when you are called to virtue, and do not count it something strange, for it is not far from us! More than that, virtue is not outside us but in our very being. The Greeks travel to foreign lands and cross seas in order to master some science; but we need not go to foreign lands to gain the Kingdom of Heaven, nor cross seas for the sake of virtue and the doing of good works, since the Lord has taken such care from us, saying: “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20–21). Therefore, to be filled with virtue and to do a good work, we need only have the desire, since the ability to do good is in us ourselves, and the power of virtue springs from our own being. If nothing has troubled or altered the natural state of the soul, then both virtue and the desire to do good works dwell in it; and the soul of a person is in its natural state when it is good and upright, that is, such as it was created — for God made everything good. This is precisely why Joshua the son of Nun said to the people: “Now therefore put away the strange gods that are among you, and make your hearts upright toward the Lord of Israel” (Josh. 24:23). And John the Baptist cried out thus: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Matt. 3:3). And a person’s soul is righteous and upright when its understanding is in its first, natural state. But if someone “climbeth up some other way” (John 10:1), as a thief and a robber, and does not enter by the door, and if he lessens the natural qualities — then it may be said that evil has taken up its dwelling in the soul. So this is no difficult thing — to do good; for if we are such as God created us, then we shall be virtuous and good; but if we are filled with evil thoughts and imaginings, we shall justly be reproved: you are evil. If virtue had to be gained outside us, then of course it would be a hard thing; but since the source of good works is in us, we need only strive not to let an evil thought pass through the heart and to keep ourselves pure for our Lord, as a sign that we received our very soul from Him; and the Lord, when He sees it, will acknowledge it as His own creation and will say: it is such as I created it.

8. Let us also fight with ourselves, so that anger may not prevail in our soul and foul desire may not rule over us, for, as Holy Scripture teaches us, “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). And again: “when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (ibid., 15). But if we set out upon such a life, we must be very watchful and act according to the word of Holy Scripture, which teaches: “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). For against a person who lives a life pleasing to God there rise up dreadful and wholly crafty enemies — the evil spirits.

9. And it is precisely with them — with the evil spirits, the demons — that we fight throughout our whole earthly life. For the holy Apostle Paul says that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). Around us, in the space of the air, are countless hosts of these evil spirits, “rulers of the world,” and they are never far from us. Besides this, among themselves there is great difference and variety. If we were to speak of their nature and of their differences, our discourse would drag on very long; and besides, it is better that fathers greater than we should speak on this hard subject. For us, now, it is wholly necessary to make clear what wiles and devices the evil spirits use against monks.

10. So first of all we must know that the demons — the evil spirits — were not created by God from the beginning in that form in which they are indeed called evil spirits, since the Creator created nothing evil. The devils too were created as good spirits and angels of light, but afterwards were filled with pride, departed from the heavenly wisdom and fell — came down into this world, where by apparitions they led the Greeks astray; and since they envy us, the people who honour Christ, the demons use every means to hinder us in our striving toward heaven, in our ascent to the place from which they themselves were cast down. Therefore it is necessary both to pray much and to labour much, so that by the Holy Spirit the ability of spiritual judgement may be granted us, that is, “the discerning of spirits,” as the Apostle Paul says (1 Cor. 12:10); and, armed with this ability, we shall be able to make out which of the evil spirits surpasses the others in malice and which is less savage, that is, what work and what duty each of the demons has. If we make this out, then we shall know how to fight them, by what way to cast them down and by what means to drive from us each of the evil spirits that attack us, since they have many wiles prepared for our destruction, and many are the kinds of their slander and accusation. The blessed Apostle Paul and his disciples knew all this well when they said: “We are not ignorant of his devices” (that is, of the adversary, the devil) (2 Cor. 2:11). And we, in whatever way we ourselves have been tried by the evil spirits, in that way and by that experience should instruct one another, so as to be careful and watchful in the future. So here am I too, since I myself have more than once experienced the craft of the demons and have often stood before temptation; I will speak to you of them as to children and will warn you.

11. As soon as they, the evil spirits, see a true believer in Christ, and still more a monk who is making progress in the labours of virtue, they at once attack him and try to lead him astray by something. And the temptation they send consists in this, that the demons breed evil thoughts and unseemly imaginings in a person. But we must not be frightened by such an assault of the demons, for by prayer, by fasting and by faith in the Lord the enemy will be driven from us. And yet, even after being cast down, the evil spirits do not give up their evil purpose, and at once fall upon us with new wiles and try by new devices to destroy our souls. When they cannot openly breed foul desires in the heart of a labouring monk and so lead him astray, then they resort to another trick: they send various dreadful apparitions to frighten him, and for this they change their own appearance and appear in many forms — as alluring women, as savage beasts and loathsome reptiles, as hideous giants or as numerous soldiers ready to attack; but we should not be afraid of such apparitions, since in truth they do not exist at all and will vanish as soon as we sign ourselves with the cross and fence ourselves with true faith. But we should know that the demons are exceedingly bold and shameless, and therefore, even if they are defeated a second time, they still do not draw back but attack us again, now by quite other devices: they appear in the guise of seers and tell us exactly all that is to happen afterwards, and bear themselves as if they were exalted and full of light. Such is the craft to which the evil spirits resort, so as at least by such apparitions to lead astray and catch those people whom they could not deceive before by suggesting evil thoughts and unseemly imaginings. But let us not believe them here either, for the demons are strangers to us. Let us never listen to their words, even if they should call us to prayer or urge fasting upon us; rather let us look more deeply into the purpose of our labour — and then we shall no longer be deceived by the evil spirits, who do everything with craft. And let us not let the fear of demons pass through our heart even for a moment, even if they attack us in fury and threaten us with death, since in truth the evil spirits are powerless before one who truly honours Christ, and have strength only to threaten.

12. All our time and effort we should spend rather on strengthening the soul than on strengthening the body; to the body let us give little time, and that only what is necessary, and let us devote all the rest of our time wholly to our spiritual strengthening and seek profit only for our soul, so that the craving for bodily pleasures may not carry it away, but that it may itself subject the body. This is exactly what the words of the Saviour Himself teach us: “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” (Matt. 6:25). And again: “And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.