Tales Strange and True from the Desert
Christianity has ancient and varied roots. Since even before Christianity was legalised by Emperor Constantine in 313 AD it's face began to change, but even more-so when legal persecution was removed. And so rose a fresh type of 'persecution' the mortification of self, by self.
Men and women began to choose an ascetism that sought to become more rooted in God, and less dependent upon the transitory gifts of earth. They withdrew from normal desires, standards and life amidst cities or villages to become desert dwellers, isolated in remote communities, but even then not necessarily close to each other. Christian monasticism was the result.
Experiments in all varieties of Christian monasticism were conducted across the East in Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Arabia during the fourth century A.D. But by A.D. 400 Egypt had become the strongest center.
The disciplined of these desert dwellers would become spiritual fathers (an Abba) and receive disciples. Their essence depended on the removal of the body from the world that the soul and spirit would follow.
These private men and women wrote in the desert sands truths that no sandstorm could ever blow away. Their wisdom is rarely found in evangelical faith, but their truths are as timeless as their existence was privation.
Abba Anthony once spoke to Abba Poemon:
this is the great work of a man - always take the blame for his sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath.
ENJOY their tales, truths and wisdom as they are added to SoulSupply, for that is the nature of truth - it will never fade.
ENJOY too - 5 Wise Desert Streams