A Desert Monk Speaks to Us Today

"Pay attention to what I tell you: 

whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes; 

whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the holy Scriptures; 

in whatever place you live, do not easily leave it.

Keep these three precepts and you will be saved."

~Desert father, Abba Anthony 

(taken from "Common Prayer/A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals")

The reading from Common Prayer on June 1 offers this prayer to follow up Abba Anthony's advice, "Grow us slowly, persistently, Lord, to be people who watch without distraction, listen without interruption, and stay put without inclination to flee. Amen."

It's the last part of Anthony's advice and of the prayer that strikes me this morning. There is an inclination to flee in me. When I've been someplace for a while, or a situation is not to my liking. But the tendency extends to jobs and projects. I'll work on something for a while, even feel God has called me to it, and then, after a while, I begin to wonder if I should really be doing something else instead. It feels like there must be something else more important that I'm neglecting. 

I've recognized this in myself before, but I haven't had the absolute assurance that the feeling is wrong. And if it is wrong, then which thing do I choose to do and not look back? 

Does this dilema make sense to anyone else?

Abba Anthony says, "Do not easily leave." 

Do not easily leave my house, my church, my state, my job, my calling, my current writing project, etc. 

Yes, Lord, please grow us slowly, persistently, to be people who watch without distraction, listen without interruption, and stay put without inclination to flee. Amen.