WISDOM OF THE WORLD - WEEK 22

Thanks to Scoil Naomh Padraig school for the image.

Relax Your Efforts

Once Abbot Anthony was chatting with some of the other monks and a hunter who was after game in the wilderness came upon them.

He saw Abbot Anthony and the brothers enjoying themselves and he was most disapproving.

"How come you are sitting about enjoying yourselves? Aren't you men of God? Have you no work to be getting on with?"

Abbot Anthony looked at the hunter straight in the eye and said, "Put an arrow in your bow and shoot it."

This the hunter did. "Now shoot another," said the elder. "And another..and another.and another."

Eventually the hunter stopped and turned to the abbot with annoyance, "If I bend my bow all the time it will break."

Abbot Anthony replied: "So it is with the work of God. If we push ourselves beyond measure, the brethren will soon collapse. It is right, therefore, from time to time, to relax our efforts."

Desert Fathers