Авва Аммон

1. The brother said to Abba Ammon: “Tell me something for instruction.” The elder said: “Acquire the same thoughts as criminals imprisoned in prison. They constantly ask: where is the judge? when will he come? and out of despair - they cry. Likewise, a monk must constantly listen to himself and expose his soul, saying: woe is me! How will I appear for judgment before Christ? What will I answer Him? “If you constantly occupy yourself with thoughts, you will be saved” 194. 2. Abba Ammon came to such prosperity that, due to much goodness, he no longer knew about the existence of evil 195. This mood appears in the soul from constant attention to oneself, from crying about one’s sinfulness, from the action of mental grace-filled prayer. This prayer fills the heart with tenderness. Tenderness is a feeling of abundant mercy towards oneself and towards all humanity. 3. Abba Ammon never dared to condemn anyone. 4. Some of the Fathers said: in the cells there was an ascetic elder who had clothes made of matting. One day he came to Abba Ammon. Abba, seeing him in clothes made of matting, said to him: “This will not bring you any benefit.” And the elder asked him: “Three thoughts come to me. The first suggests wandering through deserted places; the second is to go to a country where no one knows me; the third is to shut yourself in a hut, not see anyone, and eat food every other day.” Abba Ammon answered: “The fulfillment of each of these assumptions will be unhelpful (i.e., harmful to your soul) for you. On the contrary, remain silent in your hut, eat food daily with moderation, have in your heart the word of the publican (“God! be merciful to me a sinner”) and you will be able to be saved.” It is obvious: the wearing of strange clothes that caught everyone’s eye, the intention to lead a special kind of life that was supposed to attract the attention of many, were inspired in the ascetic by arrogance, which was not understood by him. The Monk Ammon taught him the feat of humility, the only one pleasing to God, the only one capable of attracting the mercy and grace of God to the ascetic. 5. Abba Ammon was asked: “Which way is the narrow and sorrowful way?” He answered: “The narrow and sorrowful path is curbing one’s thoughts and cutting off one’s own desires in order to fulfill the will of God. This means: “We have all forsaken you and died after You” (Matthew 19:27; Mark 10:28; Luke 18:28). 6. Abba Ammon said: “I spent fourteen years in the Skete, praying to God day and night that He would grant me victory over anger” 196. 7. One day Abba Ammon went to Abba Anthony the Great and lost his way. He sat down and fell asleep a little. When I woke up, I prayed to God like this: “Lord, my God! I pray to You: do not destroy Your creation!” - and a human hand appeared, as if descending from heaven: it rushed through the air and showed the way to Ammon until he came to Abba Anthony. Then the hand stopped over the entrance to Anthony's den. Ammon knocked on the doors; Anthony opened them. They began to talk about spiritual benefits. After the conversation, Abba Anthony predicted to Ammon that he would succeed in the fear of God. Having pronounced this prophecy, Anthony led Ammon out of his cell and, pointing to the stone, said: “Inflict an insult on this stone and hit it.” Ammon did it. Then Abba Anthony asked him: “Did this stone give you any answer, did this stone give you any resistance?” Ammon answered: “No.” “So you too,” Abba Anthony told him, “will achieve dispassion to a similar degree,” which is what happened 197. 8. Some brethren were subjected to sorrow in their place of residence, and because of this sorrow they intended to leave this place. They went to Abba Ammon for a conference. They walked along the river bank, and at that time the elder was in a boat floating along the river. Having caught up with them and seeing them, the elder asked the boatmen to land on the shore, got out of the boat and, approaching the brothers, said to them: “I am Ammon, to whom you are going.” He calmed them down and, as a result of his instructions, they returned to their place of residence. The grief that befell them was not soul-harming, it was only human grief. 9. A brother from Skete came to Abba Ammon and said to him: “My father is sending me to obey; By fulfilling this obedience, I am afraid of falling into fornication.” The elder answered this: “When you are in danger, cry out to God: God of strength! for the prayers of my father, deliver me from misfortune.” One day, a brother, fulfilling his obedience and coming to a certain worldly house, found a girl alone in it, who led him to sin, and even locked the doors of the house behind him. The brother exclaimed to God in a loud voice according to the will of Abba Ammon, and immediately found himself on the path leading to the Skete. 10. Abba Ammon was ordained bishop. In this rank he acted from the grace-filled mood and spiritual intelligence acquired by monastic life. One day they brought a pregnant girl to him for trial and demanded from him church punishment for the girl. The bishop protected her with the sign of the cross and ordered to give her six pairs of canvases, saying: “She will have the labor of childbirth: no matter how she dies, or her child dies: for the price of these canvases, at least a funeral can be performed.” The girl’s accusers said to him: “What are you doing? give her penance.” He answered them: “Brothers! can't you see that she is close to death? How can I put anything else on her?” Abba Ammon avoided acting on the demands of the carnal jealousy of the accusers, and at the same time acted morally on the girl, showing her mercy that was unexpected by her and vividly presenting to her the nearness of death. A heart softened by mercy, when remembering death, is very capable of repentance. 11. One day Abba Ammon came to a certain residence of the monks to share a meal with the brethren. One of the brothers of that place was very upset in his behavior: a woman was visiting him. This became known to the other brethren; They were embarrassed and, having gathered for a meeting, decided to expel their brother from his hut. Having learned that Bishop Ammon was here, they came to him and asked him to go with them to inspect his brother’s cell. The brother also found out about this, and hid the woman under a large wooden vessel, turning the vessel bottom to top. Abba Ammon understood this, and for the sake of God he covered up his brother’s sin. Having come with many brothers to the cell, he sat down on a wooden vessel and ordered the cell to be searched. The cell was searched, but the woman was not found. "What is this? - Abba Ammon said to the brothers: “May God forgive you your sin.” After that, he prayed and ordered everyone to leave. He himself followed the brothers. On his way out, he graciously took the accused brother’s hand and said to him with love: “Brother! pay attention to yourself." 12. One day, according to the custom of that time, some of the Christians came to be tried before their bishop. Pained by the disagreement between Christians for a reason that did not deserve the attention of Christians, the bishop presented himself as a holy fool before the assembly that came to him. One of the women who was here said to her friend: “The old man is crazy in his mind.” Saint Ammon, hearing this, called her to him and said to her: “For so many years I labored in the deserts in order to acquire this insanity, and should I lose it for you?” 198. 13. A certain brother fell into grave sin. He came to Abba Ammon and told him: “I have fallen into such and such a sin and do not have the strength to repent: I am leaving monasticism and going into the world.” The elder persuaded his brother to remain a monk, promising to undertake the work of repentance for his sin before God. Having taken upon himself his brother’s sin, the elder began to repent of this sin. He remained in repentance for only one day, as was the revelation from God that his brother’s sin was forgiven for the sake of the elder’s love 199 . One day Abba Ammon came to Abba Pimen and asked him: “If I come to my brother’s cell, or he comes to me for some need, is it permissible to talk with him freely about all subjects?” Avva Pimen answered: “I do not approve of such behavior, because youth needs self-protection.” Abba Ammon said to this: “What did the elders do in such cases?” Abba Pimen answered: “The elders, being in prosperity, do not need such self-protection: they, not having anything alien in their hearts, do not have it in their mouths either.” Again Abba Ammon asked: “If you happen to have a conversation with your brother, what is better to borrow the conversation from, from Scripture or from the sayings of the Fathers?” The elder answered: “If you cannot remain silent, then speak better from the sayings of the Fathers than from Scripture. The explanation of Scripture involves great danger to the soul." 200 Many monks of those times, due to the incorrect explanation that they gave to various places of Holy Scripture, fell into heresies. The explanation of Scripture is granted by Divine grace. A monk who does not have this grace and strives to explain Scripture out of his own conceit and ignorance will certainly become guilty before the Holy Spirit, who spoke the Scripture: for his insolence, he is rejected by God and becomes the prey of fallen spirits. From this interpretation of the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures arose all heresies and schisms. The last story obviously refers to the later Ammon - not the one who talked with Anthony the Great. In the stories about Ammon, the following information about Mount Nitria has been preserved for us. Up to five thousand monks lived in this desert. They lived in different ways according to their will and abilities. Some of them lived alone, as hermits, others - in twos and threes; others lived in significant numbers, constituting hostels. There were up to five hundred men who achieved Christian perfection: they remained further, in the deepest desert 201. – Such a varied lifestyle, satisfying free will and abilities, greatly contributed to monastic spiritual success. You might be interested in: