library drama

so now that i'm on the job hunt, i spend a good amount of my time at the geneva college library. well, i was on a search for some commentaries the other day and i stumbled upon some incredible books that i just had to check out! the first was called "soren kierkegaard's christian psychology"!!! my heart leapt out of my chest when i read that title. it's by a guy named evans (some readers may recall his other book "wisdom and humanness in psychology", a good read). then i came upon "the wisdom of the desert" by thomas merton. it's a collection of little stories told by the christian desert fathers! wow-wee!

getting back to the original story...i went to check out these books and pay a fine for a past book i checked out only to have geneva's lovely librarian come up and tell me that i can't check out books anymore (she realized i'm an alumni and not a student) unless i want to pay thirty bucks a year! which i don't. lucky for me just the day before this incident a secured a library card at beaver falls' very own carnegie library downtown. i won't go off on a tangent here about my strong dislike for andrew carnegie. i was really forced to go to this library because geneva's library didn't have "the promise" by chaim potok which i'm reading for dr.mat's awesome book study!

anyway, i got absorbed in that merton book yesterday so here are a couple of tales from the desert fathers:

A brother in Scete happened to commit a fault, and the elders assembled, and sent for Abbot Moses to join them. He, however, did not want to come. The priest sent him a message, saying: Come, the community of the bretheren is waiting for you. So he arose and started off. And taking with him a very old basket full of holes, he filled it with sand, and carried it behind him. The elders came out to meet him, and said: What is this, Father? The elder replied: My sins are running out behind me, and I do not see them, and today I come to judge the sins of another! They hearing this, said nothing to the brother but pardoned him.

One of the bretheren had been insulted by another and he wanted to take revenge. He came to Abbot Sisois and told him what had taken place, saying: I am going to get even, Father. But the elder besought him to leave the affair in the hands of God. No, said the brother, I will not give up until I have made that fellow pay for what he said. Then the elder stood up and began to pray in these terms: O God, Thou art no longer necessary to us, and we no longer need Thee to take care of us since, as this brother says, we both can and will avenge ourselves. At this the brother promised to give up his idea of revenge.

Abbot Lot came to Abbot Joseph and said: Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, and my little fast, my prayer, meditation and contemplative silence; and according as I am able I strive to cleanse my heart of thoughts: now what more should i do? The elder rose up in reply and stretched out his hands to heaven, and his fingers became like ten lamps of fire. He said: Why not be totally changed into fire?