One of the fathers...

…who had gone to Constantinople to attend to some necessary business said to me: While I was sitting in the church, a man who was illustrious in the worldly sense but also a great lover of Christ came in; and when he saw me, he sat down. He then began asking about the salvation of the soul. I told him that the heavenly life is given to those who live  the earthly life in a seemly way.

“You have spoken well, father,” he said. “Blessed is the man whose hope is in God and who presents himself as an offering to God. I am the son of a man who is very distinguished by the standards of the world. My father was very compassionate and distributed huge sums among the poor. One day he called me; showing me all his money, he said to me: `Son, which do you prefer; that I leave you my money, or that I give you Christ as your guardian?’ Grasping the point he was making, I said I would rather have Christ; for everything that is here today shall be gone tomorrow. Christ remains forever. So from the moment he heard me say that, he gave without sparing, leaving very little for me when he died. So I was left a poor man and I lived simply, putting my hope in the God whom he bequeathed to me.”

“There was another rich man, one of the leading citizens, who had a wife who loved Christ and feared God; and he had one daughter, his only child. The wife said to the husband: `We have only this one daughter, yet the Lord has endowed us with so many goods. What does she lack? If we seek to give her in marriage to somebody of our own rank whose way of life is not praiseworthy, it shall be a continual source of affliction to her. Let us rather look for a lowly man who fears God; one who will love her and cherish her according to God’s holy law.’ He said to her, `This is good advice. Go to church and pray fervently. Sit there, and whoever comes in first, he it is whom the Lord has sent.’”

“This she did. When she had prayed, she sat down and it was I who came in at that moment. She sent a servant to call me straightaway and she began asking me where I was from. I told her that I was from this city, the son of such-and-such a man. She said, `He who was so generous to the poor? And have you a wife?’ I said I had not. I told her what my father had said to me and what I had said to him. She glorified the Lord and said, `Behold, the Good Guardian whom you chose has sent you a bride - and riches, so that you may enjoy both in the fear of God.’ I pray that I might follow in my father’s footsteps to the end of my days.”

John Moschos, Leimonarion (The Spiritual Meadow) 201