Abba Poemen said...

Aug 27, 2008
wfd

“If three men meet, of whom the first fully preserves interior peace, and the second gives thanks to God in illness, and the third serves with a pure mind, these three are doing the same work.”

A brother asked Abba Poemen, “How can a man avoid speaking ill of his neighbor?” The old man said to him, “We and our brothers are two images; when a man is watchful about himself, and has to reproach himself, in his heart he thinks his brother better than he; but when he appears to himself to be good, then he thinks his brother evil compared to himself.”

Abba Poemen the Great, commemorated 27 August 

Article originally appeared on Word from the Desert (http://wordfromthedesert.squarespace.com/).