desert fathers

This morning I read a story quoted in a book that Steve often referred to.  He had read it in a compilation of stories by the Desert Fathers and was taken with it.  I remember not really getting it.  I mean I listened because he obviously loved the story and resonated with it, but at that point it did not hold the same urgency, the same connection for me.

Here it is:

"One of the most powerful of the stories abut the fathers of the desert, those geniuses of the gospel life, tells of a meeting between Father Lot and Father Joseph.  Father Lot asked what else he must do to be perfect. He said that he ate little, slept little, prayed without ceasing, worked always with his hands, and shared whatever he had with the poor.  What, he wondered, did he lack?  Then Father Joseph rose and stretched out his arms, and tongues of fire flashed form his fingers.  'If you want,' he said, 'you can become a living flame.'  The fire of God, and whoever has faith to live only by his mercy will become a tongue of that fire.'

I think I am starting to get it.

from the Hours/Today

I continue to read daily from Phyllis Tickle's The Divine Hours.  I am using Steve's copy instead of my own and am glad when I find a day where he has underlined things or marked them.  Today's reading for the Monday nearest to January 8 has these words in parenthesis (To You that hear prayer shall all flesh come, because of their transgressions.  Our sins are stronger than we are, but you will blot them out.)  He has underlined the words, 'our sins are stronger than we are.'