ARES — Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Alphabetical Collection

¶1

1. Abba Abraham went to see Abba Ares. They were sitting together when a brother came to the old man and said to him, 'Tell me what I must do to be saved.' He replied, 'Go, and for the whole of this year eat only bread and salt in the evening. Then come back here and I will talk to you again.' The monk went away and did this. When the year was over he came back to Abba Ares. Now by chance it happened that Abba Abraham was there again. Once more the old man said to the brother, 'Go, and for the whole of this year fast for two days at a time.' When the brother had gone, Abba

¶2

Abraham said to Abba Ares, 'Why do you prescribe an easy yoke to all the brethren, while you impose such a heavy burden on this brother?' The old man replied, 'How I send them away depends upon what the brethren came to seek. Now it is for the sake of God that this one comes to hear a word, for he is a hard worker and what I tell him he carries out eagerly. It is because of this that I speak the word of God to him.'

Translated by Benedicta Ward, SLG. Edition opa.patristics.desert-fathers.sayings-alphabetical-collection.en.