ISAIAH

1. Abba Isaiah said, 'Nothing is so useful to the beginner as insults. The beginner who bears insults is like a tree that is watered every day.'

2. He also said to those who were making a good beginning by putting themselves under the direction of the holy Fathers, 'As with purple dye, the first colouring is never lost.' And, 'Just as young shoots are easily trained back and bent, so it is with beginners who live in submission.'

3. He also said, 'A beginner who goes from one monastery to another is like an animal who jumps this way and that, for fear of the halter.'

4. He also said that when there was an agape and the brethren were eating in the church and talking to one another, the priest of Pelusia reprimanded them in these words, 'Brethren, be quiet. For I have seen a brother eating with you and drinking as many cups as you and his prayer is ascending to the presence of God like fire.'

5. It was said of Abba Isaiah that one day he took a branch and went to the threshing-floor to thresh and said to the owner, 'Give me some wheat.' The latter replied, 'Have you brought in the harvest, Father?' He said, 'No.' The owner said to him, 'How then can you expect to be given wheat, if you have not harvested?' Then the old man said to him, 'So then, if someone does not work, he does not receive wages?' The owner replied, 'No.' At that, the old man went away. Seeing what he had done, the brethren bowed before him, asking him to tell them why he had acted thus. The old man said to them, 'I did this as an example: whoever has not worked will not receive a reward from God.'

6. The same Abba Isaiah called one of the brethren, washed his feet, put a handful of lentils into the pot and brought them to him as soon as they had boiled. The brother said to him, 'They are not cooked, Abba.' The old man replied, 'Is it not enough simply to have seen the fire? That alone is a great consolation.'

7. He also said, 'When God wishes to take pity on a soul and it rebels, not bearing anything and doing its own will, he then allows it to suffer that which it does not want, in order that it may seek him again.'

8. He also said, 'When someone wishes to render evil for evil, he can injure his brother's soul even by a single nod of the head.'

9. The same Abba Isaiah, when someone asked him what avarice was, replied, 'Not to believe that God cares for you, to despair of the promises of God and to love boasting.'

10. He was also asked what calumny is and he replied, 'It is ignorance of the glory of God, and hatred of one's neighbour.'

11. He was also asked what anger is and he replied, "Quarrelling, lying and ignorance.'