CYRUS — Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Alphabetical Collection

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1. Abba Cyrus of Alexandria was asked about the temptation of fornication, and he replied, 'If you do not think about it, you have no hope, for if you are not thinking about it, you are doing it. I mean, he who does not fight against the sin and resist it in his spirit will commit the sin physically. It is very true that he who is for-

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* Additional material from J.C. Guy.

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nicating in fact is not worried with thinking about it.' The old man questioned the brother, saying, 'Do you not usually talk to women?' The brother said, 'No; my thoughts are about old and new representations of them: it is their remembrance which overcomes me.' The old man said to him, 'Do not fear the dead, but flee from the living, and before all things persist in prayer.'

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