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Letters from the Desert: A Selection of Questions and Responses is unavailable, but you can change that!

Dive into the letters of two monastic elders: the “Great Old Man,” Barsanuphius, and the “Other Old Man,” John, who lived in the southern region around Gaza during the early part of the sixth century. Maintaining strict seclusion within their cells, they spoke to others only through letters by way of Abba Seridos, the abbot of the monastic community in Gaza. John’s authority was more...

condition, of course, is that everyone must first “examine one’s ways,” variously described as “study,” “attention,” and “search.” Indeed, on two occasions in one letter (no.838), this arduous process is described as “groping in the darkness of one’s heart.” Most of what the two Old Men have to state aims at awakening their listeners from despondency and lifting them from despair. In one striking phrase, the Other Old Man remarks: “Awaken the Jesus that lies asleep within” (Letter 182). They advise
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