Journal

PRAY WITHOUT CEASING

08 July 2010

Once some Euchites came to visit Abba Lucius in the Enaton, near Alexandria.  When he asked them what type of work they did, they replied, ‘We never lift a finger to do manual labour; instead we pray without ceasing, in accordance with the Apostle’s command.’  The Elder said them..’Don’t you eat, then?  ‘We do,’ they assured him.  ‘When you are eating, who prays in your place/’  No answer.  He asked them another question: ‘When you are sleeping, who keeps up your prayers?’ They could give him no answer.  Then he went on:  ‘I beg your pardon, but you do not do what you say you do.  Let me show you how I manage to pray always even when I busy myself at manual labour.  I sit down with my supply of palm fronds soaking beside me and as I weave them together I say, with God’s help, ‘Have merc y on me, O God according to your great goodness, and wipe out my transgressions according to your abundant mercy’ (Ps .51:1).  Tell me, is this not a prayer?’  They assured him that it was.  Then he said:  ‘By working and praying like this all day long, I can complete around sixteen baskets.  I give away two of these to any beggar who comes to my door. I make my living from the rest.  And the man who has received the gift of two baskets prays for me while I am eating and sleeping.  That is how, by God’s grace, I manage to pray without ceasing.
Apophthegmata Patrum, Alphabetical Series, ‘Lucius’ no. 1;CS59:10

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