The Elder Who Heard a Sermon at the Door

I remember an elder, when I was staying in the desert of Scete, who went to visit a certain brother in his cell. When he reached the door he heard him muttering inside, and he stood still for a little while, wanting to know what he was reading from the Bible, or repeating from memory, as is the custom, while he worked. This most excellent eavesdropper put his ear to the door and listened carefully, with some curiosity, and found that the man, under an attack of this spirit, was imagining that he was preaching a stirring sermon to the people. The elder stood still and heard him finish his sermon, then take up his office again and give out the dismissal of the catechumens, as the deacon does. Then at last he knocked at the door. The man came out, met the elder with the customary reverence, and brought him in. Then, because his knowledge of what his thoughts had been made him uneasy, he asked when he had arrived, afraid that he might have come to some harm from standing too long at the door. The old man answered with a pleasant joke: “I only got here while you were giving out the dismissal of the catechumens.” [a]