Antony’s Counsel to Those Who Came to Him

So after some days he went back into the mountain. From then on many came to him, and others who were suffering also ventured to go in. To all the monks who came to him he constantly gave this rule: “Believe in the Lord and love him. Keep yourselves from filthy thoughts and the pleasures of the flesh, and, as it is written in the Proverbs, do not be deceived ‘by the filling of the belly.’ Pray continually. Avoid empty glory. Sing psalms before you sleep and when you wake. Hold the commandments of Scripture in your heart. Remember the works of the saints, so that your souls, reminded of the commandments, may be brought into harmony with the zeal of the saints.” [a]

Above all he advised them to meditate continually on the apostle’s word, “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” He considered that this was spoken of all the commandments alike: the sun ought to go down not on anger alone, but on no other sin of ours either. For it was good and necessary that neither the sun should condemn us for an evil done by day, nor the moon for a sin done by night, or even for an evil thought. To keep this state in us, it is good to hear the apostle and keep his words, for he says, “Examine yourselves and test yourselves.” Every day, then, let each one take account of his own actions by day and by night. If he has sinned, let him stop; and if he has not, let him not boast. Let him remain in what is good, without growing careless, without condemning his neighbors, and without justifying himself, “until the Lord comes, who searches out hidden things,” as the blessed apostle Paul says. For often we do things without realizing it, things we do not know about; but the Lord sees all things. So let us leave the judgment to him and have sympathy for one another. Let us bear each other’s burdens, but let us examine ourselves and hurry to fill up what we lack.

And as a safeguard against sin, let this be practiced. Let each of us note and write down our actions and the impulses of our soul, as though we were going to report them to one another. And be sure that if we would be utterly ashamed to have them known, we will keep from sin and harbor no shameful thoughts in our minds. For who wants to be seen while sinning? Or who, after committing a sin, will not rather lie, wanting to escape notice? Just as we would not commit sins of the flesh while we are looking at one another, so if we write down our thoughts as though we were going to tell them to one another, we will more easily keep ourselves free of vile thoughts, for shame that they should be known. So let what is written take the place of the eyes of our fellow hermits, so that, blushing as much to write as if we had been caught, we may never even think of what is shameful. Shaping ourselves in this way, we will be able to keep the body in subjection, to please the Lord, and to trample on the schemes of the enemy.

This was the advice he gave those who came to him. With those who suffered he sympathized and prayed, and often the Lord heard him on behalf of many. Yet he did not boast because he was heard, nor did he complain if he was not. He always gave thanks to the Lord, and urged the sufferer to be patient and to know that healing belonged neither to him nor to any human being at all, but only to the Lord, who does good when he wills and to whom he wills. So the sufferers used to receive the old man’s words as though they were a cure, learning not to lose heart but rather to be patient. And those who were healed were taught to give thanks not to Antony but to God alone.