From The Sayings of
the Desert Fathers:
Abba Anthony said, “Whoever
hammers a lump of iron, first decides what he is going to make of it: a scythe,
a sword, or an axe. Even so, we ought to make up our minds what kind of virtue
we want to forge or we labor in vain.”
This “saying” reminded me that, once upon a time, I had
asked my spiritual director how one might go about practicing a particular
virtue. He gave me a short, step-by-step approach which I jotted down on a
little piece of scratch paper.
Well…I cannot find that little piece of paper, though I know
I had kept it in a certain place for a long time. I have looked everywhere I
can think of to look. It is nowhere to be found.
I suppose if I’d actually put the steps into practice, I
wouldn’t need to find the piece of paper. It would be part of my routine, and I
would probably have developed at least a couple of virtues by now. And I could
share the steps with you right now.
One problem I had was that I couldn’t decide upon a virtue
to practice – and I do recall that that was the first step!
Hmm. I think I have a long, long way to go!
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