Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Anthony the Abbot, the founder of monasticism, lived
in the third century, he was born in 251, his parents were Christian and he was brought
up Christian and he was not, he spent all his time at home, his parents kept him at
home so he didn't really go out much and was not educated and at the age of 20 his
parents died and he was left with his younger sister who was very young and he inherited
all the property of his parents who were wealthy and had 200 acres of fertile land and he gave
the best lands to his neighbors after he read this gospel.
About six months after his parents died he wanted to, he was praying to God what he should
do with his life and he went to church and heard this gospel here where it says, where
our Lord said if you want to be perfect go and sell what you have and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven and then come follow me.
So he took these words as being spoken to himself and he gave the best part of the land
to his neighbors.
His nearest neighbors and then sold the rest, almost all the rest and gave the money to
the poor.
He saved a little for himself and his sister and then some time after that he went back
to church and he heard the gospel where our Lord said don't worry about tomorrow and then
he sold the rest of his goods and gave them to the poor and put his sister into a nunnery.
And he just lived nearby his hometown and lived an ascetical life and he would go and
visit as many wise men as he could find and try to learn their virtues and he would learn
one virtue after another by observing the holy life of the men that he heard were holy
men.
And so he would grow in virtue in that way.
And at the age of 35.
Wow.
At the age of 35 he crossed the Nile and went up to a mountain in the desert and lived
up in the top of the mountain and some ruins up there and he lived there for 20 years and
wouldn't see anyone and just stayed up there and prayed and worked and lived a life of
contemplation.
People would go to see him but he would only speak to them through the wall.
He wouldn't see anyone and he had a friend that came and brought him some bread every
once in a while.
He lived on bread and water for the rest of his life and sometimes he wouldn't eat
anything for three or four days but he would eat one meal of bread at sunset.
Bread and water, maybe a little salt and when he got older he'd add a little oil to his
bread.
So he lived that life of austerity and in prayer and he learned to pray and work.
He, one time, was spending a lot of time with his wife.
He had a lot of time with his wife.
He was spending a lot of time in contemplation and he wasn't at peace and then his guardian
angel appeared to him and he taught him how to pray and then he would weave baskets and
then he would go back to prayer and do some other kind of work and he learned from his
guardian angel that that's what he should do and then he learned to be at peace, to
pray and work, not just to pray.
And he also had a vision of the world.
He had a vision of the world.
He had a vision of the world.
He had a vision of the world being covered with demons and snares everywhere and he was
really distressed at this and he said, how could anybody avoid these snares and lose
their soul?
And then he heard a voice from heaven and said, humility.
And he suffered many temptations from the devil, many assaults on the devil, especially
in the beginning when he was beginning his holy life and the devil perhaps had presumption,
that he was going to be a great enemy of his and so the devil attacked him and beat
him on many occasions and sent many temptations to him and one time he was beaten to the point
of death and was found in the cave lying on the ground almost dead by his friend and
he cried out to God, why, where were you during my beatings and God said, I was here right
next to you, right by your side.
Here.
I'm witnessing your combat but from now on I will protect you and I will make your name
great throughout the world.
And he became great because St. Athanasius, the bishop, went and visited him and saw his
holy life and spent a lot of time with him and then wrote his book on the life of St.
Athanasius and brought that and became very popular and so people would go and see, go
and visit St. Anthony in the desert and many people wanted to follow his example.
And so there were hundreds of monks that followed his example and after the 20 years of time
he spent up on the mountain, he was begged by these men to teach him, teach them how
to live a monastic life and a life of holiness and so he came down and founded at least two
monasteries and taught the monks how to live a life of contemplation and prayer and work
and mortification.
And.
So he did that at the age of 54 but he persevered, persevered in this monastic life, a life of
seclusion and silence and prayer all the way to the age of 105 years old, persevered in
that and left the example to all ages of this life of contemplation and solitude and silence
and.
This is what we can come away with as to still the importance of solitude and silence
and prayer and being alone with God is something we can practice in every age and every place
even in our time of noise and television and computers and all kinds of activity and entertainments
everywhere.
We can still get away, spend time in contemplation and silence, which means we need to be able
to be alone at times, alone with God in silence and prayer and in church especially in times
of adoration or in our room in quiet places and to value silence and contemplation ourselves.
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