What you need is prayers

“The brethren came to the Abba Anthony and said to him, ‘Speak a word; how are we to be saved?' The old man said to them, ‘You have heard the Scriptures. That should teach you how.' But they said, ‘We want to hear from you too, Father.' Then the old man said to them, ‘The Gospel says, “if anyone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also."' (Matt. 5.39) They said, ‘We cannot do that.' The old man said, ‘If you cannot offer the other cheek, at least allow one cheek to be struck.' ‘We cannot do that either,' they said. So he said, ‘If you are not able to do that, do not return evil for evil,' and they said, ‘We cannot do that either.' Then the old man said to his disciple, ‘Prepare a little brew of corn for these invalids. If you cannot do this, or that, what can I do for you? What you need is prayers.'" -The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Abba Anthony the Great, paragraph 19)

“We cannot do that.”

“We cannot do that either.”

“We cannot do that either.”

This exchange with Abba Anthony is somewhat funny, at least to me.

These brothers come to Abba Anthony asking him for some wisdom, and he gives them some.

But they say they cannot do it. They cannot follow his advice. They immediately respond with an excuse.

I can only imagine what they might have been thinking, since we do not get any insight. I imagine that they may have been thinking, “Oh we cannot do that. Why is he telling us to do things that are difficult? Doesn’t he have some easier way to be saved?” But, we will never know their true reasons for not being able to heed his advice.

How common this response is when we are faced with the difficulty of living virtuously. “Oh why can’t life just be easier…” or “Why do I have to suffer?”

G.K. Chesterton said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried."

In the case of these two brothers, Abba Anthony realizes the state that they are in and says “What you need is prayers.”

Sometimes, the only way we can help someone is to pray for them. We can help instruct and try to guide them if they are open to receiving, but if they aren’t, all we can do is pray for them.

Abba Anthony the Great, pray for us!