wisdom for wednesday (4)
This weeks wisdom is from Abbot Theodore of Pherme (paraphrased by Thomas Merton from The Wisdom of the Desert p. 35).
“Another brother asked the same elder, Abbot Theodore, and began to question him and to inquire about things which he had never yet put into practice himself. The elder said to him: As yet you have not found the ship, and you have not put your baggage aboard, and you have not started to cross the sea: can you talk as if you had already arrived in that city to which you planned to go? When you have put into practice the thing you are talking about, then speak from the knowledge of the the thing itself!”
Good stuff.
I just got the Nouwen version of the desert fathers. Interesting Japenese art with it.
I don’t have Nouwen’s version… I have Merton and an annotated version of Philokalia. I might at least want to peruse’ Nouwen’s take.