I'm a really big fan of the stories of the Desert Fathers because they contain many edifying small parables that are easy to read in the context of a busy day. I see some of you on this forum share some edifying stories you got from other sources, could you recommend them in this thread?
Philokalia also has some of these parables, but it's interspersed with a lot of dense treatises and essays (which are really great) but obviously significantly harder to read for that reason.
An example of the format I'm talking about:
14. One of the hermits said, ‘There are some who do good, yet the devil insinuates a mean spirit into them, so that they lose the reward of all the good they do. Once when I was living in Oxyrhynchus with a priest who was generous in almsgiving, a widow came to ask him for a little barley. He said to her, “Go and fetch some, and I will weigh it for you.” She brought him some. But when he weighed the measure she had taken he said, “It is too much,” and so he made the widow ashamed. After she had gone, I said, “Priest, did you lend barley to that widow, or what?” He said, “No; I gave it her.” So I said, “If you wanted to make her a gift, why were you so exact about the measure that you made her ashamed?” ’
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Philokalia also has some of these parables, but it's interspersed with a lot of dense treatises and essays (which are really great) but obviously significantly harder to read for that reason.
An example of the format I'm talking about:
14. One of the hermits said, ‘There are some who do good, yet the devil insinuates a mean spirit into them, so that they lose the reward of all the good they do. Once when I was living in Oxyrhynchus with a priest who was generous in almsgiving, a widow came to ask him for a little barley. He said to her, “Go and fetch some, and I will weigh it for you.” She brought him some. But when he weighed the measure she had taken he said, “It is too much,” and so he made the widow ashamed. After she had gone, I said, “Priest, did you lend barley to that widow, or what?” He said, “No; I gave it her.” So I said, “If you wanted to make her a gift, why were you so exact about the measure that you made her ashamed?” ’
HOSPITALITY - The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
HOSPITALITY - The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks - by Benedicta Ward