Slideshow image

Today’s lesson comes from one the desert mothers, Amma Theodora. Not much is known about her, aside from the fact that many of her sayings were recorded, proof that she was well respected. She lived in the Egyptian desert in the 4thcentury. Her words today address how we should consider the problem of tempting thoughts and impulses.

 

Amma Theodora also said, “there was an ascetic who, because of the great number of personal temptations said, “I will go away from here.” While putting sandals on, (she) saw another ascetic who was also putting on sandals. This other ascetic said, “Is it on my account that you are going away? Because I go before you wherever you are going.”

 

This reminds me of the New Age saying. “Wherever you go, there you are.” Temptations are only tempting if *we* find them tempting. A teetotaller has no interest in alcohol; it doesn’t matter how many thoughts of alcohol come their way. We are what make temptations a problem, not the object of the temptation, such as sex, drink, drugs, food, whatever. They are not the source of our temptation, that lies inside us. These internal urges and desires go with us everywhere, even though we may move across the country to avoid them.

 

For the monks, this was one of the great challenges of the desert: to face one’s urges and tame them. They recommended prayer and patience. Today we might add that some temptations have biological aspects. Others derive from psychological causes, as we seek to self medicate to escape deeper problems rooted in past traumas. Therapy can help, in addition to prayer and abstinence. We appear to be rediscovering that many of our temptations have deep roots – inside us. Something the desert mothers and fathers recognized over a thousand years ago. Peace.

 

-Rev. Stephen Milton, Lawrence Park Community Church, Toronto

 

Quotation Source: Laura Swan, The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, Lives, and Stories of Early Christian Women,( New York, 2001), p.68. 

 

If you would like to subscribe to this series, please contact stephen@lawrenceparkchurch.ca