SO GOOD QUOTES

Three elders, one of whom had a bad reputation, once visited Abba Achilles.  One of the elders said to him: “Abba, make me one net,” but he said: “I will not make [you one].”  The other said to him: “Of your charity [make one] so we can have a souvenir of you at the monastery,” but he said: “I haven’t time.”  The other, the one with the bad reputation said to him: “Make me a net so I can have [something] from your hands, abba,” and in answer he said without hesitation: “I will make one for you.”  The [other] two elders said to him in private: “How is it that when we asked you, you were unwilling to make [a net] for us yet you said to this one: ‘I will make [one] for you?’”  The elder said to them: “I said to you: ‘I will not make [one],’ and you were not dismayed, [thinking] I hadn’t the time.  But if I do not make one for this [brother], he will say: ‘The elder refused to make [one] because he had heard of my sin,’ and straightaway we cut the connection.  But I raised up his soul to prevent somebody like him from drowning in sorrow.”

Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers