Section 55

After some days Antony returned again to the mountain. From then on many people went to him, and others who were suffering dared to make the journey as well.

To all the monks who came to him he continually gave this instruction: “Believe in the Lord and love him. Guard yourselves from filthy thoughts and bodily pleasures and, as it is written in Proverbs, do not be deceived by ‘the fullness of the belly.’ Pray continually. Avoid empty glory. Sing psalms before going to sleep and when you wake. Keep the commandments of Scripture in your heart. Remember the deeds of the saints, so that as your souls recall the commandments they may be brought into harmony with the zeal of the saints.”

Above all he advised them to meditate continually on the Apostle’s words: “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” He understood this to apply not only to anger but to all the commandments together: the sun should not go down on any sin of ours. It was good and necessary, he said, that neither the sun condemn us for an evil committed during the day nor the moon for a sin committed during the night—or even for an evil thought.

To preserve this condition within us, he said, it is good to listen to the Apostle and keep his words: “Examine yourselves and test yourselves.” Therefore each day let every person take an account from himself of his actions by day and by night. If he has sinned, let him stop. If he has not sinned, let him not boast. Let him remain in what is good without becoming negligent, without condemning his neighbors, and without declaring himself righteous, until the Lord comes, “who searches out hidden things,” as the blessed Apostle Paul says.

Often we ourselves are unaware of things we do and do not know our own faults, but the Lord sees everything. So let us leave judgment to him, have compassion for one another, and bear one another’s burdens. Let us examine ourselves and hurry to supply whatever is lacking in us.

“And as a safeguard against sin, let us also do this: each of us should record in writing our actions and the movements of our soul as though we were going to disclose them to one another. Be certain that if we would be deeply ashamed for others to know them, we will stop sinning and will not keep base thoughts in our minds.

“For who wants to be seen while committing a sin? And who, after committing one, would not rather lie in order to escape being discovered? Just as we would not commit a sexual sin while looking at one another, so if we write down our thoughts as though we were about to tell them to one another, we will more easily guard ourselves from shameful thoughts because we would be ashamed for them to become known.

“Let the written record therefore take the place of the eyes of our fellow ascetics. If we blush to write something as much as we would blush to be caught doing it, we will never even entertain what is improper. By training ourselves in this way, we will be able to keep the body in subjection, please the Lord, and trample on the devices of the enemy.”