Joseph the Theban

Abba Joseph the Theban said, “Three works are honored before the Lord. First, when a person is ill and temptations come upon him, and he receives them with thanksgiving. Second, when a person makes all his works pure before God, with nothing merely human in them. Third, when a person lives in obedience to a spiritual father and renounces all his own wills. This last has an additional crown.” Abba Joseph said of himself, “I chose illness.”