Once Abba Macarius of Alexandria went with the brothers to cut palm leaves. On the first day they said to him, “Come, Father, eat with us.” He went and ate. On the next day they invited him to eat again, but he refused and said, “You need to eat, children, because you are still flesh. I do not want to eat now.”
Abba Pachomius asked Abba Macarius, “When brothers are disorderly, is it good to discipline them?” Abba Macarius replied, “Discipline and judge rightly those who are under your authority, but judge no one outside it. For it is written, ‘What have I to do with judging those outside? Do you not judge those inside? God judges those outside.’”
It was said of Abba Macarius of Alexandria that for four months he went every day to visit a brother, and not once did he find him at leisure from prayer. Marvelling, he said, “Here is an angel upon the earth.”