A brother asked Abba Xoius, “If I eat three loaves when I am somewhere, is that too much?” The elder said, “Have you come to the threshing floor, brother?” The brother asked, “If I drink three cups of wine, is that too much?” The elder replied, “If there were no devil, it would not be much. But since there is, it is much. Wine is foreign to monks who live according to God.”
Abba Xoius the Theban once went to Mount Sinai. As he was leaving, he met a brother who groaned and said, “Abba, we are distressed because of the drought.” Xoius asked, “Why do you not pray and beg God?” The brother replied, “We pray and make litanies, but it does not rain.” The elder said, “Surely you are not praying earnestly. Do you want to know that this is so?” He stretched out his hands toward heaven in prayer, and immediately rain fell. Seeing this, the brother was afraid and fell on his face before him. But the elder fled. The brother told everyone what had happened, and they glorified God.