![]() It is possible while living amongst a crowd to be inwardly solitary, and while living alone to be inwardly beset by the crowd.” (Olivier Clement, THE ROOTS OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM, p 212) ![]() “ Amma Syncletica (3rd-4th Century) said, ‘Many live on the mountains and behave as if there living amidst the uproar of a city, and they are lost. Yet in the spiritual literature, there is another wisdom which says the desert and the city are not physical places where we dwell but the condition of our hearts. Ephrem contrasts this life of freedom of the wild animals with animals that are not only domesticated but who even draw to close to human society – they end up losing their antlers, forfeiting their skin, being trapped and killed. ![]() So do we urban dwellers give up our spiritual freedom just to enjoy the pleasures of society? (Olivier Clement, THE ROOTS OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM, p 211) Think of the wild beasts they do not have to have their food doled out to them…” Look at the stags on the rocks they do not have to bear the yoke. Watch the roebuck in the wild he does not lose his freedom. look at the wild ass in the desert no one rides on his back. The animals of the desert are not subject to the whip and the mountain goats are not victims of shearers. “The desert is much better than inhabited places for one who is seeking the glory of God,Īnd the mountains are indeed preferable to cities for anyone aware of the grace that is given him.Ĭonsider the little things. The life of the city in his mind comes between the spiritual man and God while the life in the desert rids a person of all of those things which get between us and God – things which hide God from us and things which help us not see God at all. ca 373AD) wrote that monks were those who preferred the liberty of the wild animals to pursue their relationship with God rather than the domestication which results from urban living and its comforts and conveniences.
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