How did the desert fathers,
Ascend so far in their holy aims?
These pious pilgrims,
In their caves,
Seeking only
The Holy flame...
They refused entangeling alliances,
With all except the Lord,
Refusing a world of compromise,
To vibrate the blessed chord.
That note in tune with heaven,
That frequency of creation,
That wisdom of eternity,
Available to all with the aspiration.
The desert fathers too,
Came out from every creed,
Every people, every continent,
All the self same call to heed.
The call of contemplation,
To let the stillness speak at length,
To accept annihilation,
And to know what then comes next.
St. Anthony, the father of Cave meditation,
Has long be thought and is said to be,
One of the Saints who progressed
Further to Him in heaven,
than we can possibly perceive...
Teaching us that strong devotion
Is the route to being free.
St. Macarius the Egyptian,
Is one of my favorites,
And strange...
Still decipherable
Of meaning,
Yet baffling, even in this age.
These Christian hermits,
Ascetics, and monks,
They provided the early church
With some lofty tree trunks.
These branches ascending
Through diligent growth
Can be climbed by us, the children.
As we study what they wrote
Their mysterious stories and apparitions.
Let us revive the desert fathers,
And in turn, let them revive us,
To read then again these ancient texts
And increase in our awareness, and trust.
