The Desert Fathers and Spiritual Direction

By Regina Bäumer & Michael Plattig

The early Christian monastic movement flourished in Egypt, the Holy Land, and Asia Minor until the 6th century. When Abba Moses taught in the third century, he urged his fellow monks to seek only the company of their caves: "A brother came to Scetis to visit Abba Moses and asked him for a word. The old man said to him, 'Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything'."1

Yet, by the time of Benedict of Nursia (6th century), the monks were truly living together as siblings. In the space of only three centuries the way of life of the early monks evolved from anchoritic to communitarian. As a result, their method of giving spiritual direction changed as well.

In this article, we will discuss several significant characteristics of spiritual direction in the early, anchoritic period. We will treat these as three separate but related questions; 1) What was the concept of humanity in spiritual direction? 2) What were its aims and its methods? 3) What was the role of the spiritual director?

The reader will please note that although there were both Abbas and Ammas, Desert Fathers and Mothers, offering spiritual direction at this time, most of the surviving literature focuses on the Fathers. This is part of the patriarchal cultural matrix of its time, and we have tried to be sensitive to this reality. Even so, we have chosen to use the word monk to refer to both female and male disciples of the time.

Concept of Humanity in Spiritual Direction
The early monks did not put the human being on a pedestal, nor did they damn humanity for its inability to avoid doing evil. Rather, they accepted and took seriously without prejudgment everyday realities and daily problems.2 The disciple's main concern in approaching a spiritual director was to find a solution to a perplexing or troubling worldly problem. In contrast, the goal of spiritual direction was, by working through this problem, to find the next step on the path to becoming a real and true person, an authentic person. This next step the spiritual director and his disciple were meant to find together. The early monks believed that it was the task of the spiritual director to guide, further, and sustain the process of becoming a person according to God's image of that person.

In the view of the early monks it is a person's task to struggle with his or her demons, and control the desire to do evil. In modern psychological terms, this could be interpreted as exercising self-control over one's actions, as well as thoughts, desires, feelings, and emotions, so as to become a fully developed, mature, and functioning person. The monks believed that a person needs not only to be free from his or her dependency on thoughts and desires but also to differentiate good thoughts from evil ones. This is what is meant by discernment of spirits. Although they did not pass judgment on someone for having emotions and desires, they felt nonetheless that it was necessary for emotions and their consequences to be allowed to run their course. Thus the disciple was given the opportunity to reach his or her ultimate goal of discerning the message embedded in them which was, in the monks' view, an important step forward on the spiritual journey.

A brother came to see Abba Poemen and said to him: "Abba, I have many thoughts and they put me in danger." The old man led him outside and said to him, "Expand your chest and do not breathe in." He said, "I cannot do that." Then the old man said to him, "If you cannot do that, no more can you prevent thoughts from arising, but you can resist them."3
Amma Theodora said, "Let us strive to enter by the narrow gate. Just as the trees, if they have not stood before the winter's storms, cannot bear fruit, so it is with us; this present age is a storm and it is only through many trials and temptations that we can obtain an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven."4

Professor M. Schneider interprets the monks' view of demons in the following way: "According to the monks, demons in a human's inner life are neither a phenomenon of occultism, nor are they merely a psychological reality within the person. The idea of demons is rather a theological expression and refers to salvation. The monk consciously takes the struggle with the demons unto himself because it has been his experience that his life and the life of every Christian is hanging in the balance in this struggle between powers and dominions, which are in heaven and in earth. Inasmuch as the monk decides to fight the good fight and to resist the powers of darkness he struggles alongside Christ. Together they do God's work for the salvation of the world and the coming of God's kingdom. Thus, one could say that the monks' life's work has an apostolic and missionary dimension."5

Because the old monks were convinced that everyone has the capacity to follow a spiritual path and at the same time be guided by God's mercy and the Holy Spirit, they were not thrown into self doubt if a
disciple or another monk committed a sin. They trusted in God's ability to use darkness and sin to open a person's soul. It often seems that the monks believed that it was necessary for someone to sin in order to become conscious of the fact that this life does not depend only upon him- or herself, but rather on God's grace and God's mercy. They didn't pass judgment against a sinner:

One day Abba Isaac (the Theban) went to a monastery. He saw a brother committing a sin and he condemned him. When he returned to the desert, an angel of the Lord came and stood in front of the door of his cell, and said, "I will not let you enter." But he persisted saying, "What is the matter?" and the angel replied, "God has sent me to ask you where you want to throw the guilty brother whom you have condemned."

Immediately he repented and said, "I have sinned, forgive me." Then the angel said, "Get up, God has forgiven you. But from now on, be careful not to judge someone before God has done so."6

The Spiritual Fathers and Mothers strongly believed that human beings do not always move directly toward their desired goal, and that they are easily tempted to stray from the right path. Their role, they felt, was to accompany the disciple on his or her path, wherever it led.

The story was told of a brother who had committed a fault. When he went to Abba Lot, he was troubled and hesitated, going in and coming out, unable to sit down. Abba Lot said to him: "What is the matter, brother?" He said, "I have committed a great fault and I cannot acknowledge it to the Fathers." The old man said to him, "Confess it to me, and I will carry it." Then he said to him, "I have fallen into fornication, and in order to do it, I have sacrificed to idols." The old man said to him, "Have confidence; repentance is possible. Go, sit in your cave, eat only once in two days and I will carry half of your fault with you." After three weeks, the old man had the certainty that God had accepted the brother's repentance. Then the latter remained in submission to the old man until his death.7

In this connection, it is important to note that the old monks never offered counseling without first being asked a question by a disciple. Moreover, it was the request for spiritual direction itself that constituted the disciple-guide relationship. In other words, the disciple always had to play the active role. However, if the spiritual father gave an answer to the question, the disciple was obligated to accept his advice and to follow it.

This is perhaps best illustrated by a commentary by one of the old monks themselves, taken from the Apophthegmata in which the author is lamenting the disappearance of the practice we have just described: "Now there is no word anymore. In former times disciples asked and monks answered, and disciples did what they were told to do, and all was a gift from God. Nowadays disciples ask but they do not follow the advice they are given. And so God does not speak through the monks any longer. It seems as though God has withdrawn the Spirit because there is no longer one who is willing to follow."8

The Goal of Spiritual Direction and Its Realization
Description of the Goal. The goal of spiritual direction in the time of the early monks was to bring a person to contemplation and mystical union with God. In this connection, Anselm Grün, a contemporary Benedictine monk, states,

"The path that the spiritual fathers led their disciples down was a mystical path. The most important concern for the monks was not whether the path was the path of morality and righteousness. Neither was it the knowledge or the doing of God's will, nor was it making the right choices. Rather it is always a question of achieving mystical union with God."9

While one is on this path to contemplation, one is nonetheless obligated to live one's life in the real world, to become an authentic person and to come to an understanding with one's emotions and desires. The following questions therefore arise: What is the spiritual dimension of my deepest emotions? What is the experience of my relationship to God in daily life? What is God trying to communicate to me? What spiritual counsel from God is striving to reveal itself in my daily life? What is the purpose and meaning of my life?

Method. It is known that the monks left us no written records of their methods for spiritual direction. What we do have, however, are the Apophthegmata Patrum, which could be regarded as a series of concise case histories. By studying these accounts, it is possible to get a fairly clear picture of the methods of spiritual direction that they used. We will now briefly describe these methods.

Giving Concrete Advice. The Spiritual Fathers and Mothers usually gave concrete answers to very direct and simple questions. But because the often succinct and pointed answers they gave always reflected the everyday reality of the person who was asking them, one finds very different or even contradictory answers to very similar questions.

The monks also gave their disciples simple exercises which required them to change themselves gradually over a long period of time. This gradual process allowed the disciples the opportunity to gain a new perspective on their problem and themselves. The monks believed that performance of this one simple exercise over a long period of time would change a person's whole life far more than any series of complicated tasks designed to encourage self-denial. Moreover, doing this, they felt, would strengthen the disciple's relationship to God.10

Giving Comfort and Support. In counseling their disciples, the monks' principle aim was not to pass judgment and deepen their grief, but rather to provide their disciples with solace and reassurance.

"If a man has sinned and denies it, saying, 'I have not sinned,' do not reprimand him; for that will discourage him. But say to him: 'Do not lose heart, brother, but be on guard in the future,' and you will stir his soul to repentance."11

In order to carry out the task of spiritual direction with sensitivity, the Spiritual Fathers and Mothers needed to have a very clear idea of what was important for the disciple. They also had to take care not to overwhelm the disciple with high ideals and strict morality, lest he or she lose hope and become despondent. But as an ideal to be kept in mind, on the other hand, these moral principles do have the power to help a person to renounce sinful ways and the desires from which they arise.

However, once someone brings such desires to the surface of consciousness, they are no longer dangerous. Far more dangerous and destructive, however, are wishes and desires that are continually suppressed. These impulses, the monks felt, must at all costs be taken seriously.12

Making of a Good Decision. A third important aspect of the monks' methods is their feeling that it was crucial to maintain a level of awareness great enough to enable a disciple to find his or her own way to an answer. This meant allowing ample time and space for the disciple to speak in detail about his or her situation. It also meant helping the disciple to find a solution to his or her own problem through a process of either asking questions or of repeating the disciple's words back so as to lead to an answer.13

Moreover, the Spiritual Fathers and Mothers strongly resisted the temptation to impose a solution on or find an answer for the disciple. In their view, it was solely the disciple's responsibility to come to a decision. This was to be accomplished by guiding the disciple through a process of discovery whereby the decision that needed to be made, or the principles on which it could be based, would become clear.

Teaching by Example. The old monks emphasized the dangers of traveling without a guide. "But there is no notion of blind obedience or domination, for the Spiritual Fathers were to teach by example, and only secondarily by word."14

A brother asked Abba Poemen, "Some brothers live with me: do you want me to be in charge of them?" The old man said to him, "No, just work first and foremost, and if they want to live like you, they will see to it themselves." The brother said to him, "But it is they themselves, father, who want me to be in charge of them." The old man said to him, "No, be their example, not their legislator."15

Silence as Answer. In certain cases, the monks chose to respond with silence instead of words, which forced the disciple to move from the theoretical to the experiential level. The monks did not care for theological discussions which, they felt, were often merely a distraction from the disciple's actual lived situation. For them the aim of spiritual direction was not to engage in spirited theological debates, but rather to help the disciple make progress along the path of knowledge and love of God and God's will.16

A brother from Abba Poemen's neighborhood left to go to another country one day. There he met an anchorite. The latter was very charitable and many came to see him. The brother told him about Abba Poemen. When he heard of his virtue, the anchorite wanted to see him.

Some time afterward when the brother had returned to Egypt the anchorite went there to see the brother who had formerly paid him a visit. He had told him where he lived. When he saw him, the brother was astonished and very pleased. The anchorite said to him, "Please will you be so kind as to take me to Abba Poemen." So he brought him to the old man and presented him, saying: "This is a great man, full of charity, who is held in high estimation in his district. I have spoken to him about you, and he has come because he wants to see you." So Abba Poemen received him with joy. They greeted one another and sat down. The visitor began to speak of the scriptures, of spiritual and of heavenly things.

But Abba Poemen turned his face away and answered nothing. Seeing that he did not speak to him, the other went away deeply grieved and said to the brother who had brought him, "I have made this long journey in vain. For I have come to see the old man, and he does not wish to speak to me." Then the brother went inside to Abba Poemen and said to him, "Abba, this great man who has so great a reputation in his own country has come here because of you. Why did you not speak to him?" The old man said, "He is great and speaks of heavenly things and I am lowly and speak of earthly things. If he had spoken of the passions of the soul, I should have replied, but he speaks to me of spiritual things and I know nothing about that."

Then the brother came out and said to the visitor, "The old man does not readily speak of the scriptures, but if anyone consults him about the passions of the soul, he replies." Filled with compunction, the visitor returned to the old man and said to him, "What should I do, Abba, for the passions of the soul master me?" The old man turned toward him and replied joyfully, "This time, you come as you should. Now open your mouth concerning this and I will fill it with good things."

Greatly edified, the other said to him, "Truly, this is the right way!" He returned to his own country giving thanks to God that he had been counted worthy to meet so great a saint.17
Becoming Aware of Emotions and Desires. The Spiritual Fathers and Mothers encouraged their disciples to look deeply into their thoughts and feelings and to act in such a way that their thoughts and feelings would undergo a change. Evagrius Ponticus advised his disciples to get to know their deepest feelings, and to bring them out in the open so as to become aware of them. Working through them in this way enabled the disciple to discover what his or her feelings were trying to communicate. When we show our anger, for example, it is usually a sign that we have given someone too much power over us. Evagrius believed that the force of this anger should be used to break the dependency on the one who has power over us.
Abba Poemen asked Abba Joseph of Panephysis another question saying, "What should I do when the passions attack me? Should I resist them, or let them enter?" The old man said to him, "Let them enter and fight against them."

So he returned to Scetis where he remained. Now someone from Thebes came to Scetis and said to the brethren, "I asked Abba Joseph if I ought to resist the passions when they approach, or let them enter and he replied I ought not to allow them the smallest entry but cut them off immediately." When Abba Poemen learned that Abba Joseph had spoken to the brother from Thebes in this way, he got up and went to see him at Panephysis and said, "Abba, I consulted you about my thoughts and you have said one thing to me, and another to the Theban."

The old man said to him, "Do you not know that I love you?" He said, "Yes." "And did you not say to me, 'Speak to me as you speak to yourself'?" "That is right." Then the old man said, "Truly, if the passions enter you and you fight them you become stronger. I spoke to you as to myself. But there are others who cannot profit in this way if the passions approach them, and so they must cut them off immediately."18

In the same way, one needs to become aware that temptation is not evil, but is simply part of life. The disciple should not pass judgment on him- or herself for experiencing temptation. Rather, the disciple should have faith that through experiencing these feelings he or she will grow far closer to God and will through this intimacy gain inner strength. The same is true of guilt and moral failure: the disciple should also not pass judgment on him- or herself. The disciple should trust that God will provide the strength to persevere. In this regard, the Apophthegmata tells us,

A brother asked Abba Sisoes, "What shall I do, Abba, for I have fallen?" The old man said to him, "Get up again." The brother answered, "I have got up again, but I have fallen again." The old man said, "Get up again and again." So then the brother said, "How many times?" The old man said, "Until you are taken up either in virtue or in sin. For a man presents himself to judgment in the state in which he is found."19

Thus, the monks believed that every facet of a human being's inner life contains positive forces. They felt that if one tries to kill off one's deepest feelings, because one is afraid that these feelings will lead one to do evil, one will end up yearning for the power that the feelings contained. This can sap the power from one's spiritual life. Thus Evagrius says that changing one's deepest feelings brings about "desire for the eternal God and virtually inexhaustible strength."20

A. Grün describes this process as follows,
Monastic asceticism is an asceticism of slow inner transformation, not one of self-initiated change, which can do violence to one's inner self. "I want to change myself," the disciple says, "because I hate myself as I am, and so I must force myself to be different and to become a different person." By contrast, the process of slow, inner transformation is a far gentler process. All thoughts and feelings are acceptable, as are all desires and passions. But they need to undergo a transformation. This means deeply experiencing all my passions and desires and inwardly following them where they lead me. Only then can I know what they are trying to tell me.21

The Role of the Spiritual Director in the Time of the Early Monks
The writings of the old monks state that the spiritual director must be pneumatikos, that is, imbued or filled with the Holy Spirit. According to Irenaus of Lyon, if a person is truly spiritual, the Holy Spirit will suffuse him or her, body and soul. In other words, all inward separation between body and soul has been eliminated and with help from the Holy Spirit has become whole. The old monks' writings also say that the spiritual director must be well-versed in God's mysteries, and that it is necessary for him or her to have looked deeply into the human heart. This means, above all, that the director must know his or her own heart and soul as well as the heart and soul of the disciple. An integral aspect of this knowledge is the gift of discernment of spirits, a skill that one cannot be trained in and which is rather a blessing from the Holy Spirit that one must continually pray for. The possessor of this gift has the ability to quickly reach the point where he or she is able to discover the true meaning behind the words being spoken by the disciple. Moreover, the director has a feeling for the disciple's state of mind and for his or her present needs and wants. Abbas and Ammas were also able to find a happy medium between requiring too much and too little of the disciple. In order to do this, the spiritual director needs to be able first to deal with his or her own deepest feelings and thoughts, and second to be attentive to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

At the outset, the process of becoming a Spiritual Father or Mother involved many long years of solitude in the desert, where, in order to cleanse the soul and achieve purity of heart, the monk struggled with the demons of his or her soul. Following this, disciples who came to the monk would tell others of their experiences. It is important to note that it was through building a reputation that was spread by disciples and not by awarding him- or herself the title of spiritual director that a monk achieved this distinction.22

Amma Syncletica said, "It is dangerous for anyone to teach who has not first been trained in the 'practical' life. For if someone who owns a ruined house receives guests there, he does them harm because of the dilapidation of his dwelling. It is the same in the case of someone who has not first built an interior dwelling; he causes loss to those who come. By words one may convert them to salvation, but by evil behavior, one injures them."23

However, this practice gradually died out as spiritual direction became increasingly institutionalized. The first signs of this are already visible in the Apophthegmata:
Father Antonius used to say: The first old monks went into the desert not only to make themselves whole but also to become spiritual healers for others. But nowadays, when one of us goes into the desert, he does so in order to heal the others first and himself later. But our weakness comes back to haunt us, and our past actions even more so. And thus does the Bible tell us: Physician, heal thyself (Lk 4:23).24

The final stage in this institutionalization was the Benedictine rule which stated that upon becoming abbott the latter became the community's sole spiritual director.

Apatheia and kindness were extremely important to the Spiritual Fathers. Apatheia is defined as the state in which the monk has successfully ended his or her inner struggle, and has thereby been freed from worldly desires. But apatheia does not mean that the person has neither emotions nor desires. It means rather that he or she does not let emotions and desires overwhelm him or her. This characteristic of the old monks enabled them to look upon both themselves and their disciples with kindness and mercy, and as a result, to be helpful to others.

For the monks, kindness was not a moral principle, but rather an article of faith. They developed the quality of kindness in themselves and through a process of working through both their dark side and their powerlesness and thereby experiencing God's mercy and kindness. Thus, kindness became the monk's expression of faith in God's love for humanity in spite of sin. It is also a sign that the Holy Spirit would lift up the monk when he or she fell into sin, and would gently companion, even when a roundabout way has been taken. Kindness was a reflection of the monk's strong belief in human dignity. The Desert Fathers and Mothers believed that God created humankind so that each of us could discover our own individuality, our own true character, and the image that God has made in us.

Disciples looked to their Desert Fathers and Mothers, ". . . for holiness and purity more than for teaching, and the central concept was that of spiritual fatherhood . . . . The Spiritual Father [or Mother] was not simply someone who taught a spiritual technique, but was a [parent] who helped to shape the inner life of his [or her] sons [and daughters] through . . . prayer, concern, and pastoral care."25

An important part of spiritual direction was the prayers the monk offered to God on behalf of the disciple. During these prayers, the monk identified him- or herself with the disciple and asked God to help the disciple. These prayers also allowed the monk to lay the problem at God's feet so as to identify whatever problems of his or her own that had been projected onto the disciple and to seek help in differentiating between these projections and the real needs of the disciple. Thus, the Spiritual Father or Mother was a giver of advice who also felt a sense of responsibility for the disciple and empathized with his or her struggle to change him- or herself through prayer and self-denial.

In the view of Evagrius Pontikus, the role of the Abba or Amma is not primarily that of psychologist or physician, nor that of adviser for everyday problems. Rather, Abbas and Ammas must be mystagogues, teachers of the art of contemplation, of becoming close to God, and of achieving union with God. The goal was to pass on to disciples the knowledge of God that they themselves had attained.26 In our view, the Apophthegmata tends to idealize the Spiritual Fathers and Mothers.

However, it is clear from certain passages in the Apophthegmata27 that the Spiritual Fathers and Mothers did not think of themselves as being as perfect as their disciples had described them.

A brother came to Abba Poemen one day and said to him, "What should I do, Father, for I am tempted to fornication? I went to Abba Ibiston and he said to me, 'You must not let it stay with you.'" Abba Poemen said to him, "Abba Ibiston's deeds are in heaven with the angels and he does not realize that you and I remain in fornication. If a monk controls his belly and his tongue and if he lives like an exile, be confident, he will not die."28

Even though we are far removed in time, many of the desert fathers' and mothers' sayings could be helpful for contemporary spiritual directors. Especially the emphasis that spiritual directors have to live a spiritual life, have to go the spiritual path by themselves. In that process they will become spiritual men and women and also (hopefully or perhaps) spiritual directors. Techniques or methods are helpful but only in connection with their own spiritual process. The desert fathers and mothers remind us that the focus of spiritual life and spiritual direction is to be in continual search for God. z

Regina Bäumer (Regina.Baeumer@t-online.de), born in Remscheid (Germany) in 1956, is a psychotherapist and theologian, member of the Institute for Spirituality, and Lecturer in Rhetoric and Homiletics at the University of the Franciscans and Capuchins in Münster (Germany).
Michael Plattig, O.Carm. (plattig@muenster.de), born in Fürth (Germany) in 1960, is a Carmelite, Professor for Spirituality, and Director of the Institute for Spirituality at the University of the Franciscans and Capuchins in Münster (Germany).

The authors wish to thank Mr. Nussbaum (Münster / Germany) for helping with the translation of this article and the Louis Hermann and Susan Hamilton Rogge Fund (Washington, DC, USA) for the support of our research in the Carmelite Collection (Whitefriars Hall / Washington, DC, USA).

Reprinted from PRESENCE: THE JOURNAL OF SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS INTERNATIONAL, Vol. 7 No. 2. An earlier version of the English article is reprinted with permission from Studies in Spirituality 7 (1997), p. 42-54, by permission of Peeters Publishers.

Endnoten | Endnotes
1. Ward Benedicta, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, revised edition, Kalamazoo (Michigan) 1984, 139.
2. "In the Apophthegmata or Sayings of the Desert Fathers, one meets the figure of the abba, the charismatic holy man of the wilderness, and the sayings of these men contain answers to practical problems and difficulties." Leech, Kenneth, Soul Friend. The Practice of Christian Spirituality, San Francisco, 1980, 42.
3. Ward, 171.
4. Ward, 83.
5. Schneider, M., Aus den Quellen der Wüste. Die Bedeutung der frühen Mönchsväter für eine Spiritualität heute, Köln, 1989, 55 (translation: Mr. Nussbaum).
6. Ward, 109­110.
7. Ward, 122.
8. Quoted in accordance with: Sprüche der Väter, herausgegeben und übersetzt von P. Bonifatius OSB, Graz 1963, 231 (translation: Mr. Nussbaum).
9. Cp. Grün, A., Geistliche Begleitung bei den Wüstenvätern, Münsterschwarzacher Kleinschriften 67, Münsterschwarzach 1991, 96.
10. Cp. Schneider, 31ff.
11. Ward, 170.
12. Cp. Grün, 38.
13. Cp. Grün, 52.
14. Leech, 42.
15. Ward, 191.
16. Cp. Grün, 50.
17. Ward, 167
18. Ward, 102.
19. Ward, 219­220.
20. Evagrius Pontikus, Praktikos 57.
21. Grün, 61.
22. Cp. Bamberg C., Geistliche Führung im frühen Mönchtum, in: Geist und Leben 54 (1981), 276­290, 279.
23. Ward, 233.
24. Weisung der Väter, Apophthegmata Patrum, übersetzt von B. Miller, Trier, 1986, 328 (translation: Mr. Nussbaum).
25. Leech, 41.
26. Cp. Bunge G., Geistliche Vaterschaft. Christliche Gnosis bei Evagrios Pontikos, Regensburg 1988.
27. For example: Ward, 109­110 and 175.
28. Ward, 175.

Literatur
Bäumer Regina, Plattig Michael, "Aufmerksamkeit ist das natürliche Gebet der Seele" Geistliche Begleitung in der Zeit der Wüstenväter und der personzentrierte Ansatz nach Carl R. Rogers ­ eine Seelenverwandtschaft ?!, Würzburg 1998, ISBN 3-429-02050-6.