Today our Greek Orthodox brothers and sisters commemorate the holy recluse of Mesopotamia St. Abramius who forsook his inheritance at an early age and set out to the wilderness to conquer the solitary life and dedicate his life to a life of prayer. There is a great biography of this holy saint on the Orthodox Church of America’s website here.

Not all of us are called to be hermits. When I read the lives of these holy saints who set out to the desert to live that kind of life, I often yearn for that. The silence. The solitude. The time for prayer. The images that come to mind are ones of peace and contemplation and communion with the Divine.

Who wouldn’t want that type of life?

It takes discipline to live the ascetic life and great fortitude to stand strong against the temptations that are aroused when living that life. I’d quickly grow lonely amidst the solitude. I quickly feel down and sullen amidst the silence. I’d quickly lose focus amidst all that contemplative prayer. I’d probably fail miserably. So it’s definitely best I was born in the 20th century and live a life in the world making a living and making small portions of my day available for prayer and communion with God. Hopefully, by so doing, I and the many others throughout the cosmos who do the same can reflect in our own humble ways the image of the Divine in the world like St. Abramius did.

I found the following prayer which was chanted by our Orthodox Christian sisters and brothers so beautiful to contemplate today:

The image of God, was faithfully preserved in you,
O Father. For you took up the Cross and followed Christ.
By Your actions you taught us to look beyond the flesh
for it passes, rather to be concerned about the soul
which is immortal.
Wherefore, O Holy Abramius,
your soul rejoices with the angels.

I also found the other prayer chanted today to commemorate this holy saint equally enriching:

Thou, while living in the flesh,
wast as an angel upon earth;
and through thine ascetic pains,
thou didst become like a great tree
planted by the streams of temp’rance,
increasing greatly;
with the rivers of thy tears,
thou didst cleanse away stains.
O Abramius, for this cause,
a godly vessel
of the Good Spirit art thou.

St. Abramius, pray for us.

Originally Published October 29, 2014