Our willingness

Our willingness

“I pray then that we should use every effort to press on toward this life’s goal. Let no one look behind him as did Lot’s wife, especially since the Lord has said that no one who puts his hand upon the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven. To look back means to have second thoughts about your undertaking and to become entangled once more in worldly desires.

Do not fear the word ‘virtue’ as if it were unattainable. Do not think that such an endeavor, which depends on our will, is alien to you or something remote. Man has a natural inclination to this kind of effort, and it is something that awaits only our willingness.

-Antony of Egypt, The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
edited by Henry L. Carrigan Jr.
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Filed in: Breathing Space, Classics
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