Welcome back friends. This is Lisa Colon. Your host. You're listening to Spark my muse. This is soul school, lesson 03:14. Ab M. As some of you know, I have a book contract with Broadly books. To write about the desert fathers and mothers. There were wise, men and women of the Christian era, a movement that happened around 300 in the common era to around 800 after Christ. They have so much wisdom to teach us.
They are usually considered saints and have feast stays in the Christian Orthodox church. And sadly, a lot of their wisdom has been lost over the ages this especially to people in protestantism. Some in the Roman Catholic church, know about them and celebrate them, What I'm hoping to do with this book is to bring their lives and their wisdom back into our awareness. They have so much to teach us today.
Ava Mc aquarius is 1 of the people I'll be speaking about in chapter 6, but I wanted to give you a little taste test to what he was like. He was 1 of the father of fathers in the desert of lower Egypt. And 1 of the reasons for that is that he wrote 50 spiritual harmon, and 7 aesthetic trace. The people who decided to live in the desert usually lived as hermit or in communities that were p monastic.
This was before the monastic period, but they were beginning to leave the world behind, leave culture behind, go out into the us dear places of the desert, devote their lives too fasting and prayer and worshiping God. And then usually on Saturdays or Sundays, they'd get together and spend tat with each other. And they were always really within the guidance of a spiritual adviser to walk with them along the way. And I'm Album M was that to up to 4000 people. He spent 60 years in the wilderness.
And much of that time was in prayer conversation with God. When he was seen, he was often seen in a state of spiritual rapture. He was often seen weeping, in repentance for his sins and working. He was taught by another elder early on how to weave baskets, and he did this while praying, and then could sell the baskets to make what little he ate. The spiritual r he wrote, he These survivors a precious legacy of a spiritual wisdom. Several of the prayers he composed are still used by the church.
In prayers before sleep and also in the morning prayers. He said that a person's highest goal and purpose is the union of the soul with God. It's a primary principle describing the methods for attaining this comm, the saints relied upon the experiences of the great teachers of Egyptian monastic ism, and on their own experience. The way to God and the experience of the holy aesthetics of union with God is revealed in each believer heart.
Earthly life, according to Ava Mc, only has a relative significance. It is to prepare the soul and to make it capable of perceiving the Heavenly kingdom. The unseen kingdom. To establish the soul an affinity with the Heavenly homeland, He said for those truly believing in Christ, it is necessary to change and transform the soul from its present degraded nature into another divine nature. And to be fashioned and anew by the power of the holy spirit.
He taught that the interaction of the Christian determines the extent, their perception of divine truth and love. Each of us requires salvation through grace and the divine gift to the holy spirit, But to attain a perfect measure of virtue, which is necessary for the souls simulation of this divine gift. That is possible only, quote, by faith and by love with the strengthening of free will, unquote. Thus the Christian inherit eternal life, quote, as much by grace as by truth.
Ava M said salvation is a divine human action, and we attain complete spiritual success. Not only by divine power and grace but also by the accomplishing of the proper labor. On the other hand it it's not just within the measure of freedom and imp that we arrive at the proper sol. It is not without the cooperation of the hand of god above. The participation of a person determines the actual condition of their soul thus inc him to go to evil.
If a soul still in the world does not possess itself, the san of the spirit for great faith and for prayer, it does not strive for 1 us of divine comm, then it is unfit for the Heavenly kingdom. So what I Curious is getting at is that it isn't enough to believe in god's power and grace, but that we have to cooperate and obey and change. Change from our selfish ways into the ways of god. By this way, our soul gains new sight to see this unseen kingdom. This world within our world.
Of M lived until the age of 90 and shortly before his death, he was visited by departed Saint Anthony Epic. They appeared to him, bringing the joyful message that his departure would come in 9 days. After instructing his disciples to preserve the monastic rule in the traditions of the fathers and mothers, he blessed them, and began to prepare for death.
And when he died, he said, into thy hands, oh Lord, I commend my spirit, the miracles and visions and work of ava Car are recorded in a book by ru, and his life was compiled by Saint Ser, bishop of Tim and lower Egypt. The curious was 1 of the fathers of the fourth century, that continues to affect people till this day. Some of his remains are holy relics in the city of a ama mu, Italy. Now I saved some of the best things about how Aquarius and his sayings and his
wisdom and his life. I saved, of course, for the book. So you'll have to wait for that. That's not actually coming out until 20 26, but I wanted to give you a little taste of what he was like. I From a very young age, he was called to a devoted life, and he was really beloved as a person who didn't judge other people who overlooked other people old sins and shortcomings and didn't judge them, but was very accepting and loving. In lower Egypt, which is now will the modern area called W Na.
A w is, a a valley and area where water can collect in the wilderness. The community that lived there, it was called at the time sec, I believe sec is how... It's pronounced but I'm not sure. And this was the community that grew into several thousand people up to 4000 people at 1 time. This is part of the cop tradition in Christianity, the Egyptian Christian tradition, and you can still visit these places today.
I wanna give you a reminder that July is a challenge month, part of the quarterly challenge I'm giving everyone. If you'd like to come along and do devotion, along with me and others in July, the theme is encounter, for this quarter. The chapter we're focusing on is psalm 01:39. If you wanna be a part of that, you can read Psalm 01:39, you can go over to patreon dot com forward slash spark my news and be a part of the conversation that's going on there.
If you have questions about it, if you have thoughts and reflections you wanna share, either just with me or with the group, that's encouraged. I want to accompany you in your spiritual journey, in your walk with God. Because when we walk together, we are so much better together. We are so much more comforted. We are so much more strengthened. It makes the journey much more joyful. By way of preview, I'm going to let you in on the guest interview that is
coming up next week. It is with Chuck to grow He is returning guest and the author of a new book called healing what's within. Coming home to yourself into God, when you're wounded, weary and wandering. It's a great book. It's a really good conversation, and I'm excited to bring it to you. So don't forget to check back next week and listen to that interview and conversation I have with Chuck. Thank you so much for listening everyone. Thank
you for supporting me along the way. Letting me walk with you, letting me talk with you, and I wish you blessing in peace.