Today August 27

I've been gone awhile; I had to drive my oldest child to college. It's a new phase of life -- challenging but exciting.

Okay, okay, I know it is the feast of St. Monica, mother of Augustine and patron of all mothers (along with some others) but since we are giving her son his due tomorrow, we can't just skip the great, the wonderful, St. Poemen of the Desert (late fourth, early fifth century). This great saint was called "The Shepherd" -- and so he was. He led by example, more than anything, and was a master of discretion, patience and humility.

When a great old man was offended because the people came and listened to Poemen instead of to him, Poemen, who was troubled at this, since he thought of himself as one who was "nothing," decided the thing to do was to make the old man some food, bottle up a little wine (Mmm.), and go ask for his blessing. The old man, miffed and misunderstanding, sent him away, but Poemen stayed there all day in the hot sun and the old man had a change of heart and welcomed him in, saying, "Truly, I now see that all that I have heard about you is true, and your good works are even greater than that."

Once a great and charitable man came to see him. The man went in to Abba Poemen's cell and went on and on about Scripture and spiritual and heavenly things. But Abba Poemen turned his head and answered nothing. The great man went away sad. Later, when a brother asked Abba Poemen why he had been silent, he 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 so I kept silent."

He was a good psychologist, too. he said, "Do not live in a place where you see that some are jealous of you, for you will not make progress." He knew not to discourage anyone, but to buck him up and spur him on to better things, rather like a father than a judge.

He could take the example of many things and use them for education. He observed a woman mourning loudly at a gravesite and said, "If all the delights of the world were to come [to her], they could not drive sorrow away from the soul of this woman. Even so the monk should always have compunction in himself."

He saw vocation in many different ways. He wisely said: "If three men meet, of whom the first fully preserves interior peace, and the second gives thanks to God in illness, and the third serves with a pure mind, these three are doing the same work."

He was realistic. "The greatest thing a man can do is to throw his faults before the Lord and expect temptation to his last breath."

And my favorite: "Teach your tongue to speak what is in your heart."