CAPG's Blog: St. Paul, The First Hermit, Confessor, A.D. 343

St. Paul, The First Hermit, Confessor, A.D. 343

by VP

Posted on Monday January 15, 2024 at 07:24AM in Poetry

Guercino (1591–1666): St. Paul the Hermit Fed by the Raven

"To escape the persecution of Decius and Valerian, he went into the desert at the age of fifteen. Pray for the light of heaven, that you may seriously consider the persecution you are under. Ill company is a persecution; evil habits are a persecution; pride, vanity, the love of yourself and the world, are a persecution; all your violent passions and perverse inclinations are a persecution. Compare these with your ordinary weakness; and see whether you have not reason to think yourself in danger. Why not then resolve to withdraw, for your own security? There is no need of finding a desert, the world may be a solitude to you, if you are but resolute enough to separate yourself from the unnecessary dangers of it. These you too often create to yourself, in favor of your sensuality, pride and self-love. Pray for grace truly to discern, and then to overcome them.

St. Paul lived in the desert about a hundred years, clothed with the leaves of the trees, feeding on dates and bread, — a crow bringing him daily half a loaf, as St. Jerome relates in his life, and drinking at the fountain. Pray that you may understand something of this spirit. A little is sufficient to sustain nature; and all beyond this is some degree of excess. It is the will of God that you should eat and drink, to preserve the life which he has given you: but if in this you study to indulge a disorderly appetite, what is this but an abuse? It is an act of injustice, in feeding that which you are obliged to weaken and overcome. And what is all your expense in that way, but defrauding the poor, who have a right to all that is superfluous to you? To what account will you place what is thus laid out? Consider if it will be accepted by Him, who cannot be imposed upon by vain pretexts.

Reflect too on the penitential life of this saint. If these holy men did so much for salvation, have you not reason to fear when you do so little? If theirs was the way to heaven, is yours so too, when you take quite a contrary method?" The Catholic Year, by Rev. Fr. John Gother

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