The Way of the Ascetics
The Ancient Tradition of Discipline and Inner Growth
Colliander’s The Way of the Ascetics hits hard. If you haven’t read this book yet, do yourself a favor and get a copy. You can pick up this book, open to any chapter, and get something out of it. For me, it couldn’t have come at a better time.
As some of you know, I’m a relatively new Christian. I was baptized a Catholic but we never went to Church. Last November, I started going to services. So for that matter, I am a baby Christian, a beginner, a novice. Even though it was endless suffering that brought me back to Christ, my newfound faith had never quite been tested… and as we will see, it wasn’t so hard to test either…
About a month or two ago, we had a few rough snowstorms where I live. Those two storms happened to occur on two Sundays in a row. So for two Sundays in a row, I had to do a lot of snow removal, and it was in the morning, right before Church. As you might’ve guessed, I didn’t end up going.
Not going for two weeks really took the wind out of my sails. By the third week, I wasn’t really praying, I wasn’t studying, I wasn’t doing anything and when I went back to Church it felt hollow. I was reverting back to my old ways, and I was reverting fast. I have to assume this is what is meant when they say, ‘losing God’s grace,’ but I know at this stage, I should not presume anything. But whatever energy I had before, had dissipated.
By chance, I happened to buy The Way of the Ascetics long before any of this happened. I hadn’t read any of it. I was cleaning my office one day, picked up the book, and opened to a random page:
That day I picked up the book, I wasn’t feeling ‘happy.’ Indeed, ‘this obstinate will to personal happiness is the cause of unrest and division in your soul.’ This page really snapped me out of it.
What am I doing? Wasting time again? I know where this road goes…
I started praying again, preparing for my first actual Christian Lent, reading the bible, etc. I didn’t finish the book that day or that week but during Lent, I’ve had a lot of free time (I gave up X and Youtube) and finished it in about a day. Almost every chapter has something useful and practical that I couldn’t possible cover it all here.
Dedication to Christ:
“No, this moment, the instant you make your resolution, you will show by your action that you have taken leave of your old self and have now begun a new life…”
How hard you must work as a Christian:
“If the husbandman wishes to have a rich harvest, he must work early and late, weed and aerate, water and spray, for cultivation is beset by many dangers that threaten the harvest. He must work without ceasing, be constantly on the watch, constantly alert, constantly prepared; but even so, the harvest ultimately depends wholly on the elements, that is, on God.”
Tell no one (ironic):
“Thus say nothing to anyone of your newly conceived purpose. Say nothing of the new life you have begun or of the experiment you are making and experiences you expect to have. All this is a matter between God and you, and only between you two. The only exception might be your father-confessor.”
This book has become one of my favorites overnight. It really came at the right time.
This book put me back on solid ground. It was a much-needed guidepost on the Way. If you aren’t careful on the Way, you end up taking a wrong turn. You might go for hours, days, or even years walking the wrong way. The only thing you can do is stop, turn around, and start walking the right way, always remembering that you must walk, you cannot run, for this life is a battle ground, and your enemies are waiting to ambush you.
“Hereafter you will consider that everything that happens to you, both great and small, is sent by God to help you in your warfare. He alone knows what is necessary for you and what you need at the moment: adversity and prosperity, temptation and fall. Nothing happens accidentally or in such a way that you can not learn from it; you must understand this at once, for this is how your trust grows in the Lord whom you have chosen to follow.”
Learn more here: The Way of the Ascetics