Asceticism and the holiness of solitude are gifts of the Desert Fathers. The Desert Fathers were early Christian monks who lived mainly in the desert of Egypt beginning around the third century AD.  The most well-known was Anthony the Great, who moved to the desert in 270–271 AD and became known as both the father and founder of desert monasticism. By the time Anthony died in 356 AD, thousands of monks and nuns had been drawn to living in the desert following Anthony's example. The wisdom I discovered from the dessert fathers is that most anyone can live such a life if they truly love the Lord and wish to grow closer to Him.  The lives of the Desert Fathers seem to me to be a form of martyrdom.  One must be willing to give up everything in this life to prepare for the next. Monastic life as the desert fathers lived would be most difficult in this day and age but not entirely impossible.  Monastic life frees one from the burdens of life and the continued obsession with pleasure, possessions and power.  To imitate them, all life decisions and actions require a complete focus on a personal relationship with God on a 24/7 basis allowing one to perfect the soul.  Monastic life cleanses the soul.
            The desert fathers, whether living in solitary, in clusters, or in highly structured environs, were truly brothers. They went to the desert for many reasons: secularization, spiritual discipline, splits in doctrine, hard work, prayer, or new communities’ types. They “watched over themselves” (Topliffe, p. 14).  I was particularly intrigued by Anthony.  Anthony devoted his life to prayer, discipline and learning the virtues of others.  Visitors witnessed the attack of the demons on Anthony but were protected by the sign of the cross. Anthony was fortified by their weaknesses. People came to imitate Anthony. He exhorted, advised and cured the sick. He fought off a constant barrage of evil spirits in order that his disciples would learn “not to fear the devil or the delusions of the demons” (Topliffe, p. 20). Anthony told Satan himself, “The coming of Christ has made you weak” (Topliffe, p. 21).   If the evil spirits find you in a state of weakness, despair or depravity, they will exploit your weakness to your destruction. “While the Lord is with us, our foes can do us no harm” (Topliffe, p. 22). Anthony’s life is a fitting life for which I would want to strive.
             Can the Church live like Anthony without living in a monastery? Yes! Avoid all television, newspapers and radio.  When you read, read about the Lord.  Follow all of the commandments especially love of neighbor and God.  When you talk to yourself, talk to God for He is always listening.  Take note of all things you say and don’t say and all thing you do and don’t do and be sure that they are all directed toward God, all with a joyous and unboastful heart. For it is not the believer, but the Lord who heals and has power over demons. These rules are not for everyone. They cannot be imposed on the Church but must at least be identified and encouraged.
            Here are some other bits of wisdom I learned from the desert fathers that would be useful in the Church today.  1) Confession of sin to a holy man can relieve all of your burdens especially when you place them upon the Lord. Leave all of your sins behind “for it came from evil” (Topliffe, p. 32).  2) Sexual desire is the hardest for man to overcome.  Lust, if acted upon, leads to fornication.  Women are much stronger in the sexual arena because they, unlike men, do not have two heads from which to make decisions.  3) Maryana lied about her identity and probably suffered greatly for it, as we see from her story.  Her penance was to accept false accusations willingly.  All those around her were saved upon discovery of the truth. 4) Confession and repentance frees a man from the shackles of the evil one.  5) The desert fathers fasted on Wednesdays because that was the day the Jews plotted to kill our Lord and on Fridays because that was the day the Jews killed our Lord.  6) Partake in the Eucharist every day.  7) Thieves and murderers can become saints in the Lord’s eyes, especially upon visitation from angels.  8)  “Weep for the judgment of sinners” (Topliffe, p. 57).  9) “It is good to live in peace, for the wise person practices perpetual prayer” (Topliffe, p. 59).
            For monastic life to become fruitful again, the Church today should encourage the first two types of monks given by Cassian. According to Cassian the Desert Fathers where one of three types of monks:  those that lived together in one community under the authority of an elder; those who trained in monasteries, achieved a life of perfection and chose the hidden life of solitude; and those who only attempted such a life for show.  He also mentioned a fourth type of monk who flattered himself for being solitary.  This last type were the most numerous type emerging, just as the Christians after the apostolic era began to lose their identity and drifted away from a true discipleship with Christ. Unfortunately for church goers today, most find no benefit must less a desire to live such a life.  Interestingly though, such a life can still be lived either within or without a monastery but with much dedication and sacrifice. Listen to the words of Cassian.  “True patience and humility can only be acquired and kept when the innermost heart is humble” (Cassian, p. 193). “The disease of envy is harder to cure than any other” (Cassian, p. 199). The Church and myself included need to learn these bits of wisdom and create a desire to put them into action if for nothing else than for eternal salvation.

      A stream of consciousness is a peculiar life event.  Our waking moments are spent on thoughts, all sorts of thoughts.  These thoughts are generated usually by desires, a desire to eat when hungry, to nap when sleepy, to curse at an absent minded driver and a desire for comfort when too hot or too cold.  We are also driven by a desire to make money in order that we may feed and clothe ourselves and provide shelter.  Finally our thoughts are driven by our sexual desires, especially if we have not mastered the art of chastity.  These desires create thousands of different thoughts which affect both our positive and negative emotions.  Some negative emotional states include: anger, jealousy, hatred, greed, revenge, depression, inferiority, and lust. Some say that these negatively directed thoughts and emotions are a result of concupiscence. Some positive emotional states include: love, generosity, forgiveness, empathy, fidelity, honesty, and kindness.  What is the cause of these positive thoughts and emotions?  Some would say God and the Holy Spirit.
      I decided to focus all of my conscious thought today on God.  Everything I though or didn’t think or said or didn’t say or did or didn’t do was going to be as if God were acting through me.  In other words I retained God in the forefront of my consciousness all day. At the end of the day I submitted myself to self-examination. During my evening examine while writing this paper, I remember most all of my daily events. I can remember talking to my secretary and complimenting her on her work.  Or talking to my client in court and fully explaining his remedies and not rushing the process. I remember speaking with the Judge at the bench in a calm and deliberate manner with respect.  I remember talking to a client at the office seeking a divorce from a husband who is using drugs and alcohol to the extent that her life was in danger and advising her of a correct course of action with empathy. I didn’t think myself better than or have negative thoughts about the man sleeping on the park bench or the man operating a weed eater on the grounds of the LSU campus. I can remember not getting angry with the guy who pulled out in front of me or the clerk who was rude at the counter.  I can remember being pleasant with all of the people I encountered throughout the day with cordial greetings. God even revealed His presence in the part He played in my day.  The topic by our speaker at my usual bible study luncheon on Thursdays was “God is with us constantly. Do you live with a steady awareness of His presence with you?” How amazing is that that God would confirm my decision to retain a continuous, conscious encounter with Him through the words of another man on the same day I decided to be 100% faithful.
      On my drive home from work without the radio blaring, I realized that today was filled with joy, happiness and loving-kindness.  I then began wondering why and how do we allow these negative emotional states to overtake us and decided that it was not necessarily concupiscence.  What drives these thoughts are the evil spirits which we allow to invade our soul, mind and heart. We are not fully committed to God.  We allow evil to hang around.  We must come to realize that God choses to be constantly with us but it is we who are not aware of His presence on a minute to minute basis. We lapse into a state of evil consciousness.  When god through His holy spirit invades every cell of our being, there is no room for evil.  All vices are pushed out of body and soul and we can act Christ-like.. What I learned is that when we think and talk to ourselves and others, we must act as though we are having a conversation with God.  And in the process we wind up imitating Christ. I found it emotionally draining to keep God in the forefront of my consciousness all day.  But today I learned that with a lot of effort, a little practice and patience and the diligence of God, it can be done.

Jesus healed such a large number of people during His three years of evangelization in Palestine that He plainly established His divinity and effectively offered salvation to the whole world.  Before the appearance of Christ, no one had quite seen such feats to the extent that Christ healed people. There were some healings in the Old Testament.  In 1 King 17:17-24 a poor lady, with only a bit of flour and oil left for food, was commanded to make bread for Elijah.  She obeyed, yet her son fell sick and died.  She asked if his death was a result of her sins. Elijah rose, took the child to the upper room and raised him from the dead. In 2 Kings 5:10-14, Naaman was cured of his leprosy by Elisha.  Although there were a number of miraculous events in the Old Testament, only a few healings.  Yet with Christ, He continuously healed people during his three years of ministry. And Christ also healed through His apostles and disciples.  Why did Christ and His apostles heal so many people during their ministries? “As the preachers exercised gifts of healing within the community, they could find the pattern of their healing by prayer and their anointing for forgiveness of sins in the healing deeds of Jesus that led to the forgiveness of sins” (Luke Timothy Johnson, p. 124).
            Let us first look at the individual healings of Jesus Christ and His disciples to get a scope of their deeds.  Christ healed the leper in Galilee, Matthew 8:1-4, Mark 1:40-45, Luke 5:12-15; the Roman Centurion’s paralyzed servant at Capernaum, Matthew 8:5-13, Luke 7:2-10; the demoniac in synagogue at Capernaum, Mark 1:23-28, Luke 4:31-37; Peter's mother-in-law sick with a fever at Capernaum, Matthew 8:14-15, Mark 1:29-31, Luke 4:38-39; the paralytic at Capernaum, Matthew 9:2-8, Mark 2:3-12, Luke 5:17-26; the man with a withered hand at a synagogue at Capernaum, Matthew 12:10-13, Mark 3:1-7, Luke 6:6-11; the dead son of the widow of Nain, Luke 7:11-16; one or two demoniacs at a tomb near Gadara, Matthew 8:28-34,Mark 5:1-15, Luke 8:26-39; Jairus' daughter at Capernaum, Matthew 9:18-19; 23-26, Mark 5:22-24; 35-43,Luke 8:40-42; 49-56; the woman with the issue of blood at Capernaum, Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:24-34, Luke 8:43-48; the deaf man with a speech impediment in the region of Decapolis, Mark 7:31-37; the blind man at Bethsaida, Mark 8:22-26; two blind men at Capernaum, Matthew 9:27-31; other women and Mary Magdalene healed of evil spirits and infirmities in Galilee, Luke 8:2, Mark 16:9; the mute demoniac in Galilee, Matthew 9:32-34, Luke 11:14-16; the blind, deaf demoniac in Galilee, Matthew 12:22-24; only a few sick persons healed in Nazareth, Mark 6:5, Matthew 13:58; a gentile woman's demoniac daughter in the region of Tyre and Sidon, Matthew 15:21-28, Mark 7:24-30; an epileptic son near the town of Caesarea Philippi, Matthew 17:14-21, Mark 9:17-29, Luke 9:37-42; one blind man approaching Jericho of Judea, Luke 18:35-43; the blind Bartimeaus leaving Jericho, Mark 10:46-52; two blind men departing from Jericho, Matthew 20:29-34; a woman with a spirit of infirmity in Galilee, Luke 13:11-13; a man with dropsy as Jesus journeyed to Jerusalem(Luke 13:22) Luke 14:1-4; ten lepers between Samaria and Galilee, Luke 17:11-19; a Samaritan Leper between Samaria and Galilee, Luke 17:15-19; the servant's ear, Luke 22:50-51, (Malchus) John 18:10; the nobleman for his sick son who was at Capernaum, John 4:46-54; an infirm man at the Pool of Bethesda at Jerusalem, John 5:2-15; a man born blind at Jerusalem, John 9:1-12, John 9:35-37; and Lazarus at Bethany near Jerusalem, John 11:19-28, John 11:39-44. There were probably thousands of others whose names have not been recorded.
            Christ gave the power of healing to all of His disciples too. Here are the miracles of the Apostle Peter:  Peter and John healed a man crippled from birth (Acts 3:2 -11); Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, was healed (Acts 9:34); Tabitha (Dorcas) was brought back from the dead (Acts 9:36-42).  The seventy disciples sent out by Jesus performed many miracles (Luke 10:17).  And we must not forget the healings by Paul. On the island of Cyprus, a sorcerer named Bar-Jesus was struck blind (Acts 13:6-11). In Lystra a man born crippled was healed (Acts 14:8-10). In Philippi, a demon was cast out of a female slave who made money for her master (Acts 16:18). Amazing miracles, like cloths touched by Paul, healed the sick (Acts 19:11-12). A young man, who fell out a window while listening to Paul, was raised to life (Acts 20:9-12). Publius, the Roman governor over the island of Malta, had his father healed by Paul (Acts 28:8).
            But what was the purpose of all of these healings and exorcisms?  The main motivation why Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, or performed all kinds of miracles was to reveal something about who He was.  In the Gospel of John the miracles are signs which point to the divinity of Jesus. “We recognize that he is indeed the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).  In John 5:43 the Lord said, “I have come in my Father’s name” and in 6:48, “It is I who am the bread of life.”  In Matthew 9 Jesus heals a paralytic to show that He possessed divine power to forgive sins.   “And now they brought before him a man who was palsied and bed-ridden; whereupon Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the palsied man, Son, take courage, thy sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9:2). Jesus had to establish among his disciples first, then to the Jews and gentiles, that he was in fact the Messiah.   Demonstrating to the people that He had the authority from God to heal, Jesus confirmed that He could also forgive sins. “And now, to convince you that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins while he is on earth (here he spoke to the palsied man), Rise up, take thy bed with thee, and go home.” (Matthew 9:6).  Jesus showed the people that He was divine, possessed authority from God and could physically heal deformities and therefore forgive sins. “And the story of these doings spread abroad through all the country round.” (Matthew 9:26).
            Another reason Jesus healed the sick and cast out demons was because of His compassion. Jesus loved humanity and not just the Jews.  Jesus cured the Jew and gentile alike.  And the healings of Jesus caused a restoration of body and soul. The person regained their physical attributes. But Jesus also forgave their sins and thus cured their souls.  Matthew 14:14 says, “And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.”  Compassion is certainly one reason why Jesus healed.  Jesus healed because He was the embodiment of love.  “Jesus was moved with pity; he held out his hand and touched him, and said, It is my will; be thou made clean. And at the word, the leprosy all at once left him, and he was cleansed.” (Mark 1-41-42). It was compassion on the part of Jesus and the faith of the believer that led to the miracle. Jesus Christ heals people today for the same reason.  “Dost thou not know that God’s kindness is inviting thee to repent?” (Romans 2:4).
            Jesus also healed to confirm His own word, the fulfillment of God’s promise. Christ knew exactly why He was sent to earth. He came to perform the works of His Father. These healings confirmed the spoken word of Jesus. We can see the power in Jesus’ words.  In Matthew 8:16-17 “he cast out the evil spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick, in fulfilment of the word spoken by Isaias the prophet, He took our infirmities upon himself, and bore our sicknesses.”  Jesus healed the sick and cast out demons to reveal the fulfillment of Isaiah 53:4.  Matthew clearly saw the healings and exorcisms as messianic miracles, miracles which materialize as Jesus, the promised Messiah of the Old Testament but also the suffering servant.  Chapter 53 of Isaiah is one of the great prophetic descriptions of the sufferings and death of Christ upon the cross.  Matthew uses Isaiah 53:4 not only to reveal the power of the Messiah over disease and demons, but also to reveal the suffering Servant as a sacrificial substitute for our sins. Look at the way Isaiah 53 is used by Peter in 1 Peter 2:21-25. “Indeed, you are engaged to this by the call of Christ; he suffered for our sakes, and left you his own example; you were to follow in his footsteps.  He did no wrong, no treachery was found on his lips; he was ill spoken of, and spoke no evil in return, suffered, and did not threaten vengeance, gave himself up into the hands of injustice. So, on the cross, his own body took the weight of our sins; we were to become dead to our sins, and live for holiness; it was his wounds that healed you. Till then, you had been like sheep going astray; now, you have been brought back to him, your shepherd, who keeps watch over your souls.” He healed to fulfill His personal word to us and also the prophesy of God in the Old Testament.
            Jesus healed 2000 years ago to manifest his love for humanity and to expose the purpose for which he appeared on this earth, victory over sin and death. Christ’s love can work miracles in our lives today.  But we have to ask of Him. We must make a request first.  As Christ said, ask in faith and you will receive.  People flocked to Christ and asked because they heard or saw what he was doing and believed in His power to heal.  Many asked and were healed. Asking, for them, was easy because Christ was standing right in front of them.  And because of His compassion, Christ freely gave. Two thousand years later, most have lost touch with Christ.  Although still present in Spirit, people firstly, fail to believe and secondly, because of their lack of faith, fail to ask.  There are still many miraculous healings occurring in the world today, but many do not associate it with Christ.  If they do associate it with Christ, the media will write them off as lunatics, fakes or attention seekers. But we know that asking in prayer effectuates healing today, because Christ, the divine healer and servant, personally healed 2000 years ago.