In his book Soul-Making, Allen Jones describes a visit to the Coptic Monastery of St. Macarius in the Egyptian desert. His host, Father Jeremiah, a bearded monk of indeterminate age, filled him full of stories of the desert fathers. Like this one. One day, it is said, Saint Macarius, among the wisest of monks, was asked by a young man, “Abba, tell us about being a monk.” Marcarius responded, “Ah! I’m not a monk myself, but I have seen them.” Having related this tale, Jones writes, Father Jeremiah then offered his own version, saying to Jones, “I am not yet a Christian, but I have seen them.”1
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