Dorotheos of Gaza

The Desert fathers and mothers were individuals who withdrew themselves from society in order to experience God directly. These early monastics felt the rejection of the compulsive mind and society's faulty judgements might lead to the discovery of the true self. While they lived between 300-500 C.E. and fled into the Egyptian desert, their experience of culture resonates with me, today. In their society, as in ours, power, prestige, and possessions were the measuring stick to evaluate the self. However, as we all discover, the false self is never satisfied no matter how many possessions and friends it accumulates, whatever power and prestige it claims, it always wants more.

Dorotheous of Gaza is one of my favorite desert fathers. He unflinchingly strips the varnish off of our manipulative mind in pursuit of freedom.

"Why are we so ready to judge our neighbor? Why are we so concerned about the burden of others? We have plenty to be concerned about, each one has their own debt and their own sins. It is for God alone to judge, to justify or to condemn. God knows the state of each one of us and our capacities, our deviations, and our gifts, our constitution and our preparedness, and it is for him to judge each of these according to the knowledge that he alone has."

"Those who want to be saved scrutinize not the shortcomings of their neighbor but always their own and they set about eliminating them. Such was the man who saw his brother doing wrong and groaned, 'woe is me; him today--me tomorrow!' You see his caution? You see the preparedness of his mind?"

Dorotheos of Gaza Discourses and Sayings- Desert Humor and Humility

Dorotheos points out one of my struggles. This is a great freedom to allow God to be judge. As satisfying as it can be to feel superior to others by putting myself in a position of power, this serves my ego. Those "who want to be saved"...salvation's root is salv which means to be healed. Instead of orientating ourselves to other's faults we may do well to heal ourselves with humility.