Even a saint like Cassian cannot avoid faults and imperfections, but he can show us how to avoid anxiety. He lists the various minute lapses which a holy man may fall into and underlines that they are not mortal sins. Instead, he says that they are the ways in which a just man falls seven times a day. If his criteria are applied, we should admire the just man for falling fewer than seventy-seven times a day!

King David does not say that the just man will not fall, but when he shall fall he shall not be bruised. Cassian adds that he will be upheld and restored by the Lord’s hand. Due to the speed with which he rises, he will retain his state of righteousness. It is only human to make mistakes, after which we can arise stronger. We must not allow them to cause us anxiety. It will not help but rather harm us in our spiritual progress. The spiritual life takes time to grow and anxiety will not speed anything up. Just as one good day doesn’t make someone virtuous, one fall doesn’t make him bad. It should neither discourage nor make him anxious.

However, Cassian doesn’t tell us simply to accept our falls. He points out that they may be the result of shortcomings, laxity, or the attacks of the devil. Just as we can’t let everything disquiet us, so we shouldn’t accept all of our faults as a given and step back to watch them unfold.

The answer is a balance and moderation. We notice and recognise our faults, our natural weakness, and our shortcomings. Yet we do not allow them to disquiet us. We must not become complacent or assign a fault that arises from laxity to human frailty. Equally, we can’t beat ourselves up about it whatever its origin. Gently and steadily we undertake the road to virtue. We don’t expect never to fall. Nevertheless, by the help of grace, we get closer every day to the perfection that we see in Our Lord and his Blessed Mother.

The Collations of St John Cassian are among the oldest and most influential books of Christian spirituality. The book is presented as a series of conversations between Cassian, his friend Germanus, and the great monks of the Egyptian desert, preserving the wisdom of men who had devoted their lives entirely to the pursuit of holiness.

The reflections over the coming weeks are based on ideas found in the Collations. There is no need to read them to follow each reflection, but the work is available, in an excellent modern translation by our own Fr Jerome, from our bookshop in person and online.

In his Collation On the Purpose of Penance, Saint John Cassian gives us a short list of fruitful penances through which the forgiveness of sins is obtained: acts of charity, forgiving others, improvement of life, performing works of mercy, almsgiving, and even copious tears. All of these are perhaps best summed up in the Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. “Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness.” (Tobit 12:8)

But when we think of penance, we probably think of the confession of our sins. As we read in the Psalms: “I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5) Christ instituted the Sacrament of Confession to be the means by which we can be restored to God’s grace and obtain the sure forgiveness of our sins. Our Lord’s call to penance does not consist primarily in outward weeping in sackcloth and ashes but in interior conversion—the conversion of the heart. God’s grace calls us to return to him and he gives us the strength to begin anew.

Regarding confession, Saint John Cassian warns us not to dwell on past sins. We may be tempted to dwell unnecessarily on past sins even when we have confessed them. To brood over sins once committed and now forgiven is bound to corrupt our minds and hearts with the thought of sin, and therefore restrict our efforts to grow in virtue. We can’t possibly concentrate on growing in virtue if our minds are always filled with vices. We must always place our trust in Our Lord who told us plainly “if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven.” (John 20:23)

The Collations of St John Cassian are among the oldest and most influential books of Christian spirituality. The book is presented as a series of conversations between Cassian, his friend Germanus, and the great monks of the Egyptian desert, preserving the wisdom of men who had devoted their lives entirely to the pursuit of holiness.

The reflections over the coming weeks are based on ideas found in the Collations. There is no need to read them to follow each reflection, but the work is available, in an excellent modern translation by our own Fr Jerome, from our bookshop in person and online.

Our Holy Father Saint Philip was often reluctant to allow his disciples to seek greater perfection by joining religious orders. What would he have made of two monks who had set out on a long journey in order to grow in holiness and then decided that the way to do this was to leave their monastery? He warns us: “Men should not change from a good state of life to another, although it may be better, without taking grave counsel.” The first resolution that Cassian and Germanus made was a good one. They found that the monastery they were in was lukewarm and needed its holiness to be reignited. So, they went in search of that holiness in order to bring some back. They intended to transform their present life, rather than abandoning it.

Mistakenly, they assumed that one could be satiated with holiness. They thought that they would top it up and that would carry them through the drudgery of their ordinary life. That’s not how holiness works. It’s not something we can fill up on and then it’s there sustaining us. We have to live it rather than possess it. When they found real holiness in the desert, it is little wonder that Cassian and Germanus would proverbially sell everything and buy this pearl of great price. The question is whether they could have brought that holiness back or not?

Given the haste with which they returned to the desert, it seems that they could not achieve that perfection where they were. The universal call to holiness means that a carpenter can find holiness in his workshop, and the mother with her children. It does not mean that anyone should settle for mediocrity. Once one has committed to any vocation, he should carry it out with the greatest possible perfection. Thus, Cassian and Germanus did take grave counsel and did consider their resolution carefully. Ultimately, they saw that they had to follow God’s Will and that lay in the desert. We should be cautious about change, but as Our Cardinal said: “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often”.

The Collations of St John Cassian are among the oldest and most influential books of Christian spirituality. The book is presented as a series of conversations between Cassian, his friend Germanus, and the great monks of the Egyptian desert, preserving the wisdom of men who had devoted their lives entirely to the pursuit of holiness.

The reflections over the coming weeks are based on ideas found in the Collations. There is no need to read them to follow each reflection, but the work is available, in an excellent modern translation by our own Fr Jerome, from our bookshop in person and online.