What is our view of the inability to worship due to illness?

Amma Syncletica of Alexandria , the disciple of St. Athanasius the Apostolic, makes the following points:

• a. We ought not be sad when we are unable to pray and praise because of illness; for we do not do these things as a routine work or duties we must perform, but as a support for our striving to eliminate evil passions. If our illness eliminates these passions and pleasures, we should worship as much as we are able, especially by offering a

34 The Paradise of the Fathers, Volume 2 , trans. E. A. Wallis Budge (Seattle, Washington: St. Nectarios Press, 1984): pp. 335–336, amended.

sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. Our practice of asceticism aims to control our passions, and illness performs the same task, like a strong and effective medical treatment. Because of it, the body is struck with weakness, but the spirit remains willing and able to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise to God Almighty, the Lover of humanity.

• b. If a person is afflicted in his eyes, he should consider this to have occurred by the permission of God, so that his inner vision might enjoy the glory of the Lord “as in a mirror” (2 Cor. 3:18).

• c. If a believer is afflicted in his hands, let him thank God who grants him inner hands ready to fight the enemy of good (the devil).

• d. If he feels that his whole body is emaciated, let him offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God who preserves the health of his inner man and grants him a greater strength.

She says, “Let us not become aggrieved that through weakness and plague of the body we are not able to stand in prayer or sing with our voices; all these things are accomplished to our advantage, toward the purification of desires. For both fasting and sleeping on the ground have been prescribed to us because of shameful pleasures. Therefore if sickness blunted these things, toiling is superfluous. But why do I say superfluous? For just as through the better and stronger remedy for illness the accidents that bring ruin are put to sleep. And this is the great ascetic practice, which perseveres in illnesses and offers up thanksgiving songs to the powerful one. Are we deprived of our eyes? Let us not bear it heavily; for we have cast out the organs of insatiate desire, but we see with our inner eyes the glory of the Lord. Are we deaf and dumb? Let us give thanks for having cast out completely vain hearing. Have we suffered because of our hands? But we have the internal hands made ready for the war against the enemy. Does illness control our whole body? But the health of the internal person will greatly increase.”³⁵

“If illness weighs us down, let us not be sorrowful as though, because of the illness and the prostration of our bodies we could not sing, for all these things are for our good, for the purification of our desires. Truly fasting and sleeping on the ground are set before us because of our sensuality. If illness then weakens this sensuality the reason for these practices is superfluous. For this is the great asceticism: to control oneself in illness and to sing hymns of thanksgiving to God.”³⁶

35 “Pseudo-Athanasius’s Life and Activity of the Holy and Blessed Teacher Syncletica,” trans., Elizabeth A. Castelli, in Ascetic Behavior in Graeco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook , ed., Vincent L. Wimbush, 265– 311. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990) 99: pp. 305–306.

36 Ward, Benedicta. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection , trans., Benedicta Ward (Liturgical Press, 1984) Syncletica 8: p. 232.