Lucius the Ascetic

Abba Lucius the Ascetic was one of the Desert Fathers quoted in the Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Desert Fathers).

Quotes

Wortley, John (2014). Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers. Yonkers, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press. ISBN 978-0-88141-497-4. 

• Some monks called Euchites once visited Abba Lucius at Enaton and the elder asked them: “What is your handiwork?”
  “We do not have anything to do with handiwork, they said, “but we ‘pray without ceasing’ [1 Thess 5:17] as the Apostle said.”
  “Do you not eat?” said the elder.
  “Yes,” they said, and the elder said: “Who prays for you when you are eating?”
  Again he said to them: “Do you not sleep?”
  “Yes,” they said,
  and the elder said: “Who prays for you when you are asleep?”
  and at this they did not find him an answer.
  And he said to them: “Forgive me but, look: you do not do as you say. I will show you that I pray without ceasing while toiling at my handiwork. I soak a few rushes for myself then, sitting down with God, I braid them into a rope, saying: ‘Have mercy upon me O God according to your great goodness: according to the multitude of your mercies blot out mine offences’” [Ps 50:1],
  and he said to them: “Is that not prayer?”
  “Yes,” they said,
  and the elder said: “When I remain working and praying all day long, I make sixteen coins more or less. I put two of them at the door and eat with the rest. He who takes the two coins prays for me while I am eating and when I am sleeping and, by the grace of God, to ‘pray without ceasing is fulfilled for me.’”
  • Saying 1