St Syncletika
“On January 5 (new calendar), we venerated the life of St. Amma Syncletika, a saint who lived long enough to become a light to those of us who now travel the journey of aging and illness, and one who was intimately familiar with the battlefield of the mind and attention which we all encounter today.
Many women and girls traveled to live under guidance and be mentored by her wisdom, giving her the title “Amma,” or “Mother.” She is now considered one of the Desert Mothers, and many of her wise sayings are included in the recorded sayings of the Desert Fathers that can be found from this period.
“It is possible to be a solitary in one’s mind while living in a crowd,” Amma Syncletika once said, “and it is possible for one who is a solitary to live in the crowd of one’s own thoughts.” After living so long in the solitude of the desert, she had developed a deep understanding of the way our mind and attention determine our experience of the world. We can imagine her saying the same to us today who are battling new forms of inattention and distraction, reminding us all that the “crowd of our own thoughts” can be a noisy place to inhabit, that the “solitude of one’s mind” is waiting for us to slow down enough to welcome its gifts wherever we happen to be.”
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