When a brother visited the hermits in the desert and saw them working, he asked, "Why do you work for the bread that perishes? Mary has chosen the best part, to sit at the feet of the Lord without working." The Abbot told his disciple to give the brother a book and a cell and there he left him all day to read. At the ninth hour he looked out to see if the Abbot was going to call him to dinner and at last set out to find him. "Did the brethren not eat today, Father?" "Oh, yes, we have just eaten," the Abbot replied. "Why did you not call me?" he asked. "You are a spiritual man and do not need this food that perishes," the Abbot said. "Forgive me, Father," said the brother. The Abbot replied, "It was because Martha worked that Mary was able to learn."1

Jesus and his friends were eating toge…