Abba Paul did not work to feed himself or to provide for the poor. Cassian says that his example proves that a monk can neither stay put nor achieve perfection without manual labor. Abba Paul worked solely to purify his heart, to keep his thoughts on course, to persevere in his cell, and thus to overcome acedia. In other words, he worked because it steadied and grounded him. The handwork with which he occupied himself night and day while praying centered him in a way that the gardening he did to support his life could not.
Work serves prayer as long as it remains a subordinate element in the monastic regime.
But, once a monk begins to think of himself as a hard worker, he is in danger of feeding his human ambition by measuring his own worth in terms of the profit he makes or the tasks he performs. The monk, in effect, imports the world s notion of success into the desert. Once work itself becomes the goal, it usurps the priority that belongs properly to prayer. This is vividly illustrated in Cassian s tale of an elder who comes upon one of these superachievers wearing himself out trying to break up a stubborn boulder. The exhausted monk thinks he is going a good work , but the senior monk sees that a demon is urging him on.