Some brothers visited Abba Anthony and they said to him:

‘Tell us a saying [indicating] how we are to be saved.’ The elder said to them: ‘Have you not heard the Scripture? That is good enough for you,’ but they said: ‘We want to hear [it] from you, father.’ So the elder said to them: ‘The Gospel says: “If someone hits you on they right cheek, turn the other one to him too”‘ [Mt 5:39]. ‘We cannot do that,’ they told him. The elder said to them: ‘If you cannot turn the other [cheek], at least patiently endure the one [blow].’ ‘We cannot do that either,’ they told him. The elder said: ‘If you cannot do that either, do not return [the blow] you received,’ but they said: ‘Nor can we do that.’ So the elder said to his disciple: ‘Make them a little soup, for they are sick.’ and he said to them: ‘if you cannot do this and you will not do that, what am I to do for you? There is need of prayer.