Below are three real-life stories that seem drawn from the Patericon or from the writings about the Desert Fathers.

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After the agape meal together, the spiritual discussion with our Father was about to start. People were still outside, chatting. The wife of X tells him: "Let's go inside, we shouldn't miss the beginning!". "You go, I'll join you right away."
The wife didn’t waste any time and went in. At the door, she meets Y, a member of the community, who was going out. "If you see X, please tell him to come in!".
Y, meeting X, conveys the message from his wife. "She should give me a break!", X replied, irritated by the woman's insistence.
After a while, Y goes back into the room where the discussion was taking place. There, he is met by X’s wife’s and she asks, "Did you tell him?". 
"Yes, he said he’s coming right away."

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Recently, I was helping a friend move. We loaded everything in the truck and we were about to leave. My friend, together with his wife, throws a last glance at the empty house after which they both walk out the door, ready to depart for the new apartment. All of a sudden, I was amazed. What do you think the wife was holding? Their lighted oil lamp. And this is how she got into the car and stepped onto this new path of their life. What deep understanding! There are many ways in which one could interpret this gesture of taking along the light from where you used to live, but I felt as if I was living the Resurrection!

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Here is another story, also related to moving houses. Somebody was helping an important Romanian army officer to move. When they arrived at the new residence, the workers were in a hurry to move all furniture from the truck into the house and start putting everything in its right place. Suddenly, the colonel says: "Wait a little". He went straight to a particular box, took out a large icon of the Holy Mother of God, and then a nail and a hammer from another box, and hung the icon on his bedroom wall. "Now you may unload the rest of the truck".