Proverbs 6:6

[The sluggard] has not imitated the ant. He has not gathered to himself grains while it was summer. What do I mean by "while it was summer"? While he had quietude of life, while he had this world's prosperity, when he had leisure; when he was being called happy by all, while it was summer. He should have imitated the ant, he should have heard the Word of God, he should have gathered together grains, and he should have stored them within. But there came the trial of tribulation, there came upon him a winter of numbness, a tempest of fear, the cold of sorrow, whether it were loss, or any danger to his safety, or any bereavement of his family; or any dishonor and humiliation. In winter; the ant falls back upon that which in summer it has gathered together; and within its secret store, where no one can see, it is replenished by its summer toils. When for itself it was gathering together these stores in summer, every one saw it: when on these it feeds in winter, no one sees. What does this mean?See the ant of God. He rises day by day, he hastens to the church of God, he prays, he hears a reading, he chants a hymn, he digests that which he has heard, he thinks to himself about all this, and inside he is storing up grains gathered from the threshing floor. You who hear those very things which even now are being spoken, do just this. Go forth to the church, go back from church, hear a sermon, hear a reading, choose a book, open and read it. All these things are seen when they are done. That ant is treading his path, carrying and storing up in the sight of those who see him. But in due time there comes the winter. For whom does it not come? There happens to be loss, or bereavement. Others perchance, who know not what the ant has stored up inside to eat, pity the ant as being miserable.

[Let us ponder] Solomon's sending us to learn wisdom from the ants, urging the sluggard to profit by their example. I began to weary of my capacity and to yearn for the cells of the monastery and to desire the comfort of the solicitude of those ants in whose community all worked together and where, since nothing belonged to anyone, all possessed all things in common.

However, there is also in the nature of quadrupeds a prophetic speech that exhorts us to imitate, by which example we avoid laziness and do not turn away from the study of virtue due to the smallness or weakness of the body, nor are we drawn back from the magnitude of any purpose. For even the ant is small, yet it dares with its own strength to undertake greater things; nor is it compelled to work by servitude, but it prepares future supplies of food for itself by its own foresight. The Scripture urges you to imitate the industry of the ant, saying: Consider the ant, O sluggard, and imitate its ways, and be wiser than it (Proverbs, 6:6). For the ant possesses no property, and does not have someone to force it or act as its master. Yet it prepares food by storing the harvest of your labors for itself; and while you often lack, it does not. It has no closed granaries, no impenetrable protections, no inviolable storehouses. The guard watches but dares not prevent thefts: the owner sees his losses and does not seek retribution. The prey is carried through the fields in a black column, the roads sizzle with the crowd of wayfarers, and large quantities of grain that cannot be contained by a wide mouth are pushed with their shoulders. The master of the harvest observes these things and is ashamed to deny the profits of honest industry.

Go to the ant, O sluggard! etc. Here he exhorts anyone wandering, that if he is not sufficient in teaching others, he should at least not neglect to manage his own cares, and if he cannot learn wisdom in teaching from a man, he should …

It is certain that as long as man stood up, he had the knowledge of created things and through their significance, was carried up to God, to praise, worship, and love Him. This is what creatures are for, and this is how they are led …