The desert fathers offer to use today the same pastoral care that they offered those who came seeking health and healing in 3^rd century Egypt. Their method of care had authority because it came out of a lifestyle seeped in Christ’s love. Their spiritual practices of prayer, Scriptural reading and intimate relationship provided a healing environment where the sick were made well and the demons were cast out. It was a context of continual spiritual warfare, one where the monks sought to live their lives in the freedom of Christ’s love.