Vol: 1 Issue: 4
Kiahk 1724 / Dec 2007
WHEN I SIT ALONE WITH MYSELF O Lord, it is indeed a blessed hour when I sit alone with myself. When I do sit alone with myself, it is in fact with You I sit because You are within me though I don't see You . This is not strange, for You were in the world but the world did not know You. One of my great sins when I was living in the world (Before Monasticism) was avoiding to sit alone with myself. I had no time to sit alone with myself or more truly, I wasted the time You gave me, my Lord .Oh, for my foolishness, during such times, I sought a new involvement or a new responsibility to fill my time! as if sitting with myself was laziness! When I was in the world (Before Monasticism) I was aware, from a theoretical point of view, of the importance of being alone with oneself, but in practice I gave no heed to this. I would rather say that the devil did not allow me to do so for I was always busy, continually busy. Therefore, O Lord, I was not aware of the treasure within me which is You. When I sometimes did sit alone with myself, and did see a glimpse of that shining treasure, I used to conceal it under the pretext that I wanted a longer time to be alone with it. In fact I wanted to go first to bury my father, to see my land and test my oxen! But at last, Lord, when You did allow me on a certain day which I cannot remember exactly, to sit alone with myself a long calm time, I discovered the treasure that was hidden within me. Only then I sold everything and bought that treasure which is You. And since that time I had You for myself. Here I confess to You, my Lord: Each time I sit alone with myself I feel that myself is more precious than the whole world as You have said, 'For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" (Mark 8:36). And whenever I feel the value of myself, I look disdainfully upon the world and take from You the power to renounce everything. When I do renounce everything I look and find You before me encouraging me with Your words, "Do not fear, for I am with you" (Gen. 26:24).
Whenever I sit with myself, O Lord, and discover its interior and see what the strangers within it, dared to do, defiling your holies in it. I confess to You everything and ask You to deliver me from the hand of strangers. The time passes quickly and I still have many things to tell You and to tell myself. Thus my human comfort seems of little value. I do not seek the company of others to have pleasure but rather have comfort in loneliness, seclusion and calmness. This does not deprive me of being alone with myself which is very necessary for me and which creates within me humiliation and purity. Sometimes, my Lord, when I sit with myself and examine it more profoundly, I find in its corners, serpents and scorpions lying and resting within me. They rather try to eat my very heart silently or stealthily and spit their venom into my blood, my thoughts and my feelings without being aware. When I look at these serpents and scorpions they wake up and bite or sting my conscience, so I leave them asleep so that they may not make me suffer! But what is the use of leaving them so and closing my eyes in order not to see them and feel at rest! In fact I deceive myself and escape from it. Is it not better to bring those serpents to light and fight them? O Lord, have mercy upon me for I am weak and I am aware of my weakness and inability to fight even the least of them. It is better for me to reveal them to You, my Lord, that You may fight for me, "You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me" (Ps. 138:7). When I sit alone with myself and feel how weak it is, I hold fast to You realising that without You I can do nothing. And the more I hold fast to You, the more You reveal Yourself to me so I can see how fairer You are than the sons of men. This makes me love You and love to sit with You rather than to sit with people. Each time I discover something new about You my soul clings more to You. Please, Lord, help me to leave people and be concerned more about myself to attach myself to You. Then help me to forget myself and make You my only concern. From: Release of the Spirit by H.H. Pope Shenouda III.
Emperor Constantine appeared to St Bishoy in a vision, saying, "Had I known how great is the honour of monks, I would have abandoned my kingdom and became a monk." St. Bishoy told him, "You have banished the heathen worship and exalted Christianity, and has not Christ given you anything?" Emperor Constantine answered him, "The Lord has given me many gifts, but none of them is like the honour of the monks." From: The Synxarium The Eighth Day Of The Blessed Month Of Abib
Page 2
Left: Year 11 Youth Group from St Mark’s Church spending a retreat.
Right: Students From St Bishoy’s Coptic School working with the fathers during their visit to the monastery
Left: St Mark’s Church Year 12 Youth Group spending a retreat after their HSC Exams
The Monks of the Monastery extend their sincere prayers to all the HSC Students and wish them all the best results
Page 3
The Monastery’s Retreat House Time table The Monastery welcomes the youth who are interested in spending spiritual time in the monastery. To help you achieve this spiritual gaol we have put together this daily program. Please make sure that you spend your time wisely and that you attend all the prayers and benefit spiritually. It is advised that you call before coming to insure that there is enough room in the retreat house. 4.00 am – 5.30 am 5.30 am – 9.00 am 9.00 am – 10.00 am 10.00 am – 11.00 am 11.00 am – 12.00 pm 12.00 pm – 1.00 pm
Midnight praise (Tasbeha) Rest 3rd, 6th, 9th Hour prayers at church Breakfast Light jobs / personal meditation Lunch
1.00 pm – 5.00 pm – 5.30 pm – 6.30 pm – 7.30 pm – 8.30 pm – 9.00 pm – 10.00 pm --
Work / personal meditation Sunset prayers at church Personal meditation / reading time Dinner Bible Study with Abouna Supper Prayer before sleep at church Bedtime
5.00 pm 5.30 pm 6.30 pm 7.30 pm 8.30 pm 9.00 pm 9.30 pm 4.00 am
9.00am – 12.00 pm Holy Liturgy (On Fri, Sat & Sun)
5.00 - 6.00pm Vesper prayer (On Sat only)
Kiahk Praises Time table Sat 8th Dec 2007 Sat 15th Dec 2007 Sat 22nd Dec 2007 Sat 29th Dec 2007
Vespers Midnight Tasbeha First Liturgy Second Liturgy
5pm 11pm 4am 10am
– 6:30pm – 3am – 6am – 12am
New Year Eve Time table Mon 31st Dec 2007
Midnight Tasbeha Holy Liturgy
11pm – 3 am 4am – 6am
Page 4
The Spirit of Early Monastic Prayer We are in the habit of distinguishing between "private" prayer and "liturgical" prayer, but for the early monks there was but one prayer, always personal, sometimes done in common with others, sometimes alone in the secret of one's heart. For the New Testament exhorts us not only to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:16-18, Eph 6:18; Col 4:2; Luke 18:1; 21:36), but also to "be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart" (Eph 5:19, Col 3:16). Writing to the Thessalonians, St. Paul also affirms: We were not idle‌ but with toil and labour we worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you... to give you in our conduct an example to imitate. For‌ we gave you this command: If any one will not work, let him not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness‌ not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living (2 Thess 3:7-12). As A. Guillaumont has shown, these two principles, continual prayer and incessant labour, were both the cornerstone and paradox of early monasticism. For how can one pray always if one must work? And how can one work at all if one must pray without ceasing? This is the problem Basil addresses in his Longer Rules 37:2. Some extremists like the Messalians took literally the command of 1 Thess 5:17 to pray without ceasing, and refused to work. But the Fathers had a sure cure for that, as we see in the alphabetical collection of the Apophthegmata (Sayings of the desert fathers), Silvanus 5:27 A brother came to the monastery of Abba Silvanus and when he saw all the brethren at work he said to the elder, "Do not labour for the bread that perishes. Mary has chosen the better part. "At this the elder called a disciple and said, "Zachary, give this brother a book and show him to an empty cell." The ninth hour, which was the hour for dinner, came and passed. The guest was intently watching his door to see if someone would come and get him for dinner, but no one called him. At length he rose and went to find the elder. "Abba," he said, "are the brethren fasting today?" 'No, they have all eaten," replied the elder. "Why wasn't I invited?" "Because," answered the elder, "you are a spiritual person and have no need of bodily nourishment. But we, carnal as we are, are obliged to eat and this is why we work. You, however, have chosen the better part; you read all day long and have no desire for bodily nourishment." At these words the man made a prostration and said, "I beg your pardon, Abba." The elder pardoned him and concluded his lesson with the words, "That is how Mary herself stands in need of Martha. It was because of Martha that Mary could receive her praise." So the ideal was not to avoid work, but to so live in unceasing labour and prayer that the whole of life was one, never ceasing to work while one prayed, never ceasing to pray while one worked, as we can see in the same alphabetical collection, Lucius 1: Once some Euchites came to visit Abba Lucius in the Enaton monastery, near
Page 5
Alexandria. When he asked them what type of work they did, they replied, "We never lift a finger to do manual labour; instead we pray without ceasing, in accordance with the Apostle's command." The elder said to them: "Don't you eat, then?" 'We do," they assured him. 'When you are eating, who prays in your place?" No answer. He asked them another question: "When you are sleeping, who keeps up your prayers?" They could give him no answer. Then he went on: "I beg your pardon, but you do not do what you say you do. Let me show you how I manage to pray always even when I busy myself at manual labour. I sit down with my supply of palm fronds soaking beside me and as I weave them together I say, with God's help, 'Have mercy on me, 0 God, according to your great goodness, and wipe out my transgressions according to your abundant mercy' (Ps 50:1). Tell me, is this not a prayer?" They assured him that it was. Then he said: "By working and praying like this all day long, I can complete around sixteen baskets. I give away two of these to any beggar who comes to my door. I make my living from the rest. And the man who has received the gift of two baskets prays for me while I am eating and sleeping. That is how, by God's grace, I manage to pray without ceasing." As this passage shows, some monks even tried to fulfil the precept of unceasing prayer by arranging for continual prayer in shifts, an attitude that later gave rise to the monasteries of "sleepless" monks in both East and West, and at a later time to convents of "perpetual" adoration. But this fundamentalist construction of the evangelical precept was an exaggerated literal interpretation not shared by Fathers such as Origen, in his treatise On Prayer 12, which offeres a more balanced doctrine: He prays without ceasing who combines his prayer with necessary works, and suitable activities with his prayer, for his virtuous deeds or the precepts he has fulfilled are taken up as part of his prayer. Only in this way can we take the saying "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess 5:17) as being possible, if we can say that the whole life of the saint is one mighty integrated prayer. Part of such prayer is what is customarily called "prayer." The institution of the day hours in monasteries outside Egypt was not relaxation of the ideal of ceaseless prayer, which is obvious from the following anecdote from a Palestinian monastery in the alphabetical Apophthegmata, Epiphanius 3: The Abba of this cenobium wrote to Epiphanius, Bishop of Cyprus, saying: "Thanks to your prayers we have been faithful to our canonical hours. We never omit the office of terce, sext, none or vespers." But the bishop wrote back and reproached the monks in these terms: "Evidently you are neglecting the remaining hours of the day which you spend without prayer. The true monk should have prayer and psalmody in his heart at all times without interruption." Furthermore, if the Egyptians saw a contradiction between set times of prayer and continuous prayer, why did they have any prayer times at all? In fact, as Veilleux has shown, the earliest Egyptian anchoritic sources show no opposition between ceaseless prayer and a fixed daily prayer. In the Pachomian sources the first rule of prayer Page 6
that the neophyte Pachomius received from his spiritual father Palamon was sixty prayers a day and fifty at night but that was not a substitute for constant prayer: "Regarding the rule of the synaxis, let it be sixty prayers a day and fifty at night, not counting the prayers we do as not to be liars, since we have been ordered to pray without ceasing." So it would be wrong to draw too sharp a distinction between "liturgical" and "private" prayer in early monasticism. In monastic literature during the foundational epoch the only difference between solitary prayer and common prayer was whether there was more than one person present. The following precept of Abba Isaiah of Scetis reflects this: "When you are at prayer in your dwelling, do not be negligent. ... And when you do psalmody together, let each one say his own prayer, and if a traveller is with you, ask him with charity to pray. ..." The point was not with whom one prayed, nor where, nor in what form, nor at what fixed times, but that one's very life be totally prayer. When Abba Lot asked what he must do, Abba Joseph "rose and held his hands towards the sky so that his fingers became like flames of fire and he said: 'If you will, you shall become all flame.'� To unite prayer with all activities, even sleep, was the ancient ideal. The Canons of Hippolytus 27, an Egyptian source from around 336-340 A.D., says "When a man sleeps in his bed he must pray to God in his heart. From: The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West
Students From St Bishoy’s Coptic School during their spiritual talk.
Page 7
Questions & Answers I fear that after becoming a monk I will have too much free time which will make me feel bored? Some youth who do not know exactly what a monastic life is, are under the impression that a monk does nothing, and lives in total emptiness! On the contrary, a true monk is the busiest of persons. He is busy with the Lord Jesus who fills his heart and soul so that there is no room for emptiness or boredom. In addition to all the bodily and spiritual daily activities: The Agpeya prayers which are prayed inside the monk’s cell on a daily basis. The midnight praise with its beautiful tunes and hymns, prayed daily with other monks in the church. Attending the Holy Liturgy, and partake of the Holy Communion in order to strengthen his spiritual life. Readings from the Holy Bible for daily nourishment. Reading the lives of the Saints who preceded him, and their sayings, in order to attain comfort and good example from their lives and follow in their steps. This is in addition to his physical work in the monastery as appointed to him by the Abbot of the monastery, either in the kitchen, gardening, the church or the library. Each monk is given a job as this helps in the development of his spirituality. A monk can also learn hymns and praise. Some monks may rewrite the old scripts, writing books on deep spiritual meditations, translation, studying the Coptic language in depth, or making the leather crosses while reciting psalms and prayers. Our Desert fathers consider the handwork done in your cell, in God’s fear, is a monastic virtue that a monk must attain, since it relieves the monk from boredom, like what happened to St Anthony in the wilderness at the beginning of his monastic struggle.
Evagrius Ponticus, “The Praktikos & Chapter on Prayer”, Cistercian Publication The central focus of Evagrius’s doctrine is found in those several chapters which stress the relationship between prayer and contemplation. In particular, it is the identification between the highest summits of contemplation and the purest form of prayer that is the heart of the Evagrian theology of prayer. In some sense Evagrius chooses to identify prayer and contempla-tion with the monastic life even with the spiritual life itself.
Igumen Chariton of Valamo, “The Art of Prayer”, Faber and Faber. The Art of Prayer is concerned in particular with the most frequently used and best loved of all Orthodox prayers the Jesus Prayer. It deals also with the general question, what is prayer? With the different degrees of prayer from ordinary oral prayer to unceasing prayer of the heart, with the dangers of illusion and discouragement, and the need for seclusion and inner peace. Page 8