Vol: 2 Issue: 5
Bashans 1724 / May 2008
Easter Message From: Fr Daniel Al Antouny Resurrection is a great power that exceeds any other powers, for Resurrection is power of living, which defeats the power of death. For this St Paul calls us to know the Christ through the power of His Resurrection, which encourages us in enduring the Lord’s sufferings and conforming to His death as being our own death, as he says: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” (Phil 3:10) The Lord Christ revealed his divinity through His resurrection, for which St Augustine says: “Christ closed the doors of death and opened for Himself the doors of heaven, proving His promise saying: “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).Thus the Lord battled with death and conquered it. The Lord took flesh which is prune to death, and entered the arena of death, so that death dared to enter Him, so He kills death with His own death and reveals to us the eternal life through His resurrection. For this, we sing the powerful song of the Resurrection saying: “Through death He conquered death…and all those in the tombs received eternal life.” It is a life that conquers death and overpowers it. Truly it is power that overcomes all kinds of resisting power of Satan, Pontius Pilate, the guards or even death itself. All the Fathers the Monks of the monastery congratulate His Holiness Pope Shenouda III for the feast of Resurrection, H G Bishop Suriel and H G Bishop Daniel along with all the Reverend Fathers the Priests and all the Congregations of Australia, wishing everybody the blessing, the power and the joy of the resurrection. Amen. I also would like to thank the entire Congregation for following the program of prayers of the Monastery promptly, during the period of the Great Lent, and not attending to the Monastery in large numbers to allow the Monks for a period of quietness and contemplation. I would also like to thank our Gracious Lord for His great blessings in completing the project of Asphalting the Roads and Car parking area in the Monastery by a Company. This project is very vital for the Monastery. In the near future we hope, through God’s will, to buy a piece of
land, about 100 acres, which is right next door to the Monastery. It is for sale by our Neighbors. The Monastery also is undertaking another very vital project, which is building a TAFOOS (Cemetery) for the Monks. His Holiness has blessed all these projects and we, his servants, get up and build, through your prayers and continual support. There are two Bank Accounts, for anyone who would like to partake of the blessing of giving and supporting with the Projects of the Monastery:
The General needs and Expenditures of the Monastery: 1- St Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Monastery A/C--Westpac Bank: 732-274 511-258. The Bank A/C dedicated for the needs and fund of Buildings only [which is tax deductible] is: 2- St Shenouda Coptic School for Novices Building Fund A/C-Westpac Bank: 032-274 128-841. The Lord will reward All with His heavenly Rewards. Amen Your servant: The Abbot of the Monastery. Father Daniel Al- Antouny.
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Amma Sarah By: Laura Swan From: The Forgotten Desert Mothers Amma Sarah was a native of Upper Egypt. Born into a wealthy Christian family, Sarah was well educated and a voracious reader. Moving to the vicinity of a women's Convent in the desert of Pelusium (near Antinoe), Sarah lived alone for many years near the river in a cell with a terraced roof. She attended to the needs of the nearby community. Eventually Amma Sarah received the monastic garb and lived in a closer relationship with the community, serving as spiritual elder. Sarah continued to follow the ascetic life by living alone in a cave by the river for seven years. She died around her eightieth year. Amma Sarah was deeply concerned that her heart never be divided in her pursuit of God. Much of her desert struggle was centered on calming inner distractions and cultivating those things that brought her close to God. "Lust" and "fornication" were not so much about bodily passions but rather anything or anyone that kept her heart distracted from God. The movement toward a deeper and more profound awareness of God is a spiralling movement toward simplicity that occurs when we voluntarily let go of all our attachments that keep us from moving deeper within. This is not a rejection of the created world, all of which is God's delightful gift to us, but rather is the rejection of our tendencies to grasp aspects of creation in a way that diminishes our unity with God. Amma Sarah calls her followers to grow in self-awareness. Self-awareness is not selfishness but self connectedness. It is a deep and intense listening to our inner being, learning to be conscious and alert to what our inner world is trying to say to us. With self-awareness and self-knowledge, we understand our reactions toward others, issues that complicate our lives, blind spots that we can fall into, as well as our particular strengths and gifts. As we grow in self-awareness, we grow in God-awareness. Amma Sarah, in the desert tradition, understood that God has chosen humanity along with all creation as the vehicle of Divine Revelation. It was related of Amma Sarah that for thirteen years she waged warfare against the demon of fornication. She never prayed that the warfare should cease, but she said, "0 God, give me strength." Although Sarah may have been a deeply passionate woman, keenly aware of her sexuality, fornication principally meant anything that possessed her heart and separated her from God. A part of our inner being belongs only to God and can only be satisfied by God. Replacing God with anyone or anything is idolatry. Sarah, in her awareness of her own weaknesses and of God as the source of her strength, challenges us not to run but to stand firm in our persistent struggle with personal problems and with all that keeps us from God. Page 3
It was said concerning her that for sixty years she lived beside a river and never lifted her eyes to look at it. Amma Sarah was not easily distracted. She allowed her surroundings to support her without any need to possess them. She so intensely focused on cultivating total union with God that it seems she was unaware of her surroundings. Today, we might better appreciate gazing lovingly and reflectively on that river in order to move into union with God.
Amma Sarah said, "If I prayed God that all people should approve of my conduct, I should find myself a penitent at the door of each one, but I shall rather pray that my heart may be pure toward all." Amma Sarah did not seek the approval of others; likewise, she remained nonjudgmental in her attitude toward others in their own journeys toward God. As in all other time in Church history, there were strong personalities in Sarah's day, but she did not follow fads. She sought to remain true to her own simple path toward God. She also said, "I put out my foot to ascend the ladder, and I place death before my eyes, before going up the next step." Ascending a ladder was a well known and understood metaphor in Amma Sarah's day.' To ascend a ladder was to draw close to God and deepen in spiritual maturity. The metaphors of the ladder and of keeping death ever before one's eyes figure strongly in desert and monastic spirituality. We are exhorted to remain firmly focused on our unity with God. Being mindful of eventual death need not be depressing; rather it can give us the freedom to make choices that support and nurture the goal: abiding in God's unconditional love. Some monks of Scetis came one day to visit Amma Sarah. She offered them a small basket of fruit. They left the good fruit and ate the bad. So she said to them, "You are the true monks of Scetis." Desert asceticism does not seek to draw attention to self. Ascetical practices were quiet and modest. The desert ascetic practiced self-denial in small daily ways, such as choosing simpler and less appetizing foods, just enough sleep on a sufficient but not necessarily comfortable bed, and prayers spread throughout the day. Self-denial was cultivated in order to deepen one's relationship to God, to deepen in compassion, and to build bridges toward others.
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Shining Stars in the Desert By: One of the youth Since the early days of Monasticism we hear of the devils taking the form of women to tempt Monks. At the beginning of St Anthony’s life “the devil took on the form of a woman at night and imitated all of a women’s way in order to deceive St Antony.” St Macarius also at the beginning of his monastic journey entered a tomb wanting to sleep so he used some of the bones as a pillow and when the demons saw his courage they tried to frighten him so “they called out a woman’s name, saying, so and so, come with us to the baths.” Another demon answered them from below him as though from the dead, “there is a stranger on top of me and I can’t come.” The harsh war that was waged upon the Monks using the forms of women is also expressed in St Arsanious’s prayer to the virgin of a senatorial rank who came from Rome to see him and as she was leaving she asked the saint to pray for her, but he answered her, “I pray God to remove the remembrance of you from my heart.” The frequent negative image of women and their resemblance with the devils that appeared repeatedly in the life of the desert fathers can be explained by archbishop Theophilus’s explanation to the virgin mentioned above that “it is through women that the enemy makes war against the saints.” It was the fear of the demons of fornication and the almost inescapable power of his temptation that led to the negative portal of women. Certainly the monastic literature did not equate demonic to feminine imagery, after all the monastic literature talks about the devil tempting monks with illusions of gold, beasts, and black Ethiopians which are not themselves evil but rather they personify the temptations such as power, fear and lust to the monk under attack. Nevertheless, women were represented with a positive image in monastic literature. Bright stars that shone in the desert and villages that were no less saintly or holy than the Monks. St Bessarion witnessed to this fact to his disciple abba Doulas saying, “See how the women triumph over Satan, while we still behave badly in the towns.” The ascetical practises of the desert women have been attested to and appreciated by western pilgrims to Egypt who came to discover the mysteries of the Egyptian desert. The best example of western pilgrims who venerated those women is Palladius in his ‘Historia Lausiaca’. Drawing on a variety of sources in addition to his own experiences and encounters with famous male and female ascetics, Palladius composed a large number of lives and ascetical practices of holy men and women. To our surprise “most of his examples lived in Egypt and at least a third of the Egyptian saints were to use Palladius’s term, ‘female fathers.’” In fact he devoted an entire chapter to “mainly women … to whom God granted the capacity to fight struggles equal to those of men.” In the life of Abba Daniel of scetis we hear of the saint’s visit to a female monastic community in Hermopolis. Upon the saint’s arrival to the monastery his disciple Page 5
asked if they can stay the night but the head of the female convent answered in hostility, not knowing he is the disciple of Abba Daniel “no man ever enters here, it is better for you to be devoured by wild beasts outside rather than by those inside.” This shows that women nuns showed the same degree of hostility towards men as the monks to the women. This hostility was not for any other reason than fear of the devil’s temptations. In conclusion the negative image of women that appears in the monastic literature is only a way of personifying the temptation of lust, just like gold, and beasts that appeared to monks to tempt them. After all, women ascetics as we have discussed have suffered the same warfare. Women on the other hand were in fact like shining stars in the desert sky, in their spiritual struggle and asceticism, they have exceeded those of men. Palladius attests to this fact in his ‘Historia Lausaica’, which contains considerable number of women ascetics. The intent of these stories is as Palladius puts it “for the emulation and imitation of those who wish to succeed in their heavenly way of life.” I will end with a quote by St Shenouda the Archimandrite that reveals how women were looked upon by one of the great leaders of Monasticism in the 5th century. “Has the kingdom of heaven solely been prepared for men? So that it has not been prepared for women to enter as well? … Indeed, just as there are many men who are at times strong and many women who are weak, there are women who are at times strong and victorious and many men too, who are inferior to them and weaker than they are. The same battle has been assigned to men and women, and the same crown stands before those men and women who together will have persevered”
From The Sayings of the Desert Fathers When Abba Arsenius was living at Canopus, a very rich and God fearing virgin of senatorial rank came from Rome to see him. When the Archbishop Theophilus met her, she asked him to persuade the old man to receive her. So he went to ask him to do so in these words, “A certain person of senatorial rank has come from Rome and wishes to see you.” The old man refused to meet her. But when the Archbishop told the young girl this, she ordered the beast of burden to be saddled saying, “I trust in God that I shall see him, for it is not a man whom I have come to see (there are plenty of those in our town), but a prophet.” When she had reached the old man’s cell, by a dispensation of God, he was outside it. Seeing him, she threw herself at his feet. Outraged, he lifted her up again, and said, looking steadily at her, “If you must see my face, here it is, look.” She was covered with shame and did not look at his face. Then the old man said to her, “Have you not heard tell of my way of life? It ought to be respected. How dare you make such a jour-ney? Do you not realise you are a “woman and cannot go just anywhere? Or is it so that on returning to Rome you can say to other women: I have seen Arsenius? Then they will turn the sea into a thoroughfare with women coming to see me.” She said, “May it please the Lord, I shall not let anyone come here; but pray for me and remember me always.” But he answered her, “I pray God to remove the remembrance of you from my heart.” Page 6
Overcome at hearing these words, she withdrew. When she had returned to the town, in her grief she fell ill with a fever, and blessed Archbishop Theophilus was informed that she was ill. He came to see her and asked her to tell him what was the matter. She said to him, “If only I had not gone there! For I asked the old man to remember me, he said to me, "I pray God to take the remembrance of you from my heart." So now I am dying of grief.” The Aarchbishop said to her, “Do you not realise that you are a woman, and that it is through women that the enemy wars against the Saints? That is the explanation of the old man’s words but as for your soul, he will pray for it continually.” At this, her spirit was healed and she returned home joyfully.
We usually hear of young men from Australia going to monasteries and becoming Monks, but we rarely hear of young women from Australia who left the world and have gone to a female Convent. The above photo is a rare photo of some of these young Coptic women from Australia who are now nuns at the St Demiana Convent in El Barary (Dimyat). This memorable Photo was taken during Fr Daniel’s visit to the monastery at St Demian’s feast January 2008. The names of the nuns from left to right. Omena Antonia, Omena Kathrin, Omena Nardin, and Novice Amira
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Question & Answer Why is there little told about the Female monasticism in monastic literature? That is not true, holy women have excelled in all types of monastic dwellings in solitary, and coenobium (Community), and their lives have been recorded for us. Despite the harsh life in the desert especially that a solitary women living in the desert were faced with the risk of robbery and sexual assaults. And despite the rejection of Monks of any female dwelling in the desert, some holy women made their way into the desert and became shining stars as those venerated desert Monks. Example of these women are Amma Sarah who’s sayings are in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and St Mary of Egypt who’s life is also recorded. St Shenouda and St Pachomious also had a large community of Nuns who lived in community and both saints wrote Monastic canons that were intended for both Monks and Nuns. Another example of women living in a male community without revealing their true identities are a group of nuns called the Disguised Nuns. Many of these women were able to keep their secret until after their death. The Sayings of the desert fathers records that abba Bessarion once saw a monk sitting in his cave plaiting ropes, the disguised nun, not wanting to make conversation, did not even look at them. On his return, he said to his disciple, “let us go and see him, perhaps God has told him to speak to us, when we had entered, we found him dead.” The old man then said, “come brother, let us take the body, it is for this reason God has sent us here” when he took the body to bury it, we perceived that it was a woman.” The Lausiac History contains a large number of women ascetics, about a third of the Egyptian saints that Pilladius mentions are women. Pilladius’s intent in doing so, is that no one would say that “women are too weak to practice virtue successfully.”
Further Reading Laura Swan, “The Forgotten Desert Mothers”, Paulist Press. This book does two things beautifully. It revives lost memories of women spiritual leaders in the early evolution of Christian spirituality, thus filling in one more missing piece of monastic history. It also calles the reader to a path of spirituality greatly needed in today’s clamorous world: slow down, be quiet, listen for the voice of god deep within your heart. Benedicta Word, “Harlots of the desert”, Cistercian Publication. Beauty consuming itself like incense burnt before G o d in solitude, far from the eyes of men, became the most stirring image of penance conceivable. Stories on conversion from extreme sinfulness to extreme holiness have always attracted humankind's attention, and this was especially so among the monks of the ancient and medieval world. In the literature of fourth-century Egypt, alongside the wise sayings of the desert fathers and the stories illustrating their way of life, there are also the accounts of the lives of the harlots, Pelagia, Maria, Thais, Mary of Egypt, and a number of lesser figures, all of which were copied, translated, and retold throughout the Middle Ages. Page 8