Vol: 3 Issue: 4
Baramhat 1725 / April 2009
I sleep, but my heart is awake “I sleep, but my heart is awake; it is the voice of my beloved! He knocks, saying, “Open for me, my sister, my love, My dove, my perfect one; For my head is covered with dew, My locks with the drops of the night.” Song of Songs 5:2 The virgin of the Song of Songs sees herself as asleep. She remains without a spiritual outlook. There is no passion. There is no vigilance. There is no vitality. There is no activity. However, she affirms it to be acceptable. I sleep, but my heart is awake, (Song 5:2), I have something encouraging since my heart is awake. Although I sleep, I am keenly sensitive to the voice of my Beloved. Indeed, I am asleep, but I still can hear the voice of my Beloved knocking and saying, Open for me, my sister, my love, (Song 5:2). These are great words. Although I sleep, I can hear His voice. This is not death, only slumber. The Lord told them, the child is not dead, but sleeping, (Mark 5:39). She still has the breath of life in her. It maybe that the life in her is concealed and veiled, but there is still life in her. She still has life and that life will definitely bring forth fruit. The trees do not produce fruits all year long. Yet, we do not cut it down and throw it into the fire. The tree still has life. Ploughing around it and enriching it with fertilizers may help it bring forth fruits later. I sleep, but my heart is awake. I sleep, but my heart is awake. It is counter productive to focus on the negatives and admonish and reproach sleep. It would be wonderful, however, if the heart that is awake is beaming gleefully and vivaciously with hope. We should not lose sight of the fact that had God relinquished hope in the state of the Church when it is lukewarm, lacking in zeal and ardor, or had He given up hope in ever awakening our hearts, we would have all perished. Rather, time and again, the Lord has consoled, sustained and encouraged us that even though our bodies are asleep and the flesh is weak, our hearts are awake and the spirit is willing. It is these alert hearts that the Lord seeks and desires.
One may be asleep like waste land: The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. However, there is something positive, nonetheless. The spirit of God (is) hovering over the face of the waters, (Gen 1:2). Something beautiful is bound to come out of it. Habakkuk the prophet seems to reiterate the same theme. Do not rejoice over me, O sin, for even if I fall, I will rise up again. This is an affirmation, an assertion, that even though one may commit a sin or make a mistake, one will not wallow in the dirt but will brace oneself and rise up again. We have that same conviction that after every Golgotha, there is a resurrection. Therefore, despite my apparent frailty and weakness while being nailed to the cross, in a short while I will resurrect in great glory. There are positive aspects in everyone's life. Some people, however, give up and resign themselves to despondency and despair. Some people can only see futility, uselessness and hopelessness when they confront difficulties and challenges. Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days, (John 1 1:39). The Lord, on the other hand, ascertains that this is not true. He sees life in Lazarus. If you would believe, you would see the glory of God, (1 John 1:40). God confirms that the person who is thought of as dead, even with a stench, and has been in that condition for a long time will rise up again. He has a heart that is awake, and the minute the Lord utters the words “Lazarus, come forth� he will rise, come out of the grave and see the Light. There is hope. There is hope for everyone. No one can shut the door of hope to anyone regardless of their condition. Even if the human spirit is without form, and void; and darkness is on the face of deep, even if it has developed a stench for lying in the grave for four days, and even if she is asleep. The important thing is that the heart is awake. From: Have you seen the one I Love, By H.H. Pope Shenouda
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Create a Pure Heart in me O God By: Fr Anthony St Shenouda Among the many themes that St John Cassian discusses with the desert fathers in his conference, is the theme of the attaining the purity of heart. In his first conference titled “on the purpose and goal of the monk” he asks the ultimate question, “What is the purpose and end of the monastic life?” The same question can be easily applied to the Christian life in general. This is the great and very important question that we must turn to again and again throughout our life. Abbot Moses, a hermit of scete answered “we have come to the desert, to seek the kingdom of God, and the way to enter the kingdom is by achieving purity of the heart.” Abba Moses further emphasised the very important idea of an immediate goal that a Christian must work at in order to successfully arrive to his final destination (i.e. the kingdom of heaven) explains that while the ultimate goal for a monk (and the same goes for all Christians) is to reign with Christ in heaven for eternity, abba Moses suggests that “Christians need a closer target or goal to work at. This nearer goal is the purity of heart.”He illustrates the difference between the two goals with a practical example of a farmer who works the field day in and day out, not deterred with the changing weather, for the close goal of keeping the field free of weeds so as to attain the end goal of good harvest. "All the arts and disciplines," he said, "have a certain ‘scopus’ or goal, and a ‘telos’, which is the end that is proper to them, on which the lover of any art sets his gaze and for which he calmly and gladly endures every labor and danger and expense. For the farmer, avoiding neither the torrid rays of the sun one time nor the frost and ice another, tirelessly tills the soil and subdues the unyielding clumps of earth with his frequent plowing, and all the while he keeps his scopos in mind: that, once it has been cleared of all the briers and every weed has been uprooted, by his hard work he may break the soil into something as fine as sand. In no other way does he believe that he will achieve his end, which is to have a rich harvest and an abundant crop.” This idea of the immediate goal and the ultimate goal is deeply rooted in the Bible, especially in the sermon on the mountain where Jesus said “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt 5:8). By linking purity of heart to the vision of God, the beatitudes connects ‘immediate goal’ to ‘end goal.’ In the first conference Abba Moses equates the purity of heart to holiness. He even paraphrases the verse replacing “Holiness” with “Purity of Heart” and later on in the same conference he equates “Purity of Heart” to “Love”, quoting St Paul: “if I should give my goods to feed the poor and have not love it profits me nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3) Page 3
The common factor here between purity, holiness, and love is having an undivided heart. For Plato purity of heart meant clarity of purpose or freedom from disturbance. The word Holiness means set apart, or something that is only used for its intended purpose and Love as we know from the Old Testament cannot be divided “love the Lord your God with all your heart” and in the New Testament Christ gives the parable of the two masters “No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Mathew 6:24) Having this undivided heart is what is meant by purity of heart there is so much in today’s society that reaches out and grabs our attention from attaining our spiritual goal, study, career relationships, gadgets at discounted prices that claim to make our life easier meanwhile they sell us a way of life that makes us dependant on them. As Christians we must be watchful for any such distractions that drive out the love of Lord from our heart. Distractions are not necessarily doing evil, as we may imagine, but they can be ascetical works or church services when they become the aim rather than means as we will discuss later on. Now that we learned what purity of heart is, it is time to explore what it is not. From the above definition of purity of heart one might get the impression that it is an unattainable goal as some may confuse purity of heart with sinlessness, which is unattainable by human beings and even blasphemous to say so according to St John, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar” (1Jn 1:10). Our Lord also teaches us to pray in the Lord ’s Prayer to “forgive us our trespasses” this prayer He first taught to the holy and blessed apostles. The purity of heart as St John Cassian sees it, is not a heart in a pristine state, unaffected and unscarred by sin but on the contrary it is a heart that is fully alive despite and because of the scarce inevitably caused by sin.
Seeing God Through love on neighbor St Theodore once asked Apa Pachomius “I desire you to tell me, O my father, that I shall see God; otherwise, what good is it to me ever to have been born?” Our father Pachomius asked: “Do you wish to see Him in this world or in the world to come?” Theodore answered: “I wish to see Him in the world that lasts forever.” Our father Pachomius then said: “Hasten to produce the fruit spoken of in the Gospel: ‘Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God’ (Mt. 5, 8).” And if an evil thought comes into your mind, whether it be of hatred, unkindness, jealousy, distrust toward your brother, or of human vanity, remember immediately and say to yourself, ‘If I consent to anyone of these things, I shall not see the Lord.’” When Theodore had heard these words from the mouth of Father Pachomius, he prepared from that time forward to walk in humility and purity, so that the Lord might fulfill his desire to see Him in the unchanging world.
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Priests from Sydney & Melbourne Celebrating their Anniversary in the Monastery
Back: Fr Macaius, Fr Raphail, Fr Abanoub& Fr Youhanna. Front: Fr Luke, Fr Anthony, Fr Shenouda & Fr Pavlos
Fr Raphail, Fr Youhanna, Fr Pavlos, & Fr Luka From Sydney & Fr Abanoub and Fr Macarius from Melbourne spending their anniversary in the monastery. Fr James from Queensland has joined them for a Divine Liturgy.
Congratulations to our beloved Fathers
Back row: Fr Raphail, Fr Daniel, Fr Abanoub, Fr James. Front row: Fr Luke, Fr Macarius, Fr Pavlos Page 5
Avoid Worries and Agitations of the Heart By: Theophan The Recluse Just as it is a pressing duty of every Christian when he loses his peace of heart, to do all he can to restore it, so is it no less obligatory for him to allow no accidental happenings of life to disturb this peace; I mean illness, wounds, death of relatives, wars, fires, sudden joys, fears and sorrows, memories of former sins and errors, in a word everything which usually troubles and agitates the heart. It is indispensable in such cases not to allow oneself to feel worry and agitation, for, having succumbed to them, a man loses self-possession and the capacity to understand events clearly and see the right way to act, each of which gives the enemy the possibility to agitate a man still more and push him to take some step, that is difficult or quite impossible to remedy. I don't mean to say you must not admit sorrow, for this is not in our power. What I mean is do not let sorrow take possession of your heart and agitates it; keep it outside the bounds of your heart and hasten to soften and restrain it, so that it may not prevent you from reasoning soundly and acting rightly. With God's help this is in our power, if religious and moral feelings and dispositions are strong in us. Each affliction has its own peculiarities and each requires its own remedies; but I speak now about them in general, having in view their common quality to trouble and agitate the soul, and having in mind a general remedy against them. This remedy is faith in the good providence, which arranges the course of our life with all its accidental happenings, for the good of each of us, and a serene compliance with God's will, expressed in our attitude, in accordance with which we recall from the bottom of our heart: Let God's will be done! As the Lord wills, so let it be, and be for our good. This good is realised and felt differently by different people. One realizes, this goodness of God's leads me to repentance; another feels it is because of my sins that the Lord has sent me this trial, to purify me of them; I am bearing God's penance; a third thinks the Lord is testing me, whether I serve Him sincerely. The fourth may think this is sent to him, that the works of God may be revealed in him. But such a verdict can be in place only when affliction is ended, and when God's help is evident in the soul of the afflicted man. Only the first three feelings should have place. No matter which of them enters the heart, each has the virtue and strength to still the rising storm of sorrow and establish peace and good cheer in the heart. And here is a general means for making peace in the heart, when some affliction tries to disturb it : with all your strength make firm your faith in the goodness of God's Providence towards you and revive in your soul a devoted submission to God's will; then introduce into the heart the reflections mentioned above and urge it to feel that the affliction you suffer at this moment is either a means by which the Lord puts you to the test, or a purifying penance He imposes on you, or that He thus presses you to repent, either in general, or particularly in connection with some wrong action of yours, which has remained forgotten. As soon as the heart begins to have one such feeling, the pain Page 6
immediately fade away and these two other feelings also can come in. All these together will very quickly establish such peace and good cheer in you that you cannot but cry out: “Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever!� These feelings in the troubled heart are as oil on the waves of the sea, the waves are stilled and there is a great calm. Thus bring peace to the heart, in whatever degree it be troubled. But if by long effort on yourself and by many spiritual endeavours you implant these feelings in your heart, so that it is always filled with them, then no affliction will ever trouble you, for this disposition will most effectively prevent them. I do not mean that feelings of sorrow will never assail you, they will come, but will at once retreat, as waves from a mighty cliff. From: Unseen Warfare, Edited by Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain
Construction Work At The Monastery Work on the Tafoos is on the way. The concrete slap is poured and the brick layers have started laying bricks. We hope to have the walls up by Easter.
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Your generous contribution is very much appreciated.
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A Farewell Tribute to Dr Behlmer Dr Behlmer has started the Masters of Arts in Coptic Studies degree at Macquarie University in the beginning of 2004. Since then Dr Behlmer has worked tirelessly to constantly improve and facilitate the course for as many people as possible. Through the diligent work of Dr Heike, Macquarie University is the only university in the world that offers this Masters Degree online. So far more than ten students have successfully completed the MA program and a good number of them are continuing on to do their PhD in the same field. Among the graduates are Priests, Monks, as well as Coptic, and none Coptic laity from all over the world. Dr Behlmer has a Master degree in Egyptology, and a PhD on one of the writing for St Shenouda from a Germane University. She is also a member of a committee of Coptologests who are working on the reconstruction of the large library of writings of St Shenouda the Archimandrite. Heike’s love for Coptic studies and especially our great saint, Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite, has made her a very precious friend to our Monastery. She patiently guided two of our monks through this course, facilitating them with all the study material to successfully complete the MA in Coptic Studies. After some very exhaustive years of hard work, Dr Behlmer decided to take a two year leave, to sort out some personal matters in her homeland. Nevertheless the course she started will continue at the University by the great work of Dr Malcom Choat who will be lecturing in place of Dr Behlmer. On behalf of all the Monks of the Monastery we would like to thank Dr Behlmer not only for her efforts in starting up this great channel to discover our Coptic heritage, but also for here continuous academic work in the field of Coptic Studies especially St Shenouda.
Further Reading H.H. Pope Shenouda III, “Have you Seen the One I Love” The main focus of this book is to meditate on the human soul while it searches for her Beloved. The soul's journey toward its Beloved passes through many seasons, there is day and night, cold and heat, summer and winter. It is only with an understanding of this aspect of our spirituality that we may embark on our voyage leading to our Lord. His Holiness employs the Song of Songs to provide the blueprint of our quest for love and hope in our lord Jesus Christ. The book is a translation and transcription of a lecture series given by Pope Shenouda in the 1970s. As a lecture series, it draws one in as if His Holiness were conversing directly with the reader. Page 8