Vol: 3 Issue: 6
Bashans 1725 / June 2009
A Letter of St Athanasius, to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms (By :St Athanasius The Apostolic) I marvel at your conduct in Christ, dear Marcellinus. Indeed you are successfully enduring the present trial, although you have suffered many tribulations in it, and you do not neglect the discipline.' For when I inquired from your letterbearer how you fare in your continuing illness, I learned that you maintain a studious attitude toward all the holy Scripture, but that you read most frequently the Book of Psalms, and strive to comprehend the meaning contained in each psalm. On the basis of this, then, I commend you, since I too have a great fondness for the same book-just as I have for all the Scripture. Indeed, it so happens that I had a conversation with a learned old man, and I wish to write you those things that old master of the Psalter told me about it. For there is a certain grace and persuasiveness combined with the reasonable statement. He said this: All Scripture of ours, my son both ancient and new is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, as it is written. But the Book of Psalms possesses a certain winning exactitude for those who are prayerful. Each sacred book supplies and announces its own promise. Yet the Book of Psalms is like a garden containing things of all these kinds, and it sets them to music, but also exhibits things of its own that it gives in song along with them. It sings the events of Genesis in Psalm 18: The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands. The themes of Exodus and Numbers and Deuteronomy it chants beautifully in Psalms 77 and 113 when it says: At the going forth of Israel from Egypt, of the house of Jacob from a barbarous people, Judea became his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. The things concerning Joshua and the judges it manifests somehow in psalm 106 when it says: And they establish for themselves cities of habitation, and they sow fields and plant vineyards. For the land of the promise was given over to the people of
Joshua. It signifies the Book of Judges. When they cry out, He raises judges in the right time and saves His people from their tribulations. The stories of the kings it sings, surely, in the 19th psalm, stating: Some glory in chariots, and some in horses: But we will glory in the name of the Lord our God. They are overthrown and fallen: But we are risen, and have been set upright. 0 Lord, save the King, and hear us in whatever day we call upon you. The events of Esdras in Psalm 125 it sings: When the Lord overturned the captivity of Sion, we became as comforted ones. The pronouncements of the Prophets are declared in nearly every psalm. About the visitation of the Savior, and that he will make his sojourn as one who is God For in addition to the other things in which it enjoys an affinity and fellowship with the other books, it possesses, beyond that, this marvel of its own namely, that it contains even the emotions of each soul, and it has the changes and rectifications of these delineated and regulated in itself. Therefore anyone who wishes boundlessly to receive and understand from it, so as to mould himself, it is written there. And it seems to me that these words become like a mirror to the person singing them, so that he might perceive himself and the emotions of his soul, and thus affected, he might recite them. For in fact he who hears the one reading receives the song that is recited as being about him, and either, when he is convicted by his conscience, being pierced, he will repent, or hearing of the hope that resides in God, and of the support available to believers - how this kind of grace exists for him- he exults and begins to give thanks to God If the point needs to be put more forcefully, let us say that the entire Holy Scripture is a teacher of virtues and of the truths of faith, while the Book of Psalms possesses somehow the perfect image for the souls' course of life. ( From: A letter of St Athanasius, to Marcellinus on the interpretation of the Psalms)
Psalms are our spiritual food A certain old man came to one of the holy men who was a companion of his, and who cooked a few lintel and one of the two said to his fellow, “Shall we sing a part of the service?� He sang the whole of the Psalms of David, and his companion repeated two books of the Great Prophets, and when it was morning the old man departed to his own place, and they forgot all about the food. Page 2
David the Psalmist sings with the Monks It happened one day that when they were summoned to worship at the evening hour and the brothers were assembled in the church, someone else came behind them who was dressed in a royal robe and very beautiful in form. As soon as our holy father the prophet abba Shenoute saw him, he approached the one who was coming to him, spoke to him with great reverence, took his hand, and led him up to the place in the church from which the brothers gave the recitation." [The stranger] then gave the recitation sweetly and with great dignity, and all who heard him were delighted with his discourse, his pronunciation, and his outstanding learning. When he had finished the recitation, he walked into the sanctuary and disappeared. Some of the brothers then complained, saying: “Could our father not find one of us to give the recitation apart from this layman whom he led up and who gave the recitation to the brothers?' When our father the prophet abba Shenoute knew that
the
brothers
were
complaining
and
thinking
these
things, he openly revealed the mystery to them and said to them: “Believe me, my brothers, the man who went up and gave us the recitation just now is the holy prophet David, the son of Jesse; it was he who wanted to give the recitation in your church, and behold! the Lord favoured us with these great goods'.
The
brothers
immediately
rushed
together
into
the
sanctuary, thinking that they would find him and receive from him his blessing and teaching, but they saw no-one. Then they were all amazed at the way in which God had glorified the holy and great prophet, our father abba Shenoute.
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On the Psalms By: One of the youth “Singing Psalms is medicine for healing the soul” St. Athanasius If you open the Bible right in the middle you will find the book of Psalms. In fact, the middle chapter in the whole Bible is Psalm 118. The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119 and the shortest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 117. If you attend any Orthodox service, whether it is Vespers, Liturgy, Marriage ceremony, you name it; you will no doubt hear a portion of a Psalm being read. Try opening a page of the Coptic Orthodox Prayer book (Agpia) – you will most definitely fall on a page that contains a Psalm. The Psalms are so important that Monks are required to recite them daily. I still remember as a child in Sunday school always being offered prizes if I could memorise a Psalm. So, what is so special about this Holy book of Psalms that takes its place as the centre of Orthodox worship? (Or as one Orthodox Bishop put it: “It is the golden thread that runs through the beautiful garment of Orthodox worship”) To put it simply, the Psalms are so unique and special because they express in divinely inspired language the innermost thoughts and fears of humanity. And this was ultimately and no better expressed than when our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself quoted the Psalms when hanging on the cross on Golgotha. In addition to inspiring the public prayer of the Orthodox Church, the Psalms are an indispensible part of the private devotions of all who seek a closer relationship with God. It is for this reason that the Coptic Orthodox Church has tirelessly encouraged its faithful to pray and memorise the Psalms. When St. Benedict of Nursia, in the sixth century, prescribed the weekly reciting of the psalms to his monks as the barest monastic minimum, he lamented the inability of his monks to perform this task daily, as was being practiced by the Coptic Monks in the deserts of Egypt. The majority of the Psalms were written by the ‘sweet singer of Israel’ King David the Prophet. Twenty four psalms are ascribed to Asaph (perhaps a title of various chief musicians), and to the sons of Korah (a family of official doorkeepers and musicians), as well as to Heman and Ethan. These psalms are properly classed together since their authors were associated with the service of song which David established. In addition to this Moses, may have written Psalms 90 and 100 as well as one or two psalms may have been written by Solomon. Page 4
If you want to talk to God, if you want to praise God, if you want to thank God, if you want to worship God, if you want to complain to God, and even if you want to return to God after sin, then the Psalms provide the divinely inspired words and the spirit to do so. William S. Plumer says, “(The psalms) have been read, repeated, chanted, sung, studied, wept over, rejoiced in, expounded, loved and praised by God's people for thousands of years.” Life in the 21st century is travelling at a million miles an hour. Everyone is so busy trying to balance their commitments to their family, to their friends, to their service and to their demanding career, while prayer and meditation is pushed to the final moments in an exhausting day. Our souls are in need of desperate healing. St. Athanasius said: “Singing Psalms is medicine for healing the soul”. May we use this divinely inspired language to revive our prayer life, may we memorise the psalms so that we might recite them throughout our busy days to provide healing to our souls. I will leave you with a famous quote that was said by my Pope Shenouda: “Keep the psalms in your heart, and they will keep you”
A choir of angels singing with a cantor's One day, abba Martyrius, the archimandrite of Phboou, came north to visit and greet the prophet abba Shenoute. A certain cantor came with abba Martyrius, and when they came into the church to receive a blessing, the cantor stood up to sing, and without understanding the mystery, he [sang] on and on beyond all measure. Then the holy abba Martyrius said to our father the prophet abba Shenoute: “My father, do you want to put an end to the cantor's singing? You see that the people and the brothers have received the blessing'. But my father said to him in reply: “Why are you concerned about him? Let him sing! Behold, there is a choir of angels around him responding to him. Look, there is the prophet David standing at his side and giving him the words which need to be said. And abba Martyrius was amazed at the spirit of God which was in our father abba Shenoute.
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Daytime Prayer and Psalms in the Egyptian Desert (By: St John Cassian) I think that, by God's help and to the extent that our limited skill was capable, I have explained the method of night-time prayer and psalms that is observed in Egypt. Now we shall have to discuss the services of terce (third), sext (Sixth), and none (Ninth), (Which when added to the night-time prayer, makes up the seven hours of the Agbia) according to the rule of the monasteries in Egypt, as we already mentioned in the preface, tempering with their institutes the perfection of the Egyptians and the incomparable rigor of their discipline. The offices that we are obliged to render to the Lord at different hours and at intervals of time, at the call of the summoner, are celebrated continuously and spontaneously throughout the course of the whole day, in tandem with their work. For they are constantly doing manual labour alone in their cells in such a way that they almost never omit meditating on the psalms and on other parts of Scripture, and to this they add entreaties and prayers at every moment, taking up the whole day in offices that we celebrate at fixed times. Hence, apart from the evening and night-time gatherings, they celebrate no public service during the day except on Saturday and Sunday, when they gather at the third hour for Holy Communion. For what is unceasingly offered is greater than what is rendered at particular moments, and a voluntary service is more pleasing than functions that are carried out by canonical obligation. This is why David himself rejoices somewhat boastfully when he says: “Willingly shall I sacrifice to you,” and: “May the free offerings of my mouth be pleasing to you, Lord.” Not without reason have these times been assigned more specifically for religious services, since in them was accomplished the fulfilment of the promises and the whole of our salvation. For at the third hour the Holy Spirit, promised by the prophets in ages past, is known to have come down for the first time upon the apostles as they were gathered for prayer. We see that this was fulfilled at the third hour and that the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, which was foretold by the prophets, occurred at this same time. At the sixth hour the spotless victim, our Lord and Saviour, was offered to the Father, and mounting the cross for the salvation of the whole world he destroyed the sins of the human race. At the ninth hour he penetrated hell and extinguished the inextricable darkness of Shoal by his shining brilliance. He broke open its gates of bronze, smashed its iron bars, and, having savingly captured the captivity of the holy ones who had been shut up in the cruel darkness of hell, bore it off with Him to heaven. Page 6
From this it is perfectly clear that we too should observe these times, which holy and apostolic men not without reason consecrated by religious rites we who, unless we were compelled as it were by law to fulfil these duties of piety at least at fixed moments, would spend the whole day in forgetfulness or idleness or consumed with activity, without any interval for prayer. (From “The Institutes” By: St John Cassian)
Our Monastery’s Web site www.stshenoudamonastery.org.au
The Monastery has just launched a new website. We hope that this website will serve as a source of communication with the monastery. The website will have news about the monastery where people can find out about prayer times in feasts times. It will also show the progress of some of our new projects. We will keep all our previous Pimonakhos newsletters for those who wish to download. We will also announce new publications published by the monastery. Please feel free to leave your comment under any of our publications that you have read. This website was made possible through the tireless efforts of two of our youth, Michael Mikhail, and Alfred Athanasius. We would like to thank them very much ,and pray that God may reward them in the heavenly Jerusalem.
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Question & Answer The brethren said, “By what means did the Fathers sing the Psalms of the Holy Spirit without wandering of mind?” The old man said, “First of all they accustomed themselves whenever they stood up to sing the service in their cells to labor with great care to collect their minds from wandering, and to understand the meaning of the Psalms, and they took care never to let one word (or verse) escape them without their knowing its meaning. As our Fathers did, they applied all the Psalms to their own lives and works, and to their spiritual life, and to the wars which the devils waged against them. Each man did thus according to his capacity. As it is written, “Blessed are the people who know your praises, O Lord.” That is to say, blessed is the monk who, while glorifying You with praise, collects his mind from wandering, and understands clearly the knowledge and meaning of the Psalms of the spirit, also as it is written, “Sing to God with praise, sing to our King.” When then a man sings the service in this manner, and pays attention to the meaning of the verse, he acquires daily the faculty of singing a song mingled with the meditation of God and with the gaze upon Him.
e! Practical Spirituality e! f f u u o o sj sj q q f f By: Fr Athanasius Iskander S S Due to popular demand and after selling out our first print in the first six month we have reprinted the book by Fr Athanasius Iskander titled “Practical Spirituality according to the Desert Fathers” Those who are interested in copies for their bookshop or youth group please contact the monastery. The price of this book is $5.00. The Book is now Available. Born again in baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, and works in us so that we may reach spiritual perfection, although the Bible tells us what we need to do to reach such perfection and earn Eternal life, it does not tell us how. The Egyptian Desert became a university of this quest for perfection. The Desert Fathers made a science out of this quest, that we now call spirituality. In this university, research was done and experiments were published by many who came to seek the wisdom of those Desert Fathers. Fr Athanasius Iskander borrowed methods and techniques from these Holy Fathers and provided wise instructions on how to practically apply them to the struggles faced by young Orthodox people living in the Twenty First century. Page 8