Vol: 4 Issue: 8
Misra 1726 / August 2010
Godly Sorrow By: Pope Shenouda III It is good for you to be sad on earth for a while then, spend eternity joyful in heaven as the apostle said "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. " (2 Cor 7:10) The person who spends his life in pleasures and laughter, paying no attention to eternal life and negligent of his sins, will not benefit by these false and temporary joys when he stands in front of the pulpit of the just God. Thus, we see that the life of shedding tears was the characteristic of the Sons of God and not only of the repentants who had turned from sin. Weeping was the distinguishing trait of great saints. The Holy Bible and the history of the church give us many examples about the tears of those saints, of which we quote some. One of these saints is St Arsanius the great desert ascetics. I am astonished!! Who can find a fall belonged to that saint? Arsanius, the man of silence and tranquillity who lived in loneliness. A man whom Patriarch Theophilus used to ask for a word of benefit and request him to accept his visit. He was a man of prayers and spent the whole night praying from sunset till sunrise. However, due to his extreme love, he wept to the extent that his eye-lashes fell. While he was plaiting palm leaves he put a towel on his knees for the tears to fall in. As soon as the name of the Lord was mentioned he wept because of his heart’s hypersensitivity towards God. He recalled to his mind his human defects and his late repentance to God. A very short time before his death Pope Theophilus said about him "O Arsanius, you are blessed because you wept, your whole life, for this hour.” Saint Isidorus, the priest of the monastic dwelling called ‘the cells’ was one of the known persons who wept much. He was a father of three thousand monks. The devils feared him and could not pass in front of his cell or the neighbouring cells. He was a man of vision. He was famous for casting the devils out. When he prayed he wept with such a deep voice that his pupil, who lived next door, heard him. Once this neighbour said to him “O my father! why do you weep?” He said
“Because of my sins.” The pupil said “Even you, my father, have sins to weep for?” He said “Believe me, my son, if God revealed my sins, three or four persons would not be sufficient to share me my weeping.” We on the other hand fill the world with filthiness, while God still squeezes our eyes out, as if he is pressing on a stone made of flint, in order that one tear may fall down but in vain. The saints weep all their life because of one sin; or shed tears without any sin, but we plunge into sin easily as drinking some water, yet, we do not weep! Our hearts are insensitive as if God whom we have saddened is not beloved by us. Here is another example for sensitivity of weeping because of sin: Saint Paphnotius: He was one of the pupils of Saint Macarius the great, he succeeded him to the spiritual leadership of the monastic dwelling in sceties. He was a great saint whom God gifted with the power of casting the devils out. Pope Theophilus used to ask him for a word of benefit. One day, this great saint said to his pupils “My sons, when I was a lad, while walking on the road, I saw a cucumber on the ground. I thought it might have fallen from the porters. I took it and ate it. Whenever I remember that incidence I weep.” This happened when he was a child. But even after he had grown up and became a monk and a father for thousands of monks of great sanctity, he still said, ‘whenever I remember that incidence I weep.’ Every night, you, yourself, stand before God with a broken heart and say “O my Lord, give me springs of tears to weep for my haughtiness, my stubbornness, my passions and my anger. Give me a spring full of tears to weep for my love of the world, my resentment, my enmity and my love of victory over others. O' my Lord, give me springs filled with tears to weep for the sins uttered by my tongue, sins committed by my body and sins of thoughts which are uncounted.” If you examine yourself you shall find many reasons which compel you to weep.
Two groups From St Abraam Church Spending a retreat at the monastery Page 2
A Group of Servants preparation class from St Marks Church spending the day at the Monastery
I was busy with the one I love A fervent brother came from abroad and dwelt in a small cell on Mount Sinai. On the day of his arrival he found a small wooden tablet left by the brother who had dwelt there. It bore this inscription: “Moses to Theodore, I am present and I attest.� He took this tablet and each day he put it before his eyes, questioning as if the writer were present: 'Where then are you, O man who say that you are present and that you attest? In what world or in what place are you? Where is the hand which wrote that?' He did this all day, remembering death, ceaselessly shedding tears. As his work was calligraphy, he received from the brothers parchments and orders for writing, but he died without having written a word. He had simply noted on each one's parchments, 'Forgive me, masters and brothers, but I was busy with someone and because of that I had no time to write for you. (From: The Paradise of the Holy Fathers) Page 3
Compunction By: Fr Anthony St Shenouda “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted” (Matt 5:4) Compunction (or in Greek penthos, means sadness or mourning) repeatedly appears in the monastic literature. Many monastic fathers even advised it as a way of life. Abba Poemen once saw a woman grieving over her husbands’ tomb, he said “if all the delights of the world were to come they could not drive sorrow away from the soul of this woman. Likewise the monk should have compunction in himself.” There are many causes to compunction. It could be a result of a loss of a relative or a friend or sadness over a mishap in life. But this was not the cause that the fathers were referring to when they advised the use of compunction. Once a monk got news of the death of his (earthly) father, “stop blaspheming” he replied “my Father is immortal (Heavenly) .” St Macarius is also said to have helped a robber who was raiding his cell. It is this negative aspect of sadness that Evagrius warns us about and which he includes in his list of eight thoughts that attack a monk. He clearly says that “a monk afflicted by sadness knows no spiritual pleasure.” It is very clear then that the sadness or mourning that we experience in our everyday life is not the kind that the fathers advocate because if it was the case, monks would have been the most depressed of all people, which is contrary to the truth. In the Christian point of view the one thing that a Christian should be sad about is his sins that endanger his salvation. As Orthodox Christians we understand that salvation is a work in progress throughout our lives until our last breath. But again we must not imagine that the desert fathers lived their lives unsure of God’s mercy and his free salvation, but what they were not sure of is themselves, whether they can hold onto this free gift. “A brother said to abba Poemen, ‘if I fall into a shameful sin, my consciences devours and accuses me saying ‘why have you fallen?’ the old man said to him, ‘at the moment when a man goes astray, if he says, ‘I have sinned, immediately the sin ceases.” St John Climacus in his book “the ladder of divine ascent” explains in his 7th step, explains the Christian kind of sadness, calling it ‘Joy-making mourning.’ He says “he who wends his way in constant mourning according to God does not cease to feast daily.” St John expresses his assurance of this joy that follows the mourning yet he cannot put it into words “ when I consider the actual nature of compunction, I am amazed at how that which called mourning and grief should contain joy and gladness interwoven within it like honey in the comb… such a compunction is a gift of God, for God consoles those who are contrite in heart in a secret way.”
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The paradox of joy and mourning was a mystery to the desert fathers and is still a mystery to us till today, yet what the fathers were holding unto was the promise of Christ that says “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”
A group of youth from St Barbra Church Spending a retreat at the Monastery
Repentance through Joy and Sadness Two brethren were in restraint to the lust of fornication. They went and fulfilled their lust. At length, however, they repented, and said to each other, “What have we gained by leaving the labor of angels, and coming to this state of impurity, since after the present life we shall be delivered over to fire and everlasting torture? Let us return to the desert and repent.” They went immediately, and came to the desert to the fathers. They entreated them to offer up supplications on their behalf. The outward appearance of both was the same. They shut themselves up for one year, and they made supplications to God, and entreated Him to pardon them. To each of the two brethren a similar quantity of bread and water was given. After their period of repentance was fulfilled, they went out of their seclusion. The old men saw that the countenance of one was changed, and that it was exceedingly sad, whilst that of the other brother was cheerful and glad. The fathers marveled why, seeing that the two men had been partaking of the same amount of food, and had endured the same restraint, the face of one was so different from that of the other. They asked him of the sad face, saying, “What were you thinking about while in your cell?” He said, “On the evil things which I have committed, and I think about the torture which is to come, and by reason of my fear my flesh cleave to my bones.” They asked him whose appearance was cheerful, saying, “Tell us, what you thought about while you were in your cell.” He said, “I gave thanks to God, Who has delivered me from the impurity of this world, and from everlasting punishment, and Who has brought me to this labor of angels, and with such things I remembered God and rejoiced.” Then the old men said, “The repentance of each is equal before God.” (From: The Paradise of the Holy Fathers)
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Penthos By: Irenee Hausherr There are two principal means for awakening and maintaining compunction: examination of conscience and meditation. Evagrius says, ‘The beginning of salvation is to condemn oneself,’ and in the same lapidary style, Ephrem writes, ‘The beginning of penthos is to know oneself. The same affirmation may be formulated negatively as: only those who do not know themselves do not mourn. Even some holy men are in this state, such as the good Mano, of whom we read in the Life of Saint Pachomius. St Pachomius had, as usual, given a catechesis full of ‘many precautions for salvation’. Mano found that he exaggerated. ‘Why is the old man recommending so many precautions to us? Are we about to fall every hour?’ This, notes the biographer, was because, ‘not knowing the enemy’s cunning against souls, he felt himself safe’. The result: instead of compunction, paralyzing grief. Mano remained sleeping in his cell instead of accompanying his brothers in cutting reeds. In the midst of all this, the ‘Father of the monastery’ arrived, and Mano arose to meet him with others. An expert in diagnosing both faces and hearts, Pachomius lost no time in discerning the temptation and in rectifying the error which was its cause. He needed nothing more than a text of scripture: ‘We all err in many matters’ (Jm 3:2). He might well, with Saint Ephrem have recalled the sharp statement of the beloved disciple: ‘if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us .... We make God a liar’ (1 Jn 1: 8, 10). This blindness to self generally develops into harshness toward the faults of others. A brother questioned Abba Poemen in this way, ‘My thoughts trouble me, making me put my sins aside and concern myself with my brother’s faults.’ The old man told him the following story about Abba Dioscoros: ‘in his cell he wept over himself, while his disciple was sitting in another cell. When the latter came to see the old man he asked him, "Father, why are you weeping?" "I am weeping over my sins," the old man answered him. Then his disciple said, "You do not have any sins, Father." The old man replied, "Truly, my child, if I were allowed to show my sins, three or four men would not be enough to weep for them" ‘If I were allowed to see’. God has indeed allowed the saints to see, and they have not refused to look. Then, ‘let us not be surprised to hear them weep,’ as Saint Pachomius said to Saint Theodore. Since we are their children, let us imitate them by weeping first for ourselves, and then for our neighbour. ‘Which of them,’ writes Saint Horsiesios, ‘has not walked the road of this world in mourning and affliction?’ It is through self-knowledge that sin itself can finally turn to the good of the sinner, thanks to the penthos which it inspires in him. One day Saint Pachomius spoke in high praise of one of his monks, without saying which one. Everyone began to Page 6
speculate: is it Theodore, is it Petronios, is it Horsiesios, all important men and future superiors. No, Pachomius finally admitted, it is Silvanos. This Silvanos had been an actor before becoming a monk. The first fervour of the novitiate having passed, he had fallen back into the ways of his first profession, softness and insolence. ‘He would even repeat without fear, in the midst of the brothers, the unsuitable words of the stage.’ On the point of being expelled from the community he asked for mercy, and Pachomius gave in, after publicly putting him through a merciless examination of conscience. When he had come to his senses, Silvanos became a model of compunction. (From: Irenee Hausherr, Penthos: The Doctrine of Compunction in the Christian East)
Left: A group of Year 8&9 boys from St Abanoub Church Spending a retreat at the Monastery
Below: A group of Year 11 boys from St Abanoub Church Spending a retreat at the Monastery
Left: A group of Sundayschool girls from St Abraam Church Spending a retreat at the Monastery
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The Procession at St Shenouda Feast Sat 17-7-2010
Further Readings Irenee Hausherr, Penthos: The Doctrine of Compunction in the Christian East, Cistercian Publication Kalamazoo. If joy in the resurrection is the distinguishing mark of Christian faith, why have Christian saints throughout the ages prayed for ‘the gift of tears’? What place has penthos, heart-felt compunction, in the sure and certain hope of life in Christ? In this study of penthos in the eastern monastic tradition, the late Irenee Hausherr makes available to western Christians some of the heart of patristic and Orthodox teaching.
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