Vol: 6 Issue: 10
Baba 1729 / Oct 2012
TEARS IN THE LIFE OF THE SAINTS By : Pope Shenouda III Saint Arsenius is one of the saints who became very famous for his weeping. It is said that his eyelashes fell due to the intensity of his weeping, and that two cavities formed on his cheeks because of his weeping. During summer he would wet the palm leaves with his tears, and he placed a piece of cloth on his knees for his tears to fall on. At the time of his death he wept intensely and his disciples said to him, “Truly, Father, are you also afraid?” “Indeed,” he answered them, “the fear which is mine at this hour has been with me ever since I became a monk.” If the great Saint Arsenius wept like this, then what can we say about ourselves? What can we say about the fear of this hour that accompanied him? Who did it accompany? It accompanied the great Arsenius, the model of solitude and silence in “The Paradise of the Fathers”, whom Pope Theophilus desired to meet. The saints used to say to him, “Why do you avoid us?” He replied, “God knows that I love you, but I cannot live with God and with men”. Arsenius the great was the one who stood for prayer at sunset, the sun being behind him and remained standing to pray until sunrise the next day, spending the whole night in prayer. The humble Arsenius, the tutor of princes, was the one who consulted an Egyptian peasant and said, “I have indeed been taught Latin and Greek, but I do not know even the Alpha Veta which this Egyptian knows, and I do not know even how to pick beans with the monks of Scetis”. What sin did Saint Arsenius commit , to weep and fear this hour? After all of this, do we hurry towards comfort and joy at beginning of the path and boast that our sins have been forgiven? We then search for gifts? We ask for our share in the inheritance? We then forget ourselves! Tears need contrition of heart. It is also very suitable here for a person to know himself, to account for it and blame it.
It is said that at the time of the death of Saint Arsenius, Pope Theophilus said, “Truly you are blessed, Abba Arsenius, for you wept all your life for the sake of this hour”. When Abba Poemen heard that Saint Arsenius was dead, he said weeping, “Truly you are blessed, Abba Arsenius, for you wept for yourself in this world!” “He who does not weep for himself here, below, will weep eternally hereafter; so it is impossible not to weep, either voluntarily or when compelled through suffering.” David the prophet who experienced tears very well in his life was right in saying, “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Ps 126:5). The saints had great sensitivity, regarding sin as being very wrong and that it hurts God’s loving heart. They did not think about the punishment for sin, but they thought about the feelings of God and that they had not pleased Him as yet, despite the great loftiness that they had reached in spiritual life. They see that this (short coming) when measured to the perfection they are aiming for, is the sin they are weeping over. Weeping here is not in order for the Lord to forgive him a sin, for David the St George Church Youth prophet wept after the Lord had forgiven him his sin. This was after Nathan the prophet had said to him, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die”. (2 Sam 12:13). The sensitive person does not only weep for the sake of asking for forgiveness. He weeps however, because he grieves over himself: How did he reach the level of falling, how did he grieve the Holy Spirit Who dwells in him and with all courage broke the commandments of the loving God, Who created him in His image and likeness and so he lost this image by his sins. The remembrance of the Judgment brings about tears, especially if it is accompanied by the remembrance of one’s sins and weeping over them. How difficult is the phrase, “(He) will render to each one according to his deeds”! Or the phrase, “and their works follow them”! I wonder, of what type are these works which will follow us? Are they worthy of tears? In remembering the Judgment, the person also remembers God’s justice. That is why the Church places in front of us this truth everyday in “The Prayer Before Sleeping”, in which the person praying says, “Behold, I am about to stand before the Just Judge in fear because of my numerous sins...”. In remembering the Judgment and sin, we remember also the saying of the apostle: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb 10:31) Fear also, is one of the vital reasons for tears. We mean here, fear for spiritual reasons and not fear for the sake of worldly matters, as occurs to some people. My brother, weep here, so that the Lord will wipe away every tear from your eyes in the age to come. Page 2
MONASTERY WELCOMES NEW PRIESTS The Monastery Welcomed two newly ordained priests, Fr Shenouti and Fr Mark, who will be spending the 40 days training in the monastery before they go to serve in their parishes. We wish them both a blessed life in the priesthood.
FR MARK CELEBRATES HIS FIRST LITURGY
FR SHENOUTI CELEBRATES HIS FIRST LITURGY
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A BROKEN ROAD By: One of the Youth Louis Armstrong flared our passions, almost teasing our poignant yet innocent desires singing the lyrics of his song “What a Wonderful World” as such we all hope to love and live. The imagery of red roses blooming, the truly wonderful creation we are surrounded by, and the beauty of love that is lived not just sung, human exchanges with the fine touches of simplicity, childlike joy. Although we delight to envisage such a world, we are dismayed by the far reality of the life that is actually being endured. So often this ‘Wonderful World’ is contrasted by formidable chance circumstances disturbing our sense of its true beauty! A.W.Tozer, a noble Christian Philosopher parted us with this arduous quote to ponder “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply”. Has one or more of your life ‘plans’ been arguably challenged, delayed, abruptly re-directed or all together destroyed? God will use your broken roads to create some noise, as C.S Lewis masterfully explains that “pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." Pain urges us in the very least to re-think our plans in life, if not make a complete U-turn. Sometimes God messes one plan, sometimes more than one in a very short space of time. The prophet Elijah as realistically described by Fr Anthony Messiah (orthodoxsermons.org) in a Bible Study Series on his life unveils Gods purposes in broken roads, as profoundly articulated by Fr Anthony God ‘broke’ Elijah then He ‘crushed’ him. Rendering the great prophet exhausted before he became emotionally drained. Lacking the energy and drive he rested in the heart of the wilderness for comfort such the Angel of the Lord responded supplying daily food while the great man of God regained his strength physically. A broken road may wear you out, confuse you, and psychologically drain you to breaking point. Please do not associate this with weak spirituality on your part, not at all, but a deliberate storm from the heavens to divinely correct your plans, realign your prayer to pray the will of God, the Holy Spirit will speak in you as He did to St Paul declaring ‘we are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed’ 2 Corinthians 4:8. In the first sense I used the word crushed in a worldly context, here in a spiritual one. It’s the same as “When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place." C.S Lewis. Even a broken road can show you Gods strength in your own life. St John Chrysostom reminds us that trials become a gift in themselves to justify Gods strengths in our weakness “My strength is made perfect in weakness” Acts 12:9. So weak were the Israelites before the imperious Pharaoh and the Egyptian Army, too weak that a miracle to part the Red Sea heard them praise ‘The Lord is a man of war’ Exodus 15:3, Page 4
fighting your very war is what God will do in your broken road, so powerfully embrace Him on this faltering, His grace ever so real to blow your senses away, deeming alive what had died in you. Dreams you dared not speak, laughter you thought not yours, a new world opens before you as you leap out of your protective incubator to higher realms, where all that’s changed is all that’s in your mind. Though you had lost your way just as Pontius Pilate once questioned “What is truth?” when truth stood straight before him, that to which Spurgeon likened as explaining grace to a non-believer is almost the same as explaining sight to a blind man! Though you may think you were “Waiting on the Lord” before tuning into “The will of God for your life”, proceeding into searching the scriptures in hope for promises claiming “Suffering to turn into Joy”, but all that was there would not have become touched and known until God has put you on that broken road, not only correcting your life choices, but correcting you. The fruition is of correcting your views to life’s challenging decisions, making the right choices for your life daily, broadening your capacity to rightfully discern in view of the greater picture of life in every one of its aspects that concerns you, romancing you out of a dark pit of your past that has by large tied you in fear without the grace in understanding the joys of God. The startled Israelites praised “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders?” Exodus 15:11.
St Abanoub Church Group
St Mark’s Church Group
St Abraam Church Group
St abu sefien Church Group Page 5
THEOLOGY
OF
TEARS
IN THE
WRITINGS
OF JOHN
CLIMACUS By: John Chryssavgis
The gift of tears is something ‘native’ to historical Christianity which distinguishes it from the ascetic or mystical traditions of other religions. There is a whole tradition in the Christian East concerning tears which can be traced back to the New Testament, then through the desert Fathers to Climacus himself, who added new dimensions to it, and then through into the later centuries, with Symeon the New Theologian, who had certainly read the Ladder, standing out as one of the greatest witnesses. By the fourth century, tears already played a great role: the Apophthegmata - abba Arsenius being the most obvious instance - and the Cappadocians are among the first to emphasis their importance. Other landmarks are Evagrius of Pontus, Isaiah of Scetis (who devotes a whole discourse, his twenty-ninth, to the gift of tears), Diadochus of Photice, the Macarian Homilies, Isaac of Nineveh, who was Climacus’ contemporary, and, in the West, John Cassian. Cassian, however, was unmistakably influenced by the East, having spent over ten years in the Egyptian desert and having been an immediate disciple of Evagrius, whose doctrine on tears is explicit. The East was not so much the ‘cradle’ of the practice of tears as the caretaker of a treasure given to Christianity by our Lord himself: ‘Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted’ (Mt. 5:4). Climacus does not essentially add to the traditional doctrine of tears - even in his emphasis on ‘joyful sorrow’ - but merely uncovers some of its hidden secrets. Tears as charisma: The way of tears is not something pursued by our own effort: it comes about spontaneously and without our straining. Spiritual tears flow with no contraction of facial muscles; they are a gift of God, not a fruit of human effort. Climacus differs in this respect from Evagrius, who says that tears are to be forcibly induced; but even John Cassian, a disciple of Evagrius, believes that tears should not be brought on, although he also states that forced tears are not entirely fruitless. The apparent contradiction between Climacus and Evagrius may be due to the fact that they are speaking of different kinds of tears. As a gift, tears testify to a visitation from the Holy Spirit. But this is preceded by an earlier visit from the ‘Uninvited Guest’ who arrives first, but later leaves us to mourn his absence. He leaves in order to send us the Spirit which he alone can send (1 John 3.24; Rom. 8.26-7). In this respect, the gift of tears could be seen as another side of the same visitation as is received in compunction. Even though the ‘gift of God’ does not depend on good works, virtues or ascesis, nevertheless these are not unimportant in the sight of God. Elsewhere Climacus says that ‘such compunction is predominantly a gift of the Lord’: it is primarily ‘up to God’ and only derivatively up to us. Tears are a gift from God to us, yet they are also our offering to God. They become ‘the mystical offering which pleases God and which he receives on his supra-celestial altar, and in exchange for which he confers on us the gift of the Holy Spirit’, as one leading Roman Catholic scholar has said. Such is the ‘charismatic’ meaning of tears. Page 6
Since tears are a charisma or a gift, we must guard this gift very closely: ‘If you possess the gift of mourning, hold on to it with all your might. If not guarded as the pupil of the eye, it may be easily lost to the demons. We must not cease to pray lest the tears, granted to us through God’s providence, also cease to flow. We do not know when we shall again receive this grace of water and fire a reference to the baptismal character of tears. Neither should tears be sought before their time - as a gift from above they have their own season: ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven’ (Eccles. 3.1). There is a Season for each divine gift and the season is the point at which God acts, whilst we resist any action but his. Waiting for God to act is the surest way of attaining his gifts: “There is a time for tears, and a time for hardness of heart; ...a time for heartfelt sorrow, and a time for spiritual joy.” (Ladder 26, 59) To wait for the season requires patience since the onset of tears is gradual: drop by drop. The gift of tears is one bestowed on a small number who have renounced the world completely, as is stated in one of the oldest references to tears in Christian ascetic literature. It is a gift belonging to the spiritually mature and the dispassionate, according to Isaac the Syrian. At any rate, Climacus insists, it is conferred by God on those whom he chooses. As it happens, some may not receive it but rather be the recipients of certain other gifts which act as form of ‘inner’ weeping. Still others, in their desolation at the absence of tears, find themselves endowed with them, or with a grace equal to them. In the absence of tears one may at least cast one’s mind upon the distance that separates one from God and then, according to Evagrius, one will weep fervently. But the loss of the gift of tears may also be of our own making. It may be a consequence of the passion of pride: “Tears often lead frivolous people to pride, and that is why they are not given to some. Arid such people, seeking tears in vain, consider themselves unfortunate, and condemn themselves to sighing, lamentation, sorrow of soul, deep grief and utter dismay. All of which, though profitably regarded by them as nothing, can safely take the place of tears.” (Ladder 7, 48) Though a precious gift, tears, according to Climacus, are not to be considered an end in themselves or as sufficient to themselves: they are a ‘way’, perhaps not even the only or absolutely necessary one. Tears are not listed in the second alphabet which pertains to the perfect. God does not need our tears: it is we who need them as a help, as a source of purification or delight or joy or illumination. The ultimate goal is the transcendent joy and light which Adam experienced in paradise before the Fall. In any case, the emphasis in Climacus is not on the tears themselves, but on the disposition that makes us able to receive them, on humility, repentance and sorrow at our real state. (From: Sourzh 1986 Vol: 23)
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No wA val CHRISTIAN LIVING SERIES ia b VOLUME 1 le Sacramental Life The four volumes of the Christian Living Series are the fruit of a catechism classes that the late bishop Youanis used to teach to university students who came to Cairo from other states to study. The Chapters of these volumes have been a hand book for many Christians who are pursuing their spiritual path and a source of direction to many over the last fifty years. Now we present it to you in the English language. The Arabic edition of this book is originally titled “The Paradise of the Spirit� and contained more chapters yet we decided to bring you most of the chapters that were included in the original book and rearrange some of them for the spiritual benefit of the English readers. We would love to give a special thanks to those who laboured in the translation and proof reading of this book, who asked to remain anonymous. May the Lord reward them for their labour of love. This first volume deals with two of the church sacraments, Confession and Communion. Their meaning, practical applications, fruits, and other related questions are discussed in this volume.
Above: Bishop Anba Daniel and all the Monks of St Shenouda Monastery,give thanks to the Almighty God for the return of H G Bishop Daneel of the Diocese of Sydney,and pray that the Lord bless,strengthen and support his Grace in his Ministry
Left: Youth group from St Abanoub church Page 8