Vol: 2 Issue: 3 Baramhat 1724 / March 2008 Special Edition Feast of Pope Kyrillos 9th March 2008 From Pope Kyrillos s VI Dairy I was born in August 1902. My parents raised me to have the fear of God within me. I joined the Kottab (elementary classroom). Since I was a child, I enjoyed quietness and seclusion. I also preferred black clothing. When I grew up, I heard much about the Monks, and my heart was filled with a deep longing to join the Monastery. When the day appointed by God came, I talked to my parents and my brothers about my intention. At first they objected strongly, but this did not make me change my mind. I constantly prayed to God that they would permit me to go to the Monastery. God heard my plea, and they gave their approval, and sent me off with their prayers. Thus, I joined the Monastery in the year 1927. The day I forsook the world was the happiest day of my life. I went to the Baramous Monastery in the Scetis Desert. We arrived at El-Hokaria Village at 10 p.m. and arrived at the monastery at 2:00 a.m. When I entered, it felt like I walked into the Garden of Eden, and the Monks were like angels. I rested before the bell rang for prayer. I went to the church, attended the Divine Liturgy, and received abundant grace. After I passed the nine-month probation period, the fathers unanimously recommended me, and the head of the monastery approved. I was consecrated as a monk in the old church, where the relics of the saints are kept. The fathers disagreed about the name that would be given to me. That same day, the church was commemorating the departure (death) of Abba Mina, so they agreed to give me his blessed name. Right away I began to learn the rules of Monasticism with the help of the fathers. I studied the books that were written by the saints, especially those written by the great Saint Isaac the Syr-
The windmill where Pope Kyrillos VI spent many years in solitude ian. I felt God's grace increasing day after day. I stayed in the Monastery for four years, during which I was obedient to all, and thus, won their blessings. Serving the elders gave me great satisfaction and happiness, so I spent one year serving Father Abdel Messih El Massoudi, the learned man. I was taught the Doxology by Hegomen Bachoum, my father of confession." I have become accustomed to the life of solitude, and yearning for this life, I was driven towards it again. On my way to the Monastery, our Lord Christ guided me to a cave in the mountain that was carved out by the late Hegomen Sarabamoun. I took one of the labourers with me and had it cleaned so that I may live in it. It is difficult for me to describe what happened during my first night there. I felt that the enemy had gathered all his forces to battle against a weak man like myself. I was filled with fear, for man's nature is weak, as I heard terrible sounds and fearful quakes. But, with God's care as an invisible power, I was encouraged, remembering, Fear not, for they that are with you are more than they that are against you. As the Prophet David said, I have set the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand, I will not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad, and I rejoice at His glory. The next day, the Monks came and wanted to bring me back to the Monastery against my wishes, but they failed. They sent a telegram to the Patriarch, and another one to the President. After strong opposition from all, the patriarch agreed that I could stay in the cave. I thank the Lord for His mercies. "I walked, through God's grace, along this path. I would go weekly to the Monastery to partake of the divine Mysteries, and obtain my ration. During my stay in the cave, I met with severe wars and opposition from the devil." It is strange that we care about our bodies and fitness by eating good food, drinking good drink and breathing clean healthy air at the end of all this we find ourselves still prone to pains and diseases Whereas the saints who despised their bodies through fasting and prayer were more healthy than us and were also more peaceful. St. John Cassian Page 2
How great is the dignity of the Monastic Rank From: The Evergetinos Collection of Sayings from the Desert Fathers An Elder from the Thebaid related the following: I was the son of a pagan priest. One day, when I was still a small boy, I saw my father entering the idolatrous temple to perform a sacrifice, and I entered behind him. I saw Satan sitting there, with his entire army around him. At one point, one of his commanders approached him and bowed. Satan said to him: Where have you come from? I was in this country, he replied, and I instigated wars among the inhabitants and provoked much bloodshed; and now I have come to report it to you. Satan asked How much time did you take to bring this about? the commander replied, Thirty days. As soon as Satan heard this answer, he ordered him to be flogged, saying: Is this the only thing you accomplished during that time? After him, another commander approached Satan in the same way and said to him: I was in the sea and I stirred up winds, sank ships, and killed many men; so I came to report it to you. When Satan asked him how much time he had taken to accomplish this, and learned that it was twenty days, he ordered him to be flogged like the first, because he had accomplished nothing else in that space of time. After him came another, who reported that in one city, while a wedding was taking place, he provoked a fight between the men, with much bloodshed, and even succeeded in having the bridegroom and the bride killed. He said that he had achieved this in ten days. But he, like his predecessors, was found guilty of procrastination and was flogged. After they had been flogged, yet another devil came into their midst. Satan then asked him: And you, where have you come from? I was in the desert, he answered, and for forty whole years I waged war against a single monk. Just this night I defeated him and he fell into the sin of fornication. Scarcely had Satan heard of this achievement than he arose, kissed the devil, took the crown off his own head, and placed it on the head of the victorious devil; after they had brought a throne and put it near him, Satan made the demon sit beside him, joyfully telling him: Bravo! How were you able to do such a great deed? When I saw all these things, said the Elder from the Thebaid, I realized how great in dignity is the rank of the monk and how much it frightens the demons. Without delay, I departed from the idolatrous temple, and by the Grace of God I became a monk. Page 3
Fasting By: Pope Kyrillos VI Fasting, is the first commandment that God has delivered unto mankind, when He commanded our fore parents Adam and Eve that they should not eat certain fruits in the Garden. And fasting was the first deed that our Lord and Master Jesus Christ did after being baptized, even before He started His preaching ministry among the people. And fasting was the first deed that our fathers the Apostles did when the Bridegroom was taken from them. And while they fasted and prayed, the Holy Spirit spoke unto them (Act 13:2). Fasting is the weapon by which we defeat the devils, for the Lord said, "this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting." (Mat 17:21). Fasting, my children, is a weapon by which we subdue the lusts of the flesh, that the spirit may be lifted up and strengthened. That is why fasting is laced by spirituality, for it is not a virtue of the flesh. Indeed Christian fasting is abstaining from all food for a period of time, followed by eating food that is devoid of animal fatness, however, in addition to this, fasting has to be accompanied by spiritual virtues that would give it its spiritual flavour. Fasting must be accompanied by repentance, compunction and confession of sins. When the Ninevites fasted, they put on sackcloth and they turned, everyone, from his evil ways and from the violence that was in their hands. And they cried mightily unto God. And God saw their repentance and showed mercy unto them. The importance of repentance to accompany fasting is expounded for us fully in the Book of Joel, where the Lord exhorts us, "Turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning...sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly." (Joel 2:12-15). In the same manner did Daniel the Prophet fast, "And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession." (Da 9:3,4). In the like manner did Nehemiah, Ezra and David fast. God desires this repentance while fasting, when the spirit has victory over the flesh, when we subdue the flesh and crucify it with all its affections. (Gal 5:24). So, make your fast, my children, pure and holy, that it may be acceptable before God like the fasts of the saints. Preserve your purity in the land of your sojourn. Live the life of repentance that is pleasing to God. Let this season be a season for confession of sins and communion of the Holy Mysteries, that you may abide in the Lord and He abides in you, even as the living branches that bear fruit abide in the True Vine. And the God of all mercies preserve, confirm and strengthen you. Page 4
Let your fast be also accompanied by prayer and by reading the Bible and spiritual books and the lives of the saints. Let your fast be also accompanied by meditation, especially concerning the holy and precious memories with which this blessed season abounds. Celebrate the holy Pascha, with all its profound chants and lections and moving memories, with all befitting ascetism and compunction, knowing that this season, so profound in its spiritual rituals and prayers, is but a fountain for the spirit, that satisfies and quenches man and provides him with a wonderful provision that is profitable unto eternity. Set your minds on all the spiritual means that avail unto your edification. Walk worthy of the Gospel of Christ, according to the vocation wherewith you are called. (Eph 4:1). The Monastery celebrates the fourth anniversary of the consecration of Fr Shenouda & Fr Theodore into the Heavenly rank of Monkhood on the 22 nd of February Page 5
Not only had a Monk become Patriarch, but the Patriarch remained a Monk. By: James Watson Coptic Church Review It is often the case that those who establish a reputation for lives of inner depth and strength have quite simple outer lives. It is particularly true of Abba Kyrillos. His life as a model of outward stability: sixty-eight years spent almost entirely in Egypt and over three hidden decades as a monk and solitary. Even when he rose to the senior bishopric in the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Kyrillos was faithful to his inner life. Some Copts were disappointed by his silence and piety. They saw that he preferred to be absorbed in prayer and contemplation. It was not easy to distract him from his absorption. Pope Kyrillos as a monk was known as Al-Mutawahad - the Solitary. His instinct that only a monastic revival and a parallel renewal of the eremitic life would rescue the Copts from their anxieties from persecution has been entirely justified. It can be appreciated in the context of Coptic history whose greatest spiritual directors were all monks: when the monasteries are strong, the Copts are strong. At the same time, the monasteries have sometimes been a retreat in the worst sense and they have depended completely upon the secret lives of their finest hermits. like Abouna Abd Al-Masih Al-Habashi. Pope Kyrillos carried the deepest monastic inspiration into the Windmill and his room in Old Cairo. The twenty-three most important years of his ministry as a desert hermit were lived far from the physical desert in the city of Cairo, because he was an outstanding example of those twentieth century Christian mystics who carry the desert and the hermit's life within themselves. At the height of his earthly eminence, Pope Kyrillos presided over the elaborate ceremonies which accompanied the return of the relics of St. Mark to Egypt. The great national hero President Gamal Abdel Nasser accompanied Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia to the celebrations. Delegations from Rome and the World Council of Churches crammed the sanctuary. At the end of the day Pope Kyrillos called his deacon to one side. Did you see all these great ceremonies, my son? The puzzled assistant replied that he had of course seen all that had taken place. He had stood all day beside his master. Pope Kyrillos repeated the question and received the same answer. Then the patriarch overwhelmed his deacon when he said, "all these ceremonies my son, are not equal to one day spent in the solitude of the windmill above Old Cairo." Thirty-nine of his forty-two years of monastic profession were spent away from the monastic community in the Wadi Al-Natroun. But when Edward Wakin remarked so pointedly that Pope Kyrillos the patriarch had remained Mina the Page 6
monk he was pointing to the primary emphasis in the man's life. Pope Kyrillos was a man of remarkable religious insights who somehow reached a bureaucratic position in an ecclesiastical structure where he disappointed many because he had no mind or heart for administration. The patriarch found ways of delegation which suited the times, but he remained what he was, a deeply pious and religious person with extraordinary spiritual gifts. In 1933 an American theologian visited the Rock of Abouna Sarabamoun in the Western desert. He was taken there by a member of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo to assist the American scholar who was researching the period of Coptic Egypt before the Islamic invasion. For three hours Father Mina the Solitary read passages from his own copies of St. Isaac the Syrian and provided his own commentary on them: they were a precise exposition of the nature of authentic monasticism for all time. The Western theologian later said that three months research was nothing compared with three hours in the desert cave with the future Patriarch of the Copts. Pope Kyrillos as a monk was a living testimony to the supernatural dimension of the Christian vocation. He was not a monastic preacher of negativism and withdrawal, who had no meeting place with the problems of our age. But for Pope Kyrillos, as for all mystics, the only Christian society of importance was spiritual and extraordinary: the Mystical Body of Christ on the Earth. Pope Kyrillos experienced the life of that mystical community and represented its society before his church and community. His life with Christ in the Eucharist may perhaps be described, though with ungrudging recognition of our linguistic and theological poverty, as 'the true church'. The true church is that place where all men are truly equal because subject to only one charismatic authority of wisdom, experience and love under God. H.G Bishop Theophilos visiting the monastery on Monday 25th of February Page 7
Question & Answer Is the world evil, and is leading a monastic life considered to be an escape from evil? The world is not evil, but the love of the world is a sin. The world is a gift from God to man, so that man can administer and manage the world with care. God created the world and he loves all His creation. For God created everything good, and did not create evil. The world is a bridge that man has to cross to reach eternity. God created the world with great care, and arranged for it a magnificent system to work it. The world is not evil, but man uses the world in the wrong way and, uses, his own will to spoil and destroy God's work. The axe that man uses to plant and cut trees can also be used to kill others. All talents and objects, if used correctly, can glorify God, however when misused they destroy and create evil. "The human body can serve as another example, it is the dwelling place of the soul which is the most precious thing to God. Some use it for lust and sin, while others use it for its original purpose, to serve God. My brother, so many of those who live in the world can live a virtuous life and in a deep relationship with God. They lead a life of sanctity, and righteousness, and they transform earth to heaven. This leads us to answer the second part of the question. To escape from the world to a monastic life and being a monk is not a goal in itself but rather to escape the world and to be alone with God out of pure love. Being alone with God, and being filled with the Spirit, and to have experience to serve the church through his sanctity, experience, teachings, piety, and virtue. These are the goals of the monastic life. A person should not enter into the monastic life because he wants to escape, but because he loves God, and wants to get closer to Him, as well as to serve Him. Fr Rafael Ava Mena, Hanna Youssef Atta, The Life of the Saint Pope Kyrollos the sixth, Pope Kyrollos VI sons. This book offers the most comprehensive biographies of Pope Kyrollos VI by two of the closest people to the Pope. Fr Raphael the personal deacon of the Pope and Mr Atta the Pope s brother. These two biographical accounts go into more details about the personality of the saint, with personal encounters that are not in other biographies. James Watson, Abba Kyrillos Patriarch and Solitary, Coptic Church Review Vol. 17. This book is a well balanced biography of the late Patriarch that looks at his life from several angles whereas most of the many other books about him deal with his miracles or one of his ascetic virtues. Those who know Pope Kyrillos VI, will enjoy seeing him alive in this book. Since 1981, Dr Watson has special passion for studying the history of the Coptic Church. Before writing this book, he had prolonged visits to Egypt during which he lived among monks in their ancient monasteries, spoke to the highest ranks of the hierarchy as well as to the poorest of the Copts Page 8