First Surprise:
“How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Psalm 84:1-2)
As we mentioned earlier, young Shawky never visited an inhabited monastery before, and he thought that he would find the monks’ cells far from each other according to what he read in the monastic books and after the image he painted in his mind which was eager for the ascetic life. But he was surprised, for he found them to be adjacent to each other in a single row!!
And this scene was a severe shock for him that he would not forget until after he heard the voice of the virtuous father and elder (Sheikh), the respected monk, the late Hegumen Sedarous the great (the monastery’s secretary at the time) as he welcomed him. The young Shawky hastened to him to greet him and give him the letter of sponsorship (acceptance) that was sent with him from H.G. Bishop Theophilus. Abouna Sedarous greeted him with joy, and placed him in one of the cells at the old building that was located near the southern wall of the monastery. (These cells were demolished in 1960 and were replaced with the first building made of reinforced concrete among all the monasteries). It is worth mentioning that the late Hegumen Sedarous the Great was the first confessor for our father Mettaos el-Suryani in his monastic life until he was sixty years old.
His Testing Period:
“He was well spoken of by the brethren” (Acts 15:2)
From the first moment of brother Shawky Hanna Allah’s acceptance as a student of monasticism under test, he kept in mind the words of the great father of monasticism St. Anthony, “have everyone bless you”. He was the model student of monasticism who was committed to the law of the monastery and his new life.
In addition to his primary work that was appointed to him by the monastery which was the compound (the guest place); he took it upon himself to serve the fathers of the monastery with great love and humility. And most of them in particular were among the great elders, who spent many years in monasticism and we will mention some of them but without limiting them:
Hegumen Tawadros the Great, Hegumen Daniel the Great, Hegumen Sedarous the Great, Hegumen Moussa (Moses) the Great, Hegumen Abdel-Malek, Hegumen Toma (Thomas) the Great, etc.
He used to clean and sweep their cells. He filled their jars with fresh water and would carry out any service they asked of him. He did all of this in love and humility, without boredom, weariness or even the slightest grumbling.
Our beloved father once told us of how he took the blessing of serving the late Fr. Yacoub el-Dareer (Jacob the Blind), taking care of his needs and his cell. And he told us how Fr. Yacoub handed down to him the hymn “Apekran” (The general doxology chanted on the feast days of the saints). Fr. Mettaos learned the hymn after a long time that Bishop Theophilus used to ask him to chant the hymn on saints’ feast days.
Brother Shawky continued being persistent in his commitment with love and humility with great vigor which pleased all of the fathers in the monastery (without exception). And he gained their approval to live the monastic life in Der el-Suryan. From here, his path to monasticism became clear.
No comments:
Post a Comment