The Work of his
Hands:
The
work he did while he was in his cave as part of the rule of the monk (prayer, reading
and work) was the making of leather crosses, a common work done by those who
did not leave their cells. Fr. Benyamin also worked on copying books, which is
an essential work especially in the previous generation. Monks undertook the
responsibility of copying holy books and church service books. There are still
some of the books which he copied with his beloved ones and in the library of
Baramos Monastery. A year before his departure, he copied the book of Psalms,
during 5th and 6th weeks of Lent, 1986. After his
departure, we found his copying utensils in his cell.
Many times he had to remove large amounts of sand from around his cell or did
some repairing himself.
His Food:
It is not appropriate for a person to deny himself different types of food
and drinks, but when one is concerned with spiritual food he eventually becomes
less concerned with temporal food.
Some of the Fathers of the monastery of St. Bishoy said that Fr. Benyamin settled
for little to regain his strength. He relied on potatoes as his main meal as he
used to eat a small portion of potatoes with bread every day. Each week he had
one meal of boiled vegetables, some cheese and powdered milk. During the holy
fifty days, in keeping with his mealtimes without changing, he accustomed
himself to following the rules of the Church by not abstaining from food. He
also had a hot drink during the day with some sweets or biscuits, while eating on his regular scheduled times without changing. By this he kept his regular
rule during the feasts to make it easier for him to return to it after the holy
fifty days.
During the regular days, he lived on 10 litres of water for a week and on other
times he would live on a small amount of bread with 3 containers of water (gas
can size) for a whole month.
From time to time he would ask for bean foods like beans and lentils and most
of this food he would distribute it to others like the workers and the
Bedouins. One of the Fathers that carried his necessities from the monastery to
the cave, said that he used to need 14 loaves of bread and would return a number
of them to the monastery from time to time.
During the Lord’s Feasts he would go to the monastery of St. Bishoy then
Baramos Monastery and would eat what is offered him for these occasions.
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His Prayers:
He spent a lot of time in prayer, he would pray the full Agpeya (The Coptic
Book of Hours) daily. There are about 70 psalms in the Agpeya that we have in
our hands, and the rite of the hermit monk requires the monk to pray 150
psalms.
He would pray the psalms found in the Agpeya including the ones that are
repeated in addition to the rest of the entire psalter (book of Psalms), and he
would pray a great number of the psalms as follows:
-The
collection of psalms in the Agpeya including the ones that are repeated, and
that would be 138 psalms (while counting Psalm 118 as one psalm).
-The collection of the rest of the psalms that are in the Psalter and that are
not in the Agpeya, which would be 74 psalms. He would pray a third of them
after the sext (sixth hour), the other third after Compline (twelfth hour), and
the rest after the Midnight Prayer. That would amount to 212 psalms prayed
everyday according to his rule.
After he finished his prayers, he would read a chapter from the Old Testament,
a chapter from the New Testament, and a chapter from one of the Epistles/Letters
while standing in the position of prayer, he would do this many times in one
day and as a result, Fr. Benyamin studied the entire Holy Bible very well.
He himself told some of the Fathers, that a monk in the monastery used to pray
151 psalms everyday despite living in communion (cenobitic) and was responsible
for one of the monastery’s jobs, so how much more should the hermit do.
And most likely he was speaking about himself…
And he used to say, “There is nothing better than prayer, and I wish to stand
for many hours every day before God.”
