Pope Kyrillos on Reading and Praying

His Holiness, the Pope, continues to advise his spiritual son (a monk), to make of him a beacon for the entire world. "When you come back from work, take off your clothes, wash your face and rest a little. If you want to have some recreation, you can go outside far from noise, and ponder the works of the Creator and the beauty of nature. Thank and praise the Lord. Do not reflect too much on the affairs of life. Do not worry about anything. Cast your burdens upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you. Do not stay too late outside; it is better not to be out after eight o'clock. Do not be outside your room after ten o'clock if possible, so that you can find time to read a little and to pray. This is not difficult advice so do not ignore it and say, 'I do not have time for such things.'

"If you have trained yourself in these things, you will reap the fruits or rewards thereof. Once you have tried it, you will find it so easy. It is natural that in the beginning, the enemy of righteousness will try to make the matter difficult for you, but day after day, you will find that it is very easy and you will want to increase this practice. Brother, as you care for your body, you should also care for your soul. It is your duty to do so."

+Pope Kyrillos VI, Christian Behaviour p. 11.

Pope Kyrillos VI on Spiritual Reading

Pope Kyrillos VI lives in this manner. He read the Holy Bible daily until the day of his death. He also would read the saints' books especially the sayings of St. Isaac. Nothing prevented him from his readings, whether other work, fatigue or sickness. His speech was always from the Holy Scriptures and the sayings of St. Isaac whenever he spoke to his disciples, the monks, or visitors. He said, "I was tonsured a monk, and from that day on, I began learning the laws of monasticism from the fathers. I studied the saints' books, especially the book of the great saint, St. Isaac. I felt the blessings of God increasing on a daily basis."

He wrote to one of his spiritual sons, a monk, "Persist in and honour reading, if possible more than prayer. Reading is the spring of intelligent prayer. For, as I had previously told you, reading for a good purpose will show you how to walk on the virtuous path. Whoever reads the books to understand the path of virtue, this path will be opened before him."

+Christian Behaviour, p. 40

Bidding Farewell - Life of Fr. Benyamin the Hermit

When his health began to improve he insisted on returning to his cave, and the doctors who treated him permitted him to leave the hospital to return to the monastery but not back to his cave. Nevertheless, when he arrived at the monastery he insisted on returning to his cave and he did.

The last time for him to return to the hospital was due to him collapsing and hitting his head on the ground, leaving him unconscious for days. When he began to regain his consciousness little by little he tried to get up and walk to the cave’s door to find someone to help him. God willed that some of the Fathers were making their way to see him; they found him standing in front of his cave as if he was lost and they found out what happened from him. He was standing trying to grab the attention of another hermit far from him, many kilometers away!!!

In the hospital to which he was transferred to immediately, he quickly received the results of the x-rays which showed that he had internal bleeding in his brain, between the membranes. This is what caused his ongoing suffering and severe headaches, the time was too late for any surgical intervention and his gums were injured. He was continuously bleeding until he went into a coma.

In spite of all of this Fr. Benyamin still carried out his spiritual rule, especially the Agpeya prayers and his Bible readings, committed to this even in the remaining days of his life. Even in carrying out what he can from the readings with the help of the Fathers the monks. He also confessed and partook of the Holy Mysteries more than once in that period.

The psalm that he loved and constantly recited was, “Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens.” (Psalm 122). The last book that he was reading was “The Way to the Kingdom”, the doctor who treated him kept and held on to the book after him.

He distributed most of his own personal books as gifts to all those who were around him, as if he felt that he no longer needed them.

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The Disciplined Monk - Life of Fr. Benyamin the Hermit

His Illness:

When some of the Fathers visited Fr. Benyamin in his cave they noticed a number of injuries on his face and he tried to hide these injuries when they were with him. When they asked him of these severe injuries he replied that it was from the common cold that he just recently caught. However, they were not convinced and kept asking him more questions until they found out from him that he was suffering from severe anemia that needed him to be taken to the hospital immediately. They carried him to the monastery and exerted great efforts to try to convince him to agree to be taken to the hospital.


The decision was made for him to be taken to the hospital and later he returned to the monastery where he awaited the opportunity for his slight improvement so that he can ask them to let him return to his cave. In turn, some of the Fathers did not permit his moving back to his cave and this bothered him greatly.

For that reason he did not open the door of his cell for any of the Fathers the visitors, except for the one who brought him his food.

The first time he arrived at the hospital was on Sunday 30/08/1987 for a blood test, at that time he was in bad condition. They found that the percentage of hemoglobin in his blood to be 18% which typically is impossible to live with.

He got a blood transfusion at Heliopolis Hospital many times. He underwent many medical examinations and started to improve greatly but did not succumb to any kind of pressure. In regard to his food, they pressed him to eat meat but he would decline right away. When the doctors insisted that he eat, especially meat to regain his strength since food is natural medicine that can’t be replaced, he agree to eat but only some potatoes and olives and this meant that he would double the quantity of food he ate regularly prior to his sickness.  Fr. Elisha El-Baramosy confirmed this as he was the one who accompanied him in his last week.

Unceasing Prayer and Fr. Benyamin - Life of Fr. Benyamin the Hermit

It happened that some of the soldiers that were on guard duty and who were stationed at the monastery of St. Bishoy and the Suryan Monastery, visited him in his cave. They marveled at his solitude and his manner of life, they asked him what does he do in this wilderness, and he answered saying that he prays, so they asked him what does he do (his work), and he answered them, “My work is prayer, is prayer not work? And a marvelous one!!!”

Regarding prostrations (Metanyas), he used to refer to them as his canon, and he loved to carry them out in the early morning before sunrise, and he did a great number of prostrations daily.

Also, everyday at sunset he would go out into the desert to pray some prayers in addition to all of the litanies (the petitions of the Divine liturgy).

He used to say regarding prayer, “We are strangers in this world, but also in the monastery, we must offer many prayers or else we will perish!!” -keeping in mind that Fr. Benyamin was a hermit in the desert. His mouth never ceased from praising, and especially the arrow prayers (The Jesus Prayer)… “O my Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me, O my Lord Jesus Christ help me, I praise You O my Lord Jesus Christ, and so on”

He used this prayer at 9 in particular, while working with his hands like removing the sand for example and other work.  He would use a short sentence that starts with “Oh my Lord Jesus Christ…” and would add the rest to it which would represent his personal needs. He would begin his prayers that way, and he would pray these prayers until he poured out many tears.

The Praying Monk - Life of Fr. Benyamin the Hermit

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 5^th and 6^th 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. 

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.”

Fr. Kyrillos and the Man who Repented

Fr. Kyrillos El-Makary

St. Macarius the Great

One of the monks of the monastery (St. Macarius Monastery) never went out to the world except for a few times for medical purposes. On one of these visits to the doctor for treatment, the monk saw that the man was around his age and they looked at each other and found out that he was his colleague during his time in college. The monk in a friendly way invited the man to the monastery and this was during the beginning of Lent. The man accepted the invite and went to the monastery on one of the days of the fast and the following happened:

The man arrived at the monastery at 10 in the morning and sat at the guest place. The church bell rang for liturgy that was from 11 till 1. The man did not care and did not go to the church, and after a bit Fr. Kyrillos El-Makary arrived and met with this man.

He asked him: “Why didn’t you come to liturgy and receive communion?”
The man laughed greatly, indicating sorrow.
And told Fr. Kyrillos, “Me take communion?!”
Fr. Kyrillos asked him, “Why not take communion?”

The man told him that for more than 25 years he did not receive communion or fast and that he is now, of course, not fasting for Lent. Fr. Kyrillos told him, “Go quickly and receive communion and I am the one who is telling you to go receive communion” The man in turn told him that he already had breakfast of milk, cheese and eggs before he came to the monastery and that he had just smoked cigarettes as well…!! But Fr. Kyrillos insisted that he go to the church to receive communion and gave him the absolution.

The man was moved and  embarrassed, and was confused over Fr. Kyrillos’ insistence that he receive communion. Indeed, he went to the church and partook of the Holy Mysteries…after spending all his life away from communion.

When the time for visiting was over, the Father responsible for the visitors told them that the visiting time is over. He noticed a man sitting beside the relics of St. Macarius the Great, weeping and this was around 6 in the afternoon. The Father then told Fr. Kyrillos of the man’s situation and asked him what should they do. When Fr. Kyrillos heard of this, he told the Father to leave him and not to bother him.

After a short while, the man left the monastery at 7 pm and then left the whole world, and departed into the heavens at 3 am on that same day after he partook of the Holy Mysteries and in repenting before the relics of the three saints (St. Macarius the Great, St. Macarius of Alexandria and St. Macarius the Bishop) and under the blessing of Fr. Kyrillos and his loving and big heart, the lover of sinners and the one who goes after those who have gone astray.

The relics of St. Macarius the Great, St. Macarius of Alexandria and St. Macarius the Bishop