Prayer is boring...Or is it?!

|Fr. Mina the Hermit (Pope Kyrillos VI)

St. Seraphim of Sarov

I promised in the very first blog posts that I would post from the teachings of our holy father, Pope Kyrillos VI from one of the  first spiritual books I read which helped me greatly. Although the letters were addressed to his disciples the monks, there is much to learn from them and they also tell us of the holy life that H.H. lived. As most of us know, H.H. lived as a hermit; he was a great ascetic and loved to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. His reverence for the Holy Mysteries is something that I always remember him for. In the individualistic secular world that we live in, we too often forget our communication with God. Prayer has been pushed to the periphery of our lives and most of the time we only embrace it in times of tragedy and need. Of course there is nothing wrong with falling on one’s knees before God in these occasions, but it might be a problem when that becomes the only time we meet with the Divine.

In the Orthodox Church, we focus a lot on the mystical union the believer has with Christ, it really is the goal of our lives- that is union with Christ. A lot of converts will notice a difference when they are received into the Church; they see that their spiritual lives survive on their constant union with the Beloved. Well not only converts but anyone who has lived most of his life away from the Church where prayer is a rare thing, and is not talked about. It is not a surprise that when one reads a spiritual book, by one of our holy fathers and mothers, to see that they talk a lot about prayer, especially the Jesus Prayer. The Jesus Prayer deeply rooted in the Scriptures is taught by all of the Orthodox Saints from all over the world. It might be given a different name as with the Coptic Orthodox Christians who usually refer to it as the “Arrow Prayers”, in essence it is the calling of the Name of Jesus by which we are healed and saved.

The Church emphasizes unceasing prayer and the constant awareness of God through the practice of the Jesus Prayer. We cannot put on Christ if we don’t know Him, and to know Him would require an intimate relationship with Him which we develop through prayer. But what is prayer? Is it a time dedicated in the day where we recite words? Is it when I go to church and pray the liturgy? Is it just the Jesus Prayer? These are all correct answers but we must look deeper into this and the only teaching I remember that I could not forget  to this day is by St. Theophan the Recluse, here is what he says:

“The essential part is to dwell in God, and this walking before God means that you live with the conviction ever before your consciousness that God is in you, as He is in everything: you live in the firm assurance that He sees all that is within you, knowing you better than you know yourself.”

I believe that this is real prayer that we continue to live being aware that God sees all our actions, our thoughts, our desires and everything within us, the awareness that He is in us and not outside of us…He is not the old man in the sky. Our audible prayers are a great aid and are very essential, they must be carried out, our prayers and chanting aid us in keeping this awareness of God in our hearts, the Jesus Prayer “Oh my Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner” accustoms the person in remembering that he is under the mercies of God who became man to save him, the sinner.

I am not teaching anyone about prayer, I am simply offering my reflections on what I have read and what I am struggling to follow. I want to share what I am learning, to share the beauty of our faith. I’ll talk more about Pope Kyrillos VI in the next post. Leave a comment! :)

St. Theophan the Recluse

At St. Samuel Monastery Part 2 - Life of Fr. Mettaos El-Suryani

Fr. Matta El-Meskeen (Matthew the Poor)

There was a big reaction to Hegumen Matta El-Meskeen’s leaving the monastery. His sons through Confession gathered, about ten of the Fathers that used to have him as their confessor. They decided to leave and to go after their spiritual father to stay with him at the place where he was staying!!

And this actually happened on Friday 20/7/1956, ten Fathers of Der El-Suryan left the monastery and among them was our beloved Hegumen Fr. Mettaos El-Suryani. They were headed towards the Church of St. Mina in Zahra, Old Cairo where Hegumen Matta El-Meskeen was staying (he was their spiritual father).

It is right to say that Hegumen Mina El-Baramosy the Hermit (Pope Kyrillos VI) received them with the best welcome, was hospitable and tried to calm them down and to alleviate their sorrows. They stayed there for several days.

History also mentiones that Bp. Theophilus tried hard at the time to reconcile them and bring them back to the monastery once again and promised to meet any possible wishes of their own. Even H.G. Bp. Sawiris, Metropolitan of Menya at the time tried to mediate between them and Bp. Theophilus but unfortunately to no avail.

The Fathers the monks insisted on their position not to return to the monastery once again, and they settled on the decision to go to St. Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Mount Qalamoun. Hegumen Matta El-Meskeen and the group of the Fathers the monks, boarded the train that was headed to Maghagha, then to the El-Zora village, and from there to St. Samuel the Confessor Monastery where they settled.

At around this time, Hegumen Matta El-Meskeen and the ten monks with him began working on the monastery that suffered from severe poverty and lack of possible living conditions. The Fathers built several cells, planted some vegetation and stayed at the monastery for around approximately three years. During this time, Fr. Mettaos led the prayers of the vespers (sunset service), services of vespers, midnight prayers, celebrated the divine liturgies and was an example of the ideal ascetic monk.

At this period, he lived with the Fathers of St. Samuel the Confessor Monastery like the late saintly monk Fr. Andrawes El-Samoueli and the late monk Hegumen Salib El-Samoueli the Great. Our beloved Father [Fr. Mettaos] told us how this period was one of the strongest spiritual times in his life, the life of calmness, quietness and total seclusion and isolation from the world. He used to say that he saw his departure from Der El-Suryan to St. Samuel Monastery a dark moment in his monastic life! He meant to speak about his lack of steadfastness in staying in the monastery in which he became a monk in!!

Fr. Andrawes El-Samoueli in the centre.

“Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”

Some of us, if not most will encounter someone or some group who after learning of our Christian faith, that is that we are Orthodox Christians, that we allow the veneration of saints and the presence of relics in our churches will falsely accuse us of practicing idolatry. Now of course, in no way, are we through our veneration and prayers worshipping the saints. The Church is clear that worship belongs to God alone, as I have previously discussed in my last post, “A Cloud of Witnesses”. Just to mention a few points from what I have written:

• “He is God not of the dead, but of the living,” (Mark 12:27). The God of the saints (who have gone before us and are ever living in Him) is not the God of the dead.
• “But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4: 15: 16). We cannot separate those members of the triumphant church from us who are foreigners in this world. We are one Church serving one Lord.
• “First of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” (1 Timothy 2:1-2) So if we ask for the intercessions of members of our Church, then it is not wrong to ask for the intercessions of the departed saints who are still members of the Body of Christ, Christ being the Head of that Church.

Now that we can be confident in the intercessions of the saints, we can now focus on the greatest example and the advocate of the human race, the Virgin St. Mary, the Theotokos- the Mother of God. Praising the Virgin Mary is biblical; next to the angelic greeting of St. Mary during the Annunciation, St. Elizabeth praised the Virgin for her holiness and her submission to the divine plan of the mystery of the incarnation. One of the memorable passages in the Scriptures that point out the importance of praising St. Mary is when St. Elizabeth greets her, filled with the Holy Spirit cries out “Blessed are you among women...” (Luke 1:42). This is one example among others where she is praised for being the Mother of our Lord, Jesus Christ (Luke 1:43). The Mother of God replies to this with her wonderful song of praise and she says, “Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.” (Luke 1:48). Truly this prophecy continues to be fulfilled in the Church of God and among Christians. We continue to praise her in our divine liturgies, in our prayers, in our Midnight Psalmody...in everything.