The real spiritual struggle is to spend time with God in your room.
The real spiritual struggle
is to spend time with God in your room.
Pope Shenouda in front of his cave in the desert
His Holiness Pope Shenouda as we commemorate His Departure on March 17th once said, the minute you want to sit with yourself to evaluate yourself, the Satan will not allow you to do so, as he knows the power which can come out of your sincere meeting with yourself.
Tamav Erene while she is praying in one of the meeting with the people
Tamav Erene the abbess of St. Philopater Mercurius Convent for nuns in Old Cairo once said when she visited US. A day in my cell is better than all these beautiful views in the US. She found God in her very tight room, she made her room paradise. (This 3 minutes clip shows you the cell of Tamav Erene in which she counted it paradise
Fr. Bishoy Kamel
Fr.
Bishoy Kamel once said, the true indicator of one’s true service for God is your holiness.
Once
Great teacher said if we grouped the servants into two, a group to go
distribute food to the poor, and the other group to pray during that time in
the church until the first group comes back, which one would you choose?
Do
you think it is easy to sit in your room? No it is not, If I was comforted by
the external supporters, outsiders comforters, finding in the service a
self-psychological satisfaction or even self- realization. “Aha, see people are benefiting
from my teaching and my words,” “ I changed their minds
and hearts,” If this is our
indicator, or even “I answered few calls, I made the people at peace” even though this is
very important now, but is this the true indicator or our worship? Where is my
time with God, where is my repentance? Where is my usage for the fractions of
the second to the account of heaven, not wasting any time.
Fr. Athanasius Al-Suriany
Fr.
Athanasius Al-Suriany ( From the Monastery of St. Mary in Wadi El-Natrun) was
the father of confession of the nuns , once said to the nuns if you try to find the moment where you body
is at rest and your psyche is enabling you to pray, you might not find this
moment in the entire of your life. You have to put God with force in everything
you do, you take the elevator, pray, you take the steps pray, you prepare a cup
of tea pray, he quoted this verse “the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence,[d] and men of violence
take it by force.” Matthew 11:12 taking by force means to put it by force in
every second in your day.
By
being online all the day, instead of listening to any channels (news,
friends
) , listening to spiritual channels is good, but if I did not take my agpia,
Bible, talked to God, then it is only a replacement of a bad to a good
listening time. True Repentance starts by closing my door and talking to my
Father.[1]
Family
Altar, simply means family is praying together, read the Bible together, Mother
Erene would add, please
say I have sinned forgive me before you start, maybe someone is upset from
someone so this will fix the relation before we call Him “Forgive us as we
forgive”, part of the
family altar is to help one another, have compassion on one another, preach
Christ through your action.
What
should I do in my room?
Thank
God, In the Coptic Church Mid Night psalmody we pray Psalm 135/136 every night “To give thanks to
the Lord… For His mercy
endures forever.”[2] Thank God for
being your God.[3] Praise
His name, “Holy, Holy , Holy is Your Name O God…(Complete the
prayer in your word.” In the Psalmody Book we have two Psalia for the Name of
Jesus Christ[4],[5]
Repent, Bishop Youanis the Late Bishop of Gharbia in Egypt wrote in his
foundational piece in the practical spirituality “Paradise of the Spirit”[6] “Repentance is the
message of Christianity, John the Baptist, who prepared the way before the Lord
Jesus, called the people to repentance.[7]
The Lord Jesus Himself preached “the Gospel of Repentance,” and commanded His disciples to call people to repentance. “Repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. Quoting our Lord “No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on
an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made
worse. 17 Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins
break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine
into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”[8] Anba Youanis
argued “These words of the Lord
Jesus explain the correct understanding of repentance. It is a complete change
of the whole life, not just putting a new piece on an old garment….when we sin, we
lose our talents, virtues and blessings, and when we repent, we get them all
back. Penance is an open door to salvation. It never closes, for it is God’s compassionate
bosom: “The one who comes
to Me, I will by no means cast out.”[9]
Have the Agpia,
Bible, Spiritual Book, notebook, highlighter, pen and also listen to spiritual
hymns (The Psalia “Praise” of the Great Lent
is a great motor to move your heart to repent,[10]
The Psalia on the Third Praise starts by
“I remembered
the sins, of my ignorance, so I released my tears, and wept.
Every sigh, on my chest, is burning like fire, within my heart.
Every sigh, on my chest, is burning like fire, within my heart.
+ The thoughts of my mind, I have followed, the
commandments of Jesus, I have abandoned.
+ Every evil thing, of my nature, I have followed, without my hope….[11]
+ Every evil thing, of my nature, I have followed, without my hope….[11]
Listen
to sermons. Let your brain be filled with Holy Things. Watch[12]
and Read life of Saints, saying of desert Fathers and mothers who can help you
to imitate them as they imitate Christ.[13]
Do not overwhelm yourself, start by the Little you can do, 5 minutes in each
section mentioned, would be more than enough to start with.
Bishop Ammonious of Luxor in his cell in the desert of Wadi El-Naturn
Once Bishop Ammonious[14] the Recluse in Wadi El-Naturn[15] said “My Breakfast is Matthew 5, My Lunch is Matthew 6, My dinner is Matthew 6” It is the Sermon on the Mount, from here we can begin.
Still
I want to say unless the Lord reveals myself to myself I can not do anything “I the Lord search the mind and try the heart, to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his
doings.””[16]
So the beginning is to dialogue with God and read His word “Thy word is a lamp
to my feet, and a light to my path.”[17]
So become a friend of the word of God.[18] The Golden rule “Little continuous
with Focus better than many intermittent.[19]
I
am not claiming here that I will give you a ready made recipe, If Mother Erene
used to ask every priest or bishop coming to visit her “ Help me how can I
repent? The I would say I did not start yet, I may just put some questions for
you to help you and me to start.
1- How can I start to
become a friend of the Horologion Book “The Book of Hours” Agpia in the Coptic
Orthodox Church?
2- How Can I become a friend
with the Bible? Did I read the about “who is Jesus” ? if not start by Mark, in Old testament start by the Wisdom of Ibn
Sirach.
3- What is my weakness? How
can I overcome it? (First you need to pray about it, asking God’s grace) then if there
is any spiritual book I can read to give me motives (Paradise of the Spirit is
a good start by the Late Bishop Youannis of Gharbia) ? Start by one weakness and
then others, might solve themselves by themselves or God who helped you in the
first will help you in the second.
4- Do I know any friends
went far from God’s love? Make a list remember them.
5- It is a good thing to
pray for what you hear in the news, be transformer, change everything to a
prayer.
6- Pray and ask God to
guide you.
Let
me know what you did, so I can benefit.
May
God help you and help me.
Some Good Resources
Putting Joy Into Practice: Seven Ways to Lift Your Spirit from the Early
Church
Book by
Phoebe Farag Mikhail
[1]
Matthew 6:6
[3]
Putting Joy into Practice by Phoebe Farag Mikhail
[6]
Paradise of the Spirit, Vol. 1, By The late H.G. Bishop Youanis
[7]
Mark 1:4
[8]
Matthew 9:16-17
[9]
John 6:36
[13] 1
Corinthians 11:1
[14]
Bishop Of Luxor
[15] Still
Alive
[16] Jeremiah
17:10
[17]
Psalm 119:105 Prayed in the First Watch of the Mid Night Prayers
[19]
Wisdom from Fathers of Confession
don't forget AUDIO Bible
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