Monostacism

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  • Just a word to keep in mind for those interested in monastacism.

    WHAT IS THE GOAL of being a monk/nun?

    The GOAL MUST BE GOD!!!

    My Bishop once told me, "A monk is either the happiest person on earth, or the most misrable person on earth".

    If he became a monk to spend all his time with God and get closer to Him, and worship Him day and night, then he's the happiest person - because that's all he's going to be doing in the monastary.

    If he became a monk for any other reason - he's going to be very misrable - there isn't anything else to do in the monastary except worship God.

    Almost everyone at one point of their life consider the idea of monasticism; it is a beautiful life - quiet, away from the world, just concentrate on God - it's an angelic life.

    I would suggest the following for those who are interested:
    1. PRAY about it and ask God to reveal His will
    2. Communicate with your confession father and get his input
    3. Read about monasticism and the life of monks, especially the book "Paradise of Desert Fathers"
    4. Visit the monastary and spend time there on a spiritual retreat - preferably by yourself or with a small group.
  • Thanks for all the help Gerges...

    God Bless,

    Mike
  • Hay defender,
    you should read the book by Pope krylos the 6th called Christian Behavoiur its very good and useful for those wanting to be a monk but its cool

    F.R.O.G.
  • Hey F.R.O.G. I just read this post right NOW!!! maybe like 3 months later but can you please tell me where I can find that. and if there's a link for it on pdf?

    God Bless.

    Mike
  • hay
    umm, well i bought it from the monastry i dont think it is on the internet but i can look ummm, check in your bookshop library


    God Bless,
    FROG
  • yeah its a great book i think ive read it, does it expore calmness and stuff?
  • hay
    yer i think so i read it like last holidays umm i think about behaviour

    GB
    FROG
  • Hey,
    well sadly we don't have a bookshop, but maybe we will soon, anyways thanks...Can I ask u a favor, if u can, can you buy it for me and send it to me by mail and I send you the money by mail?

    God Bless.

    Mike
  • here is something about monastism



    Eastern Monasticism Before Chalcedon (A.D. 451)
    Egypt was the Motherland of Christian monasticism. It sprang into existence there at the beginning of the fourth century and in a very few years spread over the whole Christian world. The rapidity of the movement was only equalled by the durability of its results. The simple teaching of the first Egyptian monks and hermits fixed once and forever the broad outlines of the science of the spiritual life, or, in other words, of ascetic theology. The study, therefore, of early monasticism possess a great deal more than a merely antiquarian interest. It is concerned with a movement the force of which is in no way spent and which has had a very large share in creating the conditions which obtain at the present day.

    Egypt was the Motherland of Christian monasticism. Monasticism is "Egypt's greatest gift to the world" and one of the sweetest fruits that were obtained from the persecution era against the Egyptian Church. Eusebius states that many Christians fled from the populated parts of Egypt to the surrounding deserts. the persection ceased but they prefered to settle there permanently to lead an angelic life, devoting themselves to prayer and praising God as monks.

    The rise of monasticism in Egypt has been the most profound spiritual revival ever happened in all the history of the church. People from everywhere and of all ranks of society were drawn to the Egyptian deserts to practise angelic life under the guidance of the Egyptian fathers. Writings of the pilgrims, experiences are among the most interesting of the early church literature.

    The first chapter in the history of monasticism is the life of St. Antony. Monasticism began on a Sunday morning in the year 270 or 271 in an Egyptian village. the Gospel passage read in worship that day included the words "If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven. Then come, follow me" )Matt. 19:21). In the congregation sat a young man called Antony, who upon hearing these words, sought a life not merely of relative poverty but of radical solitude.

    Antony's step into the uninhabited desert was little noticed outside, or even inside, his village at the time. But when he died at the age of 106, his friend and biographer Pope Athanasius of Alexandria (d.373) introduced him to the western world and to remote countries in his Vita Antonii. Vita Antonii. although St. Anthony had a forerunner in St. Paul the Hermit (Anba Bula), the first Christian pilgrim or wanderer on record, monasticism owes its Biblical ideals, doctrine, and rules to St Antony and later to St Pachomius.

    Monasticism took three chief forms, all of which had appeared in Egypt in the third and fourth centuries, and all of which are still to be found in the church today.

    The Monachism:

    The anchorites or hermits lived in complete isolation, and only when they needed a councel did they visit the "abbot". Each hermit organized his own prayer, clothing, food and work.
    Some hermits entered into the inner deserts and settled there for tens of years, seeing no human being. St. Mary of Egypt is one of the few women who behaved thus and is considered as one of those hermits who are called "Pilgrims", for they usually had no certain cells but lived homeless, wandering in the wilderness.

    The Cenobitic System:


    Under this system, founded by St. Pachomius in Upper Egypt, the monks lived in a community inside the walls of the monastery, in association with each other, and governed by an abbot and by rules. Even through this system Christian monasticism never lost its yearning for monarchism (seclusion).

    The Communal System: or Semi-eremitic life.


    It is a middle between monarchism and cenobitic system. The mode of St. Antony's life described by St.Athanasius was really semi-eremitic in character, for the monks lived in separate caves or cells and assembled occasionally for divine service or spiritual conferences. Thus, St Antony prepared the way to the communal order.

    In Nitria and Scetics the communal order was established by St. Amoun and St. Macarius the Great. There, the ascetics lived not in absolute isolation, but in cells built as such a distance that they could neither see nor hear one another. They gathered for common prayer on Saturdays and

  • hay agen
    here is more stuff i found bout monastism

    Monasticism
    The Christian Church is heavily indebted for the creation of monasticism which influenced her organization and philosophy48. Although St. Paul the Theban (died c. 340) is considered the first hermit, the origins are ascribed to St. Anthony (c. 251-356) whose fame was spread by his famous biography written by St. Athanasius49. The first definable stage of Coptic monastic life is described as "Anthonian Monachism." At the age of twenty, St. Anthony (251-356), an orphan of wealthy Christian parentage from the village of Coma50, renounced the world. He sold his estate, distributed the proceeds to the poor, and entrusted his younger sister to a community of virgins. For about eighty-five years, he led a solitary life and went further and further into the desert; his fasts got longer, and his combats with the demons became more spectacular. His fame spread far and Athanasius himself came to sit at his feet, while the Emperor Constantine wrote asking for his spiritual support. Many disciples sought his spiritual guidance, while they continued to lead solitary lives in the neighborhood of his cave. During Anthony's lifetime, there developed a second stage of monasticism, which may be called, "collective erimitism"51. The oldest settlement grew around Anthony in the district of Pispir and spreading eastward into the mountain where the monastery of St. Anthony stands to the present day. Another community arose at Chenoboskion (modern-day Nag Hammadi) in the Thebiad, where the Gnostic papyri was discovered. Moreover, there were three settlements in the Western Desert, namely, Nitrea, founded by St. Amoun; Cellia, the home of St. Macarius the Alexandrian; and Scetis, where St. Macarius the Great founded another monastery about 33052. A new chapter in the development of monasticism was associated by St. Pachomius (c. 290-346)53. Born a pagan and serving in the armies of Constantine and Licinius, Pachomius and his companions were encamping outside the city of Esnah, in Upper Egypt. The goodness of the Christians, who came to was the soldiers' feet and offered them food, impressed him. On his return, he was converted to Christianity and followed an aged monk called Palamon. Later on, he lived in a cave in solitude. He perceived that the life of solitude is not possible for everyone; so he thought to inaugurate a combination of asceticism and cenobitic, or communal life. Thus was born the rule of St. Pachomius54, surnamed the Great. This was the third and last stage of the monastic ideal. Perhaps the most revolutionary features in the system were the introduction of manual labor and a considerable measure of education55. The Fathers of the Church from numerous parts of the world came to Egypt for training in the way of monasticism. St. Athanasius the Great has already been mentioned. St. John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) stayed under the Pachomian rule in Thebiad from 373 to 381. St. Jerome (c. 342-420) and Rufinus (c. 345-410), the ecclesiastical historians, spent time in Egypt. St. Basil the Great (c. 330-379) introduced monasticism to Byzantium on the basis of Pachomian rule56. St. John Cassian (c. 360-435) spent seven years in the Thebiad and the Nitrean Desert and collected the material from personal experiences with the Desert Fathers for his two famous works: the Institute and the Conferences. He founded a monastery and a nunnery on the model which he had witnessed in Egypt57. Palladius (c. 365-425), Bishop of Hellenopolis in Bithynia, wrote his Lausiac History58, sometimes described as the "Paradise of the Fathers"59. Women too, came; such as Etherea, the fourth-century Spanish abbess, and Melania (c. 345-410), the aristocratic Roman widow60. Monasticism has survived in Egypt and has given the Coptic Church an unbroken line of 117 Popes beginning with St. Mark. Although most of the monasteries have disappeared, there is a revival in the surviving ones.

  • hay
    o yer if u wanna no about the coptic church go to
    “From: www.antonius.org
    its heaps good and/or www.archangelmichealchurch.net

    GB
    FROG
  • hi agen lol
    YAY guess wat i found the book of Christian behaviour
    http://www.coptichymns.net/mod-pagesetter-viewpub-tid-1-pid-111.html
    theres the site now we dont have to as the egyptians say ewga debagna and send throo mail

  • Thanks FROG,
    God Bless,

    Mike.
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