Pope Shenouda III's Repose

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  • I am in tears. May the Lord repose this great mans soul and send us another great shepherd!
  • [quote author=Father Peter link=topic=13040.msg153204#msg153204 date=1332012492]
    The Church remains in God's hands. It is the Body and the Bride of Christ. We are in no worse situation than we were this morning because those who are with us are greater than those who are against us, and have always been. God does not love us less, nor have less care for his Church. We are sad because we have lost a father, but we must not think that the Church has lost any of the care which God has for it. It is God who will preserve us in these coming weeks, months and years, as he has always done.

    Now His Holiness will intercede for us with an even greater clarity and urgency, together with Pope Kyrillos, and all those who have passed from this life in the love of God. He has passed to a well deserved rest. May the Lord say to him, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant'.


    Amen Father, beautifully said!

    Heaven rejoices, as the Good and Faithful servant enters the Joy of His Lord, as he enters the company of his Holy Fathers and Mothers the victorious Saints, as he joins the celestial choir of holy angels in glorifying the Lord and master all creation. With the Same unfailing hope and faith in the Spirit, he will say along with Saint Paul "7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. 2 Timothy, 4:7-18.

    “Never will I leave you;
    never will I forsake you.”a
    6So we say with confidence,

    “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
    What can man do to me?”b
    7Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13: 5-8



    Oh beloved Holy father, abuna! the fruit of your labor in Christ is abundant across continents , and accross nations, the seeing of your loving face and hearing of kind your voice was long a source of comfort for us. Abbuna,we love you deeply  :'( and wont forget, and in the Holy and Eternal Spirit may your memory be Eternal! Pray and intercede for us, that we may finish the race and keep the Faith. may the Coptic Church have your continued and unceasing intercession and help in Carrying Her Cross as she gives witness to Him Who is the Light of this world. may the universal Church also have your prayer of intercession and help in Carrying Her Cross as she gives witness to Him who is the Light of this World. Amen, Lord have mercy! Lord have mercy! Lord have mercy!
  • [quote author=Ioannes link=topic=13040.msg153225#msg153225 date=1332041604]
    I am in tears. May the Lord repose this great mans soul and send us another great shepherd!


    Apparently we may potentially not have a Pope for years since they will not choose a Pope in an unstable environment in Egypt. I hope not though.
  • RIP our father Pope Shenouda III
  • [center]God bless our now reposed Pope Shenouda III,whom even serves us to the end; making sure that in this time of Great Lent we have a river of tears to shed[/center]

      Luke 5:35  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.

      Isaiah 1:9  Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.+
    :'( :'( :'(
  • qawe, if the end of the world comes soon, we won't live that many years to see  patriarchs come and go. maybe that is what mina was saying.
    it still feels sad and strange, even though we are obviously much younger.
    may God give us all peace and may we live as pope shenouda taught us.
    we really will miss our beloved patriarch, but his wise teaching and love remain with us.
  • [quote author=qawe link=topic=13040.msg153228#msg153228 date=1332045093]
    [quote author=Ioannes link=topic=13040.msg153225#msg153225 date=1332041604]
    I am in tears. May the Lord repose this great mans soul and send us another great shepherd!


    Apparently we may potentially not have a Pope for years since they will not choose a Pope in an unstable environment in Egypt. I hope not though.


    What does the selection of the Pope have to do with an unstable environment in Egypt? They are unrelated! We need another Pope ASAP because of the unstable environment in Egypt.
  • [quote author=copticuser20 link=topic=13040.msg153242#msg153242 date=1332079158]
    [quote author=qawe link=topic=13040.msg153228#msg153228 date=1332045093]
    [quote author=Ioannes link=topic=13040.msg153225#msg153225 date=1332041604]
    I am in tears. May the Lord repose this great mans soul and send us another great shepherd!


    Apparently we may potentially not have a Pope for years since they will not choose a Pope in an unstable environment in Egypt. I hope not though.


    What does the selection of the Pope have to do with an unstable environment in Egypt? They are unrelated! We need another Pope ASAP because of the unstable environment in Egypt.

    Agreed.
  • [quote author=qawe link=topic=13040.msg153224#msg153224 date=1332040868]
    [quote author=minatasgeel link=topic=13040.msg153184#msg153184 date=1332006640]
    Pray for the soul of our blessed and honored father Pope Abba Shenouda III, that the Lord God may repose his soul in the bosom of our holy fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the Paradise of joy, and forgive us our sins.
    http://tasbeha.org/hymn_library/view/2246

    I never thought we will have to say that response in church in my lifetime.....


    Really? Given you are at most say 30years old it can be reasonably assumed you might live till 80. Therefore you expected Pope shenouda to depart in 50 years... When he is 138 years old?
    Not a good time to be all technical
  • http://www.copticheritage.org/images/Church_Rites_during_the_Departure_of_the_Pope.pdf

    Albair's team just released this today, and it is different from what is on Tasbeha.org (so fix the ones on here lol)
  • This is a long but I think it is perfect. I am interested to see what others think of this.

    St Shenouda the Archimandrite wrote a sermon on the behavior of the good person vs. the evil person. His argument is very basic. No one mourns an evil person, a murder or a thief. But the righteous person is mourned and remembered. He gives the example of Pope Athanasius. St Shenouda wrote almost a hundred years after Pope Athanasius died. He quotes a eulogy (dirge is more accurate) of Pope Athanasius by his contemporary Pope Liberius of Rome. This praise by Pope Liberius of Rome fits perfectly with Pope Shenouda III because both Pope Athanasius and Pope Shenouda III are shining examples of Alexandrian Orthodoxy. Every time I read this, I find more ways that this praise was speaking about Pope Shenouda III.

    The instruction of Liberius, bishop of Rome, which he made concerning the pope of Alexandria, Abba Athanasius, when he heard that he had died: 

    Where is the good shepherd of the holy flock? Where is the captain of the honorable company? Where is he going, or where will he go and abandon us, he who is unaccustomed to being separated from his flock of sheep for a single hour? How has the whole glorious and holy throne been bereft of his manner of sitting, pleasing to God? 
    The holy clergy is sad because of him; the people are mourning; the church is gloomy. Moreover, I think that I hear some people sighing and I see others weeping. Woe to me because of what I see for myself! If they are telling the truth who are speaking words bitter beyond all bitterness, that Athanasius, Christ's beloved, sleeps, then perhaps this is the mourning that I hear. I have not believed it until now. 

    For if a festival comes among us, it will not be able to make those who have been wounded forget their grief; rather, I think that the blow will come anew upon them daily. For the old people will mourn him because he was the staff upon which they were steady, and he has abandoned them. The small children will seek him like their father; the young people, like a brother; the old people, like a son. The orphans will seek him like a guardian. The widows (will seek him) because he was their caregiver; the poor, because he was their benefactor; the weak, because he was their helper; those in distress, because he was their spokesman; the victims of injustice, because he was their judge; those who have been made slaves unjustly, because he was their liberator. The lovers of wisdom will hunger for him because he was their teacher; and those whose faith is sure, because it was he who taught them about God through his words.

    Who will be able to build up human souls like him? Who from now on will add to the churches the people that they lack? Who will adorn the holy gates like him? Who is as able as he? Who will be able to make his rounds night and day, when he would walk on foot, ablaze in his zeal, and speedily come to help all people in their need? We will not find another one like this upon the earth: one who would cast aside possessions like him, willingly choose poverty for himself, love God, and trample upon the glory of this life. Who could produce for himself freedom like this, that he could fight in behalf of righteousness, go to meet with the authorities, and speak boldly in the face of the vain assaults of the rulers? He used to persuade them with his words; he would shame them by his manner, make them be silent by his lifestyle, cause them to marvel at his boldness, and restrain them by his holiness. Whom have the people loved more? What church has labored (under someone) as worthy of love as he?

    He has abandoned us, my brothers and sisters. A man resembling God has abandoned us: the pride and good of every person, the imprint of the apostles, the zealot of the patriarchs, the truly trustworthy servant of Christ, the one compared to the angels, he who revealed the commonwealth of heaven upon earth, first by the ordinance of the Spirit, now too by the sleep of his body. 

    Wretched is a flock of sheep that has been orphaned of a good, sheeploving shepherd! Some of his sheep will now take forms he does not desire, and some of them will become sick, and others will go astray. Further, some will fall down upon cliffs, and others will become plunder for the beasts. 

    Oh, you who were previously envied have now become more wretched than everyone else. What kinds of gifts you enjoyed! But now what kinds of things you have been deprived of! What kind 'of ill-will has seized on us all? Who has destroyed our good zeal? Who has cut off the tongue of the city? Who has taken from the church its voice? Who has shut up the wells forever, the spring pouring forth honey? Who has closed the mouth more harmonious than harp and lyre? Its song about God, full of wisdom, remains. 

    Where are the words, more numerous than raindrops? The words of that sweet voice are still sounding in our ears, and I am gazing on the seat of the pearl. I see the image, worthy to be loved. My heart is amazed at the words that exist by the breath of God and that he would say. So now the crown of the city has been taken away. Now the churches are grieving, desiring him who presides over them. Now an evil fire feeds among the holy festivals, the fire that the blessed one has previously extinguished. But he who created everything will extinguish the fire that now exists.

    Oh, the prayers of the city! And the exertions of those who understand and are pious! And the choirs of singers! And the praises, harmonious in the church! So where is he who gives order to those who praise, he who commands the psalmists? Where is the leader of the holy hymn-singing, radiant in his garment but even more radiant in his face, shining in the purity of his soul among the great multitude of those who understand his words? For he is like a beautiful light in the night. The young men and the virgins, the old people and the  small children-those who once practiced his spiritual songs now have exchanged his songs for a dirge.

    But let us praise God, my beloved; let us not be angry with him! Rather, let us mourn by weeping for him who lives as if he were dead. For the righteous one has not died; rather, he is sleeping and awaiting the hour of the resurrection. When people who are evil in their lifetime die, it is appropriate to mourn them, for they are going to the judgment. But when good people die, it is appropriate to bless them, for their death is precious, as it is written: "The death of the Lord's holy ones is precious in his sight".

    Therefore, my brothers and sisters, until we reach that place, let us rest in his rest, for the memory of the righteous one is famous and good. Moreover, his death comes to him for your sake, and death to be with Christ has been chosen for him. Therefore, let us not be so discouraged over him whom God has honored that we disturb our rest; rather, let us consider even more, my beloved, that day when we will rise. When we celebrate the festival, we will see him in the choir of angels, standing with Christ, serving him spiritually with his apostles. Indeed, up till now he has never ceased serving him and being an ambassador in our behalf. For he will speak with God when he is near to him, not in a mirror and a likeness like when he was on earth, but now face to face. And his honor was not from human beings, but from God.


  • Who will be able to build up human souls like him? Who from now on will add to the churches the people that they lack? Who will adorn the holy gates like him? Who is as able as he? Who will be able to make his rounds night and day, when he would walk on foot, ablaze in his zeal, and speedily come to help all people in their need? We will not find another one like this upon the earth: one who would cast aside possessions like him, willingly choose poverty for himself, love God, and trample upon the glory of this life. Who could produce for himself freedom like this, that he could fight in behalf of righteousness, go to meet with the authorities, and speak boldly in the face of the vain assaults of the rulers? He used to persuade them with his words; he would shame them by his manner, make them be silent by his lifestyle, cause them to marvel at his boldness, and restrain them by his holiness. Whom have the people loved more?

    the answer to all of these questions is His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
  • [quote author=Remnkemi link=topic=13040.msg153295#msg153295 date=1332181425]

    Every time I read this, I find more ways that this praise was speaking about Pope Shenouda III.

  •                 Not Dead but Reposed
    When Abouna Zosima reposed
    In The Brothers Karamazov
    The people await in tears:
          For his body to be preserved,
          Emitting a scent of fragrance, 
          His bones to raise the dead.

    When Ilusha reposed:
    His small hands folded,
    His large eyes closed.
    His father trailed the body,
    Till they laid the coffin. 
    And sang old hymns in the old church:
    Lord, grant rest to the soul of Thy servant!
    Lord, grant mercy to the soul of Thy servant!
    Lord, remember this soul in Thy heavenly kingdom!
    Lord, as Thou remembered the right hand thief!

    For those who are reposed,
    Death is no longer an end – but a bridge
    Death is no longer a period – but a coma
    Death is no longer a full stop – but merely a pause
    A pause between life and everlasting life.
    A rite of passage to the Kingdom. 
    This is no denial of grieve!
    This is a declaration of our faith!

    But for those who survive,
    Death is anguish and pain
    Stench and frail 
    Remembrance and farewell
    And our verdict:
    You are dust to dust you shall return
    So, we sooth our sorrow and console our hearts
    We cry warm tears and burry or loved ones
    We burry their body as one buries a treasure

    But “You must know,
    There is nothing higher and stronger
    More wholesome and good, for life in the future
    Than some good memory.” 
    Or rather, the memory of being good
    Or even, the memory of a good man 

    Such is the oil we save for the night
    For precious in the sight of the LORD
    is the death of His saints.

    March 18, 2012.
  • May the Lord repose the soul of H.H. Pope Shenouda.

    To date, no egyptian has had such massive popularity that was demonstrated in the respects paid by the Copts, moderate muslims in Egypt and the world. Remarkable.
  • Do you know that Pope Shenouda was the 117th pope and he has ordained 117 bishops and he went to heaven at 17 March :D
  • [quote author=+Marmar+ link=topic=13040.msg153428#msg153428 date=1332320638]
    Do you know that Pope Shenouda was the 117th pope and he has ordained 117 bishops and he went to heaven at 17 March :D


    He was 88, born on the month of 08 and the 8th longest reigning pope. 8 resembles living in eternity. And it's my favorite number.
  • I'm not into the coincidence of numerology, but His Holiness is a number 1 hero with me.
  • [quote author=TITL link=topic=13040.msg153440#msg153440 date=1332334054]
    [quote author=+Marmar+ link=topic=13040.msg153428#msg153428 date=1332320638]
    Do you know that Pope Shenouda was the 117th pope and he has ordained 117 bishops and he went to heaven at 17 March :D


    He was 88, born on the month of 08 and the 8th longest reigning pope. 8 resembles living in eternity. And it's my favorite number.


    [quote author=ilovesaintmark link=topic=13040.msg153445#msg153445 date=1332335764]
    I'm not into the coincidence of numerology, but His Holiness is a number 1 hero with me.


    :D

    Pope Shenouda =  indeed our SuPer Hero.
  • May God repose the soul of Pope Shenouda!
    Eternal memory and eternal rest!
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