Memhir Esuendale:
#Feasts of #Yekatit_2
✞✞✞On this day we commemorate the Great Abba Paul the Anchorite and Abba Longinus the Righteous✞✞✞
✞✞✞In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen!✞✞✞
✞✞✞The Great Saint Paul✞✞✞
=>According to the Church’s teaching, fathers that are named “the Great” are exceptional. They have done many virtues and we distinguish with the epithet them that are extraordinary from others of similar names.
✞The background for the ascetic life is the Old Testament. And it is believed that the children of Seth who lived on the Holy Mount (Debre Kidus) began it. However, the life was shown vividly by the Great Enoch - the Righteous and then by the Holy Priest Melchizedek.
✞Thereafter, St. Elijah the Prophet, and his disciple Elisha lived it. And in the New Testament St. John the Baptist who spent his whole life in the desert takes precedence.
✞Our Savior Christ, to Whose name’s invoking be prostration, sanctified and taught the ascetic life by living in the Judean Desert for 40 days. And His cell that He used during His ministry to spend the night at, found at Mt. Olive (Elion cave), by itself is a great example of such a life.
✞Historical texts show that after the Ascension of the Lord, when the Apostles became weary of the clatter of the world or when they wanted to serve their Creator with a pure and composed heart, they used to go outside the cities. And there, they lived in groups or alone. The main thing here is that they were diligent in fasting and prayer. And this passed down and reached to the 3rd century. At that time, a pure Christian named Abba Paul took this life to a higher level. He struggled for 80 years without being seen by anyone and was called “The Father of the Hermits”. He started asceticism that had order.
✞And 20 years after that transpired, a kind Christian named Abba Anthony sweetened the ascetic life in another way. The ascetic life was tuned when St. Michael gave the monk's habit [to St. Anthony]. Thus, Abba Anthony was named as “The Father of the Monks”.
✞And to expand the life he received disciples from different countries and tonsured them monks. And the Saints, the spiritual children of Abba Anthony, returned to their respective countries, showed the life practically and expanded monasticism.
✞One day, St. Anthony (The Father of all the Monks) thought, “Would there be anyone prior to me that had lived in the desert for many years?”
✞And without even finishing his thought, St. Michael came to him and said, “O Anthony! You have thought wondering that there be any man that precedes you in the desert. In fact, there is one man in the desert who had come to the desert twenty years before you did, who has delighted the Lord in holiness, whom the world in all its glory cannot parallel the dirt that he stepped on, by whose prayer and supplication it (the world) is protected and who is endowed with glory. Go and see him.” And then he disappeared.
✞St. Anthony marveling from what he had heard went on his way. After he walked a distance of days, he reached a cell (a cave) much further from the desert that he dwelt in. He saw the foot prints of a man and beasts at the door and knocked. Nonetheless the elder inside, slid upon the door a much heavier rock from the inside and reinforced it. That was because he had not seen any man for eighty years and thought that Satan was trying to deceive him. However, St. Anthony loudly spoke saying, “I have sought, let me find; I have knocked, let it be opened for me”.
✞And when the holy anchorite knew it was a man, he opened the door and let him into the cave. And they exchanged spiritual greetings. And when it was night time, St. Anthony asked the elder “What’s your name?” and the elder replied, “If you don’t know my name why did you come?”
#Feasts of #Yekatit_2
✞✞✞On this day we commemorate the Great Abba Paul the Anchorite and Abba Longinus the Righteous✞✞✞
✞✞✞In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen!✞✞✞
✞✞✞The Great Saint Paul✞✞✞
=>According to the Church’s teaching, fathers that are named “the Great” are exceptional. They have done many virtues and we distinguish with the epithet them that are extraordinary from others of similar names.
✞The background for the ascetic life is the Old Testament. And it is believed that the children of Seth who lived on the Holy Mount (Debre Kidus) began it. However, the life was shown vividly by the Great Enoch - the Righteous and then by the Holy Priest Melchizedek.
✞Thereafter, St. Elijah the Prophet, and his disciple Elisha lived it. And in the New Testament St. John the Baptist who spent his whole life in the desert takes precedence.
✞Our Savior Christ, to Whose name’s invoking be prostration, sanctified and taught the ascetic life by living in the Judean Desert for 40 days. And His cell that He used during His ministry to spend the night at, found at Mt. Olive (Elion cave), by itself is a great example of such a life.
✞Historical texts show that after the Ascension of the Lord, when the Apostles became weary of the clatter of the world or when they wanted to serve their Creator with a pure and composed heart, they used to go outside the cities. And there, they lived in groups or alone. The main thing here is that they were diligent in fasting and prayer. And this passed down and reached to the 3rd century. At that time, a pure Christian named Abba Paul took this life to a higher level. He struggled for 80 years without being seen by anyone and was called “The Father of the Hermits”. He started asceticism that had order.
✞And 20 years after that transpired, a kind Christian named Abba Anthony sweetened the ascetic life in another way. The ascetic life was tuned when St. Michael gave the monk's habit [to St. Anthony]. Thus, Abba Anthony was named as “The Father of the Monks”.
✞And to expand the life he received disciples from different countries and tonsured them monks. And the Saints, the spiritual children of Abba Anthony, returned to their respective countries, showed the life practically and expanded monasticism.
✞One day, St. Anthony (The Father of all the Monks) thought, “Would there be anyone prior to me that had lived in the desert for many years?”
✞And without even finishing his thought, St. Michael came to him and said, “O Anthony! You have thought wondering that there be any man that precedes you in the desert. In fact, there is one man in the desert who had come to the desert twenty years before you did, who has delighted the Lord in holiness, whom the world in all its glory cannot parallel the dirt that he stepped on, by whose prayer and supplication it (the world) is protected and who is endowed with glory. Go and see him.” And then he disappeared.
✞St. Anthony marveling from what he had heard went on his way. After he walked a distance of days, he reached a cell (a cave) much further from the desert that he dwelt in. He saw the foot prints of a man and beasts at the door and knocked. Nonetheless the elder inside, slid upon the door a much heavier rock from the inside and reinforced it. That was because he had not seen any man for eighty years and thought that Satan was trying to deceive him. However, St. Anthony loudly spoke saying, “I have sought, let me find; I have knocked, let it be opened for me”.
✞And when the holy anchorite knew it was a man, he opened the door and let him into the cave. And they exchanged spiritual greetings. And when it was night time, St. Anthony asked the elder “What’s your name?” and the elder replied, “If you don’t know my name why did you come?”