...with the members of the seminar, so if there is a certain number of repetitions, I ask their forgiveness, their patience. So we saw how Pacomut, who was a pagan, was converted at the age of 20, when he saw the charity of a group of Christians, and it... He made a prayer promising to Christ that if you were delivered, he will serve mankind and search the will of God during all his life. And he was freed, and he went to a village where he put himself at the service of people there, already being faithful to his promise. And he was baptized, and he had a vision during the night of his baptism, showing that the grace that he had received, he had to give to other people too. He continued to live in that village for about three years, helping people, serving people.

[01:04]

And I think we had arrived more or less at that place, at that time, when we stopped on one day. And then after three years, he decided to put himself under the guidance of a spiritual father, an old man named Palamon, who was a monk living outside of the village in the desert, that means a few other yards from the night, and who had a certain number of disciples under him, like the desert parlors of Lower Egypt. So Palaman went to, Pacomius went to that parlour and knocked at the door, and of course he was received in the traditional way, for the monks, because when a monk goes into the desert, he goes there to find solitude and silence. And so if disciples come and want to live with him, that disturbs him.

[02:10]

And so he will not accept them easily. He will test them before. And he will accept only those who really want to live a deep spiritual life and deep spiritual attitude if the person is not really committed to something serious, the solitary will not do this time with him. It's what Palaman says to Pacomius, go and try yourself alone because many saw and could not say. I want you to try yourself first. Reminds me a story in the Hindu literature that there was a great spiritual master who every morning prayed with his hands out stretched during hours. And there was a man who came to him to ask for counsel. And he will ask for counsel, and the father will never answer him, never pay any attention to him.

[03:13]

So he did that during a whole month, every morning. And after a whole month, for the first time, the spiritual father, spiritual master, spoke to him. And that morning, the only thing he said, he said, how far are you ready to go? So that's the important question. If he is ready to go the whole way, he will pay attention to him. But if he is just asking for a little advice, out of curiosity, he will not do this time with him. So Palaman, you see, if I come to you in this way, and he says, period, here is my ascension, my form of life. I fast all the time, and usually I eat every other day. And I spend most of the night, sometimes all the night, praying. And he explained that, and he says, are you ready? And he says, go and try, if you can do that.

[04:17]

And Pachomius insists, and finally he receives him. And then he is formed by Talmud. And the formation consists simply in living with him, living with him day after day, night after night, doing the same thing. And there is a description here of their life. Both of them pursued the toysome asses and also took time out for prayer. Their work consisted in spinning and weaving woolen bags, or hair bags. And in their work they labored not for themselves, but remembering the poor, as the apostles commanded. So that was a characteristic of the monks at that time. They always kept a part of what they earned from their work for the poor, a part for the church, a part for the poor, and a part for themselves. And if the old man saw during their vigils,

[05:19]

that sleep was pressing heavy on them, they both went out to the sand of the mountain. So they carried sand in baskets from place to place, forcing the body to labor so that it might stay awake for prayer. The vigil is the vigil of prayer. And if they do walk during the vigil, it's in order to remain awake. And why to remain awake? The old man used to say, keep awake, Pachomius, lest Satan tempt you and harm you. So the whole life is a life of vigilance, of care, care, care. To be careful, to be, as I mentioned very often in the seminar, the first most important thing for a monk is to be careless, is to be negligent. It's not to pay attention to the spirit of God or to the spirit of evil, who is always trying to uproot in him one of the fruits of the spirit of God.

[06:19]

So here's a long description of their lapses. So after a while, because when somebody goes into the desert to put himself under the direction of a spiritual father, it is a temporary relation. Not like in the tenobium. When somebody enters the tenobium, the tenobitic life is for life. He is drawing a group of brothers to whom he commits himself for life. But when someone goes into the desert, to put himself under the direction, spiritual direction of an elder, is to be formed. And so when he is formed, he goes alone in the desert and can become a spiritual father himself eventually. It is acknowledged by others as a bearer of the spirit because nobody in the desert constitutes himself a spiritual guide or is constituted a spiritual guide by any authority. It is the disciples who acknowledge the presence of the Spirit in the spiritual guide, and by that very fact, make up in a spiritual guide for a group.

[07:26]

So after a while, Paquemius goes further to pray into the desert, into a village, abandoned village, and then there is, he has a vision, and the Spirit of God, through an angel, tells him, come here and build your monastery here, and others will come to you. And it's difficult to know exactly what happened there, because we have in the old Coptic, Trimegantary Coptic sources, a description of two visions, who gave him that order in a gradual way. First time, he just tell him, come here. And then later on, when he will be there, he will say, built a monastery, a larger monastery, because people will come to live with you. In the Greek life that we have here, we are using, the two visions are put into one. And so that means that it is time to live the spiritual father.

[08:31]

And he makes a discernment to be sure that this is from the Spirit of God. And then... He goes back to his spiritual father, Palamon, and Palamon acknowledged that this is from the Spirit of God, so further discernment. But Palamon is very sad because he was sad because he treated Pachomius as his own child. It's beautiful to see that that very rough man, he was abrupt in speech, the rough man could be capable of a very tender love for his disciples, and the relation between him and his disciples was the relation of friendship very soon. And so he goes, and not only he let Pacomius go away, but he go with him and help him to build himself. And they make an agreement that Pacomius will come to visit him once, and then the next time,

[09:38]

he will go and visit them. They will visit each other like that, till Palamon died. And in the narrative, in Catholic of the Second Vision, Pachymus is praying during the night. He's praying, and he's sad, and his heart is broken, because he wants to know the will of God. So it's not clear for him what is the will of God on him, exactly. And an angel comes to him, and the angel says, why are you sad? He says, I want to know the will of God. And the angel says, the will of God is that you serve mankind. And he is upset. I want the will of God, and you tell me to serve mankind. The angel repeats three times. The will of God is that you serve mankind in order to bring them to God. And we see in that narrative that already for the biographer or the people at that time, there was a kind of tension there.

[10:47]

So they want to have the angel give the answer to the type of tension that they see themselves between serving man and serving God. But then he began to understand that He is called to do something for people who always come to him because, as I mentioned the other day, every time a community goes somewhere, people come to live around him because he is good. He is a community builder by charisma, by nature. And so he built his own cell there, and immediately people start coming to that abandoned village to make their... their house around them. And I'll hear the text from the copy. We cannot speak yet of what we will say a monastic community. They say brothers, that means other people, come to people from the surrounding villages come to live around him.

[11:57]

And they started living a common life with him. And they will form a little colony. Each one will build his own house, or use one of the houses of the village. When he saw that the brothers were reunited around him, he made a kind of regulation for them. And the regulation was that each one will make his own living, walking, and so on. And each one will get a part of what he earned. And so that they will take care of all their material needs in common, either for nourishment, for food, or for taking care of the foreigners, the guests, and so on. So PACOM use will take care of the whole organization. He's the manager. And he's the one who organized the meal, the one who organized the hospitality.

[12:59]

the one who organized work and so on. And he is doing everything himself. And he says, why? Because, he says, they were not yet grown in virtue in such a degree that they could serve each other. And also, it is not yet a complete community of possession and each one has something for himself. They say because they were not yet ready to live together in the perfect community as is mentioned in the Act of the Apostles. The community is always aware of the limitations of people and giving time for growth. So those people who are around him are just people who come to him because he is good to dance. and they start forming a community.

[14:01]

But it cannot be from the start a perfect community. So, as I mentioned this afternoon, the way Pacomius arrived at the constitution of the Kainonia, the monastic congregation, is not by bringing hermits or monks together. It's just by bringing together or accepting that people will come to live with an ordinary religion and you will make After he has made them into a community, he will make of them a community of mine. By awaking them to the need for prayer, the need for atheism, the need for contact with God, the need for purity of heart, the need for purity of conscience. But it will not be easy. And it will not succeed with the first group. Because... The more he was doing other chores himself and serving them, because he had promised God to serve mankind, the more they enjoyed the situation.

[15:06]

It was very interesting for them. And he was not demanding enough. And so one day, they become more and more arrogant. They treat him with contempt. So during the night, he goes and prays during the whole night. And he decided the next day to be a bit more demanding. And he had accepted that situation for about four or five years. He was very patient, but I think just a year or two, four or five years. And so he says, now, he asked of them three things, to be faithful to the common prior, common meal, and common work. When we make the signal for the prayer, you shall all come in time. And same thing for the meal. And when we go to work outside, because we work outside, you will all come together.

[16:12]

And they say, what does he have today with his abrupt speech? It does not used to be like that. And if he thinks that we will do what he wants, he will wait long. And so they used to come one by one. The next day, nobody comes. And so Platonius decides to expel all of them. This is in the end of the first group. This is in the Coptic life. But this is not that very defying, you know, to see the founder has not succeeded in the first group. So in the little life, which are the standard, Boiric and Greek life, It has disappeared. They just say, they just begin with the second group. And they say, he received so-and-so who was a very good Nazi and grew in virtue and so on and so on. And then they arrive at the number of 100. And then they add a little paragraph. They say, among the Nazis who came, there were a few who were not according to the will of God.

[17:16]

And he was obliged to excel them. And then they continue the narrative. It's well said. Everything is there, but... well arranged. Then the second group comes and then he he decide to make to be much more demanding on them and to dedicate himself completely not only to their material need but also to the spiritual need and following the evolution of each one very closely and also making them serve each other. So it's not only himself serving them, but the gift he has to give them is to teach them how to serve each other. So the whole organization of the monastic, the pakomian community, the kognonia, is the organization of a group of brothers who are at the service of one another. Each one of the service to fulfill in the community.

[18:19]

And this is the main characteristic, is the love. the love for God, the love of the brother, which is expressed in a life of mutual service. And so then they can help each other in growing in virtue. And then the community grows gradually. And during that time, they have to live as Christians. So they have to practice their sacramental life. And there is no priest in the monastery. So what they do, they go to the village nearby for the Eucharist. Even at the beginning, what Pachonius does is there is no priest coming to the village nearby. So he built a church for the people who are there. And he takes care of their spiritual life. He reads the scripture to them and commands the scripture to them. And then there will be a priest sometime.

[19:20]

And the monks will go to that village for the Eucharist every Saturday evening and every Sunday. And later on, when there is a larger number of brothers, when they reach a number of about 100, then he builds a church in the monastery. And from that time on, the priests of the village will come to celebrate in the monastery on Saturday evening. But the monks will continue to go to the village on Sunday morning. There will always be a kind of relation between the group, the monastic group, and the peasants around. And the liturgical life of the community will be pretty much the same as what it was in all the churches of Egypt. Gradually, it will become something specific, something different, from the belief of the community who is becoming one more monastic community and have a specific orientation.

[20:29]

So the liturgy will take specific orientation. But they did not think of doing something different because they were different. So the Eucharistic practice was twice a week, so they took exactly the same Eucharistic practice. In all the churches in Egypt, there was a catechism, scriptural catechism, given to the faithful on the days of time, on one day and on Friday. So, my community introduced those catechism, scriptural catechism in this community, which was not something specifically monastic, it was something that belonged to the church at this time. Then the monk retained it while the church suppressed it. But it was an ordinary practice. And then, which was related to fast. Fasting is always related to scripture. Fasting for the early monk was not a private, personal, apithical practice.

[21:33]

It was a communal practice. And it was a liturgical thing. It was related to the listening and the catechesis of the scripture. the Word of God. And same thing for the celebration of Easter. They had, within the congregation, each year, all the monks of all the monasteries were gathered for the celebration of Easter, which was very important for them. And all the catechumen who were monks were baptized. They said that they celebrated Easter celebration in fasting and the Word of God. Celebration through fasting and the Word of God. And so after a while, since there are many in the monastery, there were not huge monasteries, as Palladius says. In the Lausiac history, it is said that there were a group of about 5,000 a month at some point in the Pagomian monasteries. I think this is an exaggeration. It seems that there were about 100% a bit more in each monastery.

[22:37]

And so Pagomius founded the second monastery himself. Then there were other abbots who had monasteries nearby, who, seeing the development of the Pacomian monasteries, seeing the charism of Pacomian, and acknowledging that Pacomius' charism was superior to theirs, asked Pacomius to take their monastery into his communion, into his congregation. and so that he will introduce in their monastery the way of life that he has developed for his month. I think it is beautiful to see how monasteries already existing with their own spiritual leader, who has certainly his own charism, have acknowledged that something better, something after has appeared, and so they want to receive that charism too.

[23:39]

And then there are bishops. who asked Pachomius to come and found a monastery in their diocese so there are many types of foundations after a while there is a monastery a congregation of nine monasteries and it continues to develop but then Pachomius has a certain number of disciples who have a special role to play in the congregation. One of them is Theodore. He's one of his first disciples to whom we have a special love and special confidence. But it seemed that Theodore at some point accepted the desire of the brother that he will be their superior after the death of Pycomius. Pycomius put him in Finland for seven years.

[24:41]

And so when Pachomius died, he did not appoint the other as a successor, but somebody else, Petronius, who died a few days later during the same epidemic. And the next one was Arceusius, who was another very important disciple of Pachomius. And from Arceusius, we have a certain number of writings, especially something called the Liber Arceusius, the book of Arceus, which is the spiritual testament. is the most beautiful spiritual work that you have translated into English in that booklet that Felix made for the seminar. And it's full of scripture. And it is one of the books that express in a better way the spirituality. So R.C.S. became superior, in general. But he did not have, and I don't think the other had also the same charism.

[25:47]

There was an evolution and a decadence in the congregation. And the reasons of the decadence were many. Probably the first one was, of course, the change that had to happen after the death of a man so important. in the whole evolution and then it seemed that many of the elders died at the same time during the same epidemic and then also the congregation grew and expanded and started to be richer and the enrichment of the congregation is showed as one of the reasons of its decadence. And after these events, it happened that the brothers greatly increased in numbers.

[26:51]

And in order to feed such a multitude, they started spreading out into fields and into many forests. And since other concerns increased, each monastery started being a bit negligent. And there is another text later on, at a later period that express the same reality in a clearer way. Because, as we have said, the monasteries eventually persist many fields and many ships, each monastery built its own, the mountain became busy and went down with heavy preoccupation. So it's not in itself the fact of having many things, of needing fields and ships and so on, but it became busy. and weighed down with heavy preoccupations. And the preoccupations bring them to be negligent. This is the first sin.

[27:53]

So, in the day of Abbot Pakomius, when there were few, they were cautious not to be laden with the weight of this world's material position. For the Lord's yoke is light, is a light one. And... and then there was in the congregation a sense of unity and uniformity at the same time a very strong stress on uniformity but on the other hand at the counterbalance a great concern for the individual the individual need but uniformity was important and the total sharing of everything but then A certain Apollonius, father of the monastery of Monchrosus, wanted to buy for himself superfluous commodity, despite the rule of the community.

[28:53]

And when Archiasius reprimands him for that, he is angered, and he wants to separate his monastery from the congregation. But Archiasius is not able to handle that situation, but he is a very humble man. And being humble, he realized that he cannot handle the situation. So he asked the other to come and take over the government. And the other will do that for, I think, about five years. And then he would call back or see it again. And so you see, in the history of the congregation, as much as in the history of Patomus itself, there is continuous growth with that comprises success and high point and low point and failures and so on. And after the death of the other, during the last year of first Jesus, it seems that the congregation has been very flourishing.

[29:56]

And further, with the ordinary things that are natural for human beings, Then we don't know much about the history of the Pakomian congregation. After that, there was a reform which is known very much by Shenuti, a very special type of monastic life. It was at a time when there were more and more invasions of barbarians, so it became a kind of military monastic life. They had to defend themselves. And then there was the invasion of the Arabs. And that, unfortunately, that synoptic life in other Egypt was just swept out of the map. And what has remained is just the literature. And, well, there was a rule. And the rule had influenced a certain number of monasteries.

[31:00]

There were Pakomian monasteries living at that time in our Egypt, too. And probably in one of those monasteries that Saint Jerome found the rule, the text of the rule, that he completed in two letters, that it is the only work by Pachomius that has influenced Western monasticism. And Benedict knew it, because we have in the rule of Saint Benedict a few quotations from the rule of Saint Pachomius that we don't find either in Cassian or in the master. So Benedict must have known directly the rule of Pachomius in Athens. But unfortunately, the rule is not something that gives a good knowledge of the Pachomian spirituality. If you want to know the Pachomian spirituality, you have to know how they live, and it is true of life. And we have a certain number of texts, collections of regulations, which are called as the rule of Pachomius.

[32:03]

but it's a collection of a lot of speculations of which some may go back as far back as specomules but most of them probably represent a little stage at the at the time of first year even later i think i mentioned that the other day when we think about our founders we always we tend to think that they are the clear idea so we see that specomules did not have a clear idea. He just was praying to know the will of God, and gradually, God led him to become the founder of something he had not foreseen himself. And I always find it very interesting to make a parallel between the history of Pacomius and the history of Saint Benedict, as we see it in the second book of the dialogue. And I reread the dialogue the day before yesterday. And I was so surprised to see, more clearly than before, the link, the parallel, that I would like to analyze with Father de Votwey, somebody very competent in Benedict, if there is no literary relation between Gregory and Tacomius.

[33:26]

Because when Gregory wrote his dialogues, the life of Stachemus had been translated into Latin by Dionysius in Rome. And so Ecolat had that take quite easily. If we look through the life of Benevic rapidly, you'll see. Benevic abandoned his studies in Rome when there were a young man studying in Rome, and he goes to actually with his nurse. I don't know if there are many students going around with their nurse today. They made me going around with somebody, but not the nurse. And then he goes to Stubiaco, and he spent three years there, the three years of Pacomia, in the village of Chenisteth. And then he lived as a hermit, and only the priest Romanus came to bring him bread.

[34:30]

But then, after a while, people discover him. And when the shepherds discover him, they start coming to him and living around him, so that he will teach them, and he teach them the Word of God. And then other people discover about him, and they come to him. And same phenomenon as with the Piconius. And then there are, St. Gregor says that people start leaving the world to come and live under his guidance. Because he is good, because he is spiritual master, people come first just shepherd. They don't want to become man. They are shepherds, they remain shepherds, but they come to live nearby because he is good. And then people want to live a kind of ascetic life under his guidance. And then there is a first attempt at the community. There is a community who asks him to become their abbot. He wants, he accepts, but he wants to reform them.

[35:33]

And they accept to be reformed at the beginning. But when he really tries to reform them, they find it too hard. And they decide that the best thing is to get rid of him. So they try to poison him. That's the radical way. I always remember when I was like that, but my dear Frank is there. He wrote me and he said, be sure you bless everything the brothers give you to drink. And I did, I'm still alive. And so he goes back then to his visit to live by himself, to live by himself. And then he built up 12 monasteries in the region. And his relationship to people around is better and better. And people have a great confidence to him. People come to him. He has a very good information, all the churches around.

[36:34]

And there is a priest, Florentius, and he creates a lot of trouble. And instead of staying in that state of war, Benedict decides to go to Monte Cassino. And then there is a second beginning. But what he does in Monte Cassino, first thing he does is to comfort the people of the village. And then he establishes the community, community growth. And then he continues to convert people later on, sending his monks to those villages. And then the rule, according to which we live, is the fruit of that whole experience. It's not something that was given by an angel, or something that he wrote at the beginning of his life, but the truth of the whole evolution, the groping, the church, and the... the first tribe and the period, and so on. And then he founded other monasteries, and so on.

[37:35]

And, oh yes, there is something similar too, because every founder was not by the sister. And so Tycho had his sister who came to him shortly after he had founded his first monastery. And so he built a monastery for her, and she founded the convent of Nun. So Venevic did the same thing with Scholastica. Some people have their thoughts about their historical existence, but I want to give them an opinion on that subject. And we could make a parallel also with the founders of CITO. The foundation of CITO was not easy, but the same growth rate. Robert, the story of Robert is not so parallel with the one of Benedict and Pacumius, but there is something similar. It's not the man who had discovered one day what type of monarchic art he wanted.

[38:40]

He was just dissatisfied with what he wanted, with what he had, and he was trying something else. He enters Montier-Lastel, where he becomes prior. And then he's elected the abbot of Saint-Michel-du-Tonnerre. He wants to make a reform there. And he does not succeed in making the reform. So he leaves them and comes back to Montilessville. And then he is a priorate of Azul-en-Provence. And then he is forced by the Pope to accept to be the abbot of the hermit of Collin, who I've asked him for a long time to become the abbot. And he transferred them to Moulin. But he does not succeed in making with them the reform he wants to go, he wants to make. So he joined a group of pyramids at Oaks. And then he's obliged by the Pope to come back to Moulin. It's a very painful life.

[39:42]

And then while he is on a long trip in Flanders, the division is there. greater and greater in the community. So when he comes back, there is the foundation of B.V. Good with the, without Robert. But then with some of the same group, he was on CITO. And as CITO was just beginning to grow, he's called back to Muller. And he will be another 12-year. But there is no charter, there is no planned organization is just trying to follow step by step the will of God all those people are always walking in the dark and God is telling them just bit by bit step by step just like walking in the night with a little flashlight just see in front of one step at a time and you never see what is coming on there so I think the same thing for

[40:51]

our own personal journey in monastic life. And it's the same thing for the journey of our community. And just before this talk, Fr. Fisagoneff, with whom I was speaking, he mentioned to me that there was a very, very good parallel to make between Pacomius and the Rancis. And so I will let him do it sometimes. But I think what he mentioned to me is very important. This morning I was explaining how Pacomius was extremely demanding in establishing the rule, but extremely understanding in the way he applied it to individuals, and how it's not enough to read a rule to discover what was the type of life that was lived in that military. It's important to see a biography to see how with what type of understanding that man applied it.

[41:56]

And like I was mentioning, it's the same with the ranching. It's not enough to see the type of tool he established, but it's good to see how he lived. But we could do that for any type of founder. So after having that kind of living contact with Trachomeus, how he was led by God to found his congregation. So next time, I will try to give a general description of the spiritual life that was lived in his monastery. But I think it would have been artificial to give that description of the spiritual life without the context, especially the historical context in which it was lived. End of side one. Please wind tape to the end and turn over for side two.

[42:49]

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