I wish we could read together all of the whole life of Pagan Muse, but the week would not be enough. So I have chosen a few paragraphs that we could analyze together that would give us an idea of all the riches that we can gather from a text that at first reading sometimes does not say much, but if we stop at each word, very often we can receive much more than we thought at the beginning. I won't insist too much on the first part of the live since I am trying to comment it in a different way with the whole community in the evening. So the part dealing with the conversion by communes and its first attempt at making a community began yesterday evening and I will continue tomorrow evening. From that part of his life, I would like to see the same one paragraph of the time when Pachomius is with his father Palermo.

[01:11]

Give us an example of his asses at that time. It is paragraph nine on page 15. So Placomius went to Palamon, and the formation is just to live with his father, and being formed by the light itself, and doing the same asceticism, the same prayer life, and so on. And he is growing in virtue. And in the paragraph 8, there is a story of a monk who was a victim of pride, But pretty much like one of the stories that John mentioned yesterday, that monk is able to walk on fire without being burnt. And he's very proud of that, but Palamon is clear sighted enough to see that that's from the devil, that's from the spirit of God, can make a miracle, but that's from the devil.

[02:17]

And then at the end of the story is, The devil once wins over him and he is a victim of the devil. And so that explained the beginning of paragraph nine. When Pachomius saw this thing, this thing is that that monk has been a victim of the illusion. So when he saw these things, he became even more apprehensive about his own progress. I think we could translate in a different way. He acquired a greater fear. the phobon, a greater fear to foul, the fear of the offense. He felt so much apprehensive about his own progress. That's more or less the same meaning, but he acquired a greater fear of the offense. That means a greater fear to foul, to sin himself. So that fear of sin is an important element in spiritual life.

[03:21]

from the fear of God. And as the scripture says, and this reference to the scripture is constant, constant in the Pacomian writings. Every time Pacomius speaks to his monk, it's always from the scripture. And when he gives a few rules, a few regulations to organize the life of the monastery, he always says that those are the regulations that I have taken for you from the scripture. So as the scripture says, he kept watch over his heart with all vigilance. The vigilance is also an important aspect of their spirituality. And the first sin is fearlessness, the negligence. In the Catechesis about the spiteful month, Pachomius reproach him for his carelessness, his lack of vigilance.

[04:22]

Because the whole antithesis consists in developing in us the fruits of the Spirit. Theology of Pachomius, if we can speak about theology, is very simple. It's that we have received at baptism all the fruits of the Spirit. And the fruits of the Spirit are the virtue. But there are as many fruits of evil as there are fruit of the spirit. And the fruit of evil are the vices. And the struggle between good and evil is always present in us. The struggle between the spirit of God and the spirit of evil. So the spirit of God has given us all its fruit. But the spirit of evil the demon or the devil is always there trying to uproot one of those fruit and then to put in its place one of his fruit. So if the demon wins over us by taking away from us one of the virtue, then he has won the place, he is master of the place.

[05:32]

We have to be very vigilant because if we let the devil enter into us only through a small window, it becomes master of the place, and we will lose the whole battle. We have to be constantly vigilant, and it is through our heart that the devil can enter into us. So we have to watch over our heart to acquire a greater and greater purity of heart. In other places, we speak about the purity of conscience. Heart and conscience, in Pakistan terminology, is practically the same thing. And so the good old man admired him. So the old man is the senior, is panaman. Old does not mean necessarily that he has many years of age, but perhaps he had, but elder means an ancient, someone who has experience in life and has become a master of the others.

[06:35]

And he is master not because he has been appointed or because he has appointed himself, but just because the others have identified him as pneumatophore, as a bearer of the spirit. And he is good. I very much like that adjective. He is good for Pakomjul. When Pakomjul arrived there, he was very harsh. He was not very quick in accepting Pakomjul. For example, when Pakomjul knocked at the door, the old man stopped down from above and said to him, what do you want? for he was abrupt in speech. Let's say, by the way, he was seeing his disciple to test him. But then he was very good and he admired him. I like very much that attitude of the master powering his disciple. If the disciple is growing in virtue, is growing in the spirit, the father and Maria, and loves him, we'll see when Pachomius will leave his master, master will be very sad because he loved him as his own child.

[07:51]

Somebody asked me yesterday if there was something about friendship in the Pachomius literature. I don't remember if the word friendship is there, but the reality is certainly there. And the relation between the master and the disciple is a relation of friendship, a very, very close relation. So he admires him, he admires the works of God in him, and he loves him. And he admires him because he not only endured willingly the outward intensive assurances of the Ascetic Regional, in terms of assurances, but he was also eager to purify his conscience, or his heart, his conscience, to perfection. So that very, very strong Ascetic Parliament who eat only every other day and spend at least half of the night praying and most of the time the whole night praying and never eat anything else than bread and salt.

[09:00]

A very, very rough man. He can be tender and he is concerned not only about the outward intensive assistance of his disciple, but he is concerned about the purity of his conscience and the purity of his heart. He was also eager to purify his conscience, to perfection, perfectly. Here there is a mistranslation. To perfection, according to God's law, we have to translate, in order to accomplish God's law. In order to realize or to accomplish God's law. And why to do that? Why that intensive asceticism, outward asceticism, and why that purification of conscience? Expecting the greater hope in heaven. It's a catalogical orientation, a philosophical one. So hope, as it is, is oriented towards the expectation of the greater hope in heaven.

[10:08]

It's a life of hope. That's the reason why it's a joyful life, although it's very austere. It has a meaning. When he started reading or reciting God's words by heart, reciting in Greek, it's meditating. We shall call it meditating. the meditant is to the meditation. And the meditation for the early monks does not consist in reflecting in our mind about the scripture, but in reciting it in a low voice. St. Augustine, I think, has a funny, interesting etymology of meditare, supposed to come from mediagoci ditare. to recite in a low voice. But it's the way they recited the scripture, they never thought of reciting it omni-mentally. And the whole life of prayer of the Pakomyan monk, I mean, either personal prayer or common prayer, consisted in reciting the scripture.

[11:18]

And I mentioned yesterday afternoon that all the Pakomyan monks, all the monks that came to the monastery, had to learn how to read. That was quite extraordinary in the backward Coptic village. And they had to learn how to read in order to learn the scripture. And they had to learn by heart at least the Old Testament and a few other books of the Old Testament. So that was just the beginning. And they had better memory than we have. And so while they were walking or going from one place to the other, from their house to the refectory or to the place where the whole community gather, or going outside to work, because sometimes they work very hard in the monastery for salary outside. The whole community will go outside to work for another farmer. And all their life was busy with reciting the scripture.

[12:21]

That was their form of prayer. And when they came together in Synaxis for the common prayer, they continued to walk, weaving basket, something like that. But one will get up and recite the part of the scripture that he knew by heart. That was the most simple and the deepest form of prayer. continuous contact with the word of God. So when he started reading or reciting God's words by heart, and they used to learn the scripture by By pericopies, they learn so many pericopies. And they call those pericopies that they learn by heart. I think, I don't know if I can translate that in English, but we call them some by heart. In French, un par coeur, a by heart, a piece of structure that they knew by heart. And so when they came to the reading, it had become a technical war.

[13:25]

They would say that in the office in the evening, somebody will get up and recite six by hearts. And when he did that, he did not hit, a word is missing, negligently in the fashion of many other people. But he strove to comprehend inside himself each and everything through humility and gentleness and truth. So it's not only a question of knowing by heart the text, but of letting oneself to be impregnated by those texts, and to be transformed, and transformed in order to become humble and gentle and true. Humility, gentleness, and truth, according to the world's world, learn from me because I am gentle and humble at heart. So the Lord being gentle and humble of heart, if we let his words impregnate us, we will become gentle and humble and true.

[14:37]

But that could be, I think, a good example of the formation that a monk like Pachomius will receive in the desert from his spiritual father. We could pass now to another paragraph on the right, paragraph 24, which gives us an example of how Pygamous formed his own disciples. We will see more of that tomorrow, or till tomorrow, in the rule. There are a few paragraphs of the rule that are very explicit about the, what was required and what was from and what was told to the novices or the newcomers. But this is a biographical note saying what Baikonur did with his first disciple.

[15:44]

After he felt about the voice which he had heard, sorry, He had a vision telling him to, after he left Parliament, to build a small place and the people will come to him and will be married around him. And the angel told him, the Lord's will, the end of the paragraph before, the Lord's will is to minister to the race of men and to reconcile them to him. to minister to mankind. You remember his promise that he made during the night he was in jail. He promised to God if he was delivered to serve mankind, to minister to mankind all his life. And the angel now reminds him many years after that this is the will of God on him. And so people come to him and he starts trying to make a community of them.

[16:53]

How does he do that? And here, of course, we make abstraction of the fact that he tried with the first group and did not succeed, and he tried again with the second group. But let's take the text as it is here. After he thought about the voice, which he unheard, the voice of the angel, and realized its meaning, he started receiving those who came to him. So every time Pachomius is somewhere, people come to him. So there are people who come to him here in Pademesis, which was an abandoned village. And after he tested their worthiness, whether they were worthy, Nothing is explained here, how he does it. And that of the parents, this is a bit surprising. I have no comment on that because I don't see anything in the light that can give an explanation for that. So I could imagine all kinds of things, but that would be my imagination.

[17:57]

He clothed them in the monk's habit. To make somebody a monk is to give him the habit. He clothed them in the monk's habit and he introduced them to monastic life gradually. I like that word very much, gradually. Monastic life is not a thing that you, it's not like a habit. You can put the habit on, and then you begin to become a monk. But you don't start to be secular, and the next day you are a perfect monk. You become gradually a monk. And Bhai Kumbhas was very, very aware of that. that not everything could be required of everybody from the first day they were in a monastery. It was extremely demanding and at the same time extremely understanding. And you could find a lot of examples. For example, That text of the scripture about if anyone wants to be my disciple and does not hate or renounce his parents, his mother, his father, and his brother, and sister, and his wife, and so on, is not worthy of being my disciple.

[19:13]

That's a very strong word in the scripture. And the holy monks always wanted to live literally and in a radical way all the words of the scripture. And that word of Christ meant a big problem for them. How to be faithful to that. And at the same time to respect charity and so on. But usually when someone enter the monastery, we'll never see his relatives again. Never go back and we never accept to see them at the monastery. But if somebody is not ready to understand that, Bacchus will send Theodore, for example, with one monk to his family, and he will say to Theodore, well, he does not understand that word of the scripture yet, so in order to save his soul, go to him, to his family, and when he has understand, he will do it by himself. I love an example like that, that Pachomius will never impose on someone something of which God has not yet given him the understanding.

[20:20]

He is respecting the process of growth. All the parables, most of the parables of the kingdom in the New Testament are parables of growth. A growth that takes time. A seed that is put into earth and grows gradually, becomes a tree, but before becoming a tree it has to grow. It needs to put into the dough and it ferments gradually. Very often we would like our life, and especially the life of our brothers, to be changed overnight. radically, but can it be? It's a process of growth and we have to respect, and God respected in us. So Platonius, we will see another example of that deep respect. The first step was to renounce the world with respect to the family, I just mentioned it. And themselves, not only to renounce the world, but to renounce oneself, that's another question.

[21:27]

And themselves, and to follow the Savior who taught that. So the renunciation, but it's not only the negative aspect, the following of Christ, sacred like Christ. If we renounce something, it must have a meaning, and the meaning is to follow Christ. For this is what it means to build a cross. Build a cross is to run out and follow Christ who chose the way of the cross. All the penances are always explained by a reference to the cross, to the person of Christ. Never a blind assistant, never a blind type of penance, masochism, it's never explained by pedagogical rationalization of killing the body in order that the soul would be more alive. No, it's just to follow the example of Christ and suffer with Christ and share in the cross.

[22:33]

They, on the other hand, being taught well by him and according to the scriptures, you see the mention of the scriptures again? He is teaching them, but what he's teaching them is according to the scripture. It's just a mediation. The father, the doctor, the teacher, it's just a mediation between the scripture and the monk. And the rule of the monk, I can just stress that over and over again, the rule of the monk is the scripture. and his role is to convict the scripture and the marrow of the scripture to his mouth. Caught well by him and according to the scripture, bore fruit. You see this theme of the fruit of the spirit that I mentioned. Bore fruit in a manner worthy of your crown. And if somebody has made a sin, we have the truth of the spirit, we can lose them by sin, then we have to...

[23:44]

recover them or find them again. And the only way is through conversion, through metanoia. Metanoia is the old transformation of the heart. But metanoia is not a thing that we can do ourselves. It has to be a pure gift from God. So metanoia, we receive it from God. But in order to receive it from God, we have to make fruit worthy of repentance. So if we make fruit worthy of conversion, God gives us the conversion of the heart. But those fruits can be as well fruits of conversion as fruit of virtue. Worthy of their crown. They marvel at him exceedingly because they saw him toiling not only through bodily hardships, but also through his assumption of nearly all the plural of the monastery. Well, I will explain that a bit more, Arshan, with the whole group tomorrow evening.

[24:51]

With his first group, Pycomus was concerned about serving them. And so he did all the chores himself. And they liked it quite well. And they took advantage of him more and more. But that didn't bring them very far. And at the end, he had to expel all of them, as mentioned here. But then, with his second group, he discovered that the real community was to serve each other, and not only one serving the other. So he organized them to form a mutual service. But let's see here what he did and why he did it. But he prepared a table for them at mealtime. Similarly, he soiled and watered the vegetable. Then he would answer the door every time someone would knock on it. And if anyone of them was sick, Artemis himself eagerly took care of him and ministered to him during the night.

[25:55]

Well, I think that's sometimes, during my work times, that happens. On my anniversary, I would do everything. I would try to do everything. Those brothers who were neophytes had not yet reached such a degree of eagerness in serving each other. That's a bad translation. Those brothers who were neophytes had not yet reached a disposition such as to serve each other. So the reason why he did all of that is because they were still neophytes and had not yet reached the disposition such as to serve each other. They did not understand yet that they had to serve each other, so he wrote it himself. But he freed them of all care by saying, in his second novice master, Brethren, swaddle that you may attain to the object of your cow. Take care of your vocation. Study the Psalms and the lessons on the other books, and especially from the Gospel.

[27:01]

As for me, I took my rest by serving you and God according to God's command. The whole idea that in the monastery, someone has to, someone has or have to do the chores, but the others, the novice, those who are in formation, have to struggle to attain the object of the cow, but in the psalms, in the lessons and the other books. So that was his way of calling his novices. And then this came and the number grew more and more, and we had to think about the Eucharist, and there are no priests, and Pagomius did not want priests in the monastery. His position towards priesthood was practically the same as the one of Benedict,

[28:02]

And so they went to the church of the nearby village and he built a church for the people of the village and took care of the offering there. And they did that for a long time. And when the monks arrived at the number of 100 in the monastery, then the number was too large to go to that church of the village. Then he built a church in the monastery for the community. But still, the link with the local church was kept because the monk continued to go to the local church, the village, on Saturday evening, and the priests and the people of the village came to the monastery on Sunday evening, Sunday morning. They had Eucharist twice a week, Saturday evening and Sunday morning. And that was at the main monastery. But from other texts of Theodore, it seems that even at a very, very later time, monks continued to go to the local church for the Eucharist.

[29:11]

In the Patamyan monasticism, we find a great amount of solitude and silence, and monks live in cells, and most of their time is spent in their cells. They work in silence, meditating the scripture, but they are much more silent than we are even before we drop the sign, the language, sign language. But at the same time, Solitude and Silence, they have a continuous, very healthy relation with the outside world. Most of the time they go to work outside with the farmers of the place. And when they go to Alexandria, for example, to sell their products, every time they come back, Pachomius asks them, how is the Church of God? How is our Father Athanasius? There is a beautiful balance of a very strong solitude and silence, and a very healthy relation with the surrounding world.

[30:11]

But here about the building of the church in the parish or in the village. Paragraph 29, page 39. Our great father, Pachomius. End of side one. Please turn cassette over to side two. Our great father, Pachomius. also saw to it zealously that a church be built in a deserted village for the shepherds of the surrounding region, who were ordinary people, so that they might gather on Saturdays and Sundays to hear God's Word. The region where Prachomius lives is a region, as I mentioned yesterday, where there were many deserted villages.

[31:14]

Probably the monsoon had been poor for many years and people could not live in that region anymore, so they deserted the village. And there were shepherds around. And so Pakomius decided, because there were shepherds there, and they were ordinary people, that means poor people, illiterate people, But so that they might gather on Saturdays and Sundays to hear God's Word, and there is no priest there yet, as we will see, or there is no Eucharistic yet there, but so that they may at least hear God's Word, he built a church for them, for his monks at the same time, probably. We'll say, for example, when Benedict at the Subiaco and Monte Cassino, every time he arrives in a place, when he arrives in Monte Cassino, for example, first thing he does is to evangelize the people of the village there.

[32:17]

And if anyone needs monastery, it's well organized in Montecassino. He sent a monk to evangelize the villagers around until the end of his life. I reread that yesterday in the second dialogue of Gregory. Sometimes we have... we have... strict idea that the contemplative life is notified with the absence of action. Usually monks are not meant to go outside and to preach and to make a person. But I think it is very wrong to identify our life with something negative. I think all those fathers, Archimedes or Benedict or anybody else, were just people who were open to the voice of the Spirit speaking through the needs around them. And this he did not on his own accord, but following the opinion of Seraphim, Bishop of the Church of Tentera.

[33:18]

The author here wants to stress that the Pachomius was in full communion with the bishop. And in the beginning of the monasticism in Egypt, there was a perfect communion between the hierarchy and the monks. So the idea that the monks were in reaction However, the local church is not true. It is true that later on there will be a tension, sometimes a healthy tension and sometimes an unhealthy tension between the charismatic wing of the church and the institutional wing, the bishops on one side and the monks on the other. But at that early period, there was no tension. And there was a perfect communion. And Pachomius is always respectful of the bishop. For example, when he speaks about the not wishing to have priests in the monastery, that means monks to be ordained priests, he says, let us be satisfied with the priests that are given to us by our fathers, the bishops.

[34:27]

The bishops are our fathers in faith. So he will not build a church without the agreement of the bishop. And when you found a monastery in a diocese, it will be with the agreement of the bishop. And there will be at least one incense. I think it is this last foundation. I don't know what happened, but after he began the foundation, the bishop came with a crowd to expel them. So that's the later stage. There is already there beginning of a tension. And certainly at the time the life was written, that tension existed. And so the biographer is very careful in saying that he did that with the agreement of division. So we will go there with the brothers and read to them at the time of the divine office. Because there was no lector. A bunch of poor people, illiterate people.

[35:29]

So Pachomius becomes their lector. He gathered them and reads the word of God. The next sentence is very badly translated. And he spent time for their needs and the needs of the strangers. The good translation is, he took care of the offering. went different. Kheyas, kheyas is the technical word for offering. So he took care of the offering and of the strangers, the offering of the strangers who came around, until a priest was appointed there. And as he himself read to them, he had such knowledge and piety, and his gaze was so proper, and his elocution so concerning with the meaning of the words, remember that he has the way of learning scripture. So if scripture has initiated into him, he understood it from the interior, so that his elocution could be consonant with the meaning of the words.

[36:30]

that when these worldlings saw this man of God among them, they were all the more inclined to respond to faith and become Christian. So it seems that most of those shepherds were pagan and they were preaching the word of God to them, just instructing them to the faith. For he was very merciful and fond of their souls. I think that's a beautiful expression. It was very merciful. I don't know how to translate. Merciful is good, but that means... How will you translate the protagonist? Miseric... Warm-hearted. Warm-hearted. Okay. And he was fond of your soul. He was a lover of your soul. He was a lover of your soul.

[37:31]

That's a beautiful expression. So it's not just Pope Philemon. He had been appointed there by the bishop in a foreign village where he doesn't want to go and just doing the office. is there because he is found of their soul, as he will always be found on the soul of his brothers. And many times, when he saw people who did not know their God and Maker, he wept for long periods, all alone, because he desired, if at all possible, to save everyone. Remember the vision we have during the night of his baptism, when he saw the dew from heaven coming into his head and becoming holy in his hand and then falling into the face of the earth. That grace that he had received, he wants the whole world to receive it. So when he saw somebody who has not yet received the grace of conversion, the grace of Christian life, he wept because he desired, if at all possible, to save everyone.

[38:36]

Now let's go to something very different. Paragraph 51 and 53. You know, the life, those texts, they present to us... but we could say that some flashes on the life of Pagomius. And there is no logical order in those narratives, one after the other. And I think it would be wrong to try to make a beautiful synthesis of all the elements of that time. I think it's better to do in our reading the same thing as they did in their writing. Just take one look at one aspect of his life, then another look, then another look, then we can gather in ourselves gradually a kind of a vision of what was that type of monastic life. So I think it's better for you to discover it gradually through those texts than for me to give you a synthesis of his conception of community and his conception of obedience, conception of leadership.

[39:53]

And all those things are related to one another. I gave you different topics for your different groups. One group is leadership, the other group is obedience and prayer and common life. But all those things are related to one another. You cannot understand the meaning of prayer life of the mind without understanding what was this type of common life. what was the role of the leader in forming him to prayer, what was the role of obedience. The same thing, we cannot understand obedience without understanding what was the type of formation, the type of leadership, the type of prayer. So even if one text does not seem to be related exactly directly to your topic, it is always related indirectly because everything is forming a unit and we have to discover that unity gradually. And the other two texts, 51 and 53, I want to read. I will read 51 rapidly, but 53 is one of the most beautiful paragraphs of the life.

[41:02]

51 is about the courage of Pachomius in illness and how he always wanted to be a brother among the brother and not having any privilege because of the fact he was the superior. At once, when the brothers were on an island to reap rashes, they went to work outside. Theodore was with them to prepare the tables. Late one evening, our father Pacomius came back from the work sick. He's working with the brothers, and then he's sick. When he lay down shivering, Theodore threw a wooden cover over him. And when he saw this, he did not want it and said, take it away and throw over me a rush map, as you will on all the other brothers. He does not want to have the privilege. Then the other offered him a handful of dates. But Pacomius did not take them and said, do we have the authority to consume for ourselves simply because ours is the stewardship of the brothers by those labors and needs?

[42:12]

So because he has the authority, he does not want to have any privilege. And you find very much about that in the Book of Proceedings. And from that book, we see that probably most of the superiors of the monasteries and the superiors of the houses, they did not follow the example of Pachomius. and they were giving privilege to themselves. And RCHS is calling them back to observe and says, you are the stewards, servers of the brother, so don't use your office to get privilege for yourself. And he is referring them to the example of Paromius that we see here. So where is the fear of God? Have you perchance visited the cell of all the brothers at this hour to make sure that some of them are not sick? For God is judge even over this matter. So no exception of person.

[43:16]

If somebody is sick, whether he is an ordinary brother or whether he is Facomius, he has to receive the same care. But Facomius should not receive a better care because he is superior. And in the the Pakomian mentality, there is a beautiful balance between uniformity and unity in the community on one hand, and concern for the individual on the other hand. So if it were only the uniformity, that would be an inhuman situation. But there is a strong uniformity. But on the other hand, when there is a real personal need, then that need has to be taken into account. And this is beautifully mentioned in the next paragraph, or the paragraph 53. There was another brother who was mortally ill and bedridden in a nearby cell.

[44:22]

So he's no longer an ordinary brother, because he's a brother who has a very, very special need. He's mortally ill. So, and he knew that, so he requested from the father of the monastery to be fed a small portion of meat. That was unthinkable, a Pythagorean monastery to eat meat, because he has a very austere diet. So the brother feels that he needs meat, so he asked for meat. The length of his illness had reduced his body to skin and bones. And because the meat was not given to him, He told one of the brothers, support me and take me to our father, Pachomius. So he can, he knows that Pachomius is merciful and has an open heart. If he dare to ask to be brought to Pachomius, it's just like the time of St. Paul when everybody could make an appeal to Caesar.

[45:26]

Just like in Cuba today, everybody can take an appeal to CEDAW above everybody. He can always reach there. When we approached Pacomius, he fell on his face and told him the reason. Pacomius realized that the man deserved the request. So Pacomius realized a special need. If he has a special need, he deserves the request on his side. At mealtime, Pakomios was served his portion, as were all the other brothers. He did not eat, but said, you are respecters of persons. What has happened to the scripture? It refers to the scripture. The scripture is the rule that will give the answer even to a very particular case. The scripture is not only the basis from which Pachomius takes for the brothers the general rule of the monastery, but it's also from the scripture that you have to find the answer to a very special, particular case.

[46:42]

What has happened in the scripture? Love thy neighbor as thy God. So the commandment of love is the basic commandment of scripture. So anyone should be intelligent enough to understand that this is the basic commandment and this is above all the other commandments. Do you not see that this man is practically dead? So that is obvious. You should be intelligent enough to see that. Why did you not take good care of him? at all before he made this request. So it does not say only why did you not answer his request, but why did you not take care of him before he made this request? If you were really charitable according to the scripture, the commandment of love, you should have taken care of him in a better way than just following the ordinary rule of the monastery. And you would say, oh, they have an excuse, and the community knows what the excuse will be.

[47:45]

And you will say, we neglected them because that sort of food is not customary among us. It's not according to the book of usage. And so, and the... They were right. They were just following their rules, just following their customs. But Pakamu says, does the disease not make a difference? So there is a common rule. But when there is a special situation, there is a difference. Does the disease make a difference? Are not all things pure to those who are pure? Beautiful application of that word. Are not everything pure to those who are pure? So there is nothing which is impure. And if you were unable to see without my advice, so maybe you're not bright enough. If you were unable to see without my advice that this will be good, why did you not tell me? So tears came to his eyes, the mercy, as he was seeing this thing.

[48:48]

And then there is two sentence that, will be a kind of footnote nowadays. For tears are a mark of sensitivity, and even if tears do not come to a man who is sensitive while something is happening, there is such a thing as inner weeping. That's a side reflection of the biographer. And when they heard these things, they hasten to buy the meat. They don't have any meat there, but they have to buy it. in order to feed the infeable man, then by commusing self-aid, the customer avoids the disabled. So he refused to pay, he refused to receive what is normal for everyone, if the one who deserves something else has not received what it is. I think we have here a whole theology of obedience, of law, of our attitudes, of our uniformity, our confidence of individual, and also of authority, and of both of the first superior and the intermediary superior.

[50:07]

Those who are supposed to use their own judgment. And if they could not use their own judgment, they should at least have come to Pakomil to ask him for more money. So when we read the rule of Pakomil, and we find a lot of very strict regulation, and very austere, and some kind of regimentation, we have to take into account the way it was lived by Pakomil. This is an example. Let's go to another paragraph. Let's go to paragraph 95. Parkham Hughes is teaching someone how to be a superior, how to deal with his brothers.

[51:10]

It is much later in the life, and a man has come to the monastery who is called Theodore. He is not the great Theodore. He is another Theodore, Theodore the Alexandrine. And he's a Greek, and does not look Catholic when he arrives at the monastery, it seems. And, in fact, I must love him very much, too. So, let's read that paragraph. Maybe it will be the last one for this morning. Because that man, Theobald, because that man bore the monastic life well, Abbot Bacchomius loved him. You get this, huh? I get it. So somebody asked me yesterday if I said about the friendship. Here we are, musical day, in love. And the Greek word is the agape. And why did he love them? Because he was a good monk.

[52:16]

He was doing life well, monastic life well. And made every effort to learn Greek, by the grace of God, in order to discover the way of offering him solace frequently. So Fracomius was a Coptic theist. And he was not illiterate. He did not know Greek up to that point at least, but he knew Coptic quite well, and not only because it was his own language, but he knew Coptic literature. And Lefort has shown that he knew quite well the old Egyptian wisdom. And he quotes, without referring explicitly to them, but he quotes a different place in his catechesis, some texts from the old wisdom literature, old Egypt. And so he was not illiterate.

[53:16]

And he knew how to integrate that Egyptian wisdom into his Christian monastic life. But he did not know Greek. But when Theodore came, and the other appeared to him to be an outstanding person, a person who deserved special care, special love, and also a person who would be very, very important for the congregation, because at that time, it seemed that the other Greek monk came to Saint Paul. They began to come from Alexandria, and they did have no Catholic. So he needed someone who would be the superior of that group of Hurrain. And so he took special care of the other. And he made every effort to learn Greek by the grace of God. It doesn't mean that he learned it in a miraculous way. He had the grace of God to have the courage to try.

[54:18]

And why? In order to discover the way of offering him solace. Solace frequently. That's a very humane motivation. Then Pacomius appointed him house manager of the Alexandrian and other foreign brothers who came after him. So the monasteries were divided into houses and each house usually was dedicated to a special service within the monastery. Houses of the bakers, the houses of the of the porters, the houses of the intermarriage, and so on. But then there were also the houses of the torrent mark. Because in those houses, those houses were pretty much like the dinneries of St. Benedict. And most of the light was spent in Dota. There was the general synopsis of all the monks once a day in the morning, but the rest of the light was spent in small groups, about 10 or 12, not more than that.

[55:27]

So there were dinner raves. And those who have a special care, a special need are put together in the same house. So all the Alexandrians, all the foreign monks are put together in one house and somebody who can understand that is appointed as their superior, their master. That's why we always translate house manager. I don't like too much the word manager. Let's say house master. It's very difficult to find a word to translate that because in Celtic it's a composed word. The superior of the monastery is the man of the monastery. Any type of office in Catholic begins by the man's house or the woman's house. So the superior of the monastery is the man of the monastery, the superior of the house is the man of the house, and a carpenter is the man of the carpentry, and the cook is the man of the kitchen. So we have to translate house, master.

[56:32]

His house was full of parity and Holy Pacomius did many things together with him, getting him used to governing now. The way to form him is to do things with him. He's doing many things to him in order to form him. He's not giving him a writing, a book about everything. He's just doing things. I always remember my own father. My father was a jack-of-all-trades, did all kinds of things, electricity, mechanics, carpentry and so on. And he was a good worker. And as a kid, I was asking him to teach me how to do it. And he always says, well, just look at me and do the same. I think that was a very good method. We'll never explain. Just look at me, do the same. And Thich Nhat Hanh will say, it is a great thing if you see one of your house being negligent, careless, negligent with respect to his salvation, which is the decent for a monk, not to be vigilant.

[57:44]

He is vigilant with respect to his salvation. Be patient. First thing is to be patient. God is patient with us. Be patient with your brother. and counsel him in private. So it does not say chastise him, make reproach to him, be hard on him, be patient. Counsel him, first thing to do. In private, don't humiliate him. Counsel him in private, first thing to do. Once he becomes angry, sometimes when we make a remark, somebody becomes angry. So once he becomes angry, let him go. until God moves him to repentance. Nothing sits, it is under, it is in time. Until God moves, because God has something to do in the process too, not only the survivor. So let him go until God moves him to repentance. So it is God that gives repentance. So we have to give God the chance to act, and to give him time to act, and usually it takes time.

[58:49]

at that given time. Just as when one wants... The comparison is very difficult. Just as when one wants to take a splinter out of his foot, and if, as he digs around it, there is bleeding and pain, he allows it to stay temporarily. Don't go too far, and you allow it to stay temporarily. Now, after he places upon it an emollient poultice, or something similar. A few days later, it comes out by itself, isn't it? No need to scratch and to go deep with your instruments. Let's do it a little and then wait. And it will come out by itself. A man who is anger at someone who does not argue with him in due time gains more through the patience of him who teaches according to the law, the law with a capital L. So a man is angry at someone who does not argue with him.

[59:53]

I always find that very disturbing when I'm angry at someone and he does not answer. If he is angry, okay, but if I'm the only one to be angry, that's very embarrassing. If the fault is great, so, that's for, if the fault is not too great, but if the fault is great, report it to me. Well, first, just counsel him privately. And even if he gets angry, just wait. But then, if the fault is great, report it to me, and I shall act as the merciful Lord wishes. the community has more experience and is the one who is responsible for the whole congregation. So if there is something more important, he's the one who knows more the ways of God and he has the experience of mercy. And so if it is an important thing, I will take care of it.

[60:59]

And I shall act as the merciful Lord wishes, the will of God. Similarly, care for the sick as for yourself. Care for the sick again. Be abstinence, that's right. Practice the continence. Practice the continence, the genu and catenominous. And bear the cross more than they do, because your rank is that of a father. So if there is anything you should do more than the other, it's to build a cross more than the other. Be the first one to keep the rule of the brothers, in order that they also keep them. For the example, Benedict says that the abbot should preach by words and example, and we have the same impact on us. The first teaching is by the example. But I think our hour is over.

[62:01]

So we will continue that same paragraph tomorrow morning and then go on to other paragraphs.

[62:07]

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