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Enacted assimilation of the text, points us beyond the mind and heart to consider another dimension of monastic prayer, the use of the body. We know from all of the monastic literary sources that bodily postures and gestures were integral to the practice of prayer. The typical posture was standing, with kneeling or prostration regularly …

The Coptic Church, in its humble and meek spirit, teaches her children three types of prostration, or metanias (bowing). These are: prostrations of worship, repentance, and honor. 1. Prostrations of Worship These are the prostrations offered to God during our individual or public worship, such as at the beginning of each of the hourly prayers …

Let then, the life of St Mary be as it were virginity itself, set forth in a likeness, from which, as from a mirror, the appearance of chastity and the form of virtue is reflected. From this you may take your pattern of life, showing, as an example, the clear rules of virtue: what you …

fasting monastery pimonakhos

As has been said fasting is the beginning of the spiritual life, thus it is considered the pavement on which virtues are obtained; it opens the door for virtue and it ornaments the soul. St Filoxinus says: “The more ascetic the body is, the stronger the Spirit. Little food makes the body light and subdues …

Tales of Monastic Companionship in Early Byzantium - St Shenouda Monastery Pimonakhos Articles

The practices of monastic companionship and cohabitation described in the Spiritual Meadow had emerged long before the late sixth century. The practice of cohabiting monks first developed in the course of the fourth century, in the early years of the Christian monastic movement in Egypt. One of the earliest Christian saint’s lives, Athanasios’s Life of …

Abouna Mina's life as a monk had begun at the age of 25 when he resigned from Thomas Cook's, the celebrated travel agency, after obtaining the Patriarch's personal permission to become a monk. While in secondary school in Alexandria, he had been inspired by reading the lives of famous monks; the monastery he selected was …

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