SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

eternal relief in the kingdom of Heaven. 32 His prayer is also a counterpoint to the form of pure prayer that had been practiced by the followers of Evagrius. As a result it should be no surprise that prayer quoted by Shenoute in the treatise should be an imageful prayer. glory to you and your blessed child from heavens of heaven and all that is in them. You are blessed of God, glory to you and to your blessed child from the oikoumene and all those who are in it. You are blessed of God, glory to you and to all your things, to you and your blessed Son. Be blessed O God you and your blessed Son, whose name is one with your name, in the mouth of those who combat with those who maintain the new profanity, this being their richness and their hope with his coming in-that is God resting-that is God and with his rising - that is Jesus-blessing - that is God - and praying - that is Jesus 33 Another important tenet upheld by Shenoute was prayer to the Son. Origen had written in his treatise On Prayer that there were four kinds of prayer: supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving: but in all these prayer is offered to the Father through Jesus Christ. Origen wrote "One may not pray to the Son alone" This is a much controverted and much explained

statement of Origen, but our interest is in Shenoute's reaction. They say that it is not right to pray Christ because He himself prays. The Hellenizing people who are among us even say that God has been able to sustain the world and give it power through the archon almost as if Satan, the archon, could challenge God. 34 I am talking about the kind of men who are in the house of Christ and in the synagogai of the Christ..Where did these multifarios, mortal, and terribly insidious deceits come into the heart of our brothers, who are believed to be faithful, while they are unfaithful…. In fact who does not want to pray the Son dare not name the Father. How could they conceive such a profanity. 35 As I have already said, by mentioning the name of the Son we call the Holy Trinity. Listen to the Lord who orders to his disciples: go forth and make all nations my disciple, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 36 (Mt 28:19) Seek the accomplishment of these words and you will find them on your mouth and on the mouths of your children; when you are celebrating and happy, say Jesus; when you are worried and sad; Jesus: the boys and the girls laughing, Jesus; those who bring up water from the well, Jesus;….those who have a corrupted trial and receive injustice, Jesus. Only the name of Jesus is on their mouth and it is their salvation and their life, Himself and his Father. 37

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter 5 Emmel, Shenoute p.14. 6 Emmel, Shenoute p.18. 7 Emmel, Shenoute p.22. 8 Emmel, Shenoute p.25. 9 Cf. Takla, St. Shenouda . 10 Orlandi, T. "A Catechesis against Apocryphal Texts by Shenute and the Gnostic Texts of Nag Hammadi", Harvard Theological Review 75, 1982, pp.85-95 [Orlandi, Catechesis. ] 11 Orlandi, Catechesis , p.88. 12 Thompson, H. Dioscorus and Shenoute. In Recueil d'etudes égyptologiques dediées a la mémoire de Jean François Champollion … Paris 1922, pp. 367-76., p. 374 13 Orlandi, T. Shenute Contra Gli Origenistas: Testo con Introduzione e Traduzione. Rome 1985. [Orlandi, CGO , ref. by line number] 14 Bell, D. Besa: The Life of Shenute . Kalamazo 1983. 15 Orlandi, CGO 101 & 308-318. 16 Orlandi, CGO 203-210. 17 Bell, D. Shenoute the Great: The Struggle with Satan. Cistercian Studies 21, 1986, pp.177-85. Notes: *This paper was delivered by the author on July 27, 2002, during the Fourth St. Shenouda Conference for Coptic Studies at UCLA. This edition is as presented by the author except for the end notes which was adopted and reformatted by the Editor on the basis of the internal citations found in the presented text. 1 Leipoldt, J. Schenute von Atripe und die Entstehung des National Ägyptischen Christentums-Text und Unsuchungen , Leipzig 1903 [Leipoldt, Schenute ]. This is the publication of his dissertation work on the subject that began in the late 19 th century. 2 Leipoldt, Schenute pp. 81-82. 3 Emmel, S. Shenoute's Literary Corpus , Yale University, 1993 pg. 34[Emmel, Shenoute ] 4 Takla, H. N. St. Shenouda the Archimandrite, ( http://www.stshenouda.com/stshenda/shenvita.htm ) [Takla, St. Shenouda ]

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