October 2024 Letter

Dear brethren,

We learn from the late Pope Shenouda about “Formalities”:

The Bible teaches us: “you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things” (Math 25: 21), so if you were faithful in the earthly I will give you the heavenly. If you were faithful in the present world I will give you eternity …

Many people in their worship & in their relationship with God, care about formalities & neglect the essence.

In prayer, for example, they stand before God and speak to Him. They pay attention to the words and their abundance. All of these are formalities because the essence of prayer is connection, which connects man to God, and the feeling of being in the Divine presence…

During fasting, they focus on the period of abstinence and the type of food, and these are also formalities. The essence of fasting is in terms of the element of prevention, self-control, body control, and rising above the level of matter and food. This is what many ignore.

In preparing for communion, people often pay attention to the purity of the body in a formal manner, without paying attention to the essence of purity in the flesh and soul! …

In reading the Bible, some people care about the amount of reading and its consistency. This is a form, but the essence is reading with understanding, meditating, delve into the meanings, and turn reading into spirit and life.

Some people enter monastic life and are concerned with the external appearance in terms of prostrations; its frequency and number, in fasting they focus on timings and intensity, on confinement in the cell, silence, and lack of interest in clothing. However, as for the purity of the heart from within, the true death and the separation from the world, and the goal of monasticism is to be preoccupied with God and loving Him, is what they forget amidst the interest in formalities!

Service is also often lost in formalities, as our entire concern may be what do we say? As for the effect of what we say in changing peoples’ hearts and in bringing them to the love of God, this is what many ignore. In service there may be many activities, coordinated services and flashy names, but all of these are formalities. The depth in service is known; which is the goal of service, meaning the salvation of the soul…

Formalities do not build the kingdom at all, but rather remind us of what the Lord said about the scribes and Pharisees who clean the outside of the cup and the pages, and those who look like whitewashed graves from the outside, but the inside is completely the opposite…

God does not care about formalities, that is why He said, “My son, give me your heart,” and that is why he does not care about the literality of the commandment, but rather He cares about the love it contains. He said about love that it is the entire law and the prophets…

May the blessings of St. Mary & St. Mercurius be with us all.

Belleville, October 1, 2024

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