Author: Fr. Antonios Kaldas

I am a Coptic Orthodox priest who has served at Archangel Michael and St Bishoy Coptic Orthodox Church, Mount Druitt, Sydney, Australia, since 1991. I also serve with two special purpose groups: Aletheia Apologetics, which addresses difficult questions; and Solace of the Lord, which provides benevolent support. I lecture in Philosophy and Apologetics at St Cyril's Coptic Orthodox Theological College in Sydney. I am an active researcher in Philosophy of Mind at Macquarie University, with a particular interest in Consciousness Studies. I am married with two beautiful grown up children, and many pets, not all of whom have grown up emotionally, yet.
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Open Your Heart!

 

Open your heart to God.

When you come to pray, do not hide in words of rote. Do not think that He will be impressed by mountains of words, whether they are your own or those of saints. He sees all and knows all. Do not hide in the false security of ‘duty’, nor imagine that He will be satisfied with boxes ticked off: ‘there, I have said my prayers, what more do You want from me?’ Do not hide behind a mask of piety, that mask you put on when you come to meet Him, then take off when you think you have left His presence. You forget that everywhere is His presence!

Open your heart without reservation. What is there in your heart that you think you can hide from Him? The deepest secrets you have kept from all others for so long were always visible before Him. Did you think He could not see? Even those things you have tried so hard to hide from yourself, things too awful to face, things that plunge you into despairing of your soul; there is nowhere to hide them where He cannot see them. Did you think He does not know? Did you think as Adam and Eve thought; that a few leaves or branches could hide their nakedness from the God who knows all things?

Open your heart to God and stand before Him as one naked. Does this discomfort you? Good! For that is a step towards a true relationship with Him. Know this: you are always naked before God. No worldly clothing, no royal vestments, no finery or decoration can hide the nakedness of your soul before God. Live no longer in that pleasant, false dream!

Open your heart before God. Not because He is unable to enter if you bar the way, but because He is unwilling to enter unless He is welcome. Know this, that when you throw open the door of your heart without reserve, He will not crash His way in. No, it is then that you discover what gentleness really means. His tread is light, His voice, sweet and low. His gaze touches your eyes like the tiny snow flake that sends shivers of excitement down the spine.

Open your heart to Him without fear. Trust in his love and abandon all trust in your own righteousness or talents. You have no worth except the worth of being His child. Cast aside all talk of ‘rights’ – you have none, for your sins have forfeited all your rights. There is only grace; abundant, overwhelming, undeserved, life saving grace.

Fr Ant

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Egypt in Crisis.

 Amazing protest picture, 2 Feb 2011, Heliopolis

As Egypt broils with turmoil, we in Australia watch and wait and pray. Here are a couple of interesting items that have come my way:

This picture warms my heart! It was apparently taken on February 2 in Heliopolis, Cairo. Two Coptic priests are seen marching with the protestors for change in Egypt, and one of them (I think he may be Fr Dawoud Lamei?) is arm in arm with what looks like a Muslim sheikh. Isn’t that the true spirit of Christianity – to stand up for truth and to love all people? If only this spirit would spread through the whole country! It is early days yet, but one cannot help wondering whether there will be a voice for the Copts in the new Egypt.

A gentleman in Cairo is sharing his journal of events he is experiencing in the comments section of this interesting article. It provides a snapshot of how the Egyptian on the street sees these historic events. Very interesting indeed.

We pray for a quick and safe resolution that results in a better, freer and more equitable Egypt.

Fr Ant

PS Another ray of light amidst the darkness – Christians showing real love towards Muslims. An article in the Daily Mail.

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The Many Masks of Pride

 The sin of pride is considered a little old fashioned in today’s western world. Society virtually celebrates the boasting and hubris of the successful, finding in it an appropriate expression of the value of winning.

 But the genuinely Christian attitude to pride is of course very different.

 The interesting thing about pride is that it can don so many different guises. Like an epidemic virus, it changes its appearance in order to avoid detection and resistance, and by so doing, it creeps beneath our defences against it. The human body fights such viruses by recognising every new disguise of the virus and continually creating new antibodies to fight it off. The spiritual person needs a similar strategy.

 In the hope of helping the reader to strip away the disguises, I present a small survey of some of the many masks pride can wear. Readers are invited to add their own ‘masks’ to the list by clicking on the Comments link above right.

 I offer the warning that I myself am susceptible to all the forms of pride listed below (how else could I know so much about them!) and struggle with them daily. Identifying a problem is only halfway to fixing it.

 Mask #1: Praise Magnet

You tell people how awful you are in order to make them feel compelled to disagree with you and tell you just how good you actually are. Very clever disguise that masquerades as humility. Continue reading “The Many Masks of Pride”

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Reflections on a Rally

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s nice to be home after a long trip overseas.

Yesterday I with many others attended the rally at Martin Place organized by the Australian Coptic Movement. The rain did nothing to dampen the spirit of all those present, nor the fire in the belllies of the speakers. It is always interesting to come home and mull over an event like that. What did it really mean?  And what will it achieve?

One thing that stood out for me was the attendance of so many other Arabic speaking Christians. In particular there were strong and high level contingents from Lebanon and Iraq, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Copts. The fact that the first attack in this sequence took place against a Syrian Catholic Church in Iraq, rather than in Egypt, indicates that to the terrorists at least, there is no difference between an Egyptian Christian and an Iraqi Christian. I wish that we Christians could learn this one truth from the terrorists! It is high time that true Christians of all denominations unite, discarding the petty arguments that have divided us for so long. Perhaps we needed a tragedy like this to move us? I sat next to a gentleman from the Chaldean Church, an Assyrian Church affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. He commented that we are all really one in Christ a number of times when I thanked him for coming to support the Copts. His Church has not yet been the target of these terrorists, but he felt that if any one of us Middle Eastern Christians has been affected, then we all have been affected.

It was great to see so many Australian flags being waved, and a running theme through the speeches reminded us that one of the best things about Australia is that everyone has the freedom to pursue their beliefs and faith without persecution. I applaud the Australian Coptic Movement for taking a collection on the day for the victims of the Queensland and Victorian floods. It takes a certain maturity to look beyond your own woes and empathise with the problems of others. There are about as many bereaved families in Queensland at the moment as there are in Alexandria. To put things in context, the Brazilian floods have resulted in something like 600 deaths. That is an awful lot of bereaved families. But of course, the difference between flood victims and terrorism victims is that one is unavoidable, the other so, so unnecessary.

Why do terrorists terrorise? What do they hope to achieve? Continue reading “Reflections on a Rally”

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Free Will?

 

Or: “Did the Devil Really Make You Do It?”

 One of the (many) things I find very confusing in life is the question of Free Will. I have yet to find a satisfying explanation for how free will works. On what basis does a person make his or her choices? And if one’s choices are determined by those factors, where is the freedom? And yet, we experience this strange freedom that we cannot explain every day. When Samuel Johnson was challenged to defend the existence of free will, his answer was typically pithy yet profound: “I know I have free will, and there’s an end to the matter!”

 On a more practical level, we grapple with free will. In confessions, “I couldn’t help it Abouna,” is a phrase I have grown accustomed to hearing, usually followed by something like; “He forced me to swear at him!”

 “Hmmm” I will answer if I am in a sarcastic frame of mind, “so he reached into your mouth, grabbed your tongue, and forced it to produce a swear word?”

 The most common response I get is a stare that is usually reserved for inmates of mental hospitals. The question of my sanity notwithstanding, personal responsibility is a deeper issue than I once thought. How much of what we do is conscious choice and how much is ‘mechanical’? And if mechanical, then how are we to be held responsible for it? Continue reading “Free Will?”

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Fanatical Drive Against Copts

Things have escalated rather rapidly.

It seems that the Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda has taken it personally that two wives of Coptic priests who allegedly converted to Islam have been ‘kidnapped’ by the Church, and have called for their immediate release. If not, they say, prepare to face some serious consequences. They have called on Muslims all over the world to put bombs in Coptic Churches.

Never mind that so far as the objective evidence shows, the two women in question NEVER converted to Islam. One of them not only went on national television to state that, but was also supported by an official statement from Al Azhar mosque that confirming that she never became Muslim (read here). The issues of these two women were patently of a personal and not a religious nature and seem now to have been more or less resolved. Given that these issues actually flared up some years ago (around 2004, I believe) one wonders why Iraqi Al Qaeda have suddenly gotten so worked up about private Egyptian matters years after the event? The answer is most likely that these ladies are just an excuse.

Consider the outright hypocrisy. Continue reading “Fanatical Drive Against Copts”

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Persecution, New and Old

Sheikh Tantawi

Having enjoyed tremendously The Early Coptic Papacy: The Egyptian Church and Its Leadership in Late Antiquity (Popes of Egypt) by Stephen J. Davis, I was quite excited when I learned that Volume 2 had been published. Entitled The Coptic Papacy in Islamic Egypt: The Popes of Egypt: A History of the Coptic Church and Its Patriarchs Volume 2 and authored by Mark N. Swanson, it makes for absorbing reading – if you are into history and the Coptic Church, that is. Now, the History of the Patriarchs is accessible on the net*, but it is only one among many primary and secondary sources that the author has drawn upon to provide a more comprehensive picture of the Coptic Church during the Islamic era. He has also added to his well-balanced scholarship some very insightful remarks on the patterns and lessons that may be drawn from this history. It is always interesting to see what an ‘outsider’ thinks of our Church.

 One of the things that really struck me as I read through the centuries was just how much more the words of some of our prayers mean if you think of the circumstances in which they were prayed back then. As you develop in your mind a picture of the pressures that were applied to Egyptian Christians a thousand years ago, you get a sense of a Church struggling just to stay alive. Heavy taxes on non-Muslims could only be relieved by converting to Islam, a course sadly taken by many Copts. Humiliating rules like being allowed to wear only black or dark blue clothes and turbans (the origin of today’s priestly uniform) and riding only donkeys, not horses, further pressured the Copts of the time. Added to this was the often blatant discrimination in the workplace, and the glass ceiling that prevented Christians from holding any kind of worthwhile position in government or in commerce. And then there was stifling burden that Muslim rulers imposed on virtually every new Patriarch upon his consecration: a one off tax of huge proportions that forced many patriarchs to spend their days wandering around the country collecting donations just to keep the peace for the flock and their Church. Many patriarchs who failed to satisfy the Muslim ruler’s greed found themselves in prison for lengthy periods of time.

Continue reading “Persecution, New and Old”

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God of my Silence

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 “Silence your lips that your heart may speak…

Silence your heart that God may speak…”

– The Spiritual Elder

 

How I miss the silence.

 

It was pleasant sunny winter’s day in ancient Wadi Natroun, the ancient desert abode of the Christian monks of Egypt. I was a newly ordained priest halfway through my 40 day retreat before returning to my family and my home to begin parish service. I spied out the little doorway in the wall of the monastery and found it unlocked. Through some barns and fields ebbing with the sounds and smells of cows and goats, down a little path and I was out in the desert. Continue reading “God of my Silence”

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Lettermania (pedantitis)

Today, an entry from a book in preparation: the Textbook of Spiritual Diseases. The introduction to the book includes the following warning:

“This book is intended more for self-diagnosis than for diagnosing others. Failure to keep this mind when using it may result in serious spiritual harm.”

 

Lettermania (pedantitis)

An inflammatory case of hypocritical pedantry. Hence, ‘pedantitis’ from ‘pedant’ – one who cares excessively for tiny unimportant details; and ‘-itis’ – inflammation. See II Corinthians 3:6

The patient is afflicted with an obsessive interest in following the very letter of God’s Law, whilst neglecting the spirit of it. Some very famous defining cases are recorded among the Pharisees in the Gospels, although there is strong evidence for the existence of this disease many centuries before that.

 

 

Symptoms

Characteristically:

  • Disregard for the genuine welfare of others (although a superficial appearance of compassion is often exhibited)
  • A cancerous growth of pride in one’s piousness.

 

Also:

  • There is an obsessive attention to details such as eating precisely the right foods, fasting to the second, carrying out one’s daily prayer canon and meticulously preserving Church traditions.
  • A narrowing of the visual field and the emotional field so that only one point of view is visible. The patient refuses to seriously consider other points of view.
  • Self-confidence well above what is generally considered normal
  • Constant desire to teach others and exercise authority over others
  • An inflated estimations of one’s own self-worth, e.g. the patient insists on others according appropriate respect to the him; being overly sensitive to insults etc

  Continue reading “Lettermania (pedantitis)”

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A New Era?

 

Before the election, I commented in this blog on how nice it would be if a straightforward, honest politician with integrity entered our political scene:

 

“And yet, I wonder. If a genuine and sincere politician came along one day. Someone who always told the truth, even if it were against his personal interests. Some who gave his word and stuck to it. Someone who focused on the real issue rather than on merely gaining popularity and scoring political points. Could you imagine the respect and trust such a leader could command? Can you imagine the good they might do? But could such a person ever succeed in our current political system?

There was actually such a person in Australia. His name was Ted Mack, and he had to run as an independent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Mack_(politician) … He was a beacon of integrity for a number of years, but his usefulness was limited because of course, you can only do so much if you are not in one of the major parties.

 

 

How wrong I was in that last sentence! Through a remarkable set of circumstances, we now find ourselves in the unusual situation of having a hung parliament, with the Labor Party depending on the votes of three independents for their majority. Suddenly, those powerless, inconsequential independent members of parliament who must often have felt like so much useless baggage are in a position to steer the whole ship!

 We stand on the brink of a strange new era. Continue reading “A New Era?”