COCFC2011 Workshops

8/7/2019 COCFC2011 Workshops

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Workshop 1: Taking it to the next level COCFC 2011

Verse: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which

You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit

him?” Psalm 8:3-4

Main Point: Yes, God loves me, now what?

Activity: Have everyone close their eyes and imagine this situation

Start by asking who everyone’s favorite saint is and describe what they saw in the

story of their lives in how this saint responded to God’s love then we can relate it to

the first lecture.

Spiritual life does not start at the levels of the saints, do not be intimidated to seek the

Lord because we are all unworthy, even some of the saints sought the Lord in their

darkest hour. (Examples of Saints: Zacchaeus, St. Augustine, St. Moses the Strong, St.Mary the Egyptian.)

The Prodigal Son: Focus on how the son makes a realization that he was happier in his

father’s house. While he was eating the pig’s food he comes to a realization and decides

to make his way to his fathers house. When his father sees him on the horizon he runs to

greet him and lead him back home.

No matter how far away from God we may feel, if we make the effort to seek

God, he will be right there waiting at the door to greet us and lead us.

Luke 15:11-32 and Have You Seen The One I Love p 121-122

Discussion Points:

1. While fear may be the basis upon which man’s relationship with God may start, man

should not continue this relationship on just that level

a. Fear is not an appropriate spiritual level that is fitting for the children of God

b. As man keeps a commandment he will find pleasure in fulfilling it

i. Once man finds this certain pleasure in abiding by the Lord’s statues and

keeping the commandments, he will transcend this initial stage and do the

right thing out of love of righteousness and out of love for the Lord, notout of fear of punishment. You are supposed to love the Lord.

2. Is your love for the Lord lukewarm?

a. “So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out

of my mouth” Revelation 3:16



3. You need to know how to love the Lord, how to pray with zeal and enthusiasm. You will

find that your heart is ablaze and your emotions burning and aflame feeling the presence

of the Lord in front of you and knowing that you are in His presence. You will experience

these special feelings that exist and bind you, emotions of yearning and longing for Him.

This is real love.

4. Does our love for the Lord entail formalities or is it a formality in itself?

a. What are some of these formalities?

b. It should not. Real love, true love, is not a formality. It is done out of free will and

out of a fervent desire

c. “I wish we could rid ourselves of the formalities that may exist in our relationship

with the Lord. We should rid ourselves of the “dos” and “don’ts” that fail to

please the Lord. ALL GOD DESIRES IS YOUR LOVE. Do not worry too

much about doing this or not doing that. Liberate yourself from the tyranny of the

law and the commandment. Transcend these and replace them with love. With

love, you will naturally and spontaneously abide by, and execute, all that the

Bible contains. Love will purify your very nature” (HH Pope Shenouda, 15)

i. We do not need to bring extravagant things to our relationship with God,

all that needs to be brought it our love, that is ALL he wants in return.

Why is it so easy to love our friends or family and it is SO difficult for us

to love God

ii. What is it that stops us from loving God with all our hearts?

How to love Him back…

“I will rise now and go about the city in the streets and in the squares I will seek the one I

love” (Song of Solomon 3:2) This is when our soul is awakened, we finally start looking

for something more than that formality

Heavens rejoice seeing us search for the One we love

Here I am eagerly and avidly reading the word of God looking for a verse that may

rekindle my love for the Lord. Here I am, vehemently and enthusiastically singing a

hymn hoping that I may come across something in it that may touch my heart and stir my

feelings for the Lord. I am searching. I am searching for all the roads that lead to

salvation.

We need to keep this fire that burns within us every once and while lit because this will

be our driving force to continue pursuing an intimate relationship with God.





Workshop 2: Prayer COCFC 2011

Verse: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17

Main Point: If you love the Lord then prayers are a natural expression of that love. This is part

of a true relationship with the Lord.

Discussion Points:

1. “Prayer Evaluation”

• Do you pray?

• How often?

• Before meals?

• Before bed?

• When you wake up?

•

Do you praise God when you pray?• Do you thank Him?

• Do you ask for His forgiveness?

• Do you tell God that His will be done?

• Or do you just request things from Him?

• Do you ask for His blessings?

• Do you pray on behalf of others?

• Do you actually say a prayer for someone when they ask for your prayers?

2. “True prayer is a reflection of love for the Lord, yearning with Him, and longing to talk with

Him.” p.10 His Holiness



3. Do we know how to pray?

4. Where should I direct my prayer?

Anthony Bloom’s answer:

“We should direct it at ourselves. Unless the prayer that you intend to offer to God is important

and meaningful to you first, you will not be able to present it to the Lord. If you are inattentive to

the words you pronounce, if your heart does not respond to them, or if your life is not turned in

the same direction as your prayer, it will not reach out Godwards. Choose a prayer which you

can say with all your mind, all your heart, and all your will. A prayer which does not necessarily

have to be a great example of liturgical art but which must be true, something which should not

fall short of what you want to express. You must understand this prayer with all the richness and

precision is possesses.”

5. The Story of Maxim the Saint

Maxim was a young man who went to church one day and heard the reading of the Epistle in

which it says that we should pray unceasingly. It struck him in a way that he thought he could do

nothing else than fulfill this commandment. He walked out of the church, went into the

neighboring mountains and set out to pray unceasingly. Being a Greek peasant in the 4th century,

he knew the Lord’s prayer and some other prayers. So he proceeded to recite them again and

again. Then he felt very well; he was praying, he was with God, everything seemed to be perfect.

Except until the sun began to go down and it became colder and darker – he began to hear all

sorts of worrying beasts, flashing eyes, sounds of smaller beasts being killed by larger beasts,

and so forth. He no longer continued to say the Lord’s prayer and the Creed, but rather he began

to shout “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” And he shouted like that all night

because the creatures and flashing eyes did not give him a chance to sleep. Then when morning

came he continued to say “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” because he came

to the realization that all the things that were scaring him were still there but were just hidden

during the day. Time passed and after many years he met a very old and experienced ascetic who

asked him how had he managed to learn to pray unceasingly. Maxim said “I think it’s the devil

who taught me to pray unceasingly.” … So Maxim learned to pray not in spite of the turmoil, but

because of the turmoil , and because the turmoil was a real danger.



• If we could be aware that we are in much greater turmoil, that the devil is lurking,

trying to catch and destroy us, that every human meeting is judgment, is crisis, is a

situation in which we are called either to receive Christ or to be Christ’s messenger to

the person whom we are meeting, if we realized that the whole of life has this

intensity of meaning, then we would be able to pry and to pray continuously, and

turmoil would be not a hindrance but the very condition which teaches us to pray

while we are still to inexperienced to pray from the depth without any prompting,

without any incitement into prayer.

Beginning to Pray p. 73-75

6. Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield

End of Workshop Activity:

Give each person the opportunity to pray out loud in a small group of 2 or 3 and then we will

pray together afterwards and say Our Father.



Workshop 3: Abandonment COCFC 2011

Verse: “I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart

leaped up when he spoke. I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him and he gave me no

answer” Song of Solomon 5:6

Main Point: Periods of Abandonment

Activity: Begin by reading this segment from Anthony Bloom’s book “Beginning to Pray” to

jump start the discussion

A relationship must begin and develop in mutual freedom. If you look at the relationship

in terms of a mutual relationship, you will see that God could complain about us a great

deal more than we about Him, We complain that He does not make Himself present to us

for the few minutes we reserve for Him, but what about the 23 ½ hours during which God

may be knocking at our door and we answer “I am busy, I am sorry” or when we do not

answer at all because we do not even hear the knock at the door of our hear, of our minds,

of our conscience, of our life. So there is a situation in which we have NO RIGHT tocomplain of the absence of God, because we are a great deal more absent than He ever is

Discussion Points:

1. What is it that stops us from hearing the knock – what is it that occupies our hearts so

much that we are too deaf to hear God Himself, the Creator of the universe, knocking

at our door

a. There are many people who pray, yet their hearts are devoid of the love of the

Lord. There are also many people who fast, and yet their love for the Lord is

poor and deficient. There are even those who attend church, practice

confession, take communion, prostrate, and engage in various spiritual

activities, yet their love for the Lord is scarce and inadequate. p. 10-11

2. How do we get rid of those bad habits – practical ways to hear the knock

3. Why do we respond “I am busy, come back later, why is it that nothing else can wait,

but God can? I will pray later, read the Bible later, but I have to do everything else

first

4. It is very important to remember that prayer is an encounter and relationship, a

relationship which is deep, and this relationship cannot be forced on us or on God(Beginning to Pray) – this is essential in remembering that if we do not uphold a

steady, constant, loving relationship with God, He will pull back, we may not feel His

presence at times for this reason, because WE are treating the relationship too one

sided



THIS IS THE REASON GOD SEPERATES HIMSELF FROM US what kind of

mutual relationship is it if one partner is giving their everything, while the other gives

them 10 minutes out of their day? (Chances are the one who is being neglected will

leave the relationship, because reality just does not work like that, and our

relationship with God IS a reality, not a fantasy)

ASK WHY THEY THINK GOD SEPERATES HIMSELF…

Have you seen the one I love page 106, HH Pope Shenouda says…

1. Some people experience intervals at times of pride and conceit. When a human being

becomes heedless or neglectful, signs of self importance, vanity, and arrogance start

trickling into the heart. When this happens, God becomes alarmed about man’s spiritual

well being and abandons him out of concern

o When God sees that we are arrogant with our spiritual lives, perhaps thinking we

are above others, God abandoning us for a period is His way of humbling us,

showing us that we are indeed nothing without Him

o Ask how they think we can avoid this abandonment…

o It is no exaggeration to suggest that if you keep a remorseful, repentant, and

contrite heart, you will NOT experience this interval of forsaking or

abandonment

2. Man may show no interest in the Lord. He or she neglects to have a relation with the

Lord because they love the world more than God.

“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for me with all your

heart” (Jeremiah 29:13)

It HAS to be your WHOLE heart, not a piece, not the majority, the WHOLE thing,

you have NO place in your heart for the world and God (You cannot serve two

masters)

(#2 Cont) They have no time for the Lord. When the Lord knocks at the door, they do

not find Him.

I sleep but my heart is awake; it is the voice of my beloved! He knocks, (Songs Of

Solomon 5:2) The voice of my Beloved! Behold, He comes leaping upon the

mountains, skipping upon the hills (SOS 2:8) [look how excited the Lord is to meet

us] He knocks, saying, ‘Open for me my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one’

(SOS 5:2)



Yet we often respond “Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call

for you” (Acts 24:25)

The Lord persists and keeps on knocking and asking her to open the door, “For my

head is covered with dew, my locks with the drops of the night, (Song 5:2) The Lord

has been waiting for a long time. He has been waiting until His head is covered with

dew and His locks with the drops of night. Still He asks “Open for me my sister, my

love, my dove, my perfect one” In response He receives “ I have taken off my robe;

how can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; how can I defile them?” (Song 5:3)

What a response! How inappropriate! How unbecoming!

We SEEK and HUNT for excuses to stay away from the Lord – we ARE NOT that

busy, we have the time, we just chose to manage it poorly, and in response our

Creator draws away from us, to make us realize our foolishness for not answering His

call

IN THE END MAKE SURE TO FOCUS ON THE HOPEFUL

MESSAGE OF ALL OF THIS!!!

Even though God “appears” to abandon us, He cares deeply about is. This distancing

on the part of the Lord is only superficial. This is similar to a mother teaching her

infant how to walk, the infant may walk some, crawl some, and even fall in the

process. The mother carefully observes her infant at a distance. Abandoning the infant

temporarily is NOT an expression of lack of love. Rather, as the infant falls and tries

to stand up again, its nerves and muscles become stronger. When the infant finally

gathers enough strength to stand upright, the mother reaches for them to provide more

support. Thereby assuring the infant that this abandonment is but for a short while.

She is there diligently watching the situation, ready to intervene at the most opportune

moment to help the infant to its feet the second it shows inability to do it on its own.

The Lord deals with us in a similar fashion.

•

Points to Stress:

This abandonment is temporary!

We must STOP what we are doing, live a repentant and humble life to

avoid this period

The reason God does is this because of His love for us



•

Relate this to current events. It can be a very good discussion, as long as emotions

aren’t running high.



Workshop 4: Managing Time COCFC 2011

Verse: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…a

time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak” Ecclesiastes 3:1,7

Main Point: Silence/God’s Time

Passage & Discussion Points:

“The mistake we often make with our inner life is to imagine that if we hurry up we will be in

our future sooner—a little like the man who ran from the last carriage of the train to the first,

hoping that the distance would be shortened as a result…but when we continually try to live an

inch ahead of ourselves, we do not feel the absurdity of it. Yet that is what prevents us from

being completely in the present moment, which I dare say is the only moment in which we can

be, because even if we imagine that we are ahead of time or ahead of ourselves, we are not. The

only thing is that we are in a hurry, but we are not moving more quickly than this. You musthave seen that more than once. Someone with two heavy suitcases, trying to catch a bus, rushes:

he is as quick as he can be, he runs as fast as the suitcases allow, and he is all intent on being

where he is not. But you know what happens when we take a walk on a holiday. We can walk

briskly, gaily, and quickly, or if we are of the right age and condition, we can even run, but we

don’t feel in a hurry at all, because what matters at that moment is the running, not the arriving.”

Anthony Bloom

• Regarding time management, when does the running matter and when the arriving

matter?

• Regarding our spiritual life, when does the running matter and when does the arriving

matter?

• Regarding prayer, when does the running matter and when does the arriving matter?

• These questions don’t have a clearly defined answer but rather pose a gray area of

discussion.

Each person can share a practice or technique that they use to manage their time or to remember

God more often. Or they can try to come up with an idea and share with everyone else.Examples: carrying a prayer rope, setting reminders on our phone, etc.

Activity:

To the best of your ability, create an environment of absolute silence, and see how long it can

last amongst the group before someone gives in or something disturbs you all.



• You will find that the amount of time will be very short for whatever reason. This

teaches us that we are empty human beings. We are used to things happening which

compel us to do other things. We are reactive, not proactive.

• Don’t we always say that God is everywhere, He is with us always.... but do we really

understand what this means? This means that at any time, we should be able to just

“stop time” and feel his presence in the silence...if we want too.

• Real silence is something extremely intense, it has density and it is really alive.

• A saying of the desert fathers “If my silence doesn’t speak, then my words will be

useless.”

• Bird-watching analogy – bird-watching implies on the one hand, this stillness, this

quiet, this repose, and at the same time an intense alertness, because if you sit in the

fields dreaming the undreamt dreams of your short night, all the birds will have gone

before you realize that the sun is warming your back.

• This silence takes practice, training, and dedication. This is why we have related it to

managing time because in order to achieve this, it takes more than just 5 minutes on

your own randomly when you feel like it. You need to plan ahead to give certain time

of your day to the Lord.

• Additionally, you need to build up to it. For example, one can begin by silencing the

lips, silencing the body (i.e. keeping still, letting tenseness go), and then silencing the

mind and the heart.

How much time do you think is enough time to dedicate to God?

• Why is it so hard to dedicate more time to God?

• To dedicate time to having a relationship with God?

• Am I being efficient with my other tasks or am I wasting a lot of my time?

• Do I really know the limits of my ability so that I can organize my time?

• Do I follow other people’s time schedules or do I have my own priorities?



Workshop 5: O’Balak! COCFC 2011

Verse: “And it shall be, in that day, says the Lord, ‘That you will call Me ‘My Husband’ and no

longer call Me ‘My Master’”(Hosea 2:16)



Main Point: Once you have that intimate relationship with God, nothing else matters. Closure,

wrap up, applications to take home with us.

Begin by describing a spouse relationship, ask how they perceive such a relationship to be, then

liken this to God

We must recognize that He is God, that He is King, we must surrender to Him. We must at least

be concerned with His will, if we are not yet capable of fulfilling it. But if we are not, if we treat

God like the rich young man who could not follow Christ because he was too rich, then how can

we meet Him? So often what we would like to have through prayer, through the deep

relationship with God which we long for, is simply another period of happiness; we are not

prepared to sell all that we have in order to buy the pearl of great price. Then how should we get

this pearl of great price? Is that what we expect to get? Is it not the same as in human

relationships; when a man or a woman experiences love for another, other people no longer

matter in the same way. To put it in a short formula from the ancient world, “when a man has a

bride, he is no longer surrounded by men and women, but by people.” Isn’t that what could, what

should happen with regard to our riches, when we turn to God? Surely they become pale and

grey, just a general background......We cannot live a life of prayer, we cannot go ahead

Godwards, unless we are free from possession in order to have two hands to offer and a heart

absolutely open---not like a purse which we are afraid of keeping open because our money will

drop out of it, but like an open and empty purse. This is the way in which we are rich and yet

totally free from richness.

(Beginning to Pray p. 30-31, 43)

Discussion Points:

1. We can compare this intimate relationship with God to our closest earthly

relationships – the type of love we may have for a spouse or any other person is

exponentially increased a thousand fold in regards to our relationship with Him

2. We can practice remembering God in all of the “little things” He does for us that we

do not deserve. For example, whenever you want to say that you got so lucky for

something happening, stop yourself, and say thank you God because you did this for

me because you love me.

3. “My beloved is mine and I am His” indicates that the relationship between the human

soul and God is one of love



4. Many people’s relationship with the Lord stops at obedience. While it is

commendable that man abides by the Lord’s statutes and keep His commandments,

obedience without love is not acceptable in the sight of the Lord. (HH Pope

Shenouda)

5. There are people whose relationship with the Lord is based on ordinances, practices,

and rituals. In other words, while they pray, fast, prostrate, attend church, and take

communion, there is a dearth (serious shortage) of love. Be certain that prayer

without love is void and meaningless. True prayer is a reflection of love for the Lord,

yearning for Him and longing to talk with Him

How can we practically gain this loving relationship?

o In order to do this we have to die to ourselves, surrender our lives to Christ

and be completely infatuated by Him and really immerse ourselves in His

loving mercies

o True relationship with the Lord is, in short, whether you love the Lord or

not. If you love the Lord, then prayers are natural expression of that love.

Fasting will also be an expression of that love. Your love for the Lord will

transform all worldly desires such as hunger and yearning for food to

become inconsequential and trivial (HH Pope Shenouda)

o You gain the loving relationship through the practice of love

“We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19)

6. The relationship is constantly growing for a spiritual person so there should be no

end to our relationship with Him

7. True love is firm and unwavering. It is resolute and unshaken regardless of the crisis

which may befall a person

8. Marriage is forever, God is our bridegroom and so our relationship with Him is

eternal

Recap the basic message from each lecture and each workshop

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COCFC2011 Workshops