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We are what you once were.
We believe what you once believed.
We worship as you once worshiped.
If you were right
then, we are right now.
If we are wrong now, you were wrong
then.
A Canonical Orthodox Church of World
Wide Orthodox
 A Monk's Wisdom!
Abba Pambo: His Life
and Works!
HIS LIFE -- BEGIN: An Egyptian ascetic on the
Nitrian mountain, Abba Pambo was a contemporary of St. Anthony the Great and
himself great in monastic asceticism. Born about A.D. 303, he was one of the
first to join Amoun in Nitria. He was illiterate until he was taught the
Scriptures as a monk and ordained priest in 340. He had two characteristics by
which he was especially known; by long training, he sealed his lips, so that no
unnecessary word passed them, and he never ate any bread other than that which
he gained by his own labour, plaiting rushes.
He was like an angel of God and, in old age, his
face shone as did the face of Moses in ancient times, so that the monks could
not look on it. He did not give a quick answer even to a simple question,
without prayer and pondering in his heart. Abba Pambo was once travelling
around Egypt with some monks. When they came to a group of people who remained
seated as the monks passed them, St. Pambo said to them: “Get up and greet the
monks, and ask their blessing, for they converse unceasingly with God and their
lips are holy.” This wonderful saint had clear discernment into the destiny of
the living and the dead. He entered into rest in the Lord in the year 374.
HIS TEACHINGS – BEGIN: There was a monk named
Pambo and they said of him that he spent three years saying to God, “Do not
glorify me on earth.” But God glorified him so that one could not gaze
steadfastly at him because of the glory of his countenance.
-- Two
brethren came to see Abba Pambo one day and the first asked him, “Abba, I fast
for two days, then I eat two loaves; am I saving my soul, or am I going the
wrong way?” The second said, “Abba, every day I get two pence from my manual
work, and I keep a little for my food and give the rest in alms; shall I be
saved or shall I be lost?” They remained a long time questioning him and still
the old man gave them no reply.
After four days they had to leave and the priests
comforted them saying, “Do not be troubled, brothers. God gives the reward. It
is the old man’s custom not to speak readily till God inspires him.” So they
went to see the old man and said to him, “Abba, pray for us.” He said to them,
“Do you want to go away?” They said, “Yes.” Then, giving his mind to their works
and writing on the ground he said, “If Pambo fasted for two days together and
ate two loaves, would he become a monk that way? No. And if Pambo works to get
two pence and gives them in alms, would he become a monk that way? No, not that
way either.” He said to them, “The works are good, but if you guard your
conscience towards your neighbor, then you will be saved.” They were satisfied
and went away joyfully.
Four monks of Scetis, clothed in skins, came one
day to see the great Pambo. Each one revealed the virtue of his neighbor. The
first fasted a great deal; the second was poor; the third had acquired great
charity; and they said of the fourth that he had lived for twenty-two years in
obedience to an old man. Abba Pambo said to them, “I tell you, the virtue of
this last one is the greatest. Each of the others has obtained the virtue he
wished to acquire; but the last one, restraining his own will, does the will of
another. Now it is of such men that the martyrs are made, if they persevere to
the end.”
Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria, of holy
memory, begged Abba Pambo to come down from the desert to Alexandria. He went
down, and seeing an actress he began to weep. Those who were present asked him
the reason for his tears, and he said, “Two things make me weep: one, the loss
of this woman; and the other, that I am not so concerned to please God as she is
to please wicked men.”
Abba Pambo said, “If you have a heart, you can be
saved.”
-- The priest of Nitria asked him how the brethren ought to live.
He replied, “With much labor, guarding their consciences towards their
neighbor.”
Abba Theodore of Pherme asked Abba Pambo, “Give me a word.”
With much difficulty he said to him, “Theodore, go and have pity on all, for
through pity, one finds freedom of speech before God.”
Abba Pambo’s “Life” is from Bishop Nilolai
Velimirovic, “The Prologue
From Ochrid,” (Birmingham: Lazarica Press, 1986), pp. 77 - 79. This
book is available on line!
Abba Pambo’s “Teachings” are from Sr.
Benedicta Ward, “The Desert Christian,” (New York: MacMillan Publishing
Co., Inc., 1975), pp. 195 - 198.
Although both these titles are
out-of-print, there are a number of good books available today that contain the
teachings of the Desert Fathers. We recommend "The
Desert Fathers -- Translations from the Latin" as a nice, inexpensive,
introduction to the teachings of the Desert Fathers – just follow the link to
learn more about it and order it safely on-line at a
discount.
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Francis of Assisi?
The wide Path to
hell is paved with the bones of Bishops and Priests ... Speaking to One of his Disciples... Read More >>>
 Some personal thoughts from the heart of Monk Michael.
Well, it's time again for this old monk to question you on what in the
world is going on. These are serious times that we live in. I can't even
begin to understand the why and why not of those who would rather believe
a lie than the truth. Being comfortable in a lie and surrounding yourself
with many others who believe the same lie is not going to get you saved.
I cannot change that and neither can you, it has been said many times by
me that when I was a Protestant Minister and began to study the history
of the church as well as all denominations along with the study of the
church Oecumenical councils and Patristic writings, the idea that Protestantism
was wrong began to form in my spirit and in my mind. I fought hard against
this truth for several years while I researched it but always the same
conclusion came up; Protestantism and Romanism is just plain missing the
whole truth. I served in both for many, many years. Many of those who read
my writings have not even been alive as long as I have been serving in
the church and yet they want to read and then argue. Why??? You need to
study what I am saying, do not just blow it off, prove me wrong and I will
listen, without proof you are a mute trying to talk to deaf ears, you'll
get no where.
This is for you who
refuse, still, to heed the church and the truth, you insist that the Bible is
the only authority that you listen to but in fact this is a deception played on
you because if in fact you attend any church then you do indeed do what the
church tells you to do. If you are a Pastor, you teach what you were taught in
your seminary training without question or investigation into whether anything
is true or false; so the Bible is not your only authority, if it were so that
the Bible was your true authority then why do you neglect so much of it? Take
these tests for yourself and tell me where you and/or your church stand on them;
John 13:5 After that, he putteth
water into a basin, and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe
them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
| John 13:14 If then I
being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one
another's feet.
When is the last time that you or anyone in your church washed anyone's feet?
Is this not a command from Jesus Himself in the Bible that you obey?
| Leviticus
17:10 If any man
whosoever of the house of Israel, and of the strangers that sojourn among them,
eat blood, I will set my face against his soul, and will cut him off from among
his people |
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| Leviticus
7:26 Moreover
you shall not eat the blood of any creature whatsoever, whether of birds or
beasts.
Pretty straightforward commands don't you think? When is the last time that
you put gravy, or essence, or the juice of the meat on your food? Doesn't matter
what you call it, it's blood.
So in essence I guess we obey only what we personally decide we will obey
from God's Word? This seems to be the norm for most of the world's
population, it depends on what denomination that you belong to as to what part
of God's Word is chosen to be obeyed doesn't it?
But yet it is insisted that this is God's Holy Word, that is
taken literally and that it is the only authority. How are you doing so far with
this little quiz?
One last thing to think about; the Bible that you claim is your only
authority, from whence did you receive it? Was it from the church that you now
abhor and refuse to listen to? How can you even be sure that what you are
reading is even true, who told you that it was? Your Pastor, your seminary
professors, or did you just simply accept it as being true without testing it
because the church that you split from told you that it was true but you want to
live life your own way and worship in the way that pleases you and not God? You
received the Word that you claim to hold precious from the church that you claim
does not teach the truth but yet you accept it blindly. Does this make sense to
you?
If in fact it is truly believed that the Bible that you are reading is God's
Holy Word and given directly by Him to us, then why in the world when the
reformation began did Martin Luther want to remove books from the Bible? How can
a mere man decide what part of God's Word is true if God Himself gave these
words to us? What am I talking about?
Why did Martin Luther want to remove the book of James from the
Bible?
Isn't this the Word of God?
Why did Martin Luther REMOVE Seven (7) books from
the Protestant Bible ?
The books missing from Protestant Bibles are: Tobit, Judith,
Baruch, Wisdom, Sirach, 1 and 2 Maccabees, and parts of Esther and Daniel.
Martin Luther, without any authority whatsoever, removed those seven
books and placed them in an appendix during the reformation. They remained
in the appendix of Protestant Bibles until about
1826, and then they were removed altogether.
What *other* books of the Bible did Martin Luther want to cut
out?
Luther wanted to remove the Epistle of James, Esther,
Hebrews, Jude and Revelation.
Calvin and Zwingli also both had problems
with the Book of Revelation, the former calling it "unintelligible" and
forbidding the pastors in Geneva to interpret it, the latter calling it
"unbiblical".
Many Protestants accuse Catholics of "adding" Books to
the Bible at the 16th c. Council of Trent. This is absolutely, 100% false. This
Council, among other things, simply affirmed the ancient accepted books in the
face of Protestant tinkering. How could Luther have relegated the
deuterocanonical books to an appendix if they hadn't already been accepted in
the first place? The Gutenberg Bible was printed in 1454 -- and it included the
deuterocanonical Books. How could the Church have "added" them at the Council of
Trent that began 91 years later? Most Protestant Bibles included the
deuterocanonical Books until about 1815, when the British and Foreign Bible
Society discontinued the practice! And note that Jews in other parts of the
world who weren't around to hear the Council of Jamnia's decision in A.D. 100
include to this day those "extra" 7 books in their canon.
The Orthodox
Russian and other branches of the Eastern Orthodox Church have a New Testament
identical with the Catholic. In Syria the Nestorians possess a Canon almost
identical with the final one of the ancient East Syrians; they exclude the four
smaller Catholic Epistles and Apocalypse. The Monophysites receive all the book.
The Armenians have one apocryphal letter to the Corinthians and two from the
same. The Coptic-Arabic Church include with the canonical Scriptures the
Apostolic Constitutions and the Clementine Epistles. The Ethiopic New Testament
also contains the so-called "Apostolic Constitutions".
As for
Protestantism, the Anglicans and Calvinists always kept the entire New Testament
But for over a century the followers of Luther excluded Hebrews, James, Jude,
and Apocalypse, and even went further than their master by rejecting the three
remaining deuterocanonicals, II Peter, II and III John.
So much for the Word of God, God wrote it and handed it
to us but we're not really sure which word is from God and which word is of our
own making, it all depends on our own personal philosophy and what we choose to
believe doesn't it? Whatever our church of choice teaches is fine for me, I am
there because they teach what I want to believe, the actual truth does not matter.
If this is your philosophy, good luck in the coming one world religion; you,
Islam, Satanism, any cult that you can think of and all of the Protestant
denominations that join together with them to make peace on earth will be very
happy together, the compromises will make everyone ecstatic, or everyone can
just simply join Islam.
You might just try one more thing though if you really want to see God
through Jesus Christ. Find a true Orthodox Church near you and go, learn to
worship in reality or contact us for help.
Your humble servant in Christ,
Monk
Michael
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