In the gospel proper for today, Tuesday in the fourth week of Easter, Jesus counsels us to be spiritually prepared for the end of our lives. Wise words, for as those of who have lived long know, life hangs by a thread. How do you stay prepared to go out good? Perhaps Bible reading or Christian studies, and certainly prayer and reflection.
In the early Church many prepared by giving up marriage and living singly while performing tasks to make a living. Pachomius was once such person. He was drafted into the Roman Army from his home in northern Egypt, was discharged in 313 and became a Christian. (Remember that the Empire had modified the law to make all religions freely legal while not promoting any particular religion, just as our Constitution does today.) Pachomius could be openly, freely Christian and he chose to do it by a call to be a hermit.
Soon he began to ponder whether a group of me like-minded with him could form a community in which they would collectively devote time to religious activity, still performing the tasks needed to bring about a livelihood. With that insight, communal monasticism was born. Pachomius founded several monasteries, wrote a rule to govern the common life, installed an abbot over each community, and a dean over each "house." A house reflected a particular vocation: there would be a house of farmers. a house of tailors, a house of teachers, and so forth.
We owe much to Pachomius for envisioning and reifying communal monasticism in the Church. Monks and nuns continue to provide valuable sministry amongst us Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians, even some Lutherans in Europe. Thank you, Saint Pachomius!
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