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| Chapter X. Of the silence and conciseness with which the Collects are offered up by the Egyptians.
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Chapter X.
Of the silence and conciseness with which the Collects
are offered up by the Egyptians.
When, then, they meet
together to celebrate the aforementioned rites, which they term
synaxes,697
| 697 Synaxis
(σύναξις) a general
name for the course of the ecclesiastical offices. | they are all so
perfectly silent that, though so large a number of the brethren is
assembled together, you would not think a single person was present
except the one who stands up and chants the Psalm in the midst; and
especially is this the case when the prayer is offered up,698
for then there is no spitting, no
clearing of the throat, or noise of coughing, no sleepy yawning with
open mouths, and gaping, and no groans or sighs are uttered, likely to
distract those standing near. No voice is heard save that of the priest
concluding the prayer, except perhaps one that escapes the lips through
aberration of mind and unconsciously takes the heart by surprise,
inflamed as it is with an uncontrollable and irrepressible fervour of
spirit, while that which the glowing mind is unable to keep to itself
strives through a sort of unutterable groaning to make its escape from
the inmost chambers of the breast. But if any one infected with
coldness of mind prays out loud or emits any of those sounds we have
mentioned, or is overcome by a fit of yawning, they declare that he is
guilty of a double fault.
He is blameworthy, first, as regards his own
prayer because he offers it to God in a careless way; and, secondly,
because by his unmannerly noise he disturbs the thoughts of another who
would otherwise perhaps have been able to pray with greater attention.
And so their rule is that the prayer ought to be brought to an end with
a speedy conclusion, lest while we are lingering over it some
superfluity of spittle or phlegm should interfere with the close of our
prayer. And, therefore, while it is still glowing the prayer is to be
snatched as speedily as possible out of the jaws of the enemy, who,
although he is indeed always hostile to us, is yet never more hostile
than when he sees that we are anxious to offer up prayers to God
against his attacks; and by exciting wandering thoughts and all sorts
of rheums he endeavours to distract our minds from attending to our
prayers, and by this means tries to make it grow cold, though begun
with fervour. Wherefore they think it best for the prayers to be short
and offered up very frequently:699
| 699 Cf. Augustine,
Ep. cxxx., § 20 (Vol. II. 389): “Dicuntur
fratres in Ægypto crebras quidem habere orationes, sed eas tamen
brevissimas, et raptim quodammodo jaculatas, ne illa vigilantes erecta,
quæ oranti plurimum necessaria est, per productiores moras
evanescat atque hebetetur intentio;” and Hooker, Eccl.
Polity, Book V. c. xxxiii.: “The brethren in Egypt (saith S.
Augustine) are reported to have many prayers, but every of them very
short, as if they were darts thrown out with a kind of sudden
quickness, lest that vigilant and erect attention of mind which in
prayer is very necessary should be wasted or dulled through
continuance, if their prayers were few and long.…Those prayers
whereunto devout minds have added a piercing kind of brevity, as well
in that respect which we have already mentioned, as also thereby the
better to express that quick and speedy expedition wherewith ardent
affections, the very wings of prayer, are delighted to present our
suits in heaven, even sooner than our tongues can devise to utter
them,” etc. | on the one hand
that by so often praying to the Lord we may be able to cleave to Him
continually; on the other, that when the devil is lying in wait for us,
we may by their terse brevity avoid the darts with which he endeavours
to wound us especially when we are saying our
prayers.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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