Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Categories
- All Categories 13.8K
- General Category 10.9K
- General Announcements 184
- Faith Issues 3.4K
- Coptic Orthodox Church 2.5K
- Personal Issues 1.4K
- Prayer Requests 423
- Random Issues 1.8K
- Introductions 294
- Non-Orthodox Inquiries 232
- Youth Corner 606
- Hymns 2.5K
- Hymns Discussion 2.5K
- Technicial Difficulties 368
- Technical Topics 368
self flagellation
I was wondering what's the view of the coptic orthodox church on this???
God Bless
Please pray for me
God Bless
Please pray for me
Comments
A woman of sin once made up her mind, and wagered with her friends, that she could, without fail, succeed in leading into her nets a hermit, who lived on a mountain far from the city and about whom it was said by all that he was a holy man.
She wore a thick veil, which hid her attractiveness, and climbed the mountain. Her friends waited for her half-way up the road. As evening fell, she knocked at the door of the hermit’s cave. He was disturbed when he saw her: “How can it be that a woman would be found at such an hour in this wilderness?”
“Ah, devil, this is one of your enticements,” he mused.
He asked her who she was and what she was looking for. She turned on the tears.
“For hours on end I have been wandering in the wilderness, Father. I lost my way and my companions and I do not even know how I got here. But in the name of God, do not let the wild beasts eat me.”
The hermit found himself in a dilemma. Should he take a woman into his living quarters? No such thing had ever occurred to him. But, on the other hand, should he let a creature of God be eaten by wild beasts? That would be inhuman, almost criminal. Finally, sympathy got the better of him and he took her in. She then took off her veil, supposedly ingenuously, and showed him her charms. Temptation began to inflame the desires of the combatant, since the act was no longer impeded.
He threw a few dry leaves on the ground and told the woman to lie down, while he removed himself to the depths of the cave. He kneeled and prayed fervently.
“Tonight,” he reflected, “I have to wage the toughest battle against the visible and invisible enemy, and either I shall be victorious, or I will waste all of my labors.”
As the night progressed, so much more the flame of his desire burned him. For one moment he felt his resistance yield and he was terrified.
“Those who defile their bodies with sinful acts go to hell,” he said almost screaming. “And now to test to see if you will endure in the torturing fire.”
He lighted his oil lamp and put his finger in the flame. But the other flame which burned his flesh was stronger and did not let him feel pain from the burn. Since his first finger had become useless, he put his second finger into the flame of the oil lamp, and then the third. By the time morning came, he had burned the five fingers of his hand.
That vile woman followed the superhuman struggle of the servant of God from a hidden vantage point and, seeing him obstinately burn all of his fingers, one after the other, was so shaken that she dropped dead of her terror.
Her friends, in the meantime, made a surprise incursion on the elder’s cave in order to get a laugh at his expense. However, they found him outside in prayer.
“Did a woman perhaps show up here last evening?” they asked him.
“She is inside sleeping,” he answered them.
They went in and found her dead.
He then uncovered his hand and showed them his fingers.
“Do you see here what the daughter of the devil did to me?”
The commandment of Christ, however, commands me to return good for evil.”
He stood up and prayed over her soulless body and brought it back to life.
I was wondering what's the view of the coptic orthodox church on this???
It is absolutely wrong. Christ suffered for us so that we would not. We gain forgiveness through repentance and confession.
[quote author=godislove260 link=topic=6918.msg92656#msg92656 date=1215894023]
I was wondering what's the view of the coptic orthodox church on this???
It is absolutely wrong. Christ suffered for us so that we would not. We gain forgiveness through repentance and confession.
Again, I'd have to say, it depends on the situation. If you read the story above, the monk burned his fingers as to avoid a greater sin. He was not harming himself for forgiveness, but to defend himself against lustful attacks; in that case, I would say self-flagellation is acceptable. Now, if I committed a sin and I decided to whip myself 100x for forgiveness, that's wrong and unacceptable.
http://tasbeha.org/content/community/index.php?topic=2614.0