A Prayer by Pope Shenouda – Leave Me Now
Main Idea:
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III reflects on the human soul’s struggle between wanting control and truly surrendering to God. It is a deep inner dialogue, where he asks his soul to “leave him now” so that he may live fully united with God, free from self-centeredness.
Spiritual Message:
- The Pope explains that man’s greatest mistake is constantly interfering in the matters of his own soul, as if sharing in God’s work, while the soul belongs solely to God who redeemed it with His blood.
- The believer is called to surrender completely to God without doubt or curiosity, focusing on God’s will rather than his own self.
- He describes his spiritual growth in monastic life: first seeing monasticism as detachment from all and union with the One, then realizing true detachment is from the self that distracts from God.
- He urges the soul to leave him so he may focus on God, for preoccupation with oneself blocks the vision of the divine.
- The highest form of prayer, he says, is not about oneself but the prayer of praise — speaking only of God’s goodness and majesty.
- True humility means forgetting oneself before God and speaking not of one’s own needs but of His greatness.
Message:
Union with God begins when one forgets oneself and says sincerely: “Leave me now, that I may be occupied with God, not with you.”
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