143- Whose Chair is this? Glories are waiting for me!

In the bedroom

 The young lady heard knocking on her door. When she opened the door, she was stunned to see a monk standing at the doorstep. She did not know what to do. The monk realized her disturbance; he smiled and said, “May I come in?”

The lady said, “Welcome my father.”

The monk entered the living room. Quiet moments passed. The lady was thinking, “What does this monk want from me? Doesn’t he know that my house is a bordello? Maybe he is burned with passion. Is that why he came? Or was he attracted to my beauty? But I see him pure and chaste. Maybe he came to scold me! How dares he? I won’t allow it. Let him teach people in his monastery or in his church, but he won’t invade my privacy to scold or rebuke me in my house.”

As the young lady was wondering in her mind, the monk asked her nicely, “How are you doing?”

She answered, “Fine!”

Before she asked his name or about his monastery, he put his hand in his pocket and gave her some money. The young lady realized what he came for. She held his hand and led him to her bedroom. As they sat, the monk asked her, “Is there any other inner room in here so nobody may see us!”

Indeed she entered with him into an inner room. For the second time the monk asked, “Is there any other inner room so nobody can see us?”

“Why do you ask monk? Nobody is in the room and nobody will enter here with us.” she answered.

“I desire that no one sees us. I want a safer room so no one ever see us.”

“What do you mean that no one will ever see us?”

“I want a room where God can’t see us.”

“What are you saying father? A place where God can’t see us! God sees us wherever we are.”

Hence the monk started crying and said, “I can’t my daughter commit this sin before the eyes of God, The one who loved me, and gave His Son for my salvation. I can not distress His heart. I don’t fear people; let them say whatever they want to say. But I fear God, only Him I fear. I fear God who created me in His image and likeness. When I fell, He could not tolerate to let me perish. He died on the cross that I may live.”

Then he went on and on about the endless love of God and redemption. The girl started crying bitterly and said to him, “What’s the solution, my father? Can God accept me after all what I have done?”

“Yes, my daughter, God accepts everyone, He

“Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.””

“I’m an adulteress. I defiled the lives of a lot of men, and broke up many homes.”

“Don’t be afraid my daughter. Heaven rejoices with your repentance.”

“Maybe my father, you do not know how evil I’m? I am not just a person that needs repentance; I’m a very evil person. My blood is mixed with lust, and my body with sin.”

The young lady fell crying at the feet of the monk. As he could not tolerate her tears he cried also and held her hand to lift her up, saying, “Don’t be afraid my daughter. Have hope in the Lord. He loves you. He’d sent me for your salvation.”

Then she controlled herself a little and said to the monk, “Don’t leave me my father till you get me out of this place. I can no longer stand to stay at the place of sin.”

He answered, “I won’t leave you till my soul rests concerning you.”

The young lady asked, “Is there a place out of the city to spend the rest of my days there to repent?”

The monk said to her, “I’ll prepare a place for you.”

→ English translation of the story here at St-Takla.org: لمن هذا الكرسي؟ | أمجاد تنتظرني!

In the market place

She stood up saying, “Tolerate my weakness father. Please wait several hours. I want to get rid of everything I gathered from this sinful life.”

The monk went to the hall of the house. The young lady put all her belongings in suitcases. She called carriers and went out with them, leaving the monk alone.

She went towards the market of the city. The people of the city were amazed asking themselves to where beautiful Taees is leaving.

Many were watching her; some even followed her to know where she was going. As she reached the middle of the city she asked the carrier to stop and put down her bags, then she paid him. Everyone was surprised. Many gathered around her amazed, no one asked here anything.

Taees looked to the people with tears and said, “Come on, all of you, who traded with me; look, I’ll burn all that I have gathered from the filthy life I lived.”

Then Taees set fire at all her suitcases before hearing any comment.

When Taees came back to her home she opened the door quietly to find the monk praying towards the east. She did not wait for him to finish his prayers. She fell at his feet saying, “Here I’m at your hand. Don’t leave me till the grace of God works in me. Tell me what I should do.”

The monk stopped his prayers and lifted Taees from the floor. She insisted not to sit on a chair. Then he asked, “What’s your plan my daughter?”

“I’ve no plan, father. God led you to me, and worked through you to release me from this sinful life.”

The monk said, “I don’t know a place except the convent.”

“Will they accept me, father?” she asked.

“If God accepts you how can anyone reject you?”

“But I’m a defiled person, how can I live among the virgins?”

“I know that God, who saved us by His blood, loves all sinners who repent from all their hearts.”

After a short conversation, they both left, and the people of the city who watched from afar were amazed. Who is that great man who changed the life of such a wicked person? Taees was walking calmly with a broken contrite heart, her head down and her tears falling on her cheeks. She accompanied the monk and did not look left or right till they reached one of the nunneries.

The monk met the Abbess of the monastery, introduced Taees to her and asked for Taees to be taken care of. Taees looked at the Abbess and said, “Mother, I’m defiled in heart, thoughts and body. I’ve one request. I need a small room to live by myself alone to weep the rest of my life for the sins I have committed.”

The Abbess patted her shoulder saying, “You’re my daughter, my young sister. The Lord forgives us all our sins.”

Nevertheless, Taees said, “Please don’t treat me kindly like that; don’t be gentle with me and don’t let your heart be compassionate on me. I need severe discipline. My heart aches; my thoughts were evil and my body is full of sin and corruption. I can’t live among saints. Let me live by myself. I’m less than all humans.”

Taees insisted on her request. Therefore, the Abbess offered a small cell to her with a small window, from which she was offered dry bread and water.

When the monk asked to leave to go back to his monastery, Taees said, “Father, you didn’t tell me how to pray.”

The monk did not speak for a while. He was thinking. He wanted her to live a real repentance. He said, “You don’t deserve to pray to God or stretch your hands towards Him, nor even mention His Holy name by your lips, because your lips are defiled and your hands are unclean. You ought to sit looking towards the east and say, “Oh You who created me have mercy on me.”

Taees cheered and rejoiced with the words of the monk, kissed his hand and said, “I know I’m a sinner, pray for me my father so that God may have mercy on me.”

He bid her farewell and left with the Abbess.

Whose chair is this?

The monk returned to his cell with his heart full of peace glorifying God who grants repentance to all sinners. The story of Taees occupied the monk’s thoughts. He could not forget her tears. So he concentrated his prayers on her day and night. He prayed and supplicated to God and asked, “Give comfort to my heart Lord concerning Taees.”

Days passed and the story of Taees still occupied his mind. He left his cell and went to the desert to meet the father of the monks Father Anthony. The monk reached the cave of St. Anthony and as they met they greeted one another, knelt to the ground and kissed each other.

As the monk Serapion told St. Anthony the story of Taees, St. Anthony thanked God.

He comforted father Serapion and said, “Taees is now in the hands of God, the Lover of all mankind, who desires our salvation and forgives our sins and does not want to remind us of them.” He continued, “To be more comforted let us pray with some of the monks so that God may reveal to us the destiny of this daughter.”

St. Anthony called some of his sons, the monks. He told them the deeds of God with Taees and asked them to dedicate their prayers this night so that God may comfort their hearts concerning Taees. At night they all prayed concerning this matter. About midnight one of the monks saw a vision.

He saw as if heaven was opened and an extremely beautiful chair was carried by the angels. The monk looked to the chair surprised. One of the angels asked the monk, "Why are you amazed? Do you know whose chair this is.”

The monk answered, “Sure, it’s for our father Anthony.”

But the angel said, “This chair is for Taees.”

The monk rejoiced because of this vision. In the morning he told the vision to St. Anthony and father Serapion and to the other monks. They all gave glory and thanks to God. Father Serapion left the western desert and went to the convent to tell the Abbess and comfort her concerning Taees.

Father Serapion met the Abbess who informed him that Taees had departed from the world. He told her what happened and they glorified God. The Abbess gathered all the nuns and father Serapion told them the story of Taees, this great Saint who, by her true repentance, won a glorious place in heaven.

Stories for consolation

Long More Powerful than Death

Short Stories (Stories for the Youth) Books by Father Tadros Yacoub Malaty

The New John