The Detachment Of The Spirit
 
 Pope Shenouda III
 
 The ultimate goal of every spiritual individual on
Earth is to know God and experience him. In order to
achieve that goal, the human spirit embodied in the
material body needs to be detached from numerous strains.
Unless the individual determines to succeed in
detaching his spirit from those strains, he will be
unable to have a genuine relationship with God, let
alone to know Him
 
I. Introduction
 A. What do we mean by the detachment of the spirit?
 B. What it needs to be detached from? Can it be
 detached from everything on earth? To what end?
 
II. A detachment from the knowledge of sin
A. The fall and knowledge of sin (Gen 3-5)
B. The original sate and its purity (Ecl 1:18)
 
III. Know Thy-Self
 A. Self-Denial
 1. Remember your sins and your corruption it brought
 to your nature
 2. Remember your nothingness (Genesis 6:5)
 3. Always give glory to God
 B.Self-Denial Vs Humility
 1. Humility is to Willingly give up a higher rank or
 position (e.g.; Christ)
 2) Self-Denial is undermining your inner talents and
 emphasizing God’s glory (e.g.; St Paul in 1Cor 1:
 27-29) 
 C. How to reconcile between humility and Self-Denial
 1. All your talents notwithstanding, you utterly
 depend On God and reach out to him (e.g.; Moses the
 Prophet: Ex 3:11, 4:10, and St Paul: 1st Cor 1:
 19,2:3,4)
 2. Depending on your talents may prevent from knocking
 on God’s door and asking for the divine
 Wisdom (e.g.1Cor 3:18)
 3. Acknowledge your weakness and always give glory to
 God (e.g.2Cor 12:9,10)
 4. Acknowledging your weakness and depending on God,
 strengthens us in our spiritual life (e.g. Ps 123) 
 
IV. Yourself and people’s conduct toward you
A. The case of praise
1.Remember that glory should only be given to God. Why?
 a. He is the creator and source of all creation (PS 115:1)
 b. Human nothingness and sinfulness cannot be praised or glorified
 c. People’s praise is deceitful
 d. Remember God’s mercy to cover all your deficiencies
 
B. The case of mistreatment
1. How to react?
a. Seek the cause and humble yourself
b. Discern the abuse in a spiritual thoughtful way
1. Pray for the person who abused you and his salvation
2. Try to console him and rectify his misconduct in a spiritual manner 
3. It could be a message from God (2 Sam 16:10)
4. Reminder to curb your pride (Ps 112)
5. lesson to teach you compassion and tolerance
6. Remember God’s tolerance to you
7. Remember you Master Christ (Is 53:7)
 
IV. Conclusion
 A. The Challenge ahead and how to succeed