LETTER TO A UNIVERSITY STUDENT

H. G. Bishop Moussa

 

I thank God that He has granted you the blessing of entering the academic field. A university

is not only a school of knowledge, but also a school of life. The young person who spends the

university years with an upright heart builds a mature and effective Christian personality and

increases his experiences of life day by day. He is transformed by grace into a faithful witness

to Christ in an age in which faithful witnesses are rare.

Beloved Reader,

You may have left your small town and found that your lifestyle has changed totally and

radically: here you are in the middle of a vast and limitless city. Here you are experiencing

complete freedom with no supervision. Here you go out through the university gates without

any questions. You listen to lectures without the daily supervision of your teachers, for you

alone are responsible. Here your loneliness and the absence of your family sometimes makes

you feel greatly upset and depressed.

The food, clothes, your roommates, the atmosphere at university, the method of teaching,

and others things are factors that make you wonder, shock you, pain you, teach you, or

make you victorious.

 

How Can You Act in a Christian Way?

 

1. Hold on to Your Christ:

If you have neglected the life of fellowship you had during your secondary school

education or in your small town, you must strive now several times harder in order to face up

to the new circumstances.

Prayer is the overflowing fountain in which you cleanse your heart and from which you slake

your thirst. The chance of being alone in your chamber is the basic opportunity during which

you breathe the gentle breeze of the Spirit. Your spirit will be filled only with Christ, so if you

deprive it of Him, you will be torn by a morbid homesickness for your family or you will take a

deviant path toward destructive friends or toward a person of the opposite sex.

Prayer is a basic necessity in your life. It gives you great divine resources to face this age

which has reverted to the worship of idols such as materialism, greed, and the pleasures of

the flesh and in which human hearts have become devoid of the fear of God. People now

race to accumulate wealth, to use power, cunning, dishonesty and bribery to reach eminent

positions. They resort to lying to raise themselves and to injustice and tyranny in order to

rule over others.

These have all become normal and desirable matters for the children of this world.

+ Embrace your Bible, dear reader, and hide its words in your heart; only then can you avoid

sinning against God.

+ Hold on to your Christ, my friend, for He is your best friend and companion in your days as

an alien on earth, the best father for your life, and the best physician for your circumstances.

+ Organize your prayers according to a system, and persevere in carrying it out with

faithfulness under the guidance of your father confessor.

+ Read spiritual books regularly so that they may stimulate within you a conservative, loving

and worshipful spirit.

2. Define Your Personality Traits:

You may feel, dear reader, that your behavior in the Way of the Kingdom makes other

accuse you of backwardness and deficiency. Be sure, my friend, that unless you live your

Christianity in depth and define your personality traits clearly, the people of the world will

intimidate you with their criticism, and you will imagine that you are wrong and they are

right. The well-defined Christian youth has a strong personality and definite characteristics.

He does not feel inferior because he does not sin, and he does not feel deprived because he

avoids the prevalent pleasures of this age. On the contrary, he feels that he is a son of God

and that he follows what is right.

The Christian youth is not ashamed of the Way of the Kingdom and does not take part in

the works of darkness. He deals with the society in which he lives with love; he preserves his

eternal inheritance, loves those who surround him, prays for them, and invites them to follow

the way of purity. He pulls them out of the fire with great caution so that he may not be

involved himself in what is not fitting for him. The well-defined youth who is not passive is

always strong, always victorious. The youth who is internally defeated and who feels that

religion has deprived him of being normal like those around him is a coward, hesitant, and

prepared to flee in situations that call for witnessing.

You will see around you young persons who enter into relationships with the opposite

sex. If you are convinced of the soundness of your walk with Christ, you will face these

situations without experiencing any attraction, without pride or arrogance, and without

feeling deprived or lacking in some way. You have come to university to acquire knowledge,

so postpone the issue of marriage to a more suitable time.

Be filled with the mind of the Kingdom, with the Lord of the Kingdom, and with the

children of the Kingdom, so that you may live as king over your self and your weaknesses,

and over conflicts with people and with the times.

3. Maintain Your Relationship with Your Father Confessor:

You will make many mistakes, my brother, if you do not maintain your relationship with

a father confessor, even in the place where you are a stranger if you come from another

town. This is the beginning of withdrawal from the way of the Kingdom. Regular confessions

are important stations that occur at close intervals during which you re-examine yourself and

ascertain your progress.

Make haste, my brother, in choosing a father confessor and keep in touch with him

continually so that you obtain the help of the Holy Spirit in the personal, social, spiritual and

academic circumstances of your life. You will find that you get sound advice and sincere help

from your spiritual father.

4. Beware of Ceasing to Serve:

It is evident that the circumstances of the new university life cause some kind of

confusion and preoccupation initially because of the change in lifestyle, in living quarters, in

food, and in studies. Hence, you may neglect your work in one of the fields of service. This is

a grave danger, for the spirit of service will grow cold in time and you will be lost in the

vortex of those who are lost.

Join the nearest branch of Church education quickly, for service is an important weapon

in your fight with the enemy and with yourself. It satisfies your soul with the richness of the

word and of prayer, and keeps you in a holy, spiritual and social atmosphere that makes up

for the circle of family and friends in your small town if you are a stranger.

5. Social Activities:

It is good to deal with everybody with love, but you should also do so with

discrimination. How many corrupt friendships have destroyed the lives of many!

Be active in your social life, but under the supervision of your conscience and of your

father confessor.

Do not participate in activities you know will harm your life, and do not ignore the inner voice

of the Spirit of God Who warns you against them

6. Study Regularly and Seriously:

The freedom of university life often turns into confusion. That is why the mature young

person should plan his time seriously and firmly.

Give everything its due: spiritual life and the church, studying and rest.

Value the painful sacrifices your family is making in order to support you, and value the

opportunity to witness to Christ through your success and progress.

The university student who makes the freedom of university the occasion of negligence, of

emotional involvement, and of academic failure does not deserve his father’s sweat or his

mother’s tears.

And now, beloved friend, I leave you to spend some time in your chamber in prayer during

which you renew your promises and define the milestones of the way, and

may the Lord be with you.

||    Pope Shenouda    ||    Father Matta    ||    Bishop Mattaous    ||    Fr. Tadros Malaty    ||    Bishop Moussa    ||    Bishop Alexander    ||    Habib Gerguis    ||    Bishop Angealos    ||    Metropolitan Bishoy    ||