|
Christ is resin, Truly He is risen |
How to Benefit Spiritually from Pascha Week… How do we enjoy the most spiritual week of the year? By H.H. Pope Shenouda III 1. Our behavior inside and outside church: It is very noticeable that many people during Passion Week act very differently inside church than they do outside church. Inside church… black curtains, sad hymns, solemn readings, and complete concentration on the suffering of Christ. However, outside of church, we often laugh, joke around, socialize, think and talk about many worldly issues. We lose all the spiritual depth that we gained inside church. Let us concentrate our thoughts, conversations, and meditations around the events of this Holy Week and the passion of our Savior. This article is copied from st-takla.org 2. Retreat: During our regular fasting days, we put the words of the Bible before us, "Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly” (Joel 1: 14). How much more then should we apply this commandment during Holy Week? This week should be characterized by solitude and retreat with God by staying away from idle discussions, various means of entertainment and pleasures. Reserve your time for God and to spiritual activities worthy of this week. 3. Follow the steps of Christ: Meditate on the events of the week one by one, from Palm Sunday when Christ refused His worldly kingdom and the Jews gave up their hopes in Him, until they crucified and buried Him. On Palm Sunday, ask yourself: Is Christ King and Lord over everything in my life? Do I, like Christ, turn down worldly glory for spiritual and eternal glory? And during the "general funeral" afterwards, consider yourself attending your own funeral (because during this week the church will not hold funeral services). Also, when the church denounces Judas' betrayal with a kiss on the eve of Wednesday's Pascha, ask yourself in prayer, "How often, O Lord, have I betrayed You?" "How many times have I told You words of love in prayers, while my actions show the opposite and my heart is far away from You?" 4. Share in the fellowship of His suffering: St. Paul said "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to His death" (Philippians 3:10). Can we give ourselves an exercise this week to share in the fellowship of His suffering and be conformed to His death? Can we follow Him in His suffering and ascend with Him to the cross? Can we say with St. Paul "With Christ I have been crucified; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). Therefore, in order for Christ to live in us, we have to carry our cross and follow Him. If you have a cross in your life, don't complain about it, but rather rejoice in it and bear it for Christ’s sake. "For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him but to suffer for His sake" (Phil. 1:29). 5. Asceticism: Whoever puts the suffering of Christ before Him will not take any pleasure in eating, drinking or pampering the body. But in order to succeed in pursuing asceticism, we must satisfy our souls with spiritual food so that it may thrive and overcome physical hunger. 6. Spiritual readings: Spiritual readings are also food for the soul. The church has organized for us a treasure of appropriate readings for every day of Holy Week. This consists of Gospel readings, Old Testament prophecies that correspond to the events of each day, spiritual explanations and sermons of the church fathers and on Holy Saturday (Apocalypse night) the church reads the entire book of Revelation. 7. Hymns: The hymns of Passion Week are moving and full of spiritual depth. Also, Hymns, like reading, preserve thoughts from wandering and guides them in a spiritual direction. 8. Prayer: Since the prayers of the Agpeya are not used during Holy Week, we are to substitute personal prayers in their place. This is in addition to the intensive prayers of the church asking the Lord, who bore the sins of the world and died for us, to forgive and have mercy upon us according to His great mercy. |
|
|
7th week of the Holy Lent |
 |
 |
 |
The Man Born Blind (Homily 56)by Saint John Chrysostom "And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth." Being full of love for man, and caring for our salvation, and desiring to stop the mouths of the foolish, He omitteth nothing of His own part, though there be none to give heed. And the Prophet knowing this saith, "That Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou art judged." (Ps. 51:4) Wherefore here, when they would not receive His sublime sayings, but said that He had a devil, and attempted to kill Him, He went forth from the Temple, and healed the blind, mitigating their rage by His absence, and by working the miracle softening their hardness and cruelty, and establishing His assertions.  John 9: 1, 2 - "And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?"
He worketh a miracle which was no common one, but one which took place then for the first time. "Since the world began," saith he who was healed, "was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind." (Ver. 32) Some have, perhaps, opened the eyes of the blind, but of one born blind never. And that on going out of the Temple, He proceeded intentionally to the work, is clear from this; it was He who saw the blind man, not the blind man who came to Him; and so earnestly did He look upon him, that even His disciples perceived it. From this, at least, they came to question Him; for when they saw Him earnestly regarding the man, they asked Him, saying, "Who did sin, this man, or his parents?" A mistaken question, for how could he sin before he was born? and how, if his parents had sinned, would he have been punished? Whence then came they to put this question? Before, when He healed the paralytic, He said, "Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more." (Jn 5:14) They therefore, having understood that he was palsied on account of sin, said, "Well, that other was palsied because of his sins; but concerning this man, what wouldest Thou say? hath he sinned? It is not possible to say so, for he is blind from his birth. Have his parents sinned? Neither can one say this, for the child suffers not punishment for the father." As therefore when we see a child evil entreated, we exclaim, "What can one say of this? what has the child done?" not as asking a question, but as being perplexed, so the disciples spake here, not so much asking for information, as being in perplexity. What then saith Christ? Read more...... |
The Fourth week of the great LentThe Samaritan WomanThis article is the first of a three-part series on John 4. In this Homily 31, St. John Chrysostom discusses John 4:1-12, the meeting of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Samaritan woman.John 4:1-3 - "When therefore Jesus knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (though Jesus Himself baptized not but His disciples,) He left Judea, and departed again into Galilee."
He indeed baptized not, but they who carried the news, desiring to excite their hearers to envy, so reported. "Wherefore then `departed' He?" Not from fear, but to take away their malice, and to soften their envy. He was indeed able to restrain them when they came against Him, but this He would not do continually, that the Dispensation of the Flesh might not be disbelieved. For had He often been seized and escaped, this would have been suspected by many; therefore for the most part, read more......
|
|
Our Coptic Orthodox Belief |
|
|
|
THE ORTHODOX CREED  We believe in one God, God the Father, the Almighty Who created heaven and earth, and all things, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not created, of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made; Who for us, men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnated of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried. And on the third day He rose from the dead, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into the heavens; and sat at the right hand of His Father, and also He is coming again in His glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom has no end. Yes, we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-Giver, Who proceeds from the Father, Who, with the Father and the Son, is worshiped and glorified, Who spoke in the prophets. And in one holy, catholic and apostolic church. We confess one baptism for the remission of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the coming age. Amen.
|
|
Saint Mina Retreat Center |
|
|
|
St. Mina Retreat Center Mio, MI You are invited to participate in a moving and magnificent time meditating on the Word of God from the Holy Scriptures and ways to apply it in your life. St. Mina Retreat Center will provide you with the proper atmosphere to achieve this goal. You are encouraged to take full advantage of what St. Mina Retreat Center has to offer. Read More... |
|
|
(Read by Max McLean. Provided by The Listener's Audio Bible.)
