I Am He

I Am He: St. Mary Vesper or Revival : St. Mary Vesper or Revival I announced that we will pray Vespers of St. Mary, later I was asked by a person when is the Revival of St. Ma...

St. Mary Vesper or Revival I announced that we will pray Vespers of St. Mary, later I was asked by a person when is the Revival of St. Mary so I answered the Vespers will be in the time I mentioned. My answer was not satisfactory. It triggers me to analyse what is our expectation about the period of the fast asking the intercession of St. Mary. What components are there in the expectation of the people for the revival of St. Mary. Is the Vesper prayer recognised as a deep liturgical prayers, not only in st. Mary but the rest of the year? Revival : Is it only the case during some periods of time during the year? or is it what we should do everyday? Expectation:  Is our expectation about st. Mary period to be: Glorification ( in which many songs found its place, lacking a deep theological meaning, connecting st. Mary to the mystery of Incarnation,like the Theotokia of every day) and sermons? Would it be still fine if we prayed the Vesper followed by the Theotokia of the da...

Our Children During the Summer I am so sorry that I delayed writing this blog to this time, as we are half way through the summer, but I felt that I need to address this issue as soon. What do our children plan for the summer? The first answer, will be for vacation, watching, hanging out, gym and sports. How about we plan for the summer, by creating agenda, I will suggest some topics to be discussed with your children. A weekly agenda can include: Daily Bible Reading, Daily Book Reading, Daily Prayer, writing psalms in order to learn it  Writing verses in order to learn it   (one of many sites) https://www.daniellesplace.com/html/psalm233sample.html  attending liturgies, vespers, Mid Night Psalmody, learning parts in Agypia, Bible, Hymns, Coptic teaching http://www.copticplace.com/coptic_languge/coptic.html , http://www.stmarkdc.org/ctresources , stories from the Old Testament ( not the ordinary known ones like Joseph, David) Could be...

Lesson we learn 1-    Deacons in the Church of St. George in Tanta were praying the Liturgy of the Word in the feast of Palm Sunday. They were saying the hymns of Εγλοςιμενοσ , you can find the words for this hymn here http://tasbeha.org/hymn_library/index.php?msg=&a=view&id=142 they were praying the part which says Hosanna to the King of Israel;   and then they continued the hymn in heaven. Here is the last seen before explosion happens , no worry no graphic scenes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMPKFyNtLJk 2-    Our Coptic Orthodox Church, lives the Pascha week as Egeria explained by the end of the fourth century, so after Palm Sunday we have the Pscha hours of the eve of Monday. This was the turn out in one of the churches (Thanks to Caroline Moawad for the pictures) 3-    Is it an image of people who hate life, the above Church is located in an area where people are highly educated and have prosperous jobs. What you see i...

I Am He: Common practices of the Great Lent between 4th cen... : Comparing between what we have in the Coptic Orthodox Church now and some practices from 4th century. Trying to find links related with the catechumen. During this week in the fourth century , you will see a deacon having a list of the candidates of the baptism “Catechumen” who will be cat...

During this week in the fourth century , you will see a deacon having a list of the candidates of the baptism “Catechumen” who will be catechized during the Great Lent and if they passed all tests including the witness from their neighbours. Then they can receive the “illumination” the Holy Baptism in the Feast of the Resurrection. Yes they are buried and raised with Him. Colossians 2:12 and Romans 6:4. The curriculum the church used to teach them is having its traces in our Coptic Orthodox Lectionary  for the Great Lent ( Lent Latin Quadragesima: Fortieth)  (please visit http://stmary-ottawa.org/publications/Katameros_Lent.pdf   for the lectionary of the Great Lent). We will find the main structure of the daily prophecies “the teaching part for the catechumen” composed of the History of salvation in the Books of Moses,  where we remember that God who started the covenant with Israel is still exists and works in our time, life and space. Reading the prophecies ...

I Am He: Excerpts from St. Cyril of Alexandria commentary o... : I summarized some points worth mentioning by our great father St. Cyril of Alexandria :  1- The book of Jonah is a "shadow" to t...

I summarized some points worth mentioning by our great father St. Cyril of Alexandria :  1- The book of Jonah is a "shadow" to the "mystery of the Incarnation of our Saviour". 2- We should not apply the whole story to Jesus, as for example "he was sent to preach to the Ninevites, but tried to flee from the face of God, and proved reluctant about his mission; the Son also was sent by the God and Father to preach to the nations, but did not lack enthusiasm for his ministry, nor seek to flee from the face of the God and Father."  3- the story is meant to be a comparison between how the gentiles accepted the preaching while the Jews rejected it "what happened was by way of condemnation of Israel; they were convicted of being forward, unresponsive, paying little heed to the laws of God.After all, at a single prophet's preaching . the Ninevites were instantly brought around to a sense of obligation to repent, despite suffering from ex...