On Fasting
Fasting is a medicine. But medicine, as beneficial as it is, becomes useless because of the inexperience of the user. He has to know the...
Articles
Selected sayings of the Desert Fathers on Fasting
A leader of a community asked Abba Poemen: “How can I gain the fear of God?” Abba Poemen replied: “How indeed can we gain the...
Spiritual Springtime of the Year
THE GREAT FAST (LENT) This fasting period has many names. For instance we call it the Holy Fast because all its days are precious or...
Shredding For Lent
We all know Lent to be a period of asceticism, whereby we limit what we desire to eat for spiritual revival and growth, as quoted...
Time and Calendars of Jesus’ Birth
The reckoning of time in antiquity went through a variety of permutations and combinations until Julius Caesar, on the basis of the Egyptian solar calendar,...
Preparing the Heart For Our Saviour to Dwell
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE NATIVITY FAST (ADVENT FAST)? Why is the Coptic Church concerned with the Nativity Fast, in which her members fast...
St John the Baptist as an Everyday Christian
The Life of St John the Baptist has some very interesting aspects that can apply to every Christian today. From The Angels announcement to his...
John is the voice Jesus is the Word
John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from...
On Christian Marriage
Marriage was ordained by God as a blessing to the human race. A certain wise man in the Scriptures, when enumerating which blessings are the...
Jesus the Bridegroom
In our day controversy abounds over the mysterious institution we call “marriage.” For some, marriage is a purely human invention, a kind of civil partnership...
Baptism – Being Born Again in Water & Spirit
Our Lord made a covenant with us through baptism in order to give us eternal life. There is in baptism an image both of death...
5 Interesting Facts About Baptism
In the sacrament of Baptism we die with Christ and rise with Christ. Many people confuse the sacrament of Baptism with the sacrament of Chrismation...
Transfigured Life
The word transfiguration in Greek is the word Metamorphosis (Meta – form or nature), (Morphosis – complete change). It is the same word we use...
Creativity is Transfiguration
We have mentioned before, that the human nature obtains a kind of transfiguration in the general resurrection, when it will be clothed with spiritual heavenly...
What Is More Pleasing Than A Psalm?
Although the whole of Scripture breathes God’s grace upon us, this is especially true of that delightful book, the book of the psalms. Moses, when...
5 Things you need to know about Psalm 119
1- Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the Bible we pray it every day in the first service of the midnight prayer. 2- It...
The Work Of The Holy Spirit
Because of the importance of the Holy Spirit’s work with us, the Lord said to His disciples, the saints: “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth....
On The Holy Spirit
Who can listen to the Spirit’s titles and not be lifted up in his soul? Whose thoughts would not be raised to contemplate the supreme...
Monasticism In The Libyan Desert
After the period of martyrdom came the period of monasticism in Libya. There were remote monastic communities in the mountains and desert that survived beyond...
Monasticism And Its Interior Make Up
Monasticism is grounded on celibacy, voluntary poverty, chastity and obedience. These monastic vows are distinguished in the monastic life from their superficial appearance to the...
On the Power of the Cross
The Cross abolished idolatrous adulation, enlightened the whole universe, gathered all the nations into one Church and united them with love. The Cross is the...
Theodore of Cyrene
Another Libyan confessor who appears in the Russian Synaxary is Hieromartyr St Theodore (also known as Theuderius). Before his becoming bishop of Cyrene, he was...
The Anchorite’s View of the Cell
In current speech, the word “cell” immediately evokes a room where, in a prison, a criminal is locked up, isolated and cut off from all...
Return to your cell
A brother in the Cells had put some palm tree leaves to soak and, as he sat down to plait them, his mind told him,...
Bishop Yousaab, Bishop of Girga and Akhmim
Youssef, (Bishop Yousaab) was born in 1735 A.D. in the town of Assiut from a pious Christian family. He used his knowledge of reading and...
St Shenouda Friend of the Prophets
There was also another brother sitting in a corner reciting the twelve minor prophets, and as often as he would recite them, beginning each one...
Theologian Or Abbot?
A prominent event in the Lives of St. Shenouda is that in which the Abbot accompanies St. Cyril to the Council of Ephesus (431 AD.)....
The Life Of St Shenouda
St Shenouda was born on the 7th of Pashans 49AM / 2nd of May 333 AD, in Shandawil, a village near Akhmim in Upper Egypt....
On Discernment Of Thoughts
It is our duty to discern our thoughts, in order to know their origin and thus avoid being fooled by the Devil. “Believe not every...
Why Should we Read the Desert Fathers?
Conversation and association with one’s neighbors very much affects a person. Conversation and acquaintance with a learned man communicates much knowledge; with a poet, many...
Discipleship
The spiritual person becomes a disciple of the beneficial word. He searches for it from all sources: firstly from the Bible, then from the sayings...
Christian Reaction to an Inhuman Action
It seems to be regular news these days to hear of church bombing especially in the Middle East that claim the lives of innocent people....
The Agapy Meal Of The Hermits Of Scete
A very interesting and important clue to the nature of this communal meal is furnished by the name used by the hermits themselves when referring...
The Monk And The Life Of Solitude
The monk doesn’t need anyone to tell him about solitude for the monk came to the monastery seeking to be isolated from the world, seeking...
Christ, The Life of Life Itself
In this world there shall be tribulation. Whether reduced to a minimum by man himself, or given some relief by the religious promise of a...
Fruits Of Christ’s Resurrection
Let us celebrate this greatest and most shining feast, in which the Lord has risen from the dead. Let us celebrate it with joy, and...
Armenian Golgotha
Fr Grigoris Balakian’s memoir Armenian Golgotha, for decades has been an important text of Armenian literature, belonging to this group of significant books that deal...
Jerome About The Monks Of Egypt
Since you like to hear about holy things, lend an ear to me for a few moments. There are in Egypt three classes of monks....
Anba Bishoi: A Life of True Submission
A life of TRUE submission means living in complete obedience to the Holy Spirit. A person of TRUE submission accepts gladly whatever happens in their...
Tolle Lege – Take Up and Read
The exercise of reading conjures up all kinds of different feelings and emotions for different people. For some, reading is one of life’s greatest pleasures,...
