Our beloved Mother St. Mary holds a very significant role in orthodoxy, and in no other period of the year do we venerate her more than during the Coptic month of Kiahk (10 Dec-8 Jan). The church is full of praise with mention of her ways and virtues to inspire us to lead a life …
As has been said fasting is the beginning of the spiritual life, thus it is considered the pavement on which virtues are obtained; it opens the door for virtue and it ornaments the soul. St Filoxinus says: “The more ascetic the body is, the stronger the Spirit. Little food makes the body light and subdues …
Our entire life should be consecrated wholly to God, however there are days appointed by Him as “holy days”. If we are trained to keep these days holy, they will lead us to follow the example of the saints and Christ himself for the rest of our days. As a result of man’s weakness we …
You desire, then, to be a virgin? Do you know what hardship there is in true virginity that which stands constantly at all seasons before God, and does not withdraw from His service, and is anxious how it may please its Lord with a holy body, and with its spirit? Do you know what great …
I want to focus particularly on one phrase that is said often about monks which is that they are “earthly angels”. This simply means that every monk is an angel. So what does the word angel mean and why is a monk compared to an angel. The 1st thing about an angel is that he …
Who are the Arabs? The question is not that simple as it might look at first glance. When did the name "Arab" appear in history? There are also other names in literary sources, like Ishmaelites, Saracens, even Hagarenes or Agarenes, or Tayyjtyê in Syriac. Is it characteristic for "Arabs" to be nomads, who early have …
The practices of monastic companionship and cohabitation described in the Spiritual Meadow had emerged long before the late sixth century. The practice of cohabiting monks first developed in the course of the fourth century, in the early years of the Christian monastic movement in Egypt. One of the earliest Christian saint’s lives, Athanasios’s Life of …
“A faithful friend is an elixir of life… A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter” (Ecc 6: 14,16). For what would a genuine friend not do? what pleasure would he not create for us? what benefit? what safety? Though you were to name a thousand treasures, there is nothing comparable to a real friend. First …
So many people flee from the words “Fear of God”, seeing that such words are not suitable for the covenant of grace which we live. On what bases do they build their claim? 1. They say: why should I fear God while He accepted Augustine who had been ungodly for a long time? God also …
The official title of the head of the Coptic Church has traditionally been as follows, “Pope and Patriarch of the great city of Alexandria and of all Egypt, the Pentapolis and Pelousia, Nubia, the Sudan, Jerusalem, Libya, Ethiopia and all Africa, and all countries of the preaching of Saint Mark." And only in the last …
