An excerpt from the Book, Spirituality of the Rites of the Holy Liturgy, pp. 45-54 The Coptic Church, in its humble and meek spirit, teaches her children three types of prostration, or metanias (bowing). These are: prostrations of worship, repentance, and honor. 1. Prostrations of Worship These are the prostrations offered to God during our individual or public… Continue reading Prostrations & Orthodoxy!

“It is well, my beloved, to proceed from feast to feast; again festal meetings, again holy vigils arouse our minds, and compel our intellect to keep vigil unto contemplation of good things. Let us not fulfill these days like those that mourn, but, by enjoying spiritual food, let us seek to silence our fleshly lusts.” These… Continue reading The Trumpet!

People react quite differently when confronting suffering. Some cry out in anger; others rebel in frustration. Another might seek scapegoat to vent his frustrations. A fourth might instead abandon the way of purity and righteousness, and decide to live a life of pleasure and lust, feeling almost justified to lust for his light affliction. St. Cyril… Continue reading Two Ways of Suffering!

Let revelry keep away from our rational entertainments, and foolish vigils, too, that revel in intemperance. For revelry is an inebriating pipe, the chain. The passage is obscure. of an amatory bridge, that is, of sorrow. And let love, and intoxication, and senseless passions, be removed from our choir. Burlesque singing is the boon companion… Continue reading Conduct at Parties!

We Must be Alert Non Ecclesiastic chants and songs are superficial in the meaning of its words, compared to the rich level of the Church hymns and the Psalmody. These type of chants or songs have to be checked before publicizing it. Those who use it and listen to it have no sense for the Coptic music… Continue reading Church Music – Part 2!

Our Coptic Church has a very rich musical heritage, for music has its deep effect on the soul, as mentioned before. Saint Paul said; “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19). Music is used, since old, to move the believers’ desires… Continue reading Church Music – Part 1

Egypt’s long-suffering Coptic Christians are justified in their fear of an Islamic revolution A DISTURBING feature of the crisis in Egypt this week has been the paucity of any discussion of the implications of the decline of the Mubarak regime and the possible rise of fanatical Islamists for the Christians of Egypt. This applies particularly… Continue reading Fate Of Copts Ignored By Secular West!

The month of Tubah is a month celebrating the salvation of our Lord which has come to all the earth. He was born for the specific purpose of saving all of humanity, both Jew and Gentile. During this month we celebrate the Nativity, the Circumcision, the Epiphany, and the Miracle at the Wedding of Cana… Continue reading The Month of Tooba

In today’s evangelism, there has developed a general trend and practice against the word and use of any “tradition.” This opinion has its historical roots in the Protestant Reformation, in which Luther and Calvin disdained that which came under the heading of “tradition” from the Roman Catholic Church. The arguments of the Reformation centers clearly… Continue reading Orthodoxy & Tradition!

Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our return to the adoption of sons, our liberty to call God our Father, our being made partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called children of light, our sharing in eternal glory, and, in a word, our… Continue reading Baptism!

O God and Lord of the Powers, and Maker of all creation, Who, because of Thy clemency and incomparable mercy, didst send Thine Only-Begotten Son and our Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind, and with His venerable Cross didst tear asunder the record of our sins, and thereby didst conquer the rulers and… Continue reading Basil's Prayer!

On this day, of the year 355 A.D., St. Anthony the Great, the star of the wilderness, and the father of all monks, departed. This righteous man was born in the year 251 A.D. in the city of Qimn El-Arouse, to rich parents who loved the church and the poor. They raised him up in fear… Continue reading Feast Of St Anthony!

The verse that consoles us tonight is the saying of the Master and the Lord: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” This means, come to Me all you who are under the difficulty of hardship that has become greater than what you can bear.… Continue reading Relief In God!

On the First Method OUR ADVERSARY, the devil, has the long-standing habit of artfully choosing modes of warfare against those who enter upon the ascetic contest according to the form of their weapons, and he changes the manner of his struggle against them according to the aim of each. He observes those who are indolent in… Continue reading Satanic Warfare! Step 1

AIDS is a serious disease, which was discovered in 1981 in the U.S. among homosexual men. The word AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It is an acquired infection as opposed to a genetic immune deficiency or autoimmune. A virus called human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) causes it. Once the virus is transmitted,… Continue reading AIDS!

Martin Place is the symbolic centre, the point zero, of Australia’s existence as a sophisticated economy. Last Wednesday it looked medieval. A forest of crucifixes sprouted among a sea of earnest faces that would look comfortable on ancient coins. The talk was of murder and persecution. The threat was real. Hyperbole was unnecessary. As Martin… Continue reading As the left sides with Muslims, Christians search for support!

“He once in Cana of Galilee, turned the water into wine, akin to blood, and is it incredible that He should have turned wine into blood? When called to a bodily marriage, He miraculously wrought that wonderful work; and on the children of the bride-chamber, shall He not much rather be acknowledged to have bestowed… Continue reading The Wedding of Cana Of Galilee!

Over the past three decades, we have heard a great deal about stewardship. Time and time again we have been reminded that the many gifts we have received from God – our time, our talents, our treasures, creation itself – must be managed wisely. Everything that we have, ultimately, belongs to God,freely given to us… Continue reading Sanctity Of Life!

Taught by God seeks to explain some of the hard sayings of Jesus that we read in the Gospels. In his attempt, Fanous makes use of our great heritage of patristic literature as well as contemporary scholarly work on the topic. He also uses his knowledge of first century Jewish customs which he demonstrated in… Continue reading New Book – Taught By God!

Australia’s Coptic Christians are demanding the federal government use diplomacy to pressure Egypt to better protect members of their faith. About 4,000 Coptics and some Muslim supporters marched on Wednesday in central Sydney, calling on Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to address the issue, after a bomb blast killed 21 people… Continue reading Sydney Protests!

The term Theophany is synonymous with Epiphany in the Coptic Orthodox Church (as well as all Orthodox churches).  Derived from the Greek terms “Theo” for God and “phaneia” for revelation or manifestation, Theophany is the Revelation or Manifestation of God.  The term Epiphany is a more general term for revelation, but is not exclusive to… Continue reading Feast of Theophany

Theophany is the Feast which reveals the Most Holy Trinity to the world through the Baptism of the Lord (Mt.3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22). God the Father spoke from Heaven about the Son, the Son was baptized by the St John the Forerunner, and the Holy Spirit descended upon the Son in the form of… Continue reading Feast of Epiphany!

A Muslim man was condemned to death in south Egypt on Sunday for the January 2010 slaying of six Copts after Christmas mass, a year before a suicide bomber killed 21 people outside a Coptic church. A Muslim policeman also died when three gunmen in a car raked worshippers emerging from mass with bullets in… Continue reading Nagi Hammadi Accused Condemned!

The Feast of Circumcision is one of the Seven Minor Feasts of the Lord in the Coptic Church; it is celebrated on the sixth day of the month of Tobe, eight days after the Nativity – Jan 14/15. God commanded the Jews to circumcise their newborn males, as a visible sign in the flesh, through… Continue reading Feast Of Circumcision

1. We ought to pray, not according to any bodily habit nor with a habit of loud noise nor out of a custom of silence or on bended knees. But we ought soberly to have an attentive mind, waiting expectantly on God until He comes and visits the soul by means of all of its… Continue reading Unceasing Prayer!