A prayer by Newman quoted by Mother Teresa:

Dear Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus.

I usually don’t like to post any thing related to politics but I some how liked this article.

“If I were a Copt, I would flood Egypt, and the world, with the facts about the overall atmosphere that is pressuring the Copts in Egypt today.

“If I were a Copt, I would familiarize the world with the injustices caused to many Copts in Egypt since [the Free Officers Revolution in] 1952. They don’t get the high-level political posts and executive positions that they deserve, not to mention their sparse [representation] in parliament.

“If I were a Copt, I would create a ruckus in Egypt, and in the world, over the fact that I pay taxes with which the state funds Al-Azhar University, while [Al-Azhar] does not permit Copts to attend any of its institutes.

“If I were a Copt, I would make a huge commotion in the world, because my taxes fund the construction of dozens of mosques, but, since 1952, the Egyptian state has not participated in the building of a single church, except for president Gamal Abd Al-Nasser’s participation in funding the construction of the St. Marc Cathedral in Al-’Abasiyya, 40 years ago…

“If I were a Copt, I would publish articles, one after another, about how the [Egyptian] media ignores matters [concerning me] and my religious holidays - as if I and the Copts did not exist in Egypt.

“If I were a Copt, I would tell the entire world [how] the Coptic history of Egypt [is handled] in the Egyptian curriculum, and how the study material for the Arabic language no longer [includes] literary texts, qasidahs, poetry, stories, plays, and legends, but [only] Islamic texts which [belong] with the study material for religion [class] for Muslim pupils.

“If I were a Copt, I would flood the world with complaints about the suffering Copts go through [merely] in order to obtain a license to build a church - with their own funds, not with the public taxes that [they] participate in paying.

“If I were a Copt, I would bring the world to its feet because of the terrible things that some Muslim writers write and disseminate - about how a Copt should not be permitted to be the head of state, on [how a Copt should pay] the jizya [poll tax paid by protected non-Muslims under Islam], and how Copts should not be drafted into the military… [such as] the idiotic statements by Dr. Muhammad ‘Imara [from Al-Azhar] - whose budget comes from the taxpayers, including the Copts…

As Orthodox we do emphasize the importance of the role of the church’s leader(s) or the priest(s). We often underestimate the role of the priest’s wife. In my opinion, her role is of a higher importance. She is the behind-the-scene support. If he is the father of the church she is the “Mother of the Church” who works behind the scene in love and humility to support the priest to support the church.

On the occasion of Mother’s Day I would like to recognize my wife “Irinie” and her role in supporting me and the church. I always told her “I think God chose you for the job before choosing me”. All the blessings that I have experienced in the ministry have to do with her and her support. I would have never been where I’m now without her and the church would have never been where it is now without her.God wanted to confirm this message to me (and to the church) lately in a strong way. She went last week by herself to Canada to visit her sick mother for a couple of days. I had to stay with the kids for these couple of days and tried to do my ministerial work as usual. It was a challenge! I used 15 baby sitters, I got sick with a bad flu, didn’t get any thing done and finally we had to cancel a service on Sunday! If I leave the church for a couple of weeks no body notices but she leaves for a couple of days every thing turns upside down!

Just wanted to recognize my dearest wife on Mother’s day. Happy Mother’s Day!

So many people are enslaved to their jobs. They have no life but don’t know what to do. No time even to look for another job; if there are any available jobs! Some brave people decide to give it up for God. It’s a test of faith: is God going to find them another job? Will they be unemployed forever?!

Just wanted to share with you what this young lady did bravely. She has a very good position in a consulting company …I will have you hear the story from her. May be this will encourage you to do it. if you have a similar experience please feel free to post it as a comment.

“I had been struggling with the idea of leaving my job for the past 3 years.  The main problems I had with my job were the long hours and travel.  After I began serving as a Sunday School teacher, the problems I had with my job intensified because I couldn’t give to the service the way God wanted me to.  One evening, during my weekly Servant’s meeting, I confessed to my fellow servants that it was a huge challenge for me to adequately give to the service due to my job.  At the same exact time, two servants said “Just Quit”.  For the next week, all I kept hearing in my head was “Just Quit” and it was becoming more and more clear that this was from God.  Without thinking about the outcome, I contacted my Partner and met with him right away.  I walked into my Partner’s office and said, “I am here to formally resign”.  I had no back-up plan, but I had a peace within me that I knew was from Heaven.  My Partner asked me why I wanted to leave and I told him that my job was getting in the way of me being able to serve my God.  To my surprise, he told me that he would find a position within my firm that would provide me with a 40 hour work week and no travel.  He also told me that if the new position didn’t work out, he would personally help me find another position within or outside of my firm.  The last thing he said to me was, “I wish there were more people at this firm with your values”.  It was then that I knew this was from God.” –G. O.

Oh by the way she is now working half the hours she used to work and getting the SAME salary!!!

February 8, 1998 his Holiness Pope Shenouda III along with 9 other bishops consecrated the alter of our church on the name of St. Mark the Apostle.

I got this e-mail from a faithful servant in our church and thought to share it as I benefited from it:

As I am running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to do 10,000 things for the church this morning, someone bought me a tear away calendar that has a verse for every day and today’s verse was from 1 Chronicles 29:16.

“O LORD our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build You a house for Your holy name is from Your hand, and is all Your own.” (1 Chron 29:16)

It was a nice reminder of Who is in charge. It goes along also with yesterday’s bible study lest I think that I am doing anything of my own efforts while serving God. “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven” (John 3:27). Truly, God is the one blessing our church and all its ministries and services and it is a blessing to serve Him.

Don’t forget to stop, drop and pray!

This is the time to think about reading the bible in one year. I have used this before, I will use it this year also (by God’s grace) and I do recommend it. After looking at many options I came to this schedule/system that is designed by Tyndale publishing.

You can get it as a hard copy or soft copy.

https://www.orthodoxbookstore.org/product.details.aspx?ProductID=1822

http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/

You can find it in many translations. I’m using the NIV because it’s easy to read and understand. It’s not the most accurate but again this is just ready through the entire bible and not a study.

I found many advantages of using the one-year-bible:

1- It puts you on a system: what you should read every day vs if you leave it up to you. You may read a lot some days and other days you might not read at all.

2- It helps you develop the habit of reading the bible daily.

3- It let’s you go through all the books of the bible including the ones you do NOT like to read and will NOT read if it’s up to you!

4- It gives you a variety of Old Testament, New Testament reading and also a psalm and a proverb.

5- You will find a message in it in case you don’t get a message from the Quiet Time.

6- If you do it with the family it gives you chance to discuss together and even to read it together. I know couple of families who did that before.

Have fun with it!

Here are some more resources:

http://www.oneyearbibleblog.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Bible-Companion-Questions-Answers-Reading/dp/0842346163

https://www.orthodoxbookstore.org/product.details.aspx?ProductID=706

https://www.orthodoxbookstore.org/product.details.aspx?ProductID=97

Because of travel there was no chance to post but thought to share this beautiful quotation:

“If two angels were to receive at the same moment a commission from God, one to go down and rule earth’s grandest empire, the other to go and sweep the streets of its meanest village, it would be a matter of entire indifference to each which service fell to his lot, the post of ruler or the post of scavenger; for the joy of the angels lies only in obedience to God’s will, and with equal joy they would lift a Lazarus in his rags to Abraham’s bosom, or be a chariot of fire to carry an Elijah home.”—John Newton

A young monk asked a wise monk for a word of advice. He told him “go to the cemetery and praise the dead and say all good things about them.” The young monk did so, even though it was very weird, and came back. The old monk asked him “what was their response to praise?” he said “nothing!” “Go back and curse them then” the old monk ordered. The monk obeyed and when he came back the old monk asked him “and what was their response to insult?”  He replied: “Their response was the same NOTHING!” The wise monk advised him to imitate the dead in their response to praise and insult. Not to be proud when people praise you and not to be angry and hateful when they curse you.

I have read this story many times ever since I was a young deacon but I never learned the lesson except after many years of priesthood and many experiences of: you are the best …you are the worst! The people who praised me criticized me later on. The people who didn’t like me became friends later on. In the beginning I thought the people who liked me are the smart ones and the people who didn’t like me are not as smart! Well, neither was true. They are neither good nor bad, they are NORMAL people. Just like myself. I liked someone one day and I didn’t like him the next day, then I liked him again the day after…. People like me when I tell them what they want to hear and they don’t like me when I tell them otherwise. People like me when I do things their way and they don’t like me when I don’t do things their way. C’est la vie!

I used to take these things personal. It used to bring me up and down but not any more thank God. When I hear good words I thank people especially when it’s genuine. But I don’t favorite the people who praise me and I don’t have high expectations from them because they are NORMAL human beings. At the same time I don’t take it personal when people criticize me because they are also NORMAL human beings. Both of them will change anyways one day. Or even if they don’t change I might change!

Jesus heard “Hosanna” and “crucify him” in the same week. The great thing is that He loved the people regardless of what they said. They are humans and humans change.  God wants us to genuinely love all as He did, and not seek to please them but only Him.

Does that mean that I shouldn’t listen to what people say and totally ignore it? NO. But rather I should listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in what people say. St. Anthony heard God’s voice through a comment from a sinful woman. I have to decide first whom I’m trying to please. I can choose to please people but good luck with this! And I can try to please God but people may not be pleased.

If you try to please people you may need to change the truth. You may not live with one standard. You may have to be always guessing, always careful, always sensitive, always anxious and finally always frustrated! You may have one hour of good self esteem but 10 days of depression.

When you try to please God you will find ONE standard. God is NOT moody and does NOT change. What He liked 5000 years ago is the same today, tomorrow and forever. He will always put you up and NEVER down; even when He rebukes.