From Palms to the Cross

From Palms to the Cross

Adapted from a sermon by Dr Adel Magdy

After the Lord entered into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, we map every step He took in the hope that we see what He saw, we hear what He heard and we feel what He felt in this final week.

The ultimate aim is to reach His Cross, to stand at the foot of the Cross on Good Friday. We start with Palm Sunday where thousands of people surround Christ to get even a glimpse of Him. By the end of the week, there were only a handful that remained at the foot of the Cross. Even His disciples, His closest of friends, had deserted Him.

For the special few that made it all the way to the Cross, indescribable blessings were given from our compassionate Lord. If we consider what would’ve happened to St Mary after the death of her only Son, with no husband, life would have become extremely difficult for her in those days. He gave her John the Beloved to care for her. As for John the Beloved, the gift of having the Mother of God in his own household was a huge blessing and shows how much the Lord trusted him.

St Mary Magdalene received the honour of being the very first person that the gospels record the Lord appearing to after His resurrection. She was the first to see the risen Christ. Even those that were not at the foot of the Cross deliberately still received blessing. The Centurion, for example, had his eyes opened. It is even believed that this man became a martyr for the sake of the Lord.

There is power in being on the foot of the Cross on Good Friday. For us, we begin a journey this week. The ultimate aim is to power through right until the foot of the Cross.

There are a lot of tests and milestones along the way that we must pass to reach the foot of the Cross. The first milestone we encounter on the night of Palm Sunday. On Monday Eve, Christ asks the disciples a few questions – who do men say that I am? He then follows up with a more personal question – who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16:15)

It’s an unusual question. Why would the Lord care about what people were saying about Him? He knew that His disciples knew who He was. For us, we ask the Lord, “who do You say that I am?” Not what I think of God, but what does God think of me. It doesn’t matter what the world thinks of me. It doesn’t matter how I outwardly appear to the world. It doesn’t matter if people look at me and think I am a great ambassador of the Lord. What matters is what the Lord thinks when He looks at my heart.

Lord, who do you say that I am?

It’s not a comfortable question for any of us to ask. We’re not sure what the Lord will say of us. Will He say that we were like John the Beloved, loving Him and always drawing near to Him, or if He will say, you’re like Judas, someone that betrayed for any price. We don’t know that the answer will be. We fear so many hidden things in our life that if people knew, they wouldn’t want to know us.

As uncomfortable as this question is to ask, it’s crucial for us if we want to make it to the foot of the Cross on Good Friday. Even if we don’t ask this question, we will hear the Lord’s answer on Judgement day. The Lord will tell us what He thought, and we will either enter the joy of the Lord or we will be cast into eternal condemnation.

In His mercy, we are given the opportunity to ask this question tonight while we have a chance to fix it. On Judgement Day, there will be no further opportunities to change, but now we have a chance. We have a chance to ask the Lord what we need to do to fix ourselves and draw near to Him.

Monday of Holy Week is the cursing of the fig tree, this is where the thousands that surrounded Jesus on Palm Sunday begin to drop off. The Lord is hungry and He sees a fig tree from a distance, full of leaves. The Lord makes the effort to draw near to the fig tree but when He arrives He sees that there is no fruit, just leaves. Apart from its appearance, there is no good in it. The Lord curses the fig tree, the very next day it withers away and dies. The church fathers teach us that this is a symbol of hypocrisy. There is nothing the Lord hates more than hypocrisy. The Lord was only firm with the Pharisees and scribes because of their hypocrisy.

We get on our knees in Holy Week and beg the Lord to show us what we are doing wrong and what we can do about it. We ask for His grace to change our life this year. We can make a change this Passion Week.

A life changing sermon was given by Fr Matta El Meskeen that outlines the steps toward answered prayer. Beg the Lord day and night to reveal your sins and weaknesses that keep you from Him. Pray for nothing else in one month, but day and night repeat this prayer – reveal the sins that are keeping me from coming to You, Lord. We can only ask this question if we are prepared to act upon what the Lord teaches us, to learn to fix our hearts and to see through the Lord’s eyes.

Lord, may You grant us clarity to see what separates us from You so that when Good Friday comes, we may see You in full clarity. May we increase our love for You, that it becomes easy to stop the sins we once loved that block us from You. My Saviour, may You help me reach the Cross so that I may sit at the foot of the Cross all day and see the depth of Your love for me and the depth of Your sacrifice. May I hear You say, “Enter my Beloved child in whom I am well pleased.”

🙏🏾 Full Sermon 🙏🏾

The Unsung Hero of Palm Sunday

The Unsung Hero of Palm Sunday

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Mark Basily

During this time, the love of humanity is shining. Everyone looking out for their neighbours. Do you need anything? How can I help? Among all this, have we asked God if He needs anything?

Theologically, can God even be in need? God is the Provider, what could He ever need from me? 

In the gospels of Palm Sunday, Jesus expresses His need for a donkey. The donkey holds a prominent position in all four of the gospels. While the palms of Palm Sunday are only mentioned in one of the four gospels, the donkey gets mentioned in all four. And there are specific requirements that Jesus had for the donkey.

If we focus on the gospel of Luke – the donkey had to be tied up. This is essential and is mentioned five times. He tell the disciples that they will find a colt that was tied. Not any colt, but this particular one had to be tied. He tells them to loose the colt and bring it to Him. If anyone was to ask why they were taking the donkey, it was because the Master was in need of it;

“Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. 31 And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’” 32 So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them. 33 But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, “Why are you loosing the colt?”34 And they said, “The Lord has need of him.” – Luke 19:30-34.

The emphasis throughout the account is on the tied-up donkey that needed to be loosed before it was brought to Jesus.

Why were these requirements emphasised so strongly in the Gospel accounts? What was the purpose of the donkey? At the time of the Passover, thousands of Jews would travel into Jerusalem for the feast. They would all walk into Jerusalem from all the surrounding towns and villages. 

But Christ doesn’t walk into the city, he takes the donkey that he insisted upon. This reflects Zechariah’s prophecy that is mentioned in Matthew’s account of the gospel;

Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey – Zechariah 9:9

When the people saw the scene of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, the One who had just raised Lazarus from the dead, they could see the fulfilment of the prophecy. They began chanting the royal psalm as Christ entered; 

19 Open to me the gates of righteousness;
I will go through them,
And I will praise the Lord.
20 This is the gate of the Lord,
Through which the righteous shall enter.– Psalm 118:20

It continues,

[Hosanna!] We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.
27 God is the Lord,
And He has given us light;
Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.– Psalm 118:26-27

Christ was coming to bind the sacrifice to the altar. He doesn’t do it in the way we expect. He binds the sacrifice to the altar of the Cross. The donkey was not the sacrifice. The donkey was already bound, but then loosed out of necessity.

When we ask the question, does God have a need for anything, we see the need He had on that day and the one that He still needs from us today. He needed a donkey to fulfil a prophecy that He had come in peace and humility. This was a sign to the Jews that their Messiah had come.

Today, Christ still needs a donkey. We are the donkeys, but not just any donkeys, the donkey that Christ needs before He can enter into Jerusalem. We are the ones tied up. Tied to problems, tied to sin, tied to this earth, tied to worries and anxieties. There are so many things that tie us down.

But God has need of us, He has a need for us to be untied for His use. Donkeys are the most stubborn animals and like to remain in their place, without changing, but under the right guidance they can travel through the harshest of conditions. Christ orders the disciples and the church to loose the donkey and bring it to Him, for He had need of him. 

We are called to be set free, and to take Christ on our shoulders and walk into Jerusalem. When the Lord entered Jerusalem, He began the week with a need. A need of a donkey. A donkey that was tied. He has the same need today. He wants us to be untied and set free. He wants to take us on the journey with Him through Holy Week. He wants to untie us so He can tie Himself to the Cross for our sake. As we begin this week of Holy Week, let us contemplate on the one thing that ties us to the world. What is tying us down that we need Christ to untie us of so that we may enter into Jerusalem joyful under the guidance of our Master?

🐐 Full Sermon 🐐

Instruments of His Peace

Instruments of His Peace

By Monica

Original post by Becoming Fully Alive blog site

“Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right.” Psalm 106:3

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31:8-9

As a church we tend to focus on promising a hope in the life to come, but what about the life we are still living? Jesus didn’t just come to prepare us for our death, but also to teach us how to live. Jesus cared about the hurt and the brokenness in this world. He cared for the widows and orphans. He talked about unjust judges way more than He did about the afterlife. Jesus cared about justice, in fact Jesus is justice, just like He is love. It is integral to His character.

Jesus is the Prince of Peace. He wept over Jerusalem because they didn’t know ‘the things that make for peace.’ Ironically, the world’s logic says that we must make peace, but we use violence; but Jesus defeated violence with love and peace. Peacemaking does not mean passivity. It is the act of disarming evil without harming the evil doer. Peacemaking starts with what we can change; ourselves. But it doesn’t end there, being a peacemaker also means interrupting the violence we see around us, in our streets and in our worlds.

I see my Facebook flooded with pictures and outraged statuses, but when will we be moved enough to actually move? When will we start becoming instruments of His peace? Because, it’s a heartbreaking fact that in the world Christians have become known more for what they are against, rather than what they are for.

We wait on God to act, but God is also waiting on us. We ask God why there is so much suffering in the world, but maybe God is asking us the same question. We forget that we have spent our Sunday worshipping a homeless man because we ignore him on a Monday. We are His hands and feet. We ask God to move a mountain, but God has already handed us a shovel. We need to pray and act. The world needs our protests and our prayers. The world will continue to suffer if we continue being either inactive believers or unbelieving activists. We need to pray to be people who hold God’s hand in one and our neighbour’s in the other.

We need to pray intentionally to be arrows that strike specifically, because He promised that; ‘each man’s work will become evident’ 1 Corinthians 3:13, so let us write His promises on the walls of our hearts and pray that He reveals to us His perfect pre-planned work for us. Maybe we can’t build a wall, but when each brings his brick, brick by brick, the wall will be built.

C.S. Lewis wrote: “We must picture hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives with the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment.”

“Who, in the midst of the preoccupation of hell, would have the energy and generosity for the larger battles? What might it mean if we resolved to abandon every petty, small, and unworthy battle? What if we resolved to give ourselves fully to larger things that matter, to things of God and His kingdom? In fact, in a world of so much acute suffering, hurt and need, for what purpose have you and I been granted so much?” Gary Haugen

Prayer: God please comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. Let us be disturbed to the point where we cannot accept serving at a distance but that we become active about making a difference.

Original blog found at- http://becomingfullyalive.com/instruments-of-his-peace/

Faith and Works

Faith and Works

by Shenouda Girgis 

“Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?”– James 2:5.

The opening chapters of St James’ epistle reveal the importance of being a doer of the Word and not just a hearer. We strive for a strong and steadfast faith to guide our Christian life. We must be genuine; What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? (James 2:14)

In the beginning, God, out of His great love, created us, everything around us and set us over all His other creations. And as if such a gesture of love wasn’t enough, He blessed us with free will – the ability to make our own decisions – but simply asked that we be obedient to His word.

As we all know, it was this very ability to make our own decisions that led to the demise of humankind as we know it. Surely God knew that His gift of free will would be abused and that we would disobey and fall from grace. 

Why did He allow this to happen knowing the consequences of sin was death? Why would He allow such a void to form between us and Him? The answer for this is God Himself, love. What we sometimes don’t understand is that our relationship with God is unlike any other relationship – the strongest relationships are the ones that are not one sided – where there is mutual love. That’s why God gave us our free will, He wants us to chose to be in a relationship with Him and not force us into just doing the right thing. 

His love for us is unique in that, despite our numerous and infinite infidelities, He is always willing to accept us and is waiting for the day that we consciously choose Him with the free will He gave us. As Christians, our faith is established on the very thing makes God, God: love! Surprised? 

Out of His love, He sent His Only Son to bear the punishment of our sins and through the death and resurrection of Christ we have been given eternal life. But just like our fall, our fate is in our own hands and the hands of the free will that God blessed us with. All of this is important to know because this is the foundation from which the strength of our faith can grow.

Our works are the true measure of our faith. But what do the Saints mean when they say works? Put simply, works are the proof of faith; it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to dedicate your entire life to service but if our faith is strong then we naturally have ‘works’, when out actions reflect Christ and people can see Christ in you then these are the true works that the saints are referring to. Are you inclusive of others as Christ was inclusive? Are you quick to anger or do you have the patience we are taught to have? I think St Francis of Assisi says it perfectly:

“Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words.”

Further reading: James 1-3, Romans 4-5, Galatians 3, Ephesians 2 & Proverbs 1

Holy Week in the Secret Place

Holy Week in the Secret Place

By Shery Abdelmalak

“Your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.” – (Matthew 6:4)

A wise person once told me that they knew their spiritual life was failing when they prayed more at church than they did at home, this is a sure sign of a spiritual slump. If I go to church regularly, if I serve regularly, these become my norm. I enjoy doing these things. I feel like I am doing good. My outward display to those around me and even to myself is favourable. I don’t feel the need to fix something that doesn’t appear to be broken.

But an honest spiritual life starts in a secret place. There are no hidden motives in the secret place. In your room, with the door closed, where no one knows what goes on. Only God knows for certain, and it is in the stillness of prayer that He listens and our relationship with Him begins. Oftentimes the secret place is sought for refuge from the problems of this world, we gain peace, we gain clarity and we slowly drift away until the next problem comes along. If we use prayer in this way, there is much lost. We leave before Christ’s biggest blessings of grace come to us. 

“It is amazing how many people prefer service more than prayer. And reading more than prayer. And contemplation more than prayer. And attending religious gatherings more than prayer. That is why they fail in their relationship with God. They therefore meditate, read, have a service and attend their meetings, but are separated from God. There is no relationship.”

HH Pope Shenouda III

Pope Shenouda is amazed at how much we devalue prayer. All that he lists have an external element attached that distinguishes them from prayer. In prayer, there is no external display and if we are valuing other aspects of our spiritual life more than our internal prayer lives, then it almost begs the question; has my relationship with God even started?

In the holiest of weeks, we commence a spiritual journey to the Cross, we put to death our worldly image and learn to love God from the inside out, no distractions. We must remember that this world is deceitful; what seems to be normal in the world is not what God intended for His creation. This Holy Week presents the perfect time to find Christ in the secret place, while the churches remain closed. Just you and your Beloved.

We spend Holy Week asking the question, “who are You, Lord?” and “reveal my sins to me so that I may be more like You.” We encounter Christ in secret; “We pray not to inform God or instruct God but to ask earnestly, to become intimate with God, to be humbled and reminded of our sins” – St John Chrysostom 

HG Bishop Agathon once said that one single night at the monastery was the equivalent of ten years in the world. We know this to be true because of the reformation through prayer under the leadership of Pope Kyrillos VI. Fr Daniel Fanous says, “The broken [Patriarchal] staff, symbolic of a broken church, fractured and profusely bleeding, was placed in Kyrillos’ hands; and there, in twelve short years, it was mended and healed in ways that we will never truly comprehend.” In twelve years as Patriarch, he lifted the mocked Coptic church to the church that has spread to all nations, to nations that cannot imagine a life without it. 

Now, a different struggle, a spiritual life without the physical church. Maybe this is how we will be risen with Christ this Holy Week. To start from scratch, in our own home churches, in our cells, we can try to find Christ in the secret place. Maybe now is the time to emulate the words of St John Chrysostom when he said, “When you pray, set aside all turmoil, as if you were being joined by choirs of angels and singing with the seraphim.”

Fr Anthony Mourad says that the sweetness of God is seen in all the ways He has made lemonade out of the lemon that is coronavirus. One of those ways is in the secret place of isolation that we now find ourselves in. For the first time in any of our lifetimes, the church is closed during Holy Week. I don’t want to be anywhere other than the church in this week, but we must make lemonade out of what is the sourest of lemons. If it was in the secret place that Pope Kyrillos VI mended our entire church, Christ can mend and reignite our relationships with Him, to one of pure love, void of all external motives. 

Get your favourite deacons from Soundcloud ready! This is a Holy Week not to be missed! For the first few Good Fridays I can remember, Fr Yacoub would recite the Lamentations of Jeremiah and it didn’t feel the same when it wasn’t him, but now I know it will be him, it will be whoever I want it to be, no bad deacon voices this year! (but Jesus still thinks your voice is beautiful, Amen.) When I was in Egypt buying souvenirs, I saw this cute little shoraya that I thought would make a perfect candle holder. The lady selling it and my mum then proceeded to make some not funny Arabic jokes about how I wasn’t allowed to become a priest. That shoraya is now the most sought after object in our entire household. This is a year unlike any other, Fr Elijah told us to get excited for Lent, but now we get excited for a Holy Week that will be spent in our makeshift churches at home. The secret place is all we have left, but it is all we need.

❤️ Psalm 91 ❤️ Fr Yacoub’s Lamentations of Jeremiah ❤️

The Merciful

The Beatitudes Series Part 5

Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy

By Meray Shehata

Jesus tells us that if we are merciful to others, we can achieve mercy from the Creator. How is it that we can be merciful then? Having this ability to be merciful means that we are also in a position to do nothing or even worse to punish others. It means that we have power or a certain stature that’s higher but instead we choose compassion and forgiveness. It means
overlooking what’s easier and in our best interest at that moment to be more Christ-like.

In Leviticus (19:9) it is written “ When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.” Imagine this land is your source of food, your source of money, it’s how you survive. Yet, God has commanded you not to make use of it, He has asked you to be poor, to be hungry and yearn
for more. Instead your profits and all your hard work will go to someone else who may not deserve it, someone who didn’t spend those long nights nurturing the plants and fruits as you did. Someone who while you put in the time and effort for these rewards may have been wasting their time and money away irresponsibly. To aggravate you even more, this person may have laughed at you, spoken evil about you behind your back and tried to poison your fruit. However, your commandment is much the same. Leave some of your profit for others.


What a cruel situation to be in, how unfair could our God be?
Although in reality, how cruel and unfair can we be? Aren’t we the undeserving going to Christ’s field and collecting the fruit without the slightest effort. Haven’t we pierced his side and placed a crown of thorns on His head? Haven’t we crucified Him and watched as His mother cried? Or worse, haven’t we denied Him and claimed that we are the reason that we
are reaping these fruits. How merciless can we be?

Now that we have acknowledged our evil, how is it that we can condemn others as evil? Is it right for us to place ourselves higher than others. Have we really the authority to condemn others when we ourselves were condemned once before? “ Let all the bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind hearted
to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph 4:31-32). Therefore as the sinless and pure lamb was sacrificed for your redemption must you show love and mercy for others.
Is it true though? Is showing love and mercy for the benefit others only? Or is it for us too?

Well for one God has promised us mercy if we show the same. Other than that, has it ever hurt being kind to someone? Maybe in the short term, you lose some time, you might be at a loss financially, or you may not enjoy it at the beginning. Give it time. Give it time to see the blessings pour in from your Saviour. Give it time to witness your life unfold in a way you couldn’t have imagined. Have a little faith, give a little goodness and God will give you unimaginable joy because He will be at your core.

Have mercy in your work as Jesus had mercy on the disciples when they slept rather than pray.
Have mercy in your house as Jesus took care of st. Mary unto His dying breath. Have mercy in your marriage as Jesus sacrificed Himself for His church.
Have mercy with your wealth as Jesus saved humanity without a cent in his pocket.
Have mercy with your children as God so loved us He gave his only begotten Son.
But most of all have mercy in your heart as Jesus has loved you.

Why Do We Really Fast During Lent?

By Father Anthony Messeh

Original post by Fr. Anthony Messeh blog site

In case you missed it, Lent is here. That’s right. Bye bye to hamburgers, chicken wings and ice cream; hello to veggie burgers, bean burritos and fruit salads.

As you’ve probably heard before, Lent is the most sacred time of year. It’s a time during which Orthodox Christians prepare to celebrate and relive Christ’s death on the cross, His burial in a tomb, and ultimately His resurrection from the dead.

But what does that have to do with fasting? Why do we fast for Lent?  I mean really…why do we really fast?  Why is fasting such a big deal in our church and we do place SOOO much emphasis on it?

If we’re honest, most of us have no idea why we fast.  We know we need to fast, but the reasons we’re given often leave us unsatisfied and unfulfilled.

We’re told we need to fast for self-discipline, but what if I’m already a disciplined person?  Do I still need to fast?  We’re told that we need to “overcome our flesh” – but is that really true?  What does that even mean?  Does that mean my body is bad and I need to punish it by fasting somehow?

Is all this fasting hoopla really done as some kind of spiritual self-help?  Fast and you’ll be more disciplined… fast and you’ll overcome your flesh.  Is that really what this is all about?

You’ll be happy to learn that the answer is NO!  

Of course self-discipline is a good thing and of course we need to submit our fleshly desires to our spiritual desires; I am not saying those things aren’t important.

But what I’m saying is that those are not the PRIMARY purpose of our fasting.  Our fasting is not done primarily for the sake of bettering ourselves; that may be a byproduct, but it certainly doesn’t match what our spiritual forefathers – the ones who instructed us to fast during Lent – taught us as the primary purpose of our fasting.

So why do we fast during Lent?

Several years ago, Fr. Athanasius Farag – a Coptic Orthodox priest serving in East Rutherford, NJ and a personal mentor of mine – opened my eyes to an aspect of fasting that I had never considered before.  He spoke based on the writing of a great theologian and bishop from the 7th century named Isaac the Syrian, who wrote the following:

And the Saviour also, when He manifested Himself to the world in the Jordan, began at this point. For after His baptism the Spirit led Him into the wilderness and He fasted for forty days and forty nights. Likewise all who set out to follow in His footsteps make the beginning of their struggle upon this foundation. For this is a weapon forged by God, and who shall escape blame if he neglects it? And if the Lawgiver Himself fasts, who among those who keep the law has no need of fasting?

He starts by saying that we fast for 40 days during Lent because Christ Himself fasted for 40 days.  He was baptized in the Jordan River, went to the wilderness for 40 days of fasting, during which time He was tempted by the devil.

St. Isaac continues:

This is why the human race knew no victory before fasting, and the devil had never experienced defeat from our nature; but this weapon has made him powerless from the outset. Our Lord was the firstborn Leader of victory, so as to set the first crown of victory upon the head of our nature. When the devil, that foe and tyrant, sees a man bearing this weapon, he is straightway frightened and he recollects and considers that defeat which he suffered in the wilderness at the hands of the Saviour; at once his strength is shattered and the very sight of this weapon, given us by our Commander-in-chief, burns him.

Did you catch that?  That’s deep stuff (you may want to read it again).

The reason we fast is because fasting is part of our salvation!  It is the means by which Christ defeated Satan in the wilderness.  Our Lord came face to face with Satan and used the weapon of fasting to defeat Him.  And when the devil sees us bearing the same weapon of fasting, “he is straightway frightened” and “his strength is shattered” and “the very sight of this weapon [fasting], given us by our Commander-in-chief, burns him.”

BOOM!  Down goes the devil!  And he’s down for the count!  Why?  Because he got hit by the weapon of fasting – not our fasting, but the fasting of Christ Himself that we participate in through our fasting.

Go back to man’s very first encounter with the devil – back in the Garden of Eden.  There, Satan defeated man by persuading him to break the first command given by God – a command to fast.  Adam let go of this weapon of fasting and thereby was defeated by Satan.  But when the Second Adam came into the world (Jesus Christ), He defeated the devil by His fasting in the wilderness.

“Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan!… Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”  (Matthew 4:10-11)

Jesus shows us the true meaning and true purpose of fasting.  He didn’t fast because He needed self-discipline or to “overcome His flesh” – He fasted for the same reason He did everything else on this earth…to save us from our sins.  That’s why during the one of the hymns of this Lenten period, we say “Jesus Christ who fasted on our behalf, forty days and forty nights, until He saved us from our sins.”

Why did Jesus fast?  To save us from our sins. 

Why do we fast?  To participate in Christ’s saving act for our sake.

Look at it this way.  We all agree that Jesus died for us and for our salvation.  But in order to participate in that salvation, we must die with Him.  His death is our death.  Likewise, His resurrection is our resurrection and we participate in that act as well.

In the same manner, He fasted on our behalf, to save us from our sins, and we fast in order to participate in His fasting.  His fasting therefore becomes our fasting and His victory over the devil becomes our victory over the devil.

That, my brothers and sisters, is why we fast.

A blessed Lent to you all…

Original blog found at – http://www.franthony.com/blog/why-do-we-really-fast-during-lent

Good Samaritan comfort during Coronavirus

Who are the Samaritans?

The Samaritans were rejected by the Jews at that time because they were a mixed breed of people, between the Judean people and the Assyrian kingdom. So, what you have in there are not actually Jews but a sort of half-half and their existence was the biggest insult to the Jews. Not only that but an adulterous Samaritan woman speaking to a single man was a big no-no at the time.

This woman would have been heavily rejected, ridiculed and hated. Can you imagine? We are 99.9% certain that five men left her, and she didn’t leave them because a woman is destitute if she doesn’t have the support of a man in those days. So, you have a woman who really is the lowest rung of all of society, hated by the Jews, hated by her own people, hated by her own husbands and the one who lives with her despises her too much to even marry her.

If you look back in the Old Testament everyone who met the love of their lives or met their spouse, their bride and their groom met each other at a well. More often than not, they met each other at a very low point in their life:

  • Jacob fleeing his brother Esau finds Rachel
  • Isaac meets Rebecca after leaving his family
  • Moses meets Zapora after fleeing Egypt due to his murder

So, everyone at the lowest point in their life at the well meets the love of their life. Meets the person that gives their life meaning. If you look here Christ came to the well to meet His bride. To meet the person who was at the lowest point in her life.

If you read the Bible this is the strongest theme.

Don’t worry about anything else you read in the Bible.

God comes to those who are dejected, poor, rejected and humiliated.

It is never to the mighty to the powerful or to the rich. Never. The one time he did that with King Saul, it was a perfect example of why he shouldn’t have done it. Instead, he goes to the rejected David.

This is when you read the Bible this should be the message that you absorb, if you’re exalted, if you are rich, if you are comfortable, if you’re happy and everything’s awesome it is very difficult to find God because you’re too relaxed.

It is said,

“though, the Lord is on high yet, he regards the lowly, but the proud He knows from afar.”

-Psalm 138:6

“Comfort yes comfort my people says your God speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare is ended that her iniquity is pardoned.”

-Isiah 40:1-3

It does not make sense to comfort those who are already comforted, but rather those who are downtrodden and rejected. This is the problem with our society now; it is that we live in a life of comfort, where we feel like we don’t need Christ’s comfort. The tiniest thing has brought us to our very knees as we’ve grown comfortable the things that comfort us is our lifestyle is our way of life; freedom, schools, comfort, air conditioning, freedom of travel. All of these things are our comfort.

We are now experiencing a time where they’re being shaken a little bit and I think whilst reading the Catholic epistle today, we have a beautiful reminder of this.

“Come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city spend a year thereby and sell and make a profit, whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow for what is your life, it is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”

There is no better message for today’s society. We live as if the next day is guaranteed, but the reality is not. We have grown too comfortable in the way we are living, and the viruses come, and it’s upended everything in a way that we have never seen before and with good reason, we are terrified and anxious and scared and worried, but should we be?

At this time is when as Christians we should be at peace.

This is a reminder that we are placing too much trust in things that are fleeting, that it is time to trust the One Person that is eternal, God. This is the moment where we have to run to God.

Even with the Church back in the day, we see that when the Church was really under the pump and a lot of Christians were being killed.

“This was when one was really a believer. When one used to go to martyrdom with courage in the church.”

-Origen

People didn’t flee and protect themselves. The Christians never did that.

‘I’ve got to protect my own.’ That is a concept completely foreign to Christianity.

It should be ‘I have to look out for everyone else. I have to serve everyone else.’

This is a Christian.

We don’t care for ourselves we care for everyone around us. We care for the world, by this, the world will know that we’re Christians.

Why?

As one of the early Church fathers says to “See how they love one another. See how much they love that if we don’t love and we behave worse the non-Christians. Then we’ve disgraced that holy name by which we are called.”

This is our time, this is the time of Christianity to demonstrate that Christ is in the world, that He is working.  He hasn’t abandoned the world; He’s just waking it up. Let us not focus on my own but rather on all around, so that we may truly emulate Christ and reveal Him in all we do.

Just like the Samaritan woman, Christ comes to where we are, to come and heal us and dwell within us. So when we’re at home, we can make our home a little Church how when we go together with our kids, at the table and we eat food and we pray and we say ‘Thank you God for the food that you’ve given us, for the blessings you’ve put upon us.’ You are a little Church in your home, that is the church. Every night you stand in prayer and you lift up your heart to God and you are standing at His throne, it is exactly the same as if you’re in church standing before the throne of God. Because God is within you.

Those who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

The Beatitudes Series Part 4

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness’ sake for they shall be filled

By Demiana Salib

“Why are you cast down my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?” (Ps 43:5) – Because, in my deepest distress, I feel like I’m not getting it right. I don’t know what right is. If I make a decision tomorrow, or next week, or next month, I know that I will be wiser even in those short periods of time, but I need to live in the present. And today, I don’t know if this is the right thing to do. 

What is the obsession with being right? Right and wrong is all relative to my own personal understanding. In Judges, everyone did what was right in their own eyes and life was chaos, to say the least. So, I can strive to get it right yet still be very wrong.

But God has fulfilled His promise to be there for me always, even when I get it wrong. I can get it wrong 7 times, I can get it wrong 70×7 times which is more maths than I can handle and He will still take me back (Matt. 18:22). So why do I need to be right?

I can be “right,” yet still filled with the same shame and despair. Fr Antony Paul once called the Pharisees the “super righteous, but lacking in heart.” These were the only ones that Christ rebuked – not those that came in sin – because they were righteous in their own eyes (1). Do I want to be right all the time or do I want to be righteous in the eyes of my Father? 

“A person may exhaust most of his income in pursuing such [worldly] activities. However, if a servant so much as looks at such things as the main source of mental diversion and spiritual comfort, they will instead trigger acute psychological anxiety. They will waste his time, deplete his health, dwindle his money, spoil his taste for prayer and spiritual activities, and weaken his resolve for repentance.”

Fr Matta El Meskeen

If I strive to be righteous for the sake of being right, I’m only going to pull myself further away from God. I can be achieving what I intended, but there will be a stark reality check when I see how far I have removed myself from Christ. A life of getting it right is a life of anxiety, but it is what we, as humans, have come to know and expect. To hunger and thirst for righteousness in the eyes of the Father is the spiritual height of blessing. To hunger and thirst as if my very existence depended on it.

It is no longer about getting it right but, God, I just want to know You more and more each day. I’m not going to get it right, but for as long as I am spending my days with You, then I know I’m going far. I have tasted the sweetness of Your grace and now, nothing else will satisfy. When I was searching for You at first, I couldn’t see You clearly but as I move closer and closer, You come into focus and my anxieties fade. My decisions become easier, I’m not striving to get it right but to get to know You and all else is secondary.

When I am stuck in my own selfish desires, I want to get it right on my own. But when I look to God, I empty my selfish desires before His Throne and He gives me His grace in return. My repentance is no longer, “God I messed up,” and stops there but, “God, the infinite and eternal, Creator of heaven and earth, I am in awe of You and Your love for humanity, have mercy upon me, a sinner.”

Isaiah teaches us,

“Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.” – Isaiah 55:2

It was as if Isaiah knew how we would react to the coronavirus pandemic. The immediate reaction was to start hoarding as many imperishable goods as possible. But why do we spend money on what is not bread? As in, why are we so fixated on more than our daily needs? It is good to plan but in remembrance of, “give us this day our daily bread,” sustain us for today and I know tomorrow is in Your Hands. Then I know my soul will delight in abundance.

It is in the hunger and thirst for righteousness’ sake that God will work all things for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). God will make good of even my biggest mistakes if I live to serve Him. I am satisfied in knowing He is in control, and in His control, my darkest of days with Him are still brighter than my brightest days without Him, for the Lord will perfect that which concerns me (Ps 138:8).

The confusion is all cured by one simple prayer: God, if it does not bring me closer to You, then I don’t want it. Although I may not know right from wrong in this lifetime, I will hunger and thirst for righteousness’ sake, not so that I get the answers right, but so I am filled with You, and that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forevermore (Ps 23:6). 

(1) full sermon on praying with intent by Fr Antony Paul –  https://subspla.sh/2hwp6rx

Closet Pharisee

By: Michael

Original post by Becoming Fully Alive blog site

As I opened my bible today to receive life, my soul was awakened. Jesus told me off.

There was something deeply wrong in me that He wanted to open my eyes to. Something that hurts Him and saddens Him. Something that needs to change, now.

“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Matthew 23:1-12

Hearing these words come from my Creator’s lips shook me. I knew He wanted to tell me something important. I re-read these verses and stopped to concentrate at each part to see what it was that the Holy Spirit wanted to awaken me to. Then I realised.

..I’m a Closet Pharisee..

I’m that Pharisee that Jesus Himself rebukes in this passage. I’m that hypocrite. Whenever I read the gospels I never like to find myself in the Pharisees – I’m always the blind man/ Samaritan woman/ one of the apostles/ the boy with the five loaves & 2 fish/ Jesus. But relating to the Pharisees? Associating myself with them? Erm no thanks. As I did my quiet time today though, I couldn’t escape that reality; there were no other characters in the chapter for me to hide behind and meditate on; no characters to cling onto but the Pharisees. I wanted the chapter to finish as quick as possible so I can move onto chapter 24 and not have to reflect on whether I’m a Pharisee or not. The Holy Spirit stopped me though. I felt something telling me to keep meditating on this passage.

In verse 3 Jesus bluntly says that the Pharisees didn’t practice what they preached. He tells to the crowd to obey them and do what they say but not what they do for they were hypocrites. That petrified me. What if Jesus says these words about me? What if I’m the real hypocrite? What if Jesus instructs others to obey what I say but not what I do because I don’t practice what I preach?… It’s so easy for me to say the right things, so easy to put on an act, so easy to create a spiritual persona that seems to be entering through the narrow gate. How foolish. How void. How fake. I think it offends God even more when I do that knowing full well that He sees and knows all things.
“Everything they do is done for men to see” Jesus says in verse 5. I highlighted that verse. If you easily fall into the sin people pleasing like me, this verse will resonate with you too. Everything they do is for men to see. Everything. Everything. What a scary thought; I could be living such a fake life that absolutely every action is performed with the motive of gaining people’s approval and attention – even my walk with Jesus. Disgusting. It really is. Idolising other human beings and putting them at a higher pedestal that God Himself, that I’m willing to fake my relationship with Jesus for a minute of their admiration and applause.

To the proud-hearted like myself, Jesus very clearly explained how to notice if you’re one of these Pharisees. Verse 6 says “they love the place of honour” followed by verse 7 saying “they love to be greeted and have men call them ‘Rabbi’”. Oh boy do I love the place of honour. Oh how my heart lusts for the moment when I’ll be greeted by others and have them praise me. As I read these verses trying my hardest to not relate to them the Holy Spirit reminded me of all the times I’d stood as a deacon/ in tasbeha so desperate, so eager to move up a bench. To have my voice heard. Acknowledgement. Applause. Glory. I was reminded of the times friends had complimented me on a gift that the Lord had so graciously bestowed upon me and how I twisted their godly encouragement into self-praise, eagerly feeding my pride. I was reminded of the times my heart leaped with joy because I was acknowledged by someone more popular than me. Though I feel ashamed writing these words, I thank Jesus with all my heart for opening my eyes to the rise of the old man within me. The old man, who in my case, is a big self-righteous Pharisee too.

If I skip to verses 25 and 27 I hear Jesus saying:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence… Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” What more can He say? How clearer can He get? Woe to you O my soul for you are full of hypocrisy. How easy it is for you to appear righteous and holy before men when from the deepest part of your soul, you worship Satan. How you run after him, sprint towards him, lusting for every drop of greed and self-indulgence that he supplies you with. I look at myself, look at the real me, and I question how I have the audacity to call myself a ‘servant’ in the church, how I can dare to dream of being a ‘leader’ when I continue to live as a Pharisee – clean as can be from the outside yet disturbingly filthy on the inside.

How often has your Creator longed to hold you in His bosom O my soul? How often has He whispered gently, spoken tenderly, screamed lovingly to you wanting you to wake up from your deep sleep?

I feel that verse 12 summarises everything the Lord awakened me to today; For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. If like me, you really struggle with pride, and humility is this foreign concept to you that you know a couple of nice quotes on, change needs to happen now. We can’t live lives of Pharisees. We can’t continue to insult our Saviour because of our self obsession. And before we fall into the lie that we can humble ourselves, we need to repent, laying before the King of Kings and ask Him to grant us humility.

Abba Poemen said “as the breath which comes out of his nostrils, so does a man need humility and the fear of God.”

St. Peter of Damascus said “At the Last Judgment the righteous will be recognized only by their humility and their considering themselves worthless, and not by good deeds, even if they have done them. This is the true attitude.”

Wake up, O my soul.

Original blog found at- http://becomingfullyalive.com/closet-pharisee/