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 openings and its paths and senses. And so we should be silent when we ought, and to pray with a – …

I. It is the Day of the Resurrection, and my Beginning has good auspices. Let us then keep the Festival with splendor,  and let us embrace one another. Let us say Brethren, even to those who hate us; much more to those who have done or suffered anything out of love for us. Let us forgive all offenses for the Resurrection’s sake: let us give one another pardon, I for the noble tyranny which I – …

If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast. If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord. If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense. If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep – …

Come, my beloved, the season calls us to keep the feast. Again, ‘the Sun of Righteousness, causing His divine beams to rise upon us, proclaims beforehand the time of the feast, in which, obeying Him, we ought to celebrate it, lest when the time has passed by, gladness likewise may pass us by. For discerning the time is one of the duties most urgent on us, for the practice of virtue; so that the blessed – …

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 and emotions for praying and worshipping. When one hears a sad hymn or song, it moves the tender emotions, – …

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 of Galilee. It is a month of blessings. You would never know it if you opened the news. We know – …

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 of drunkenness. A night spent over drink invites drunkenness, rouses lust, and is audacious in deeds of shame. For if – …

"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 were the words of our great father, St. Athanasius the Apostolic, in his fourth festal message to the Christian – …

Words about music are secondary to music itself. The true meaning of music lies in the aural experience. Other experiences are merely adjuncts or glosses on the acoustical event. Music is inseparable from function as is the case of music in the Bible. I. Definition of Music The science or art of incorporating pleasing, expressive or intelligible combinations of vocal or instrumental tones into a composition having definite structure and continuity. (Webster Third New International – …

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Modern society is a “death denying and death-defying society”1. We speed along highways, eat fats and sugars to excess, overwork, smoke, pollute, and inject toxins into our faces all with the childish façade that death happens to other people. This is not to say that we ignore death – in fact it is constantly in our faces with up to the second media and technology reporting all the tragedies around the world. Yet, families seem – …