Resources for an Orthodox Christian Understanding of Halloween
On October 31, millions of Americans will celebrate Halloween, many of them Orthodox Christians unaware of the incompatibility between Christianity and Halloween. This article offers a few resources from Orthodox Christian sources to educate our families and youth on this dark holiday and how we are to respond. [ba-quote]Abba Antony said, “Evil spirits, since they can do nothing, are but as actors in a play, changing their shapes and frightening children by their tumult and – …
The Paralytic and Being in the Presence of God
On the first Sunday of the blessed Coptic month of Babah, we heard in the Divine Liturgy the Gospel according to St. Mark 2:1-12, in which we were confronted by a man who is paralyzed, but nonetheless has friends that care and bring him to our Lord to be healed. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to a city called Capernaum, a city that was like His second home after Nazareth. At the time of our story, our – …
Conflict Between Church and State: An Eighth Century Episode during the Patriarchate of Abba Mennas I (766-774)
The conflict between the secular rulers and the Church in Egypt is a constant and recurring danger in the life of the Church. A revealing episode takes us back to the eighth century during the patriarchate of Abba Menas I (766-774), the forty-seventh Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. The episode is narrated by B. Evetts in The History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church, published in the Patrologia Orientalis, T. X, Fasc. – …
Practical and Mystical: Patriarch Kyrillos VI (1959-1971)
Today the memory of Kyrillos has become somewhat overshadowed by the steady news of miraculous interventions attributed to Kyrillos’s intercession after his passing away. In death his influence stretches far beyond Egypt. For example, one of the latest miracles that happened during the fall of 2005 unfolded in Iraq where his miraculous intervention rescued the American husband of a Coptic woman deployed there from certain death. In this essay I discuss some of the bases – …
The Missionary Journeys and Epistles of the Apostle Paul
An understanding of the chronological order of events in St. Paul’s ministry can be very valuable as a tool for the study of the book of Acts and St. Paul’s epistles. The book of Acts and the epistles of St. Paul sometimes tell us the length of time between one event and another. However, determining the year in which an event took place can require some research. It is most helpful to know the year – …
On the Resurrection of Lazarus
A man was raised up by Him who made man: for He is the only One of the Father, by whom, as you know, all things were made. And if all things were made by Him, what wonder is it that one was raised by Him, when so many are daily brought into the world by His power? It is a greater deed to create men than to raise them again from the dead. Yet – …