St Severus of Antioch is one of the great Fathers of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. In the decades after the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD it was he, more than any other theologian, who expressed most forcefully and clearly the Orthodox Christology of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. He grew up in the confused environment of the Church produced by Chalcedon and intermittently exacerbated by imperial persecution of those who rejected the decisions of that – …

Chapter Ten: The Triumph of the Disciple of an Old Man in the Desert Now there was a certain man whose name was Moses, who was by race an Indian (i.e., an Ethiopian), and his flesh was black, and he was the slave of a man in high authority, and because of his evil deeds and thefts his master drove him out of his house; now it is said that he even went so far – …

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” What is this? He must be exalted, but I must be humbled. How is Jesus to increase? How is God to increase? The perfect does not increase. God neither increases nor decreases. For if He increases, He is not perfect; if He decreases, he is not God. And how can Jesus increase, being God? If to man’s estate, since He deigned to be man and was a child; – …

"Why The Cross?" But if any honest Christian wants to know why He suffered death on the cross and not in some other way, we answer thus: in no other way was it expedient for us, indeed the Lord offered for our sakes the one death that was supremely good. He had come to bear the curse that lay on us; and how could He "become a curse," [Gal. 3:13] otherwise than by accepting the – …

I. BACKGROUND A. The Empire Theodosius the Great died in 395. His two sons replaced him: Arcadius in the East and Honorius in the West. In the West, the Germanic tribes invaded the Western Empire and established a new kingdom. They applied their primitive, barbarian customs instead of the Roman law and most of them were Arians. Emperor Honorius lost his control of the Empire and lived in North Italy. The Visigoths defeated the Roman – …

As we live in this world, we are bound to face difficulties and sometimes feel bombarded by troubles from all directions. At one time or another, we may seek assistance, support, or encouragement from someone higher than ourselves. This is an innate longing in all of us. As we stand at the crossroads, where do we go for guidance and direction? Where do we find help to face the perplexities of life, as we know – …

In the beginning of the month of April, the Church is preparing for Holy Passion Week. The Church actually sees in the sufferings of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the mystery of Her joy and happiness. Although we pray with a melancholy tune during Pascha Week, yet our hearts are exulted as we follow the Passion of the Savior, since we see the power and love of our Good Savior in His pain. Through – …

On September 12th, our Church celebrates the Coptic New Year (Feast of the Nairouz), which is the calendar of the Church. The Coptic New Year is the calendar of the martyrs. Our Church offered thousands of martyrs. Since the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian was one of the harshest periods of persecution, especially in Egypt, the Church chose the year 284 AD, which is the beginning of the reign of Diocletian, to mark the – …

He took what was ours to be His very own so that we might have all that was His. “He was rich but he became poor for our sake, so that we might be enriched by His poverty.” (2 Cor. 8:9). When they say that the Logos of God did not become flesh, or rather did not undergo birth from a woman according to the flesh, they bankrupt the economy of salvation. For if He – …

At the end of his life, St. Antony gave two sheepskin coats to his two closest disciples—‎both were bishops and became ‎saints: St. Serapion, the bishop of Thmuis; and St. ‎Athanasius, the Archbishop of ‎Alexandria. This letter is addressed to ‎the disciples of St. Antony and was ‎written immediately after St. Antony’s departure in 356 AD.‎ St. Serapion wrote also four or five other letters to St. Athanasius. ‎1. After the departure of the blessed – …

Lots of people, in their spiritual life, fight on their own, without letting God in with them to ask Him strength and assistance, forgetting the Lord’s saying: ” for without Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). Those people, they don’t ask God to be with them in whatever they do. On the contrary each one of them depends only on his own thinking or on someone else’s, not putting in mind God’s work in – …

The Gates of Heaven ‎ ‎+ Abba Poemen said: Abba Moses asked Abba Zechariah a question when he was about to die, saying, "Fr. is it ‎good that we should hold our peace?" And Zechariah said to him, "Yes, my son, hold your peace." And at the time ‎of his death, while Abba Isodore was sitting with him, Abba Moses looked up to heaven and said, "Rejoice and be ‎glad, O my son Zechariah, for – …