Feast of Entrance into Egypt – by Bishop Dimetrius

from Weekly Bulletin 28th February 2023

1st June - 24th Bashans

The Church celebrates the Feast of our Lord’s Entry into Egypt on the 24th day of the month of Pashons (June 1st). This feast is among the Seven Minor Feasts of the Lord. As the Holy Family entered the land of Egypt, St. Mary the Virgin mother carried the child Jesus in her arms, with Joseph the Carpenter at her side and Salome, who accompanied them. They had done so in order to escape from Herod, who had sought to kill the Child. This was instructed to Joseph by the Archangel Gabriel in a dream where the Gabriel told him: “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son” (Matthew 2:13-15 ).

The entry of our Lord Jesus Christ into the land of Egypt is an opportunity for rejoicing and delighting for the many blessings that his entry has impacted upon Egypt. The Church is aware of how important this event has been. And this is the reason it is one of the Lord’s feasts. There are several symbols and spiritual meanings that are indicated by the coming of the Lord Christ into Egypt. God’s plan for Christ’s entering the land of Egypt contains, as far as we can assume, four spiritual meanings that indicate the benefit for us from this divine plan.

1. The first spiritual meaning:

The first spiritual meaning was that the Lord has been willing to remove his anger from this land. God wanted to show how his forgiveness works and how he was going to replace the old by the new and the curse by the blessing. God is willing to abolish the curses of the plagues that he had once inflicted upon the Egyptians, when he punished them severely with the ten plagues in the old time, pouring his wrath upon them and the whole land of Egypt. Now by sending his Son to Egypt, He is restoring his favor instead of his wrath, his blessing instead of his curse; purifying everything, renewing everything: the people, the land, the water, and the air. This is the first reason for which our Lord came to bless the land of Egypt that he had once cursed. He made his entry into Egypt in order to establish there the benediction instead of the malediction. The lesson for us here is that God is teaching us about conversion. A life spent far away from God needs repentance. Otherwise this life will be condemned to perish in the hell of fire. Therefore, the person whom converts, repents, turns back from the wicked ways to God, will deserve the renewal of life in our Lord Christ Jesus, instead of deserving the condemnation to the hell of fire. Conversion is by excellence the figure of the transformation from the curses to the blessings, from the sinful nature to the renewed and purified being. As the converting person receives a new life in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the same way, as Egypt that received the Lord received a blessing compensating her old curses caused by sin. In both the converting person and the land of Egypt receiving the Lord Christ one common trait unifies their destiny: Holiness shines instead of darkness.

2. The second spiritual meaning:

The second spiritual meaning for the coming of Christ into the land of Egypt is the meaning of escape from evil. By His coming to Egypt, our Lord gave us the key of the practical application of his command to escape evil, not to resist it in (Matthew 5:39 ). Our Lord escaped from the face of the King Herod. Nevertheless, His escape is not based on cowardice and does not come out of weakness! His escape is based on divine plan; he made this journey to Egypt to fulfill the divine purpose of redemption, aiming to redeem all of mankind. We have a special remembrance for the slain children of Bethlehem on the third day of the Coptic month of Touba, when we celebrate their memory as we consider them being for us among the cloud of witnesses. Therefore, the Lord’s plan for us is that we follow His example, walk into His steps, escape from evil, escape from sin. This escape is a program that we should always remember, consider, trust, and follow.

3. The third spiritual meaning:

The third spiritual meaning for the Lord Jesus Christ’s entering into Egypt is to establish a Temple for the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt and to abolish and destroy the idolatrous temples spread and perverting the whole land. So we can consider the journey of the Holy Family to Egypt a journey with a building purpose, a foundational-minded journey aiming to install in Egypt the establishment of the Temple of God. In the Old Testament, the only temple of God was in Jerusalem. The Lord has been willing to add geographically Egypt to come to His knowledge. The Lord is willing to announce to the people of Egypt His love for them. He is calling them to acknowledge Him and to worship Him, to love Him and to adore Him; He is destining them to build His Church. Isaiah the Prophet prophesied about that saying: “So the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the Lord and keep them.”

)Isaiah 19: 21 ( Therefore, the Lord is not only making Himself known in Egypt in a habitual way of traditional knowledge. Rather, a deep and profound knowledge is involved, giving the Egyptians the privilege to become also the flock of God. They are from now on making vows to God and keeping them. After they were Israel’s enemies. The Holy Book of Isaiah eloquently tells the story of the journey of the Holy Family to Egypt. It is a journey that causes “the idols of Egypt to tremble and the hearts of the Egyptians to melt.” Our Lord does not want us to love anything more than we love Him. If a person loves something more than the Lord, the Lord wants that idolatrous thing to tremble. Idols could be things such as the Ego or the ancient self-prior to conversion. By the melting of the hearts of the Egyptians, the Lord wants to teach us that conversion gives humility to the heart and repentance; two elements that are vital and necessary in the adoration of God.

4. The fourth spiritual meaning: The fourth spiritual meaning of the Lord’s journey to Egypt is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Hosea: “Out of Egypt I called my Son.” )Hosea 11: 1 ( “When Israel was a child I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my Son.” The Lord wants to teach us an important lesson concerning the traveling and the continual moving without rest. He journeyed inside Egypt without a home or a specific place of his own where he could rest. He was as a stranger that had no support and no place to lean his head upon. Thus, He wants us to be familiarized with the feeling of being strangers to both the heavenly homeland (that we didn’t reach yet!) and the earthly homeland. We want to be like our Lord Jesus Christ, considering ourselves strangers, having nowhere to rest. It is a precious lesson for us to learn that the earthly home is only a temporary one and our heavenly home is the perpetual one.

The journey of the Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Family to Egypt was a hard and difficult one, where He was seeking souls longing for Him and souls hungry and thirsty for Him.

St. Wadamoun El-Armanty met with our Lord in the region of El-Ashmounin located in the south of Egypt. He was from a city called Armante, which is distant 500 kilometers from Mallawi or El-Ashmounin. St. Wadamoun was the first to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord told him that he was going to be the first martyr. As St. Wadamoun was performing miracles with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, the pagans and idolatrous people – seeing the idols trembling, crushing, and falling in destruction – persecuted him and killed him. He died effectively as the Lord Jesus Christ told him, as a martyr. In the records of our Church, he is counted with the 44 thousand or the Children of Bethlehem, as their martyrdom occurred at the same period of time, historically. This was the inauguration of the martyrdom and the starting of the sufferings for our Lord’s faith.

To our God be the eternal Glory for ever, Amen.

— Sermon By H.G. Bishop Dimetrius, Bishop of the Holy Diocese of Mallawi, Ansena and El-Ashmunein and Abbot of the Monastery of Saint Fana, Upper Egypt. The Martyrdom Of St. Thomas, the Apostle.

3rd June - 26th Bashans

On this day St. Thomas the apostle was martyred. He was born in Galilee, and the Lord chose him among the twelve disciples (Mathew 10:3). When the Lord wanted to go to raise Lazarus from the dead, Thomas said to the other disciples: “ (John 11:16). He also asked the Lord at the supper: “ (John 14:5-6). When the Lord Christ appeared to the disciples after the resurrection, and said to them “Receive the Holy Spirit”, Thomas was absent. On his return, the disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” He said to them: “ (John 20:19-29).

After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost in the Upper room in Zion, the apostles dispersed everywhere to preach the Gospel, Thomas went to India. He worked there as a slave at one of the friends of the king, whose name was Lukios, who brought him to the king who inquired about his profession. Thomas said: “I am builder, carpenter and a physician. He preached in his master’s palace, and Lukios’ wife believed and all his household. The king asked him about his achievements, and he said: “The palaces that I built were the souls that have become the temples of the King of Glory; the carpentry that I did was the Gospel that removes the thorns of sin; and the medicines I practiced are the Holy Mysteries which heal the poison of the evil one. The king became angry and tortured him, and bound him among four poles, cut off his skin and rubbed his wounds with salt and lime. The apostle Thomas endured the pains. Lukios’ wife saw him suffering, and she fell from the window and died. Lukios came to him and said: “If you raise my wife from the dead, I believe in your God.” Thomas went to the room where the dead body was, and said: “Arsabona (Arsonia), rise up in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” She rose instantly and bowed to the Saint. When her husband saw that, he believed and many more with him from the people of the city, and Thomas baptized them.

Once the sea drove a huge tree to the shore that no one could lift it up. St. Thomas asked the king for permission to lift it up and to use its wood in building a church. He got the permission, he made the sign of the cross, and he raised it and later he built the church, to which he ordained a bishop and priests.

St. Thomas left and went to a city called “Kantoura” (Kontaria), where he found an old man weeping bitterly because the king killed his six children. The Saint prayed over them, and the Lord raised them up. The idol priests were angry, and wanted to stone him. The first raised a stone to throw it at him, and his hand was paralyzed. The Saint prayed over his hand, he was healed instantly, and all the idol priests believed in the Lord Christ. Then St. Thomas went to the city of “Parkenas” and other cities, where he preached in the Name of Jesus Christ. The king heard about him, and he put him in prison. When he found out that he was teaching the prisoners the way of God, he tortured him, and at last he cut his head off, and he received the crown of martyrdom. He was buried in “Melibar”, then his body was relocated to El-Raha. May his prayers be with us, and Glory be to God forever. Amen.

Meditations on the Eucharist Bible readings for the sixth Sunday of the Holy Pentecostal fifty days.

John 16: 23 – 33

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace”. John 16:33 Peace and Joy, words which might appear foreign to today’s mankind and this generation, this is because we live in a world which does not comprehend the meaning of peace. We nowadays hear strange understanding of peace. We would hear of those who are fighting because of peace or those who would arm themselves with weapons of mass destruction for peace! We see those who will lose their peace for peace, therefore it is not strange that this world does not know the true meaning of peace nor it’s real essence (of peace). The real reason for mankind losing peace, is being distant from the true source of peace, that is the Lord Jesus Christ the true King of Peace. Man seeks alternative sources of peace for himself, believing his peace is in wealth and all he achieves is miseries and troubles! One might think that his or her peace lies in fulfilling his or her physical lusts and all that would be gained is sickness, pain and sadness. Other might think that peace is in knowing (prominent) people of the world and all they would get is being ignored, ingratitude and problems, then one realizes that “There is no peace, Says my God, for the wicked.” )Isiah 57:21( and there is Isiah no peace (found) in sinners. What is the secret of the peace in the Lord Jesus Christ? And why He alone and no-other can grant us peace? Because, He granted us that all we ask in His name, we receive, then we require nothing else, that is we became without worries since He loves us and we love Him and He asks the Father for our sake. This is because the Father loves you and our hearts are filled with His love. For He has overcome the world and all assuredly and power He has overcome what noone can overcome. He is the source of Glory. + whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you:

We have an intercessor with the Father, to ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is an intercession which cannot ever fail, because we gained the right to come and offer a true repentance with tears before God, justified in the Blood of Christ our Lord and in this we receive the most wanted by the saints which is the forgiveness of sins. In the name of the Lord Jesus Chris, the skies are open for us and we receive all that we ask, isn’t this a very powerful reason for peace and comfort in your heart. The world is always searching for a magic key which open closed doors and reveal hidden treasures. The main efforts of nowadays inventors and scientists is to discover the secrets of nature, life and the human body which all still but puzzles for mankind and there are lots man still does not know or understand. However, in the Lord Jesus Christ, there are no puzzles or secrets today for us! No longer there are difficult or impossible! Prayers has opened the doors of prisons; thus, the doors of gaol were opened for St Peter, indeed, prayers broke the iron and opened the doors of gaol for St Matthias the apostle with the intercession of St Mary the Virgin. All sickness can be healed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in the sacrament of unction of the sick is an amazing power to heal all ailments, even those which medicine can cure till today.

Look and see my beloved, to St Peter and St John in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ they healed the lame man (Acts 3: 1-9) which all the world wealth cannot sure! See, St Paul the apostle a poisonous serpent bites his hand and he simply shook it away and nothing happens to him (Acts 28: 3-6), the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is a limitless source of power. Dearly beloved, see what peace, comfort and tranquillity enjoys the man who feels that his God is strong, but even stronger than the whole world. Then, one fulfils all His )God( commandments being assured that His commandments is true and works for our salvation.

This mighty God, my beloved, teaches you to love the others as yourself, why then do hate and loathe? God, teaches you to be honest and true in all your works, then why live in twisted ways, lies and deception, the evidence that you have known His (God) power and His commandment, is to fulfil the commandments, why then don’t you fulfil them?

+ The Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me

Beloved, understand this amazing love, God has loved us first and sent His only begotten Son for us and because we loved His only begotten Son greatly, and in our love to His only Son, He (God) loves us. Man stand wondering before this exceptional love and cannot find any justification except that it is a love above all love. True pure love is the greatest source of joy and happiness for man. One day a man came to his fields and found a cluster of grapes being the first produce of his vineyard, he took it to give as a present to someone he loved very much, Anba Makarios the great, who in turn sent it to another monk who was sick and this monk took it to another elder monk advanced in years and so on each monk sent it to some one else till it was returned to the abbot of the monastery, who gathered all monks and put the cluster of grapes before them and said; let us all share in the cluster of love. The house which has love, has peace, joy and true happiness which expels anger, quarrels and hatred to the outside.

Ruth the Moabite became part of genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ through her love to her mother of law. The universe has been created through the Love of the Father for us and is redeemed and saved through the Love of the Father and Son and communion of the Holy Spirit and became attached to the Father through our love to the Son. It is the bond of the everlasting Love which made all of us members in the one Body of Christ (the Church). Beloved, are you yearning for peace and joy? Then, learn to love, true and pure love which is void of lusts, pure wholesome love without requiring any benefits. Train yourself, that your love is without needs, for you love to your wife is not conditional upon her services or emotions towards you, nor is your love to your husband is conditional upon how much you benefit from him and your love to your children is unconditional without excepting pay-back later in life when they grow up. This unconditional love in your house will make the happiest home on earth. Do you want peace, then learn to love?

+ Indeed…I have overcome the world the world has conquered many and has crush many and many were lost. There are many strong and great people has been overcome by the world and their sins made them lose to the world! There are those who think money is the answer and is the steadiest weapon in the world and others think that prominence and desires are the most important things in life and others think that enjoyments and fulfilment of one’s needs is the most wanted in life, but all are deceiving themselves and all are worshiping the false gods which is quickly is overcome and appears as it’s true core. But our God, has overcome all these gods and all its powers.

The apostolic fathers were a punch of fishermen and lowly in the world but in the Lord, Jesus Christ were able to fascinate the whole world and before them, crumbled the mightiest kingdoms and the strongest of kings and rulers without any wars or blood shedding. They have known the true secret of success; the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him they conquered all, and all the world temptation were burned before them. Indeed, a child who is holding his father’s hand, believe he is the strongest in the world and within himself would dismiss all other powers and fears nothing. We are children who the Lord Jesus Christ is holding our hands for He is our true Heavenly Father.

Beloved, do you still worried or afraid and troubled with many issued for no reason? Then, come to the Lord Jesus Chris who has overcome the world, indeed the whole world and true there will be tribulations in the world, and indeed tribulations, pain and suffering is essential, but we trust in Hands of One who overcome the world and in Him we will over the world too, (Amen).

+ Feast of Pentecost:

Next Sunday 4th June is the Feast of Pentecost – Fiftieth day after Resurrection when the Holy Spirit filled the Holy Disciples as the Lord promised them that He will send His Holy Spirit the comforter to fill them and stay with them forever and asked them not to depart from Jerusalem until they are filled with this special power from the Highest. On that day, the Holy Spirit descended upon them as cloven tongues of fire and they started to talk in tongues and to teach so much that three thousand believed that day as they heard a sermon from St Peter. It is the Birthday of the church of the New Testament and the start of the preaching mission of the disciples all over the world. Let us ask the Lord to work in us and make us honest witnesses to him and live Gospels read by all people. At St Mary’s Church the service programme will be:

5am Matins prayers and the procession of the Resurrection.

6 - 7:45 am First Liturgical Service

7:45 - 9:30 Second Liturgical Service

9:30 - 11:15am third Liturgical Service

12 - 2pm Kneeling Down )Sajda) Prayers. Holy Apostles Fasting starts on Monday 5th June.

Voulanteers Required for

+ I am a stranger on earth:

Adam and Eve and their offspring are just strangers on this earth. That is how people of God always feel and keep feeling until they return to their real home in Heavens. The Lord did not create us for earth but for heaven. Those created for earth such as animals, their life finishes as soon as they die, so also everything on this earth one day it is going to vanish and disappear. But, every human is going to depart to a permanent home forever. Here we are only like the transit passenger, whatever we spend here it is only temporary. We are still gazing to Heavens with the Apostles at the ascension of our Lord and still hear the Angel saying to us that Jesus Who ascended is coming back. We are waiting for Him. He is coming to take us to live with Him forever. I am just a traveller carrying my little bag in which I have my directory, the Word of my Lord which I read and recite day and night. My food is His Body and Blood offered for my Salvation. My weapons and supports are the Gifts of His Holy Spirit Which fills me and give me support, wisdom and guidance and protection from the dangers and perils of this world. He also rebukes me when I do mistakes and lead me back to the straight path. I do listen. I look forward searching for the traces of other sheep who went before me and get encouragement of their conduct and faith. When I am tired I erect my tent next to my fathers home where I can find peace and security. I am a stranger following my beloved Lord. I have assured peace for He has conquered the world.

Blessed Baptism