Spiritual message from Fr David:
As we approach the end of the Coptic Year, our church reminds us of the “end of times” as well as reminding us of the lovely martyrs who happily sacrificed everything for their love for God (El Nayrouz).
Because the martyrs had a very clear understanding of their purpose in life on earth and the joys of what they will receive in eternity, they were so committed to showing their loyalty to God that they did not allow anything or anyone to convince them or take them away from God, even to the point of their death.
In our lives we too suffer temptations and “beloved sins” and addictions that draw us away from Christ. These are also opportunities for us to show our loyalty to God. This is a form of Modern day martyrdom. Where we shed ourselves of our addictions to lusts of the flesh, impurities, gambling, gossiping and drugs.
If we want to receive modern day crowns of martyrdom then we too need to find ways of being loyal to God and renewing this covenant of Loyalty to Him on a daily basis.
Let us use these last few weeks of the Coptic Year as a time of reflection and spiritual planning for revival. We need to identify the things we’ve been doing that need to stop, the things we’ve been doing that we need to do more of, and the things that we have not done that we should start to do, to show our love and loyalty to Christ our King.