The Reality of Our Faith

The Reality of Our Faith

by Mirette Ibrahim


If we need a physical building in order to pray, we’re doing something wrong.
If we can’t speak to our Maker, without being surrounded by our loved ones, we’re doing something wrong.
If we can’t taste and see our Creator’s goodness in the confines of our own rooms, we’re doing something wrong.
If we need to be spoken to by our leaders in order to feel like we’re hearing our Lord’s voice, we’re doing something wrong.
If we can abstain from food but can’t abstain from seeing our friends, we’re doing something wrong.
If we can’t feel our God’s grace being poured on us outside of the church walls, we’re doing something wrong.

If I think my Father’s voice is only found in the crowds and not the stillness, I’m doing something wrong.
If I have limited the Unlimited to a physical space, I’m doing something wrong.
If I have confined the Almighty to a single place of existence, I’m doing something wrong.
If I’ve put my Master into a box and made Him my God according to my own preferences and criteria, I’m doing something wrong.
If I’ve failed to see my neighbor struggling while I selfishly stock my shelves and offer them my prayers, I’m doing something wrong.
If I can’t see the blessing disguised in this time of solitude that some can only dream of, I’m doing something wrong.
If I can’t call on my Saviour during this time of mass drowning, but have time to sit behind my screen and condemn the leaders for their obedience and guidance, I’m doing something wrong.

So…

Let’s pray in the stillness.
Let’s contemplate in the solitude.
Let’s experience Him in the silence.
Let’s hear Him in the quiet.
Let’s be filled with Him in our abstinence.
Let’s feel Him reaching out to us.
Let’s know Him in our obedience.
Let’s be there for each other.
Let’s help out our brother.
Let’s lay down our lives for our neighbors.

Let’s do Lent and life right.

What did I do?

What did I do?

by Marcus Mikhail


What did I do, Lord to deserve Your grace?

To earn Your favour and know that You are preparing a resting place

What did I do, Lord? I’m so undeserving

But thanks to Your Son, You have made me worthy and given me Your word unswerving

 

What did I do, Lord to deserve Your love;

That You would shower me with gifts from above?

I love You, Lord because You loved me first I cannot contain it,

I feel like I will burst!

 

What did I do, Lord to deserve Your salvation?

To be in an everlasting relationship with You because of Your incarnation

As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after You

You love me so much dear Lord, nothing can undo

 

What did I do Lord to deserve your heavenly gifts?

Even though I’m prone to wander and my love for You drifts

My cup runs over; it’s truly amazing

To see my life unfold with Your special blessing

 

What did I do, Lord to deserve Your protection?

You are our shield, our defender because of Your affection

You care about us so much indeed this is true

No wonder You asked us to cast our cares upon You

 

Your word is so powerful sharper than any double-edged sword

We understand Your mind through it; it draws us closer to thee, sweet Lord

It has the power to change us, to mould us into the image of Your Son

It lifts us up when we feel like we are overrun

 

In prayer, we praise and thank You and put before You our hearts desire

It brings us closer to You and sets our hearts on fire

We can come to You at any place and at any time

You are always listening to us and Your presence makes us shine

 

You are so faithful, Lord; Your promises have never failed

Even when I was the one who bailed

Time and time again you have proven your faithfulness

You’ve helped me throughout my whole life in failure and success

 

Help me to hold onto You, You are worthy of all glory and praise

Draw us closer to you so we are in tune with you always

I truly don’t deserve You, Lord

I’ve failed You time and again

But with You I have nothing to lose and all to gain 

The Absolute Truth

The Absolute Truth

by Daniel Rafla


One of the most sought-after objects in the world, the most desirable form of knowledge. Truth. Humanity itself revolves around what is true – in friendship, love, success, happiness, strength, etc. You could literally qualify the highest level of attaining any one concept or virtue by referring to it as true. Pontius Pilate himself upon questioning the Lord Christ

“Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” ” John 18:37-38

Winston Churchill comments, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” (Churchill, 1916) Yet no one has ever quite been capable of summing up the mere impact of the truth better than the words of Christ,

“ ‘Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ ” (John 8:32)

This appears to be a fairly universally known quote, and it can be commonly found in film, music and books. We ourselves, in order to teach the importance of the truth to children, refer to this one verse constantly, that we can create a definitive link between the truth and peace. The irony is that the true impact of truth is itself difficult to measure, and difficult to quantify. That said, I wonder – if the impact of the true means of something is to an individual seeking it can be immeasurable, then what if we were to consider the absolute truth.

The word absolute is rooted from the Latin word Absolutus meaning freed and unrestricted, however the modern understanding of the word is that it is all encompassing, that something being absolute becomes the measure of the thing it contains. Consider for a moment the mathematical symbol of absolute     |X|

I want you to now begin to visualise the way in which these two bars actually not only surround that “X” but they are the literal boundary that contains and transforms whatever is inside of it to a positive number.

Now into the rabbit hole we go, as I now begin to delve into an absolute truth that I’ve meditated over during the period of the Great Lent and even into the Holy week of Pascha, rather He who is the absolute truth, Jesus. There can be found no better summary, nor better wording than what He did speak on when He said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” When Pilate asked his question, he did not know that He was speaking to the answer, though I feel that there is many complications around why He said that, especially as He was responding to Thomas asking Him about the things to come, I will however choose to focus on why He referred to Himself as the truth. As I have said above, truth is something we all seek in various aspects of life – things which we can know that Christ has perfected in His life on Earth. Furthermore, we know that in Christ we have life, and that anyone who places themselves in Christ, and allows God to surround them, transformation to their positive form is attained. No matter the value within the absolute bars, it is transformed. Likewise, when Christ envelops any one person, you can be assured that this person, no matter how great or small, will certainly find themselves in the light, no matter how dark they previously were.

Brothers and sisters, the impact of absolute truth is that it is transformative, for the absolute truth is Christ Himself.

Does God Care?

Does God Care?

By Demiana Salib


Does God really care about me – what coronavirus will do to my life? If coronavirus has put my education or career on hold? One answer to this would be no, salvation is what matters and for as long as I get there, it doesn’t matter how I got there. God only cares about my salvation, true? No, and this is the most insulting line of thought we, as humans, have ever conjured.

I have never really understood the parable of the unjust steward (Matthew 6:26-34) but the final message is nice – “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much,” so I’m generally happy to overlook the parable, but nothing our Lord said can be ignorantly overlooked.

Imagine a servant that devoted so much time and effort into the church. Anything that needed to be done, they could do, and in record time, too. But they would go home completely exhausted to the extent that they didn’t have time to pray. They did good, their actions were good, their intentions were good, but they didn’t have a personal relationship with God.

In unusual circumstances, their services began to be taken away from them. They had nothing left. In their distress, they consulted their father of confession;

“Why isn’t He letting me serve, and I know I need to pray, but I was doing good!”

Their father of confession replied, “He’s not letting you serve until you pray. He loves you very much and you need to see that first, spend this time in prayer.”

Could this servant be our modern day unjust steward? If I continually serve but do not pray, am I wasting my Master’s goods? When God asks me to give an account for my stewardship, how will I answer Him? Will it be, “God I spoke to you daily, you were a part of every aspect of my life.” Or will I struggle to even recognise Him?

Jesus spoke this parable to the Pharisees that judged Him for His love for sinners. For they knew the law, they knew how to appear before the people. They thought they could steal the Kingdom in the same way they fooled the people into believing that they were the most righteous of all men. With the recent closure of many churches worldwide, we are faced with a similar reality check. Is my relationship with God based on a fulfillment of commandments and services of the church, or is there more?

Our relationship with God runs so much deeper than set church services and just doing good. Our modern servant did good, but I can’t even guarantee that my outward display comes close to this. I read this parable and get lost at the unjust steward that went to his master’s debtors and told the one that owed 100 measures of oil to give back 50 and to the one that owed 100 measures of wheat to give back 80. This is not good, it’s deceitful and he’s not getting back what his master was owed. Why does the master commend his shrewdness? I feel like he was just digging his own hole deeper out of desperation.

Instead of reading this as an outsider, I need to read it as if I were the unjust steward. My church has been taken away and I need God, so I need to find another way to love and serve Him. For the unjust steward, the thought of his stewardship being taken away from him was the wake-up call he needed to work and act differently because he could not the face the loss. I will do whatever it takes to give back to my God what He is owed. If I can’t spend time with Him in church, I will try to make up for it at home, even if I think it will not measure up.

It is no longer a matter of, “Does God care?” but “God, I need You to care,” and He does; “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26)

If I think that God does not care about me, that is not a reflection of Him, but a reflection of me. While I am caught up in life, He is still caught up in me, if there is any consolation to coronavirus, it is the time it has forced me to spend with my Beloved. The ones that love you are the ones that gets excited by what makes you excited, the ones that are sad when you are sad, the ones that are happy when you are happy. How could you ever question that your loved ones cared about you? God is greater than these! If I go to work, come home – a standard day, but it is all I can offer in conversation, God wants to hear it, He wants to know how my day went, He cares about  all the little things.

Whenever I have thought that God doesn’t care, I can’t recall ever asking Him honestly for His opinion. If my prayers are surrounded on one external factor, He will respond kindly; “My grace is sufficient for you, do not worry.” If it causes sadness, grief, anguish, distress, then He will shift my focus to the eternal. If I want Him just as Saviour from this world that causes me pain, then I won’t see His concern for the little things.

But God starts small, He is faithful in the little, if you want Him as Father, Friend, Biggest Fan, He will be all those things, too. He loves you with an everlasting love and will do anything to have a meaningful relationship with you.

Once we have daily and meaningful conversation with Him, everything is in His Hands without question. And then we can truly say when faced with this larger scale pandemic, “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much.” There may be so many things that are taken away from us, but we will do whatever it takes to keep building our relationship with God and serving those in need. We can’t have big answers to big questions if we don’t start small, start now, even if you feel there is no relationship and you’re starting out of the desperation. He does care and He will continue to work overtime until we see it. To any doubt that God cares about what is happening to our world, He responds,

“Can a woman forget her nursing child,

And not have compassion on the son of her womb?

Surely they may forget,

Yet I will not forget you.

See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands

– Isaiah 49:15-16.

Where are You, Lord?

Where are You, Lord?

by Marcus Mikhail


Where are You, Lord, can’t You see I need You?

Where are You, Lord, I need You to be true.

True to your promises, true to your love,

True to Your blessings and grace from above.

 

Where is the strength that You promised to give,

Or the peace that surpasses all understanding to let me live?

Why can’t I stand up?

Why don’t I have strength to live?

 

Did I forget that with You all things are possible;

Did I forget that all things will work for good for those called to Your purpose?

I feel like my problems are not salvageable,

But really, they are only on the surface.

 

I live a life that is external,

When all the joy in the world resides internal.

In the secret place, You reward me openly

In the secret place, I fall in love with You totally;

So much that I can’t remember the force of the external.

 

Help me, dear Lord, to get up and not forfeit.

This life is tough but I know You will not leave me orphan.

I love you, Lord, I want to trust You with all my being

I need to trust You, but sometimes I can’t believe what I am seeing.

 

I’ll climb every mountain cross every ocean

Until I find You and cease the commotion.

Lord, help my unbelief help me to stay true

Help me to stop questioning, “where are You?”

 

You are always there regardless of the distractions.

You are my Lord, You are my comfort.

Your ways are higher than any worldly attraction,

Help me to trust Your promises so that my life reveals You triumphant.

 

Let me never let you go and always pray,

That you will be my hope and help me through the grey.

You are my shield, my counsellor and guide

You’ve helped me so much, how could I deny?

 

Let me live according to Your will

And help me to remember to be still.

Be still and know that you are God

Be still and know You are my rod

As I feel a sense of relief You have helped me overcome my unbelief.

Whom the Lord Loves, He Chastens

Whom the Lord Loves, He Chastens

by Shery Abdelmalak


“For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.” – Proverbs 3:12 

In Proverbs, we have the image of a loving father and son relationship, the father corrects so that one day his son will be even better than him. But what does this mean to the rest of us, who am I to correct, and how do I receive correction?

When the people went to stone the sinner woman, Jesus stopped them saying, “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone” (John 8:7). As Jesus said this, He was writing on the ground. While it is not mentioned what He was writing, the Church Fathers suggest that He was writing the sins of the people. By extension, if every time I condemn another person for their sin, God remembers my sin then any desire to “vent” or express any ill-feelings quickly disperses.

On the contrary, in Jeremiah, we read, “I shall forgive their error, and their sin I shall remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). How do we gain this forgiveness? By imitation of the One who taught us to love when He first loved us and died on the Cross for our sake (1 John 4:19). Love is what covers a multitude of sin (1 Peter 4:8). When we face sins committed against us, we can choose condemnation or we can choose love. 

In condemnation, we do the same as those that stoned the sinner woman, and we know that in the remembrance of her sins, Christ remembered the sins of those that stoned her. To strive for justice and fairness also means being accountable for my own sins, and the price of sin is death (Romans 6:23). 

More so, I need to consider my own dwelling place that I find refuge in at the end of each day. If I have hardened my heart all day, if I have spent my days defending my own honour and allowing no room for any kind of mistreatment, how can I soften my heart in prayer to the One that is Love?

If I learn to take the sins of others to the Cross, I soften my heart and prepare it as the dwelling place of the King. I can spend my days in prayer for those that have hurt me. I can see a glimpse of the love Christ has for me because I know that no matter what anyone does to me, I have done worse to my Beloved. I can be a part of God’s handiwork. Is that not exactly what God wanted for us? “As I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34).

When it comes to correction in love, it is only for the benefit of the other person. These are not irrational or emotion-filled words. When Nathan corrected David, it was the wake-up call that created the repentance of Psalm 51. He told him a story of a rich man that stole from a poor man all he had. He knew that this would arouse goodness within David for he knew David and he loved him (2 Sam 12:1-15). Correction cannot be separated from love, nor can it be effectively executed if ill-feelings are present. 

When I look at how God deals with me, He doesn’t give me all the answers when I ask for them. When I am at the depths of despair, He shows me His love. He doesn’t tell me the mistakes I made that caused the turmoil I find myself in. So why do I attempt to correct His children? God has made me, fearfully and wonderfully, He has plans for me. Every sin, every weakness, every doubt in my mind, He is going to heal. We’re not meant to fake it, we’re meant to take it all to the throne of grace. St Peter says to take all your cares to Him, for He cares for you. Do I know Him enough to be giving myself life advice, let alone other people? Sometimes I can feel the love of God so strongly in my life, I feel safe, I feel secure, but even then, it is just a glimpse – a shadow – of His limitless love. 

How can I make a judgement on another when my knowledge is limited? What I know about life is based on what God knows I can handle and what is relevant to me. He is giving the same grace to those around me. It’s not my job to teach them lessons He so carefully taught me. To be a friend of God is to support others along their journey. Recognise that I don’t have all the answers. I use what He has given me. I have strengths, but I don’t disregard my weaknesses. When someone comes to me in weakness, I don’t act high and mighty, I approach them with lowliness. I make sure that they don’t feel small when they’re in my presence. I don’t tell them my heroic stories. If I’m going to tell them anything, it is that what they’re feeling, I felt too. If they’re feeling weak, so am I, and I understand that it is in weakness my need for a Saviour becomes apparent.

Christ taught us to love beyond limit. He taught us that greater love has no limits than to lay down one’s life for his friends. He didn’t tell me to play Dr. Phil, He just told me to love, and love will cause the change. He didn’t tell me to lecture people into taking my superior life advice on board. Support your friends, pray for them, see a fault in them and pray all the more. 

At a time when Noah was at his lowest, he was drunk and naked and his sons laughed at his shame, but he also had sons that covered his nakedness. Every time you see a fault in a person, you have the choice to cover them or to shame them. Be the one that covers their shame. It is a gift when God reveals the weaknesses of another to you, because it is in that moment that He is inviting you to share in the salvation of another. When we see the sins of others and pray for them, we partake in God’s ultimate plan for their life to grant them salvation. 

I can’t forget how patiently God deals with me, He reveals glimpses of His love when I am down. When I have sinned and the repercussions are beyond me, He shields me from the damage my own sins have caused. The remembrance of my sins and the greatness of my God are what grant peace to the troubled heart.

Perpetual quietness of heart is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore; to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I blamed and despised, it is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret and be at peace, as in a sea of calmness, when all around and about is seeming trouble.

– Andrew Murray

 

Perhaps it is perpetual quietness of heart that causes change in another, more than our words of correction ever could. More so, that same spirit of peace is the prerequisite for turning any condemnation into helpful correction as we strive toward the ultimate goal of eternity with the One who is Love.

From Theology, with love: Eponymous

From Theology, with love: Eponymous

by Tom Seodyu


My thanks to A,

with ornery irony,

you above others are responsible

for my most mature spiritual ideas

and incendiary hopes for this life.

You’ve asked me why I even bother with this (and you).

And again, I have repeated the only real answer I can give –

it’s because you have a beautiful soul, and are a misunderstood sort.

I understand why you hate this answer. Even more so because you don’t believe I am being sincere:

‘I’m just another person he has decided to be nice to today.’

‘He’s only listening to me because he’s naïve for the church and rituals.’

That you’ve mistaken me for a liar makes it hard for me not to feel hurt. But I know why you would think that way – that I’m some “Sunday school agent” here to pretend that he cares long enough to return you to “the quack priests who cannot give [you] a straight answer”, who are totally worthless and despicable to you. You’ve even asked before, “if you really understand how incompetent our church is, why don’t you speak up about it?” Because I learned long ago that this earthly body of Christ does not need any more ‘fixing’ by way of noise, and recommendations, and complaints (especially Facebook rants). Rather, it needs Christ; examples of His love, and a serious personal start – and perhaps, if I myself cannot succeed in setting this example, and inspire change through that love, then I am another mouthy critic. Though I am too ironic, and sarcastic to be that example…

I know that you are a sweet person (since you care so much about those who are nice to you and the suffering of innocents,) which begs the first question you asked. What is all this for? Because of all the commandments you had to stomach being raised here; of all the beliefs that we possess, the one that you feel most betrayed by; is the commandment to love our neighbour.

“If it’s real then why is it, when we try to love our neighbour, we act more out of pressure than genuine love?”

Perhaps it’s our poor understanding of Gospels and the story of the Good Samaritan:

A man left beaten and half-dead, ignored by the priest and the Levite but rescued by the Samaritan; bandaged with oil and wine, and taken into an inn in care and mercy. We were told growing up that the Samaritan was the enemy, but because he loved his ‘neighbour’ he overcame this and we are called to become like him and treat everyone like our neighbours with our love. But even atheists can ‘become the Good Samaritan’, loving their neighbor; like we were taught.

But no church father has ever understood the parable like this…

For them, we do not play the role of the Samaritan, but rather the dying man on the road.

Chrysostom wrote:

“Here then was man (that is Adam) lying destitute of the aid of salvation, pierced with the wounds of his sins, whom neither Aaron the high priest passing by could advantage by his sacrifice […] Nor again could his brother Moses [the Levite] assist him by the Law […] Naked and afraid we lie. Until the Good Samaritan – who is Christ – rescues us. He poured in wine, that is, the blood of his passion, and oil, that is, the anointing of the chrism, that pardon might be granted by His blood, sanctification be conferred by the chrism. The wounded parts are bound up by the heavenly physician, and containing a salve within themselves, are by the working of the remedy restored to their former soundness […]”

Since it was Him who first showed us great love through His Incarnation, all humanity is called to love to the end, without exception.

Augustine wrote:

“He shows mercy to us because of His goodness, while we show mercy to one another because of God’s goodness. He has compassion on us so that we may enjoy Him completely, while we have compassion on another that we may completely enjoy Him.”

If we tried to love everyone from our own power, without remembering – and deferring first and foremost to the lover of mankind – how could we not become practitioners of guilt and slide inevitably into hypocrisy and sin in exhaustion? Likewise, if the atheist has no one who loves them and can return to to be refreshed, how can they prevent despair and not abandon their righteous instincts?

Ambrose said:

“Since no one is closer than He who tended to our wounds, let us love Him as our Lord, and let us love Him as our neighbour. Nothing is so close as the head to the members.”

You may despair about your upbringing and your surroundings, but always remember Him, for He is blameless in His love for you. You may not accept this parable, or even believe that this love is a real contending force on this miserable earth. But I see evidence of a girl, who (though, all her life is one long disaster) races eagerly to feel embraced. Her head leaning into the other, cradling into the warm tenderness available for her. Held in the envelopment, she  experiences in those moments the idea that she has found a home that reciprocates her – and she thinks, for a single moment, for one absurd second, that it may really be possible that God had sowed this friend into her life.

This leads me to your second question…

Even if, in the end, you still cannot find meaning, or purpose, or drive in your life remember that you and I who are so young have very limited right to nostalgia. You need only to learn what Life is.

Smile sweetly to strangers on your walks.

Learn humility from nature.

Listen to music that makes you want to sing and look ridiculous!

Laugh and be full of good humor.

And young woman,

do not forget to pray.

And with that,

I want you to know that I meant it when I said I loved you.

Christ be with you always.

Walking by Faith

Walking by Faith: A Contemplation on the Man Born Blind

Transcribed sermon by Marc Bastawrous 


Passage: John 9:1-38

When we read the story of the man born blind, we notice that Christ does something unusual compared to His other miracles. He puts the healing in the hands of the healed. He doesn’t immediately restore his sight, but asks the man born blind to go and wash in the pool of Siloam.

What is noteworthy in Christ’s words is that at no point did He say, “wash and you will be healed.” There were no guarantees made. In this moment, Christ had picked up some mud, threw it in the man’s face and told him to walk through the town, past all the townspeople, to wash his face for no suspected purpose except to get the mud off his face. The pool was outside the walls of the old city of Jerusalem, approximately 2 km away from where the temple was thought to be. It would take the average person 15 minutes to walk this distance, not to mention he had to navigate through the city without being able to see where he was going.

How would you feel if you were the blind man in this situation? You had sat at the temple for most of your life, you were ignored by the people, you were judged sinner by those that didn’t know you. But then, you hear a Man. You hear a Man say to His disciples, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5). What does this mean? Who is this Man, and could He be the One that you have waited your entire life to hear? This quite possibly could’ve sparked a small glimmer of hope that he would be just like everyone else, that there was hope that he would be able to see.

Alternatively, he could have been at a point where he had lost hope entirely. He had lived his entire life sitting outside the temple, being ignore and judge by the most religious people. At the words of Christ, he could’ve thought to himself, “please don’t. Don’t give me false. Just leave some money and be on your way.”

Still, Jesus draws near to him. To which the blind man may still be wondering if He would mock him. Jesus comes to him and spits on the ground before him. At this point, his heart would have sunk – another mocker. He could’ve been at his lowest and thought, “Ideserve this. I deserve to be shamed. But just leave me alone.”

Jesus takes one step closer and picks up the mud and anoints his eyes. Imagine the heartache he would’ve felt. He would’ve felt like Christ was making fun of him. In case people didn’t realise he didn’t have eyes, he now had mud where his eyes should be.

After all this, our Lord makes a request. “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (John 9:7). I can only imagine what I would have done in this man’s shoes. A beggar that had endured abuse, humiliation and was then told to walk a considerate distance with mud on his face so he could wash with no indication as to what would happen after he washed. It makes sense in hindsight that he would wash and receive his sight, but in the moment, he had no idea.

Something compelled him to walk through the crowds and get out of the city. All logic would have told him to stay where he was and avoid further humiliation. This man thought, “even if I can’t see, I will walk.” He probably tripped a few times along the way but he continued, for he had a goal. You can imagine as he bumped into the crowds, there would have been people that yelled abuse and told him to watch where he was going, yet he continued. He blocked out the noise of the world and remained on the path the Lord had paved. He could’ve stayed at the temple where he was comfortable. But where there is no risk, there is little reward, and had the man born blind man not chosen to take the risk, his story would not have been remembered for generations to come. Despite how the people saw him, there was something in him that knew he wasn’t the product of his parents’ sin; he was fearfully and wonderfully made and the glory of God was about to be revealed in him.

When he finally arrived to Siloam, he would have been tired, bruised even. Logic would tell him that washing his face would only get the mud off. Yet he washed and hoped. In our own lives, there are oftentimes that we cannot see, but we strive to imitate the man born blind, to wash and hope. When we cannot see, logic tells us to grumble, complain and become frustrated. We lose sight of the fact that God is in complete control.

In despair, we say to our Creator;

“Why are you letting me suffer? Why are you putting me through all this pain and anguish and hurt? Why couldn’t you just leave me where I was comfortable?”

I don’t always need to see the road ahead because the One I walk is the Creator of all. The story of Job explains this same concept in the most profound way. Job went through tribulation, unlike anyone has ever seen. He lost his children, his livestock, his wealth and his servants and was left with nothing. Through his suffering, he never cursed God. After 38 chapters of agony, he finally questions God and why He would allow him to suffer and why He would allow his closest friends to think that God was punishing him. God finally responds, but He doesn’t answer Job’s questions but instead asks some of His own.

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”(Job 38:4)

Had Job not been through enough? Is God not meant to heal him at this point, alleviate all his pains? But it was through God’s rebuke that Job was able to say, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You” (Job 42:5).

Job had heard of God’s comfort before, but it was through his deepest despair that he felt God and he could see that He was sufficient for all his needs. This is what sustains us during times of suffering and it is through our suffering that we are given revelation of God, for it is enough to see Him.

“For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). To truly exemplify this verse, we cannot look past the man born blind as he stumbled to the pool, being led by faith alone. We can only pray that on our own spiritual journeys, we can continue to walk, even when we cannot see. No matter the tribulation, we keep walking along the path, knowing that God is our eyes. If we hold on to our faith, no tribulation can take it away. This is our strength in all difficulties alike.

Faith is the one thing we can hold on to in this life. No matter what happens in my life, no matter what is taken away from me, if I walk by faith, nothing can harm me. All of it can be used as a catalyst to strengthen my faith. When I stop doubting and remember that my resting place is in the palms of the hands of the Maker of Heaven and Earth, nothing in this world can move me. Even though we cannot see, we are called to walk by faith and look for the glory of God at each new day.

Love by the Foot

Love by the Foot

by Michael Tadros


An ominous darkness is ushered in when the doctor comes back with the latest MRI results. After weeks of testing, the results all point to cancer that will not stop spreading. Yesterday the pancreas, today the liver, tomorrow the lungs. She gathers your mother and loved ones around the hospital bed and informs you it is time to start contemplating your end-of-life plans. She stumbles to say the words: “…a few days, maybe a week.”

What would that patient do in that situation? In the 1980s, psychologists at Skidmore College sought to discover how individuals would behave when given a fictional day and time of their death. In over 1,000 experiments, researchers found that people tended to cling harder to their cultural beliefs by boosting their sense of self-worth. Those individuals, with a hypothetical date and time of death in mind, tended to treat others more contemptuously and violently while caring to fulfil their own desires through nihilistic practices. They gravitated towards drinking, smoking, shopping, and eating in excess, while pushing other people away—sometimes, even their loved ones. The psychologists called this behaviour Terror Management Theory; death anxiety drives people to adopt a defensive mindset and behaviour that protects their own self-esteem.

Essentially most individuals, when armed with the knowledge that their time is limited, will want to conclude their time focusing on themselves and their “happiness.” What would you do after knowing your time on this earth is ending? Generally, no one knows when their final breath will be. Sure, as intellectuals we know the moment is coming, but not precisely when. Christ knew. He knew the exact moment He would be hanging on the Cross and committing His Spirit into the hands of the Father.

Knowing that, then, what did He do before He “breathed His last?” (Mark 15:37). Like a lamb, “He opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). In front of the scourging and the shame of spitting, “He gave no answer” (Matthew 27:12). Not only did He deny Himself, He took it one step further—the opposite of what individuals normally do in their final hours—He loved. He forgave (Luke 23:24). He took care of His mother and His disciple (John 12:26). He comforted His children who were in tears (Luke 23:28). He was a peacemaker between two kings previously at enmity with each other (Luke 23:12). He healed the ear of one who came to capture Him (Luke 22:51). He even “instituted for us a great mystery” which is, “the partaking of His flesh in bread and wine” (Liturgy of St. Basil the Great).

But He did not stop there. With less than 24 hours remaining in the flesh, Christ washed feet (Liturgy of St Gregory). Why would He, who has the heavens as His throne and the earth as His footstool (Isaiah 66:1), stoop so low in His final moments? The Church teaches us that after washing and drying their feet, He gave His disciples “the ordinance of love and humility, and the remembrance of [His] love for mankind.” (Liturgy of the Waters for Covenant Thursday)

It was a lesson never witnessed before! The Master explained to them “if I then, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example” (John 13:14-15). By becoming a servant, the Master set a standard for His servants on how to love each other. Not a superficial love centered on the self, but a love that befits how the Master loves us—wholeheartedly, even to the point of death.

Should I not be humbled in front of Him who suffered on my behalf and reciprocate that same love towards my brothers? Rather than being grounded in egotistical practices, I ought to love because He first loved me. Rather than boosting my own self-interest, I ought to wash my brother’s feet because He first accepted to wash mine. As Abba Shenouda the Archimandrite teaches, “We ought to fear Him who poured the water in a bowl and washed the feet of His disciples with His impeccable hands. Let us present Him with good deeds that deserve this great modesty which He carried out for our sake.” (Homily by St. Shenouda the Archimandrite on Covenant Thursday)

The only gesture I can present to Him that is deserving of His great modesty is my love towards my neighbour; a true and faultless love that is completed when I bend down and show my brother the love Christ showed me.

Regardless of whether it is my last few days on earth or I have a lifetime to go, in the realities of my day-to-day life, my Christ-washed feet must be a mirror of the love He first showed me, as “the One who created the world never stops loving His creation, even when that creation does not return His love” (P. Meyendrof, 2019).

Now that I am washed by Christ, my feet are no longer mine, but rather they are “feet that preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:15). Instead of pouring water into a bowl, I should be pouring good deeds of love towards my neighbor, as St. John Chrysostom said, “your Master loved those who hated Him…emulate Him” (St John Chrysostom). I can imitate Christ by making every encounter with my neighbour an encounter with their Master as “theology is most convincing, palpable, and best told in the lives of those who lived theology in the truest sense of that word, as an encounter with God” (Fr Daniel Fanous, 2019) When God encountered me, He loved me by washing my feet, likewise, my encounter with you must also be of love, one foot at a time.

Lord Teach Us to Pray Part 3

Lord, Teach Us To Pray 

Part 3

by Andrew Boutros 


We talked about the meaning of prayer and how to pray, so now I’d like to focus on enjoying prayer. We mentioned before that prayer is heart to heart conversation between you & God which requires examining the condition of our hearts and setting intentions and then in all simplicity ask God to teach us how to pray.

Fr. Goettmann, an Orthodox priest, said in his book ‘The Spiritual wisdom and practices of early Christianity’: “We first ‘do’ exercise then we become exercise; we say prayers, but we must eventually become prayer. We go to liturgy but our whole being is called to become liturgical and daily life is meant to be a celebration.” This is the depth that Christ desires for us to experience. This is the life that Christ wants us to live. Christ doesn’t want us to be just performers as we are in so many aspects in our lives instead, He desires that we experience HIM in our day to day routine until He becomes the center of our lives. Christ’s aim is that we don’t just ‘do’ spiritual exercise or ‘pray’ few prayers or ‘go’ to liturgical services but that we become one with Him through all these means that He left us.

In John chapter 17, Christ was praying for His father for this unity to happen, He said“ I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us.”

The Church fathers in their wisdom have arranged so many prayers for us and left us with treasures to teach us how to take the first steps in our spiritual lives and how to go deeper with Christ. The first day in school is always tough, the first day at a new job is always weird, the first day in any new journey isn’t always comfortable but we take it anyway. So, the Church fathers teach us saying, “Sometime you must take the first uncertain steps if you wish at all to draw near to God. Don’t be anxious about your clumsy beginning; don’t yield to shyness and uncertainty, and the mocking laugher of enemies who try to persuade you that you are behaving ridiculously & that the whole thing is only a child of fantasy and meaningless.” Just pray for strength, get the guidance you need from your spiritual guide and father of confession and take that step. Don’t lend your ear to the devil trying to put you down.

Father Seraphim El Baramousy said “Those who take the first step toward a life with God, wearing the garment of repentance, must be diligent to hasten their repentance whenever they fall, and not give heed to the murmurings of the devil who wants to make them indulge in sin.” By the way no one is expecting you to go from 0 to 100 in a day or a week or a month in your prayer life because our church teaches us to do everything with moderation. Even when Christ was with his disciples for 3 years, they couldn’t attain the highest merits in their spiritual lives. We saw some of the disciples fall asleep multiple times in the garden of Gethsemane when Christ instructed them not to. I’m only mentioning this so you can have reasonable expectations and logical steps to consider when you are building your prayer life in accordance to the guidance you take from your father of confession.

Your father of confessions is a crucial tool in guiding along the path of spiritual growth through prayer. St. Nikon of Optina explains the role of the spiritual guide saying “The spiritual father only shows the way, like a signpost, but we have to traverse it ourselves. If the spiritual father shows the way and the disciple doesn’t move himself, then he won’t get anywhere and will rot near the signpost.” Build trust with your father of confession and spiritual guide so you can share with him/her what’s on your heart and he/she are able to navigate you wisely in your spiritual life so you can achieve unity with Christ.

Finally, “prayer by its nature is communion and union of man with God” as St. Ignatius Brianchaninov said and this is what you & I should be aiming for.