Lesson from a tree..................... By Fr. Shenouda Doss - St. Mary's church Ottawa
Ask and it will be given to you.
A candle of love: Enjoying the Cross.
How to acquire the virtue of humbleness?............................By Fr. Youhanna Nassif
The church history: Return to the back.
Father Shenouda Doss
St. Mary's church. Ottawa.
My beloved in Jesus Christ, the young readers of THE SHEPHERD'S VOICE, peace, grace and
true love.
I miss you so much, five years ago I came to Ottawa, the capital of Canada, to serve in St. Mary's
church. I still read the magazine regularly, and I thank my beloved who send it to me every month.
But I wanted to write so I could feel close to you, and in the same time give you an idea about the
life and service in Canada.
This time I am going to tell you about a useful lesson we learn from nature. Canada is characterized
by its plentiful water sources which is mainly from the snow and rain. There are also lots of rivers
and streams, so we find that there is lots of green areas on every street and in front of every house.
In the months of September and October every year, we see that the green leaves become
beautifully colored with glorious yellow, red and even purple. Do you know why?
Because in autumn the leaves start falling in great numbers, and as it realizes its near end, the leaves
gives back the tree its chlorophyll so that it would give it to the new leaves that will grow again in
spring.
Think with me my friends, in the time the tree gives its green substance, it takes an even more beautiful colors.
These leaves teach us a lesson in giving. This is the most beautiful image by which we can appear in front of God, when we give the others with joy and gladness.
Till we meet again, God bless you, pray for me.
If you enter the church (a Coptic church) at any time, you will always find that the first row is full!! Yes, the Iconostasis (The front wall) is full of icons showing saints living with us, sharing our prayers and meetings. They face us to give us an example of purity and victory.
* The icons and honoring the saints:
My friend, when we talk about the icons in the church, we would like to stress the point that we don't worship the icons, but we honor whom it symbolizes, whether a heavenly creature, a martyr or a saint. As Jesus Christ said: “If any one serves me the Father will honor him” .So if the heavenly Father honors His saints shouldn't we honor them as their children!
* Icons in the old testament:
The use of icons dates back to the old testament when the image of the cherub was displayed on the screen of the Tabernacle (1Kings 6).
* Consecration of icons:
The icons that adorn the church are consecrated with the same Chrism which is used in baptism. Thus the icon upon accepting the Holy Spirit, is qualified to receive incensing, be kissed or accorded any other form of veneration.
* Icons in houses:
As for the pictures we keep in our homes or wallets, they show our love and respect for our heavenly friends and intercessors. We also keep it as a blessing but we never worship it.
As for the Cross and the image of Christ on it, we do as St. Paul said : “Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified”. Gal 3:1.
Q: Where does the human soul go after death? Does it stay in the tomb? Or does it vanish till Judgment day? |
Answer: The soul of a righteous man goes to "Paradise" as a waiting place until the Judgment day, after which it goes to the "Kingdom of God", the heavenly Jerusalem.
The soul of a wicked man goes to "Hades" as a waiting place until the Judgment day, after which it goes to "hell".
N.B.
+ Paradise is a joyful place where as Hades is a sorrowful place.
+ Revise the story of the rich man and Lazarus in (Lk 16) and the criminal crucified with Jesus Lk
23:43.
+ Everyone will be judged according to his deeds (1Cor 3), and a star differs from a star in
splendor. (1Cor 15:41)
Q: Why do the (Coptic) clergymen wear black? |
Answer: During the persecution of Christians in the middle ages, in Egypt, there were laws requiring all Christians to wear black..afterwards it seems that the clergymen kept wearing black.
This color was agreed upon among all the Orthodox churches.
Q: Where was Joseph the carpenter during crucifixion and resurrection? |
Answer: The church history tells us that St. Joseph died when Jesus was sixteen years old.
A church servant told me this story about Fr. PISHOY KAMEL. It took place in 1978, the year during which he was seriously ill, just before his death:
The boy-scout team held a celebration for the boys, and the person in charge asked Fr. Pishoy to
come and bless the children. This was hard for Fr. Pishoy due to his ill-health and inability to do
much effort. So all the servants were very surprised to find Fr. Pishoy in church at the appointed
time of the ceremony and the children were very happy because he came.
Fr. Pishoy went on greeting the children one after the other, until he was sweating and could not
stand any more. In spite of all that he endured the pain happily and cheerfully, with a smile on
his face until he finished blessing all the children.
Dear friend, it is true that we saw in Fr. Pishoy the real image of the cross, where we see that it is not just the pain we endure, but to endure this pain with happiness. Doing this we show our love to God as Fr. Pishoy did.
"But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed". (1Pet 4:13)
The humble person is a beautiful image of Christ, and the Holy Spirit rests in him. The evil one can't defeat him, but he easily escapes from his traps.
Let's now discuss some practical points in order to acquire the virtue of humbleness.
1 - OBEDIENCE: This is the main entrance to humbleness. This is because in obedience one gives up his own will for the sake of fulfilling others' will. This is called self -denial, which in turn leads to humbleness.
Our fathers the saints told us that it is more important to be obedient rather than ascetic. This is because obedience leads to humbleness where as being ascetic may lead to arrogance.
Obedience doesn't mean that you only obey your father and mother and our elders, but it mainly means obeying God's commandments, and accepting His management of our lives thankfully "We must obey God rather than men". (Acts 5:29)
2 - ENDURING MALTREATMENT: Sometimes we face offenses, if accepted without returning evil, God looks upon our effort and gives us the virtue of humbleness.
Grief and contempt are like a medicine that God uses to treat arrogance. If anyone said something bad about you, don't turn on him, but rejoice and thank God. Of course all this reacquires great strength which God provides when you ask Him in prayers.
3 - THE SECRET LIFE: is one of the wonderful spiritual practices. Your charity should be done secretly, only God should know about it.
"Every charity act shall not be accepted unless it is done in secret" St. Isaac the Syrian.
This means that we ask to please God, not people, since asking for peoples compliments deprives us from the heavenly reward. That is why Lord Jesus asked us to pray, give and fast in secret, so that only our heavenly Father will see us and reward us.
My beloved father Jesus Christ,
I worship your glory and praise your holy name, I long to see you, there is a wish to sit in your lap
and hear your voice.
In the beginning I would like to thank you for all you gave me.. Every day you give me before I ask,
whenever I sit and contemplate your gifts my heart overflows with thanks.
I also thank you for the messages you send me every day in the Holy Bible, whenever I miss you I open it to hear your encouraging words.
As for me, you know that I was born in a foreign land, and yearn for my heavenly home..
My father and mother and some of those who love you, have told me about my true home.
Sometimes I imagine myself with you in heaven and how I will be full of joy in your
presence. But then I return back to face reality and find myself still a sojourner, When will all this
end? My soul thirsts for you as a dry and weary land.
Lord Jesus,
Don't be angry with me because of my greediness and covetousness you know how weak I am, so please help me.
By the way, there is some evil one who persecutes me without any mercy.. But then I came to know that he really means You. He tries to make me doubt you and your care for me. Even your last gift to me, he tried to erase your name and put luck's instead. But when I opened your letters I was assured that You are the Almighty, the source of all good.
In another trick of his' when I want to meet you in prayer, he tries to distract my mind so that I won't be able to hear you, but I trust that you know what I want to say even before I do, and that you can destroy him with a breath of your mouth.
In the end, please give my wishes to all those who are with you, and a special greeting to my mother St. Mary.
As you know Lord Jesus, that my journey will sooner or later come to an end, and then I won't need any letters because I will see you face to face.
Come, Lord Jesus.
When I was young, I used to sit beside my grandfather while he told me some nice stories about the church history from a book
he used to read. As I grew older and became a young man I used to imagine being able to return back and live in the past, I sat imagining but the dream became a reality.
The sun was about to set and all was quiet around us, the people had gone to celebrate the feast of the god serabis. There was no one except us, me and St. Mark, and we started talking.
I said: I know that you left Alexandria and went westwards then after two years you went to Rome as the wish of St. Paul, in the end, you came back to establish the first church in Bokalia, would you please tell me about this journey?
He answered: "As you wish. When Peter left Egypt, I came back to Alexandria to find that the pagan priests were angry because the number of believers had grown, we had long discussions in which we had the upper hand, which made them even more angry, and started conspiring against me.
I ordained Anianos a bishop, along with three priests and seven deacons. I then went to the countries west of Egypt, and spent two years witnessing and ordaining priests.
At this time Paul asked me to go to him in Rome, during his first imprisonment. I spent some time managing the church in Rome according to Paul's wish then went to Ephesus to visit Timothy, my friend. When Paul knew about this he sent to Timothy his second letter saying: "Get Mark and bring him with you; for he is very useful in serving me". So we both went to Rome, and didn't leave until after the martyrdom of both the apostles Peter and Paul around the years 65-68 AD.
I then returned back to Alexandria for the second time and established the church in Bokalia. I also founded the Divinity school and appointed Yostos as its head."
After finishing his story St. Mark invited me to go to the church with him to celebrate the Easter mass, I gladly accepted his invitation.
During the Mass, the pagans attacked the church and arrested St. Mark while he was praying, they tied him with ropes and began dragging him along the roads. His bones were broken and his flesh severed, they then threw him in jail. During that night Christ himself appeared to him to encourage him.
On the next morning the pagans repeated their savage act, St. Mark kept praising the Lord and thanking him until finally his head was separated from his body, and his soul flew to paradise on the 30th of Baramoda, the 27th of April 68AD.
The pagans wanted to burn his body and lit a big fire, but heaven interrupted them, so it rained heavily and the water extinguished the fire. Some Christians came and took the body and buried it in the church with great homage.