Alpha and Omega

10/29/2023

“God’s warnings are also unseen things🚫.
Noah believed the Lord when He said that He will flood the whole world even though floods were unknown to Noah ⛈.
No flood had ever happened before in his days or the days of his ancestors. However, he believed that this which never happened before, would happen.
He laboured to complete the ark 💪🏼, enduring the mockery from others, these were years of faith.

Noah heeded to the warning of God, and was therefore considered a man of faith.
Through faith he had seen the flood before it happened.
Through faith, he entered the ark with his wife, his sons and his son’s wives.
Our teacher Saint Paul teaches us,
“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household “ (Heb. 11:7).
The others, who did not heed God’s warning, and had no faith in God’s truth were destroyed.”

Life of Faith
Pope Shenouda III

10/29/2023

Jonah, Being In The Whale's Stomach 🐳, Did Not Lose Faith And Peace.
He even prayed to the Lord when he was in the whale's stomach 🙏🏼, a prayer full of faith, and he said in confidence “I will look again toward Your holy temple.” (Jon. 2:4).
He made the Lord a vow and said “With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord” (Jon. 2:9).

Even from inside the whale, he saw the Lord's salvation, getting out of the whale, the holy temple and his sacrifice to the Lord and the fulfilling of his vows.
It is faith the source of all peace and ease, no fear in it and no trouble.

Pope Shenouda III
Life of Faith

10/29/2023

St Paul urges us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “Pray without ceasing”.
In the book On God and Christ, St Gregory the Theologian teaches us the following :
“It is more important that we should remember God than that we should breathe: indeed, if one may say so, we should do nothing else besides.”
Therefore, prayer is not meant to be a tool of preference to be used only when needed. Prayer is a spiritual necessity, just as breathing is a biological one.
So how can we remember God all day and pray without ceasing?
For beginners, a simple recitation of the Arrow Prayer (AKA “Jesus Prayer” or the “Prayer of the Heart”) can unlock your spiritual senses, and align your heart and mind towards God.
The arrow prayer is as follows:
“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.”
Repeating this prayer all day long bears a lot of fruits, and its roots are also in the Old Testament, for David, the prophet, said:
“O, how I love Your Name; it is my meditation all the day” (Ps.119:97).
Prayer is an act of love; therefore, love and pray always!

10/29/2023

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Matthew 7:13-14

10/29/2023

“Tell me, O you whom I love,
Where you feed your flock,
Where you make it rest at noon.
For why should I be as one who veils herself
By the flocks of your companions?”

Song of Solomon 1:7

10/29/2023