Saint Abanoub Coptic Orthodox Church - Springfield, VA

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Saint Mary & Saint Abanoub Coptic Orthodox Church in Springfield Virginia.

10/30/2026

The Twentieth Day of the Blessed Month of Babah

Departure of the Great Saint Abba John the Short

On this day was the departure of the great light and saint, the heguman Abba John (Yoannis) the Short. He was a native of Betsa in upper Egypt and he had one brother. His parents were righteous and God-fearing people, rich in faith and good deeds. When he was 8 years old, his heart turned away from the futility of this world, its lusts and its glory, and he desired the monastic life. The grace of God moved him to go to the desert of Scete and there he came upon a tried and holy man whose name was Abba Pemwah from El-Bahnasa. John asked Abba Pemwah to allow him to stay with him. The old man answered, trying him, "My son, you cannot stay with us for this is a very hard desert and those who dwell in it eat from the work of their hands, besides observing many fasts, prayers, and sleeping on the floor and many other forms of asceticism. Go back to the world and live in the fear of God." Abba John told him, "Do not send me away, for God's sake, because I came to be in your obedience and prayers. If you accept me, I believe that God will make your heart well-pleased with me." Abba Pemwah was in the habit of not doing anything hastily. He asked the Lord Christ to reveal to him the matter of this young man. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, "Accept him, for he shall become a chosen vessel." Abba Pemwah brought him and he shaved the hair of his head. He laid out the garb of the monk, and he prayed over it for three days and three nights and when he put the garb on him, he saw an angel making the sign of the Cross over it. Saint John started his monastic life with great asceticism and splendid works. One day Abba Pemwah wanted to test him, so he expelled him from his cell saying, "I cannot live with you." Abba John stayed out by the door of his cell for seven days. Every day Abba Pemwah went out and smote him with a palm branch and Abba John bowed down before him saying, "I have sinned." On the seventh day, the old man went out to go to the church and he saw seven angels with seven crowns placing them on the head of Abba John. Since that day, he was held by him in honor and reverence.

One day Abba Pemwah found a piece of dry wood and gave it to Abba John and said to him, "Take this wood, plant and water it." St. John obeyed and went on watering it twice a day even though the water was about 12 miles from where they lived. After three years, that piece of wood sprouted and grew into a fruitful tree. Abba Pemwah took some of that fruit and went around to all the elder monks saying, "Take, eat from the fruit of obedience." This tree still exists in its place in his monastery. Abba Pemwah fell sick for 12 years and Abba John ministered unto him all this time during which he never heard from his teacher that he fell short in his service. Abba Pemwah was an experienced old man who had been tried much, and sickness had emaciated him until he became like a piece of dry wood, so that he would be a chosen offering. When Abba Pemwah was about to die, he gathered together the elder monks and he held the hand of Abba John and gave him to them saying, "Take him and keep him, for he is an angel, not a man." He commanded Abba John to stay in the place where he had planted the tree. After that Abba John's older brother came to the monastery and was ordained a monk with him. He also became an honorable monk. It happened when the father the Patriarch Abba Theophilus was ordaining Abba John hegumen and abbot over his church, and as he placed his hand over his head, a voice from heaven was heard by the people present saying, "Axios, Axios, Axios (That is to say he is worthy)." When this saint consecrated the offering, he was able to know those who were worthy to partake of it and those who were not worthy. Abba Theophilus the Patriarch built a church for the Three Young Men in Alexandria, and he wished to bring their bodies and place them in it. He brought Abba John and asked him to travel to Babylon, and to bring the holy bodies. After much forebearing, Abba John accepted to go on this mission. When he left the Patriarch, a cloud carried him away to Babylon. He entered the city and saw its monuments, rivers, and palaces and found the bodies of the saints. When he started moving them from their place, a voice came out from the holy bodies and said to him, "This is the Will of God that we do not leave this place until the day of the Resurrection. Nevertheless, because of the love of Abba Theophilus the Patriarch, and your labor, too, you should inform the Patriarch to gather the people in the church and to put oil in the lamps without lighting them and we will appear in the church and a sign will be made manifest to you." Then Abba John left and went back to Alexandria and told the Patriarch what the saints had said. It happened when the Patriarch and the people were in the church, the lamps were lit up suddenly and they all glorified the Lord.

One day, a monk came into the cell of Abba John. He found him lying down with angels waving their wings over him. Later on, the Berbers attacked the desert of Scete and he left it. When he was asked why he left, he replied that he did not leave because he was afraid of death, but because he feared a Berber would slay him and go to hell, for though he is against his worship, he is his brother in form. Then he went to the mountain of Abba Anthony on the Red Sea. There he dwelt by the side of a village and God sent him a believer who served him. When the Lord wished to grant him rest and to end his strife in this world, He sent him His two righteous saints Abba Macarius and Abba Anthony to comfort him and to inform him about his departure. On the eve of Sunday, he fell sick and sent his attendant to bring him something from the village. The angels and the host of saints came and received his pure soul and took it up to heaven. At that time, his servant came back and saw the soul of the saint surrounded by the host of saints and angels singing before them. Before them all, there was one shining like the sun and singing. The servant marveled at this magnificent sight. An angel came to him and told him the name of each one of the saints. Then the servant asked the angel, "Who is this one in front of them all, who is shining like the sun?" The angel replied, "This is Abba Anthony, the father of all the monks." When the servant went into the cell, he found the body of the saint kneeling to the ground, as he had given up his soul while kneeling. The attendant wept sorrowfully over him and went in a hurry to the people of the village and told them what had happened. They came and carried his holy body with great honor. When they brought him into the village, great wonders and miracles were performed through his body.

May his prayers and blessings be with us all, and Glory be to God forever. Amen.

10/30/2026

🦅 النسر والخنزير

الصراع الذي في داخلنا

يمكننا أن نشبّه الصراع الروحي الذي يعيشه كل مؤمن بقصة نسرٍ وخنزيرٍ رُبطا معًا بحبل واحد.

كان النسر مخلوقًا ليحلّق عاليًا في السماء، بينما كان الخنزير يجد سعادته في التمرّغ في الوحل والطين.

وكان كلٌّ منهما يشدّ الآخر في اتجاه معاكس.

عندما يكون النسر شبعانًا وقويًّا، يستطيع أن يحلّق عاليًا، ويتغلّب على الخنزير، بل ويمكنه أن يقضي عليه تمامًا ويتحرّر من قبضته.

ولكن عندما يكون الخنزير شبعانًا والنسر جائعًا، يضعف النسر ويفقد قوّته، فيجرّه الخنزير إلى الوحل، إلى المكان الذي لم يُخلق النسر ليعيش فيه.

والحقيقة بسيطة:

لا يمكنك أن تُشبع الاثنين وتتوقّع من النسر أن يحلّق.

لا بدّ أن تُشبع أحدهما وتُجوّع الآخر!

الصراع في حياتنا الروحية

وهذا بالضبط ما يحدث في حياتنا الروحية.

فالنسر يمثّل الخليقة الجديدة التي صرنا إليها في المسيح، بينما يمثّل الخنزير طبيعتنا القديمة الخاطئة.

في كل مرة نملأ فيها عقولنا وقلوبنا بقيم هذا العالم وشهواته وأفكاره، فإننا في الحقيقة نُطعم الخنزير!

وهذا لا يعني بالضرورة أن مشاهدة التلفاز، أو الاستمتاع بفيلم، أو ممارسة الأنشطة اليومية أمور خاطئة بحدّ ذاتها.

ولكن عندما تصبح مؤثّرات العالم المصدر الأساسي الذي نغذّي به عقولنا وقلوبنا، فإن طبيعتنا القديمة تزداد قوّة، بينما تضعف حياتنا الروحية.

وقبل أن ندرك ما يحدث، نجد أن الخليقة الجديدة في داخلنا، ذلك النسر الذي خُلق ليحلّق فوق ظروف الحياة وتحدّياتها، قد أصبح يُجرّ من جديد إلى الوحل!

كيف يستعيد النسر قوّته؟

عندما نُغذّي حياتنا الروحية بكلمة الله، والصلاة، وبعلاقة شخصية عميقة مع يسوع المسيح، فإن النسر يستعيد قوّته.

ويرتفع فوق صراعات الحياة، وينتصر على جاذبية الطبيعة القديمة التي تحاول أن تشدّه إلى الأسفل.

فالسؤال ليس: هل يوجد صراع في داخلنا؟

بل السؤال الحقيقي هو: أيّهما نُطعم؟

ماذا يقول الكتاب المقدس؟

«وَإِنَّمَا أَقُولُ: اسْلُكُوا بِالرُّوحِ فَلَا تُكَمِّلُوا شَهْوَةَ الْجَسَدِ».

غلاطية ٥: ١٦

«وَأَمَّا مُنْتَظِرُو الرَّبِّ فَيُجَدِّدُونَ قُوَّةً. يَرْفَعُونَ أَجْنِحَةً كَالنُّسُورِ. يَرْكُضُونَ وَلَا يَتْعَبُونَ. يَمْشُونَ وَلَا يُعْيُونَ».

إشعياء ٤٠: ٣١

الخلاصة

أَشبِع النسر، وأَجِع الخنزير!

فأنت لم تُخلق لتعيش في الوحل، بل خُلقت لتحلّق عاليًا!
منقول

10/29/2026

The General Meeting and Bible Study 10/29/26 St. Mary & St. Abanoub VA

10/29/2026

The Nineteenth Day of the Blessed Month of Babah

Martyrdom of St.Theophilus and His Wife in Fayyum
On this day also was the martyrdom of St. Theophilus and his wife in Fayyum in the days of Emperor Diocletian the infidel. Some brought accusation against them before the Governor of being Christians. The Governor brought them and questioned them. They confessed our Lord Christ, to Him is the glory, before him. He commanded that a deep pit be dug for them, that they be cast into it, and covered by stones. They did so and St. Theophilus and his wife received the crown of martyrdom.

May their prayers and blessings be with us all, and Glory be to God forever. Amen.

10/29/2026

The Nineteenth Day of the Blessed Month of Babah

Assembly of a Council in Antioch for Paul of Samosat
On this day of the year 280 A.D. a Holy Council assembled in an Antiochian church to judge Paul of Samosat. He was a native of Samosat, and he was chosen a Patriarch of Antioch. Satan sowed in his mind the belief that the Lord Christ was a simple, ordinary man whom God had created and chosen to redeem the human beings; and that Christ was entirely Mary's offspring and that Divinity did not unite with Jesus but joined Him by the will only and that God is one person, so he did not believe in the Son or the Holy Spirit. Because of him, a council assembled in the city of Antioch during the reign of Emperor Valerian and the papacy of Abba Dionysius, fourteenth Pope of Alexandria, which was forty-five years before the Council of Nicea. Because Abba Dionysius was old, he was not able to convene with them, so he wrote a letter stating the belief that the Lord Christ is the Word of God, and His Son, and is equal to Him in essence, in divinity and in being eternal. The Holy Trinity is Three Persons by character, in one God-head. One Person of the Trinity is the Son incarnated and became a complete man having one nature. Abba Dionysius testified concerning these things using many testimonies from the Old and the New Testaments and he sent this letter with two priests of the church scholars. Thirteen bishops and the two priests assembled in that council. They brought that Paul and asked him about the heresy that he was teaching. He declared it to them and did not deny anything. They debated the matter with him and read to him the letter of Abba Dionysius and made him listen to what the Apostles said about the Lord Christ the Word of God that He is, "The brightness of His glory. And the express image of His person." (Hebrews 1:3) But he did not accept their words, and he would not turn from his infidel opinion. They excommunicated him, and all those who believed his words, and they exiled him. The fathers put forth the Canons, which are still in the hands of the believers who follow them to this day.

May their prayers and blessings be with us all. Amen.

10/29/2026

The Eighteenth Day of the Blessed Month of Babah

Departure of the Honorable Father St.Theophilus, the Twenty-Third Pope of Alexandria
On this day of the year 404 A.D., the holy father Abba Theophilus, twenty-third Pope of Alexandria, departed. He was a disciple of St. Athanasius the Apostolic. He was brought up by him and learned all the spiritual doctrine from him. When Pope Timothy departed, this father was chosen to take his place. Abba Theophilus was knowledgeable, well read in the church books with full understanding of their interpretation. He wrote many discourses and works of exhortation urging on the works of charity and mercy, and warnings to the people about receiving the Divine Mysteries without being prepared, and concerning the Resurrection and the punishment which is prepared for sinners and many other useful teachings. The holy father Abba Kyrillos was his nephew and Abba Theophilus took care of his education by sending him to Abba Serapion in the desert of Scete. There he studied the books of the church and all its subjects and stayed there five years, then went back to his uncle. When Abba Theophilus was with Abba Athanasius the Apostolic, he heard him one day saying while looking at the hills before his cell, "If I find time, I will clear away these hills and build a church in their place for St. John the Baptist and Elisha the prophet."

When Abba Theophilus became Patriarch, he remembered that saying and he talked about it often. In the city of Rome, the husband of a rich woman died and left her with two sons. She took them and much money and an icon of the Archangel Raphael and came to Alexandria. When she heard about the interest of the father the Patriarch in removing those hills, she went to him with true zeal and gave him enough money to fulfill his desire. After the work was done, a treasure appeared under the hills and was covered with a slab of stone engraved in Coptic, with three characters of theta, 0. When Abba Theophilus saw them, he knew, guided by the Holy Spirit, the secret of these three letters and said, "Behold the time has come for this treasure to be uncovered because these three thetas were gathered together at the same time and they are: Thoes, that of God; and Theodosius the Emperor, son of Arcadius, son of Theodosius the Great; and Theophilus the Patriarch - meaning himself. He found that this treasure dated to the Era of Alexander, the son of Philip the Macedonian which was seven hundred years before. The Patriarch sent to the Emperor to inform him about the treasure and asked him to come. The Emperor came and saw the treasure, and gave a large sum of money to Abba Theophilus. He built many churches. He began by building a church in the name of St. John the Baptist and Elisha the Prophet, and he transferred their relics that church. That church was known at that time by the Demas. Then he built a church by the name of our Lady the Virgin Mary, then a church in the name of the Archangel Raphael at El-Gizira and seven other churches. As for the two sons of the woman who came from Rome, he ordained them bishops. When the Emperor saw the love of the Abba the Patriarch for building churches, he gave him all the houses of idols and Abba Theophilus changed them to churches and lodging houses for strangers, and endowed them with land. Having fulfilled his days in a life pleasing to God, he departed from this world in peace.

May his prayers and blessings be with us all, and Glory be to God forever. Amen.

10/27/2026

The Seventeenth Day of the Blessed Month of Babah

Departure of St.Dioscorus the Second, the Thirty-First Pope of Alexandria
On this day of the year 511 A.D., the holy father Abba Dioscorus the Second, the thirty-first Pope of Alexandria, departed. He was chosen Patriarch by the guidance of the Holy Spirit after the departure of his predecessor, St. John. This father was gentle in disposition, his work and knowledge were outstanding, and he was perfect all his days; no one was like him in his generation. His first work after his enthronement to the See of St. Mark was writing an epistle to the holy father Abba Severus, Patriarch of Antioch. This epistle contained the faith in the Holy Trinity as equal in essence and divinity, and an explanation of the Incarnation. He said that the Word of God was incarnated in a human body perfect in everything, and united with it and became one Son, one Christ, one God, in inseparable unity and that the Trinity is one before and after this unity and no addition was effected to Him by the Incarnation. When this epistle reached Abba Severus, he read it and rejoiced and made it known to the people of Antioch. He felt optimistic with it and wrote to St. Dioscorus a reply to the epistle congratulating him on his Christian presidency and on the Orthodox faith. He commanded him not to turn aside from it, neither to the right nor to the left, and to depend in all his sayings and works on the Orthodox faith which was established by the Three Hundred and Eighteen Fathers in Nicea and according to what they commanded in the Canon and the Law. When the message reached Abba Dioscorus, he joyfully received it and commanded that it be read from the pulpit to be heard by all the people. This father read and taught continually, and urged and commanded the priests in every city to shepherd and guard their flocks. Having ended his course, he departed in peace.

May his prayers and blessings be with us all, and Glory be to God forever. Amen.

10/26/2026

The Sixteenth Day of the Blessed Month of Babah

Commemoration of the Saints Karbu and Apollos and Peter
On this day also is the commemoration of the saints Karbu, Apollos and Peter the disciple of Abba Isaiah the Anchorite.

May their prayers and blessings be with us all, and Glory be to God forever. Amen.

10/26/2026

The Sixteenth Day of the Blessed Month of Babah

Departure of St.Agathon, the Thirty-Ninth Pope of Alexandria
On this day of the year 673 A.D., the holy father, the Patriarch Abba Agathon, 39th Pope of Alexandria, departed. He was a disciple to the holy father Abba Benjamin, 38th Pope. Abba Benjamin disappeared for a period of time from the face of his Chalcedonian persecutors and left Agathon to preach to the believers and establish them in the Orthodox faith. Agathon went around the streets and markets in the daytime wearing a carpenter's apparel, and during the night wearing a priest's uniform. He went around the houses also preaching and instructing the believers. He kept doing this till the Arab conquest of Egypt and the return of the father the Patriarch Abba Benjamin to his chair. When Pope Benjamin departed, this saint was chosen to the honorable rank of Patriarch. He faced great tribulations for the sake of keeping the Orthodox faith. For example, a man whose name was Theodosius, a Malachite, went to the city of Damascus and came before Yazeed-Eben-Moawia, the Arab Governor of Damascus. He gave him much money and took from him an order to appoint him the Governor of Alexandria, Behira and Marriot. When he became in charge of this position, he afflicted our father the Patriarch and levied great taxes on him. Because of the excessive evil of the Governor, and what he did to the father the Patriarch, the people hated and avoided him. He put forth an order that any man who might find the Patriarch on his way should slay him. The Patriarch remained in his cell until God destroyed that evil Governor. In the days of this father, the building of St. Macarius' church in his monastery at Wadi-El Natroun was completed.

One night the angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him about a holy monk from the monastery of St. Macarius whose name was John and who lived in Fayyum. The angel ordered him to bring him to help in preaching and teaching the people. The angel told him that he would be Patriarch after him. Abba Agathon sent and brought him and delivered to him the work of the churches, their organization, teaching the believers and preaching to them. Abba Agathon remained in the papacy for 19 years and departed in peace.

May His prayers be with us all. Amen.

10/25/2026

The Divine Liturgy 10/25/26 St. Mary & St. Abanoub VA

Address

7364 Steel Mill Drive
Springfield, VA
22150

Telephone

+19096629291

Website

http://www.stabanoubva.org/, http://st.maryst.abanoubva/

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