The Church celebrates the Feast of Nayrouz as the beginning of the Coptic year, a season that marks the height of martyrdom under the reign of the pagan emperor Diocletian. Just as the Church of the New Covenant was born through the crucifixion and death of Christ on the cross as an infinite sacrifice of love, so too does the Coptic Church offer her calendar, consecrated by the blood of the martyrs, as a true expression of her love for Jesus Christ, her Lord. It is through this faith, unshakable hope, and longing for eternal life with Christ in heaven, that she beholds a glory beyond words one that cannot be fully expressed or comprehended. As Saint Paul reminds us: ‘For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.’ (1 Cor. 13:12)
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Wishing you a blessed fast of the Virgin Mary.
- "The fast of the Virgin is a time for repentance and purification, an opportunity to draw closer to God and seek His favor."
- "Fasting should be a period of contemplation and prayer, distancing ourselves from everything that keeps us away from God's love."
Saint Cyril the Great
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Under the auspices of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the church established the first Coptic Orthodox Monastery in Canada by the name of St. Anthony on January 7th 2014. The official opening was held on the feast of St Anthony later that month.
You cannot pray at home, like you can at church, where there is a great multitude; where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the unions of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of priests.
There is something beautiful about a person who pursues what they love. Monasticism was pioneered by this kind of person: St. Anthony the Great. He loved God to the extent that drew his soul to seek Him alone in the Egyptian desert. Through his virtues of humility and asceticism, he grew in the wisdom of God.
In the desert of the heart, let the healing fountain start.
Be like a solitary palm tree or a thorn bush in the desert. Like a palm tree, let the sweetness of your deeds delight others. And if like a thorn bush, they find in you nothing to enjoy, at least they will find nothing to hurt.
He who wishes to live in solitude in the desert is delivered from three conflicts: hearing, speech, and sight; there is only one conflict for him and that is with fornication.
Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is beyond measure, and your wisdom beyond reckoning.
True patience consists in bearing calmly the evils others do to us.
It is a spiritual gift from God for a man to perceive his own sins.
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