The Church selects for us the chapter of the temptation at the beginning of the journey of Lent, although the temptation of the Lord Jesus on the mountain and his victory over Satan was at the end of his fasting for 40 days. Perhaps the Church wants to tell us that at the end of the journey of fasting, there will be victory and triumph, and that through fasting, we become capable of this triumph. Through fasting, we also become qualified to be served by the Angles, when they came to serve Christ after His victory over  the temptation of the devil (Matthew 4:11). Thus, we become encouraged and strengthened at the beginning of the journey of fasting. As though, the Church assures us that whoever joins with Christ in the journey of fasting, will receive strength, wisdom, and grace to overcome the devil and all his evil deceptions.

In the previous two articles, we presented a general introduction about the theological school of Alexandria, its origins and mission, then we presented the biography of some of its famous fathers and theological teachers. In this article, we continue to introduce the rest of the great fathers of this school:

In the previous article, we talked about the scholar Athenagoras and St. Pantaenus. In this article, we will continue our topic about St. Clement and the scholar Origen.

* Before Christianity, Alexandria was famous for its various schools. Some of its greatest and most famous schools are the "Musaeum” [origin of the word Museum] which was established by Ptolemy, it’s library had 200,000-500,000 books and manuscript. There was also the Serapeum school and several other Jewish schools.

Lying is a very serious sin, which we ought to discuss. In that regard, I was presented with the following two questions:

In December of last year, 2011, It was a blessing for me to spend few days of retreat time at the Monastery of St. Mary and St. Moses the Black in Texas. It is the second established Coptic monastery in the US after the monastery of St Anthony in Bristow, California.

Today, Tobah 13 January 22, the Church celebrates the transformation of water to wine at the wedding of Cana of Galilee. It is one of the Lord’s minor feasts according to the rites of our church, for it is the first miracle that the Lord Jesus made and with which He started his declared ministry. Let us meditate upon this marvelous miracle.

+ The church celebrates the feast of circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ every year on the eighth day of His birth. The Lord was circumcised in the flesh to fulfill the law on behalf of man who was unable to carry out most of the commandments of the law. Thus, Christ successfully went through the path that man failed to go through, in order to bless this path and to help him complete it successfully.

This is how Isaiah saw Him through the prophetic eye and recorded it for us in his amazing book nearly 740 year before His birth: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). He is the Prince of Peace and the fountain of peace for us and for the whole world. His birth in our midst is a dawning of true peace in a world full of the darkness of tribulations, fears, and struggles. We might wonder how is He the Prince for Peace?

The ladder that Jacob saw is one of the most important and beautiful symbols about St Mary in the Old Testament. God appeared to Jacob on his way to Laban his uncle as he was fleeing from his brother Esau. The scene depicts a ladder setup on earth and reaching to heaven with the angels ascending and descending upon it, and the Lord looks upon Jacob in great glory from the top of the ladder and speaks to him with words of peace, comfort, and blessing (Genesis 28).

Kiahk praises are rich and full of beautiful words that have deep meanings regarding divine incarnation and regarding the mother of God through whom incarnation took place.

- As God emptied himself to become the Son of Man, likewise man ought to empty himself to become a son of God.