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.

It came to pass that Vladimir, the grand Prince of Kiev, when he was still a pagan in 987 AD, he wanted to know which of the religion is the true one. He sent envoys of elders and wise men to different countries of the world to investigate different religions and report to him.

First, the Sundays of Kiyahk:

Some wonder: If Christ, through His cross, defeated sin and broke its bondage, then why do we still sin? And if we have been baptized and became children of God, then why are we weak and fall into sins every day? The answer can be summarized in the following few lines:

What do we give?

Have you ever heard about currency exchange?