He paid a debt and I owe one. Thank God I don't owe the debt for my sin, but I owe others the same love, respect and grace with which God has treated me!
Day 25 of the Blessed Coptic Month of Baramoudah, may God make it always received, year after year, with reassurance and tranquility, while our sins after forgiven by the tender mercies of our God my fathers and brothers.
Amen.
The Twenty-Fifth Day of the Blessed Month of Baramoudah
Martyrdom of St.Sarah, and her two sons
On this day, St. Sarah and her two sons, were martyred. She was from the city of Antioch, the wife of a man whose name was Socrates, one of the governors of Emperor Diocletian. This Governor had denied Christ to please Diocletian, pretending before his wife that he did that because of his fear from the Emperor. Sarah had two sons, she could not baptize in Antioch, because of her fear from the Emperor and her husband. She took them and sailed to Alexandria to baptize them there. God willed to reveal the greatness of her faith as a lesson to the generations to come. God brought forth a great tempest and the ship was about to be wrecked and drown. Sarah was afraid that her sons would be drowned without being baptized. She prayed a long prayer, then she wounded her right breast, took some of her blood, anointed them making the sign of the cross upon the foreheads, and over the hearts. Then she dipped them in the sea three times saying: "In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." After that, the winds died down, a great calm came on the sea, and the ship sailed toward Alexandria. When she arrived, took her sons, went to the church, and handed them to Pope Peter, the seal of the martyrs. He baptized them, together with the children of the city. When the Pope carried one of her sons to baptize him, the water froze. The Pope went on baptizing other children and came back to her sons, but the water froze again. The same thing occurred on the third attempt. The Pope was amazed and asked their mother about her story. She told him about all what happened to her at sea and what she did for her sons. He glorified God and said: "It is indeed one baptism."
When the woman returned to Antioch, her husband denounced what she had done. He related what happened to the Emperor accusing his wife with adultery. The Emperor brought her and reproached her saying: "Why did you go to Alexandria to commit adultery with the Christians?" The Saint answered him: "Christians do not commit adultery, and do not worship idols, and after this do what you wish, for you will not hear another word from me." The Emperor asked her: "Tell me what did you do in Alexandria?" When she did not answer him, he ordered to tie her hands behind her, and to place her two sons on her belly, and to bum all three of them. She turned her face to the east and prayed. They burnt her, with her sons. She delivered up her pure soul along with her sons, and they all received the crown of martyrdom.
May Their prayers be with us. Amen.
Commemoration of Saints Babnuda (Paphnute) the hermit, Theodore the worshipper, and the 100 Martyrs
This day also marks the commemoration of Sts. Babnuda (Paphnute) the hermit, Theodore the worshipper, and the One hundred martyrs, who were martyred in Persia.
May Their prayers be with us and Glory be to our God forever. Amen.
Vespers
Vespers Psalm
From the Psalms of our teacher David the prophet.
May his blessings be with us all.
Psalms 44 : 23,26
Chapter 44
| 23 | Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever. |
| 26 | Arise for our help, And redeem us for Your mercies' sake. |
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Our Lord God, Savior, and King of us all, Jesus Christ, the Living Son of God to whom be glory forever.
Amen.
Vespers Gospel
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel.
A reading from the Gospel according to our teacher Saint Matthew the Evangelist.
May His Blessings be with us all.
Matthew 20 : 29 - 33
Chapter 20
| 29 | Now as they went out of Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. |
| 30 | And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!" |
| 31 | Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!" |
| 32 | So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" |
| 33 | They said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened." |
And Glory be to God forever.
Matins
Matins Psalm
From the Psalms of our teacher David the prophet.
May his blessings be with us all.
Psalms 57 : 8 - 10
Chapter 57
| 8 | Awake, my glory! Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn. |
| 9 | I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing to You among the nations. |
| 10 | For Your mercy reaches unto the heavens, And Your truth unto the clouds. |
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Our Lord God, Savior, and King of us all, Jesus Christ, the Living Son of God to whom be glory forever.
Amen.
Matins Gospel
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel.
A reading from the Gospel according to our teacher Saint Matthew the Evangelist.
May His Blessings be with us all.
Matthew 20 : 17 - 19
Chapter 20
| 17 | Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, |
| 18 | "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, |
| 19 | and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again." |
And Glory be to God forever.
Liturgy Gospel
Paulines Epistle
Paul, the servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, appointed to the Gospel of God.
A reading from the Epistle of our teacher Paul to the Romans .
May his blessings be upon us.
Amen.
Romans 2 : 14 - 16
Chapter 2
| 14 | for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, |
| 15 | who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) |
| 16 | in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. |
The grace of God the Father be with you all.
Amen.
Catholic Epistle
A Reading from Epistle 1 of St. John .
May his blessing be upon us.
Amen.
1 John 2 : 21 - 25
Chapter 2
| 21 | I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. |
| 22 | Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. |
| 23 | Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. |
| 24 | Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. |
| 25 | And this is the promise that He has promised us--eternal life. |
Do not love the world or the things in the world.
The world passes away, and its desires; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Amen.
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of our fathers the apostles, may their blessings be with us.
Acts 4 : 32 - 35
Chapter 4
| 32 | Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. |
| 33 | And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. |
| 34 | Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, |
| 35 | and laid them at the apostles' feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need. |
The word of the Lord shall grow, multiply, be mighty, and be confirmed, in the holy Church of God.
Amen.
Divine Psalm
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel.
A reading from the Gospel according to our teacher Saint John the Evangelist.
May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
From the Psalms of our teacher David the prophet, and the Good King.
May his blessings be with us all.
Psalms 18 : 46,49
Chapter 18
| 46 | The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted. |
| 49 | Therefore I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the Gentiles, And sing praises to Your name. |
Hallelujah.
Divine Gospel
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Our Lord God, Savior, and King of us all, Jesus Christ, the Living Son of God to whom be glory forever.
Amen.
John 8 : 23 - 26
Chapter 8
| 23 | And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. |
| 24 | Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." |
| 25 | Then they said to Him, "Who are You?" And Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. |
| 26 | I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him." |
And Glory be to God forever.
A cosmic notion of Christ takes mysticism beyond the mere individual level to the transpersonal, social, and collective levels. Cynthia Bourgeault, another of our core faculty members and an Episcopal priest, explores Jesus’ resurrection from a universal, mystical perspective:
What Jesus so profoundly demonstrates to us in his passage from death to life is that the walls between the realms are paper thin. Along the entire ray of creation, the “mansions” are interpenetrating and mutually permeable by love. The death of our physical form is not the death of our individual personhood. Our personhood remains alive and well, “hidden with Christ in God” (to use Paul’s beautiful phrase in Colossians 3:3) and here and now we can draw strength from it (and [Christ]) to live our temporal lives with all the fullness of eternity. If we can simply keep our hearts wrapped around this core point, the rest of the Christian path begins to fall into place.
Yes, [Jesus’] physical form no longer walks the planet. But if we take him at his word, that poses no disruption to intimacy if we merely learn to recognize him at that other level, just as he has modeled for his disciples during those first forty days of Eastertide.
Nor has that intimacy subsided in two thousand years—at least according to the testimony of a long lineage of Christian mystics, who in a single voice proclaim that our whole universe is profoundly permeated with the presence of Christ. He surrounds, fills, holds together from top to bottom this human sphere in which we dwell. The entire cosmos has become his body, so to speak, and the blood flowing through it is his love. These are not statements that can be scientifically corroborated, but they do seem to ring true to the mystically attuned heart. . . .
Without in any way denying or overriding the conditions of this earth plane, he has interpenetrated them fully, infused them with his own interior spaciousness, and invited us all into this invisible but profoundly coherent energetic field so that we may live as one body—the “Mystical Body of Christ,” as it’s known in Christian tradition—manifesting the Kingdom of Heaven here and now. Jesus in his ascended state is not farther removed from human beings but more intimately connected with them. He is the integral ground, the ambient wholeness within which our contingent human lives are always rooted and from which we are always receiving the help we need to keep moving ahead on the difficult walk we have to walk here. When the eye of our own heart is open and aligned within this field of perception, we recognize whom we’re walking with.
Reference:
Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New Perspective on Christ and His Message (Shambhala: 2008), 133-135. Learn more from Cynthia Bourgeault at cynthiabourgeault.org.