“ أَمَّا أَنَا فَبِفَضْلِ رَحْمَتِكَ الْعَظِيمَةِ أَدْخُلُ بَيْتَكَ. أَسْجُدُ فِي خُشُوعٍ وَرِعْدَةٍ فِي هَيْكَلِكَ الْمُقَدَّسِ.” مزامير ٧:٥
علمونا و احنا صغيرين نستعمل الايه في طريقنا من باب الكنيسه لحجاب الهيكل و بعديها نسجد و نقف و نقول رفعت عيني الي السماء من حيث يأتي عوني و نكمل بابانا الذي في السموات و بهدوء نقف مكاننا
و بالوقت بقينا نتكسف نعمل كده و بطلنا و غيرنا بطلوا و مبقاش غير الكهنه هم بس اللي بيعملوا التقليد الكنسي ده ، رغم انه تقليد جميل و كان الواحد بيشعر و هو داخل الكنيسه انه مش شاطر و قديس ، أبدا ده احنا داخلين برحمة ربنا و من غيرها ما كنا نستاهل نقف علي عتبه باب بيت الله ....الطقوس ليها لازمه لو اتعملت بالروح مش بتعصب ...ياتري امتي اخر مره استندت علي رحمته و انت داخل الكنيسه مش مسنود علي شعورك باحقيتك في دخول الكنيسه ؟
Copt4G
Day 27 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-Seventh Day of the Blessed Month of Baramoudah
Martyrdom of St.Boctor Ebn Romanus
On this day, the honorable Saint Boctor (Victor) Ebn Romanus, the minister of Emperor Diocletian, was martyred. His mother Martha had reared him in the Christian ethics. He was promoted in the ranks in the kingdom until he became the third in succession. He was then twenty years old. He prayed and fasted much, visited the prisoners and assisted the poor and needy. When they cut off the head of St. Theodata, the mother of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, no one dared to bury her because they feared the Emperor. This Saint went forth and took the body, shrouded it, then buried her, not caring about the Emperor's order. St. Boctor often admonished his father for worshipping the idols, so his father accused him before the Emperor. The Emperor had him brought and asked him to worship the idols to obey the imperial order. The saint took off his soldier girdle and threw it in his face saying: "Take your gift that you gave me." His father suggested to the Emperor to send him to Alexandria to be tortured there. On their way, his mother bid him farewell, crying, and he asked her to care for the poor, the widows, and the lonely. When he arrived to Alexandria, the governor Armanius tortured him many tortures, then he sent him to the governor of Ansena, who tortured him also, then cut off his tongue and plucked out his eyes. The Lord strengthened and comforted him every time. There was a fifteen years old girl who was watching his torture from the window of her house. She saw a crown coming down over his head. She confessed that before the governor and all those who were present. The Governor ordered her head to be cut off and also the head of St. Boctor. They received the crown of life in the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a district in Alexandria until now known as El Boctoriah (Victoria), named after this Saint, because probably there was a church on his name in this district.
May His 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 90 : 14
Chapter 90
| 14 | Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days! |
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 11 : 11 - 15
Chapter 11
| 11 | "Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. |
| 12 | And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. |
| 13 | For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. |
| 14 | And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. |
| 15 | He who has ears to hear, let him hear! |
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 5 : 3 - 4
Chapter 5
| 3 | My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up. |
| 4 | For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You. |
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 11 : 2 - 6
Chapter 11
| 2 | And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples |
| 3 | and said to Him, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?" |
| 4 | Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: |
| 5 | The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. |
| 6 | And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me." |
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 1 : 16 - 17
Chapter 1
| 16 | For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. |
| 17 | For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." |
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 : 7 - 10
Chapter 2
| 7 | Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. |
| 8 | Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. |
| 9 | He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. |
| 10 | He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. |
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 : 13 - 18
Chapter 4
| 13 | Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. |
| 14 | And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. |
| 15 | But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, |
| 16 | saying, "What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. |
| 17 | But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name." |
| 18 | So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. |
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 8 : 4 - 5
Chapter 8
| 4 | What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? |
| 5 | For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. |
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 5 : 39 - 47
Chapter 5
| 39 | You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. |
| 40 | But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. |
| 41 | "I do not receive honor from men. |
| 42 | But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. |
| 43 | I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. |
| 44 | How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? |
| 45 | Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you--Moses, in whom you trust. |
| 46 | For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. |
| 47 | But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" |
And Glory be to God forever.
Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner (1904–1984) suggested that “Christians are, in their practical life, almost mere ‘monotheists.’ We must be willing to admit that, should the doctrine of the Trinity have to be dropped as false, the major part of religious literature could well remain virtually unchanged.” [1]
Until quite recently, I would admit Rahner was largely correct. Now science affirms the Trinitarian intuition that the foundational nature of reality is relational; everything is in relationship with everything! Interest and appreciation for the Trinity are growing. [2] For the first time since fourth-century Cappadocia, the Trinity has actually become a topic of conversation for lay people, not only theologians. I am so glad, as the Trinity has the potential to change our relationships, our culture, and our politics for the better!
The mystery of Trinity is embedded as the code in everything that exists. If there is only one God and if there is one pattern to this God, then we can expect to find this same pattern everywhere else. Why was Trinity missing in action for so many centuries? Could this absence help us understand how we might still be in the infancy stage of Christianity? Could it help explain the ineffectiveness and lack of transformation we witness in so much of Christendom?
The “Blessed Trinity” is supposed to be the central Christian doctrine. And yet many of us were told—as I was as a young boy in Kansas—that we shouldn’t try to understand it because it’s a “mystery.”
I see mystery not as something you cannot understand; rather, it is something that you can endlessly understand! There is no point at which you can say, “I’ve got it.” Always and forever, mystery gets you! In the same way, you don’t hold God in your pocket; rather, God holds you and knows your deepest identity.
When we describe God, we can only use similes, analogies, and metaphors. All theological language is an approximation, offered tentatively in holy awe. We can say, “It’s like . . .” or “It’s similar to . . .”; but we can never say with absolute certainty, “It is . . .” because we are in the realm of beyond, of transcendence, of mystery. We absolutely must maintain humility before the Great Mystery; otherwise, religion worships itself and its formulations instead of God.
The very mystical Cappadocian Fathers (Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory Nazianzen, and Basil of Caesarea) of fourth-century eastern Turkey eventually developed some highly sophisticated thinking on what the Christian church soon called the Trinity. It took three centuries of reflection on the Gospels to have the courage to say it and offer the best metaphor they could find. The Greek word they daringly used was perichoresis or circle dance.
Whatever is going on in God is a flow, a radical relatedness, a perfect communion between Three—a circle dance of love. God is Absolute Friendship. God is not just a dancer; God is the dance itself. This pattern mirrors the perpetual orbit of electron, proton, and neutron that creates every atom, which is the substratum of the entire physical universe. Everything is indeed like “the image and likeness of God” (Genesis 1:26-27).
References:
[1] Karl Rahner, The Trinity (Crossroad Publishing Company: 1999), 10-11.
[2] For example, see Cynthia Bourgeault, The Holy Trinity and the Law of Three (Shambhala: 2013); and William Paul Young, The Shack (Windblown Media: 2007).
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Shape of God: Deepening the Mystery of the Trinity, disc 1 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2004), CD, DVD, MP3 download; and
Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House: 2016), 26-27.