Monday the 8th of June is the start of the apostles’ fast. It will last for 34 days until the Feast of the Apostles on July 12
The Apostles’ Fast
Feast of the HOLY SPIRIT
Today is a great feast in the Church, which is the end of the fifty holy days and the dissention of the HOLY SPIRIT upon the Apostles on this day. It is considered the birthday of the Church because the Church was established on this day. Our LORD chooses the fiftieth day because the number 50 expresses eternity, we have time 7 weeks 49 days to complete time. Today, the fiftieth day means the beginning of the time. The LORD JESUS sent us the HOLY SPIRIT to enter us into the experience of eternity, and it was 50 days after the Resurrection of the LORD JESUS, and for the Jews it was 50 days after the feast of the Pass Over. The Jews also had a fest on this 50th day known as the feast of the weeks or the feast of the Harvest. This was one of 3 feasts when the Jews were obliged to be in Jerusalem to offer worship and prayer. Easter, the Feast of Weeks and the Day of Atonement. The Atonement for us is the Good Friday, the Easter is the Feast of the Resurrection and the feast of the weeks is for us the Feast of Pentecost.
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The Sixth Sunday of the Holy Fifty
Today is the Sixth Sunday of the Holy Fifty days of this year. In today’s Gospel the LORD JESUS is talking to HIS Disciples and saying) John 16:24(“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. “
This is because this prayer has a very strong relationship with the week coming, Feast of the Holy Spirit the Feast of the Pentecost.
Certainly when LORD said “ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” HE meant that we should request heavenly requests and not earthly requests.
What should we be asking from our LORD? Don’t make requests like those others living in the world, LORD give me some money, give me two houses or two cars…….these are the earthly requests, but the requests of the sons of our LORD JESUS are completely different. Let us see what should we be asking for?
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The Fifth Sunday of the Fifty
This Sunday is the fifth Sunday of the Holy Fifty days and in it the LORD JESUS announces HIMSELF as the way for the life (John 14). The journey we started 5 weeks ago is about to end and the Church is now preparing us for the Holy Ascension so that the LORDD JESUS takes us with HIM to the Eternal Kingdom. Where is this Eternal Kingdom? In MY FATHER’S house where we shall reside with HIM.
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The fourth Sunday of the Holy fifty
Today is the forth Sunday of the Holy Fifty days, in general they are seven weeks resembling a journey from the Earth to the Heavens. In a summary, the beginning of the journey needs faith and belief since no one starts a journey if he is not convinced with it, so the First week is the week of Faith, in it we read the Gospel talking about St Tomas and we call this Sunday St Tomas’s Sunday. The Second Sunday talks to us about the Bread of Life. Every journey needs food and the bread we take with us for this journey is not earthly bread but heavenly Bread which is the Holy Communion. The Third Sunday (last Sunday) talks to us about the Woman from Samaria and about that whoever drinks from water of life shall never go thirsty again. So; the things we need for the journey are Faith, Bread and Water, those are the first three Sundays.
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The Woman from Samaria
Today we are in the third week of the Holy Fifty days and the Gospel for Holy Liturgy is about the woman from Samaria. The Samaritan woman is a loved character in the Coptic Orthodox Church and thus this part about her is read three times throughout the year. We read it in the middle of the Holy Lent, in the middle of the Holy Fifty days and again in the Fiftieth days (the Feast of the Pentecost), so within 100 days we read this part of the Holy Bible 3 times and this shows how much the church loves this part. The woman of Samaria chapter is suitable for the Holt Lent because she resembles the stubborn sole that was living in sin and then repented and pulled with her most of the people in the city of Samaria for the belief in the LORD JESUS, although there was a great enmity between the Jews and the Samarians (we will know about this later on).
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The Bread of Life
The period of the Holy Fifty days is a period for living and the Church presents to us the LORD JESUS as the Living CHRIST who has risen from the dead, and so the Gospels during the Holy Fifty days presents to us the Bread of Life….the Water of Life… the Path for Life…and all what is liked and related to Life because this period is a period of Life. Today is the second Sunday of the Holy Fifty days and the Gospel for the Holy Liturgy is from the Gospel of St John chapter 6, the Church presents to us the Living CHRIST, the bread of Life necessary for our journey towards the Eternal Life and to enter the Kingdom of Heavens. The LORD had performed the miracle of feeding of the multitude by using 5 loves and two fish, after that the multitude started looking for HIM to make HIM a king, but the LORD JESUS said to them (John 6:26 26) “you are looking for me because you ate the bread and were filled had all you wanted, not because you believe”
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