Saturday, June 20, 2026
Scripture Readings -Fourth Sunday after Feast of Pentecost
Old Testament Readings
Deuteronomy 33:23-29 , Joshua 6:14-18
Hosea 5:11-6:1
Daniel 3:24-45 , Isaiah 65:8-12
New Testament Readings
Acts 6:1-17 , I Corinthians 10:14-18
St. Mathew 14:14-23
Persevere - From Saint Justin Parvu
It is not enough to attend the church services and just be there like that would be enough. We have to work the prayer from the inside out. No matter how many prayers we say with our mouth, it is nothing if the prayer is not coming from the heart and if we don’t apply the teachings of Orthodoxy in our everyday life. Now more than ever, lay people have to pray from the heart, because this will be our only salvation. In the heart is the root of all passions and that is where we need to direct our struggles. If in the later years Christianity became look warm and superficial, we have to end all that now, this is not going to be enough anymore. If we will not pray from the heart, we will not be able to sustain the psychological attacks, because the evil one has hidden brainwashing methods that are unknown to us… Times will come when only the ones that have the Spirit of God will be able to know good from evil. Human mind itself on its own will not be able to tell the difference. There will be great deceptions and only the Holy Spirit will give us the discernment we need so we could save ourselves. Pray that you will not be deceived ! Only through prayer we can receive the Holy Spirit. If we don’t pray and just persevere may in our laziness and unrepentful ways, we will completely lose the Holy Spirit and His guidance. May it not be that we lose the guidance of the Holy Spirit !”
Do not rebuke those sorrowful at heart, that you might not be paid back with the same rod, so that when you’ll seek for someone to have mercy on you, you might find him there!
Do not reproach anyone for their sins, but consider yourself responsible for everything, even for your neighbor’s sins.
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“The time will come, and it has already come, when the Christian will no longer be persecuted for prayer, but for his refusal to deny himself. Do not be deceived: the apocalypse does not arrive with frightful thunder, but with a cunning silence. Men will be enslaved unchained, controlled unknowingly and instructed to love convenience more than Truth. Peace will be demanded at any cost, but the price will be the soul. Blind obedience will be required, but not to God, but to spirits foreign to Christ. So, anyone who remains firm in their faith in Christ will be considered crazy, extremist, dangerous. Know this: it is not technology that makes the world lose, but the denial of God. It is not the mark on the hand that is more frightening, but the mark in the heart, when man stops fearing sin. When you stop confessing, when you stop crying about your mistakes, when you get accustomed to evil as something natural, that’s where the end begins. Churches can stand, but if conscience collapses, nothing remains. There won’t be time for halves or quarters. It will be: either with Christ or without Him. Either cross or rejection. Whoever wants to preserve this life at any cost will lose it, and whoever will suffer for the Truth at risk of losing earthly life, this will be written in Heaven. Don’t be afraid of what people are going to do with your body; be afraid of the moment when you will be tempted to keep quiet when you have to confess the Truth. That’s where the great battle will take place.”
“A war or any kind of cataclysm must be met with great faith and without despair , because God is the One who sends such trials upon humanity, for our correction. Through a war, God wants to stop the wickedness of the world’s leaders, who oppose the Creator, and to bring to repentance those who have distanced themselves from Him, through the multitude of passions, or to purify the souls of the chosen ones like gold in a smelter .
God, out of His love, when He sees that no method of correction works anymore, He allows wars and misfortunes.
When the saints and spiritual guides are lacking, God will send another persecution so that, through the suffering of the Cross, we may be sanctified and humanity may gain new saints and guides of souls.
Our repentance, both for ourselves and for all humanity, can always bring mercy to God and give us strength to face any trouble patiently and without panic.
Sunday, June 14, 2026
Scripture Readings - Third Sunday after Feast of Holy Pentecost
Evening :St. Mark 6: 4-13
Before Holy Qurbana
Genesis 42: 18-25 , Jeremiah 2: 35 - 3: 5
Daniel 3: 21-30 , Judges 1:8-11
Holy Qurbana
Acts 13: 26-39 , Galatians 6:10-18
St. John 6: 35-46
Sunday, June 7, 2026
BO'UTHO OF MOR EHREM - THIRD HOUR SUNDAY (KYMTHO)
BO'UTHO OF MOR EHREM - THIRD HOUR SUNDAY
Friday, June 5, 2026
Scripture Readings - Second Sunday after Feast of Holy Pentecost
Evening :St. Luke 6: 12-23
Leviticus 19: 1-8, II Samuel 5: 1-10
Song of Songs 2:15 -3:6 , Sirach 46:1-6
Daniel 6: 25-28
Holy Qurbana
Acts 4: 23 - 31
Ephesians 2: 11-22
St. Matthew 10:34 -11:1
Tuesday, June 2, 2026
Pride , Faithfulness , Judgement - From Commentary of St. Paul's First Letter to Corinth
- Ham, son of Noah brought the curse upon himself by laughing when he saw the private parts of his father; whereas his two brothers who covered him up, got the blessing2.
Temple of God !
The apostle Paul speaks about the body as the temple of God, while having in mind the great number of priestesses who practiced corruption to the account of the temple of idols. That made him confirm the relationship of the believer’s body with the Lord Christ, as the temple of God and the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. That made him as well, talk about the sanctity of matrimony and the danger of being attached to an adulteress (6: 15, 16).
In the old, Israel counted himself as the temple and the dwelling place of God; on account of that God was living in their midst. The Lord Christ, having proclaimed that in case two or three gather together in His name, He will be in their midst; the Church became His holy temple.
Wherever God is, will be His temple, sanctified by His Holy Spirit. The Lord Christ, proclaiming to His disciples, that the subject of their preaching is “the kingdom of God is within you”, The Church as a whole is His temple or His kingdom.; and every member in the Church is God’s temple. It is befitting of him, therefore, not to corrupt this temple, as it is not his own property; but he is just a steward on what God entrusted to him.
The body of the believer is:
- “The temple of God” (3: 16, 17; 19: 6)
- “The Lord’s” (13; 15)
- Should be offered as a living sacrifice to the Lord (Romans 1: 12)
- A dwelling place for God (Ephesians 2: 21, 22)
- A subject of the glory of God (1 Corinthians 6: 20)
- A subject of holiness (Psalm 93: 5)
- A place for peace (Haggai 2: 9; John 16: 33)
- A place where Christ will be manifested (2 Corinthians 4: 10, 11)
- Its members are for righteousness (Romans 6: 13)
- Conformed to the body of Christ (Philippians 3: 20, 21; John 2: 3).
What does he mean by saying that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?
a- The Church, on the level of the congregation, and on that of the member, is the throne of God, where He sits and works, and for the realization of His pleasure.
b- The Church is His kingdom, through which He sends the fruits of the Spirit, of love, joy, peace, and longsuffering (Galatians 5: 22, 23).
c- Through the Church, God leads His people in the midst of sufferings and afflictions, granting them the comforts of the Holy Spirit.
d- As a sanctuary for the Lord, the Church should not be used except for what is his. Even our body members are members of Christ.
e- The Church is the subject of His love; beloved by Him.
f- The body is a tool, moved by the spirit and the brain. What is intended by the spirit, will be shared by the body, whether the will is holy or evil .
- Although Paul was not actually ‘nobody’; Yet, if compared to God, he is nobody.
- No one should say in his heart: “God does not care for the sins of the body”.
Someone may say: My soul is the temple of God, and not my body; quoting the following testimony: “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass” (1 Peter 1: 24). What a bitter interpretation! Calling the body grass on account of that it dies. But, you should understand that, what dies for some time, would not also rise by sin. According to the apostle: Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?” (1 Corinthians 6: 19). So, do not ever disregard the sins of the body, on the assumption that your bodies are from God. If you disregard the sin of the body, Are you not disregarding a sin you commit against the temple of God? Your body itself is the temple of the Spirit of God who is in you. So beware of what you do with the temple of God!
Just imagine, what would be worse than to commit adultery within the walls of the Church? You are now the temple of God in your coming in, and in your going out; if you dwell in your homes; if you wake up;… In all that you are a temple of God! So beware, lest it will forsake you, and you would be destroyed!
Speaking about the sin of adultery, and about taking the sin of the body lightly, the apostle says: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6: 19). You were bought at a great price; If you chose to disregard your bodies, do not disregard your price !
It is obvious that we are the temple of God if we do good. If someone is a temple of God; What is in the temple would necessarily be God’s No temple of God would be where an abundance of iniquities are.
(Father Valerian)
(Theodore, Bishop of El-Missa)
“If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are” It is befitting of us, therefore, to watch over the holiness of the temple of God through receiving the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, that is realized by the true faith, the sound teachings, and the experience of the new life; As diversion from faith and the corrupt behavior would defile the temple.
He does not say ‘You are the temples of God’, but says: “You are the temple of God”; representing one unit embracing numerous diversified living stones (1 Peter 2: 5).
Certainly in the divine world, there is a specific place for God, where He chooses to dwell – the Church, the icon of heaven; which testifies to His salvation work and His exalted love.
The righteous man could be called ‘heaven’, as about him is said: “for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are” . If God dwells in His temple, and the saints are His temple, the expression “Who are in heaven” in the Lord’s prayer, would truly mean “who are in His saints”
I wish the Christians who are called for the eternal inheritance would understand the words: “Who are in heaven” in the Lord’s prayer, as “Who are in the saints and the righteous”. God, being not limited by a certain place; heaven, although higher than the material bodies in the world, yet, being material as well, it would accordingly be limited to a certain space. Thus if we assume that God exists in the highest reach of the world, the birds would then be better off than us, as they live closer to God.
(St. Augustine)
Paul so says to provoke the consciences of those who have corrupted their bodies by wicked life; and specifically that person who had sexual relationship with his father’s wife (1 Corinthians 5: 1-5).
(Amrosiaster)
Monday, June 1, 2026
Reminder - First call First Sunday after Feast of Pentecost
St. Luke 7 : For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”
2 Corinthians 5:14-6:9 -St. Paul's declaration
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says,
“In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”[c]
I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed
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Evening: St. Luke 8:4-15 , Morning St. Mathew 11:20-30
Holy Qurbana
Old Testament Readings
Genesis 41:38-49 , , Exodus 12:31-40
Joshua 5:9-12, Micha 3:8-10, 4:4-5
Jeremiah 29:10-16
New Testament Readings
Acts 17:10-15 , II Corinthians 5:14-6:9
St. Luke 7:27-35