2. The Ministers & The Chief of Ministers I got ahead of myself, though. Let us go back a little. This King, before making the people, made a place for them. He was creative and illustrious, He wanted the place to be beautiful for them so that they would enjoy everything with him. He wanted them to be excited about everything even as he was excited for them. He made the entire Kingdom for those – …

The recent passing of several giants has grieved me. There were the passings of Fathers Feltaous  and Mettaous  of the Syrian Monastery, then the passing of Anba Mikhail of Assiut. These and others, to me, symobolise the ending of a great era, a loss of giants. Hearing the news of Abouna Fanous el Anba Bola today, only added to this feeling. With every passing generation, I fear, humanly, that there’s a rich tradition that dies with them. I feel that there – …

Abbâ Muthues used to say that there were three brethren who were in the habit of coming to Abbâ Antony, and that two of them used to ask him questions about the thoughts, and about life, and redemption, and the discretion (or intelligence) of the soul, whilst the third one held his peace continually. And after a long time Abbâ Antony said unto him, “Brother, thou comest here each year, and askest nothing!” And he – …

“He who walks with wise men becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm” (Proverbs 13:20) So, it used to be that people had a group of friends from Church because they had things in common: their faith, their values, their heritage. You could count on your church crew to keep you in check when you felt like you were doing something, or at least, tempted to do, something wrong. In fact, often when – …

Kareem Elgawly: February 1, 1992 – September 5, 2014 Bye Bye Bye, baby, bye bye bye! blasted on the sound system as I entered Vons a few hours ago. Yeah, it was ‘NSync, a boy band that I never really got into, but they had a couple of big hits that stuck with me throughout the years. That one and “This I promise you”. A strange melancholy gripped me right away, but not the bad gloom, it was – …