The Gospel reading of the Fifth Sunday of the Great Holy Fast, known as the Sunday of the Paralytic, begins with this simple statement: “After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem” (Jn 5:1). It is, prima facie, a simple statement that one can easily pass over, but it deserves our attention, for we learn from it more than the obvious fact that our Lord went to Jerusalem – …

On the first Sunday of the blessed Coptic month of Babah, we heard in the Divine Liturgy the Gospel according to St. Mark 2:1-12, in which we were confronted by a man who is paralyzed, but nonetheless has friends that care and bring him to our Lord to be healed. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to a city called Capernaum, a city that was like His second home after Nazareth. At the time of our story, our – …