Shows
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 242 - Job 9-12“He is wise in mind, mighty and strong,” with good reason. Indeed, since God is wise, his benefits are countless. But if you do not believe, O mortal, let us bring our reflection to its conclusion. If he pronounces one thousand words, we cannot answer a single one. These are wise words. In fact, that righteous man said, “Also the righteous will be happy.” About what righteous man is he speaking? But where will we ever find a man who is righteous before God? “Not one of his thousand words.” This is exactly what the prophet said as well: “No living pers...
2025-10-2809 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 223 - Ezekiel 19, 33In the lives of Christians we look not to the beginnings but to the endings. Paul began badly but ended well. The start of Judas wins praise; his end is condemned because of his treachery—St Jerome
2025-09-0908 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 186 - Jeremiah 5-6Paul says about those who live in piety and prosperity, “I thank God that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge.” And to those who are impious, the blessed Jeremiah says, “Maybe they are poor. For this reason, they could not hear the word of the Lord.” Do you see that he calls poor those who have distanced themselves from piety? Therefore, God is merciful to those who sin because they are spiritually poor, and he places demands on those who act justly because they are spiritually rich. To the former he gives fr...
2025-07-0809 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 147 - 2 Kings 1-3We must note in addition that when Elijah was about to be taken up in a whirlwind as into heaven, he took his sheepskin and rolled it up and struck the water, and it was divided on this side and that, and both crossed, that is to say, himself and Elisha. He was better prepared to be taken up after he was baptized in the Jordan, since Paul, as we explained previously, called the more incredible passage through water a baptism. [1Co 10:2.] It is because of this same Jordan that Elisha is capable of receiving the gift that he...
2025-05-2711 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 120 - 1 Chronicles 27-29“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God; consider the outcome of their life and imitate their faith.” [Heb 13:7.] Emperors have not preached the word to you, but apostles and prophets, shepherds and teachers. When God gave commands to David concerning the house David intended to build for him, he said to him, “You may not build a house for my name, for you are a warrior and have shed blood.” “Pay all of them their dues,” the apostle Paul says, “taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect i...
2025-04-3014 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 109 - 1 Kings 1-2, 1 Chronicles 21Solomon, it will be remembered, succeeded to the throne during his father David’s lifetime—a kind of succession unique among Jewish kings—for no other reason save to furnish further clear evidence that Solomon is not the man our prophecy proclaims. Nathan says to David, “And when your days shall be fulfilled and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.” [2Sa 7:12.] In view of these words, how can anyone think that, because of the later verse, “He shall build a hous...
2025-04-1918 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 101 - Psalms 80-83, 88So let them keep quiet, let them now see that the real Hercules is the God to whom the faithful say, “God, who is like you? Do not keep silent, or grow gentle, God.” What I had undertaken was to show how “do not grow gentle” means rooting out errors, not people. He does not grow gentle, so he gets angry. But he is God, so he also takes pity. He gets angry, and he takes pity. He gets angry and strikes; he takes pity and heals. He gets angry and does to death; he takes pity and brings to life...
2025-04-1107 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 90 - 1 Samuel 26-30Why, even now the followers of Simon [Magus] (Acts 8) are so confident of their art that they undertake to bring back the souls of the prophets from hell. And this, I believe, because their power lies in their ability to deceive. This power was actually granted to the witch of Endor, who brought back the soul of Samuel after Saul had consulted God in vain. Apart from that case, God forbid we should believe that any soul, much less a prophet, could be called forth by a demon. We are told that "Satan himself is transformed into an angel...
2025-03-3115 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 84 - 1 Samuel 13-14And mark it, he [the devil] desired to bring Saul into [the] superstition of witchcraft. But if he had counseled this at the beginning, the other would not have given heed; for how should he, who was even driving them out? Therefore gently and by little and little he leads him on to it. For when he had disobeyed Samuel and had caused the burnt offering to be offered, when he was not present, being blamed for it, he says, "The compulsion from the enemy was too great," and when he ought to have bewailed, he felt as though...
2025-03-2511 min
Copts in ConversationEpisode 6 - Once upon a Church Father - Part TWOIn this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Peter Abdelmalak, who is, in his own words, a boringly average pediatrician, and who started a special kind of meeting at his local parish, and his journey into the world of the Church FathersResources to help you get started:Patrology by Johannes Quasten,Volume 1: https://a.co/d/6hA68IqVolume 2: https://a.co/d/3e9Jt1JVolume 3: https://a.co/d/4nr94AUVolume 4: https://a.co/d/eTPiLqHFormation of the Christian Theology by Fr John Behr,...
2025-03-2450 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 83 - 1 Samuel 10-12What did Samuel profit Saul? Did he not mourn for him even to his last day, and not merely pray for him only? What did he profit the Israelites? Did he not say, "God forbid that I should sin in ceasing to pray for you"? Did they not all perish? Do prayers then, you say, profit nothing? They profit even greatly: but it is when we also do something. For prayers indeed cooperate and assist, but a man cooperates with one that is operating and assists one that is himself also working. But if you remain idle, you will...
2025-03-2410 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 82 - 1 Samuel 7-9God alone is substantially and essentially God. When I say "alone," I set forth the holy and uncreated essence and substance of God. For the word alone is used in the case of any individual and generally of human nature. In the instance of Paul, that he alone was caught into the third heaven and "heard unspeakable words that are not lawful for a man to utter," (2 Cor 12:4) and of human nature, as when David says, "as for man his days are as grass," (Ps 103:15) not meaning any particular man but human nature generally; for every human is short-lived...
2025-03-2309 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 81 - 1 Samuel 4-6When those who delight in idolatry see the power of Christ against their own gods, they do not wish to embrace faith in him, lest on account of their faith alone they be compelled to reject the whole pantheon of their gods. When false Christians see that because of their faith in Christ the sins which they love are now forbidden to them, they ward off with all their might the very piety called forth by their faith, so that they might not end up being ordered at the behest of their faith to quench the desires they serve...
2025-03-2209 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 80 - 1 Samuel 1-3Take note of the woman‘s reverence: she did not say, "If you give me three, I shall give you two;" or "if two, I shall give you one." Instead, "If you give me one, I shall dedicate the offspring wholly to you." "He will not drink wine or strong drink." She had not yet received the child and was already forming a prophet, talking about his upbringing and making a deal with God. What wonderful confidence on a woman‘s part! Since she could not make a deposit on account of not having anything, she pays the price from...
2025-03-2111 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 79 - Ruth 1-4If, therefore, we know that Tamar was included in the Lord‘s genealogy on account of mystery, we ought also to conclude, without doubt, that Ruth was not omitted for a similar reason, which the holy apostle seems to sense when he foresees in the Spirit that the calling of foreign nations will be accomplished through the gospel, saying that the law was given not for the just but for the unjust. For how did Ruth, when she was a foreigner, marry a Jew? And for what reason did the Evangelist believe that this marriage, which was forbidden by th...
2025-03-2012 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 78 - Judges 20-21At Gibeah also, now a complete ruin, she, [Paula, the mother of Eustochium,] stopped for a little while remembering its sin, and the cutting of the concubine into pieces, and how in spite of all this three hundred men of the tribe of Benjamin were saved6 that in after days Paul might be called a Benjamite―St Jerome
2025-03-1910 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 77 - Judges 17-19It happened that a certain Levite was injured in the person of his wife; and, when he considered the exceeding greatness of the pollution (for the woman was a Hebrew, and of the tribe of Judah), being astounded at the outrage which had been committed against him, he divided his wife‘s body, as the holy Scripture relates in the book of Judges, and sent a part of it to every tribe in Israel, in order that it might be understood that an injury like this pertained not to himself only, but extended to all alike; and that if th...
2025-03-1811 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 76 - Judges 14-16Why was the mighty man Samson rejected by God, he who was set apart and consecrated to God while still in the womb; whose birth was announced by an angel, like John, the son of Zacharias; who was granted great power and worked great wonders [and who by the supernatural strength which God poured into his body smote a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass and became a saviour and judge unto Israel]? Was it not because he defiled his holy members by union with a harlot? For this reason God departed from him and surrendered him...
2025-03-1711 min
Copts in ConversationEpisode 5 - Once upon a Church Father - Part ONEIn this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Peter Abdelmalak, who is, in his own words, a boringly average pediatrician, and who started a special kind of meeting at his local parish, and his journey into the world of the Church FathersResources to help you get started:Patrology by Johannes Quasten,Volume 1: https://a.co/d/6hA68IqVolume 2: https://a.co/d/3e9Jt1JVolume 3: https://a.co/d/4nr94AUVolume 4: https://a.co/d/eTPiLqHFormation of the Christian Theology by Fr John Behr,...
2025-03-171h 00
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 75 - Judges 11-13People imitate those who do good deeds, therefore, not out of love for these good deeds but because of their utility.… The king of Moab took note of Jephthah. But, because it was his firstborn and a human being rather than an animal that he killed, God took pity on him, since he did it in affliction and not through love. In the case of Jephthah, if it had been one of his servants who had been first to encounter him, he would have killed him. But, in order that people would not engage in the sacrifice of their fe...
2025-03-1612 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 74 - Judges 8-10And no one has been so illiterate as to think that similar fables of Aesop, related for the same purpose, ought to be called lies. But also in the sacred writings such passages are found, as in the book of Judges the trees look for a king to rule over them and speak to the olive and the fig and the vine and the bramble. Surely, all this is invented in order that we may reach the matter intended by means of a narrative [that is] fictitious, to be sure, but bearing a true and not a false signification―St...
2025-03-1515 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 73 - Judges 5-7Just as the six hundred years of life which Noah completed prior to entering the ark designate the perfection of faith and confession of those who approach the church‘s sacraments of heavenly grace and perpetual reward, so also does the three hundred and fifty years that he lived after the great flood typify the perfection of those who, having received the sacraments of life, zealously and faithfully serve the Lord until death. For we say that three hundred, because it is denoted in Greek by the letter tau, which is written in the shape of a cross, most ap...
2025-03-1414 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 72 - Judges 3-4As useful as it is to me that you [the Lord] should leave me for a little while in order to test the steadfastness of my desire, so it is harmful if you let me be abandoned for too long because of my deserts and my sins. For no human strength will be able to endure by its own steadfastness if it is too long abandoned by your help in time of trial. Nor will it be able to give way instantly before the power and wherewithal of the adversary if you yourself, who are aware of human strengths...
2025-03-1308 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 71 - Judges 1-2Let us consider where he has set his ascent: "In the valley of tears, in the place that he has appointed." We have read in the book of Judges that when the angel came and preached repentance to the people, saying, "You have abandoned the Lord, and the Lord shall abandon you," the Israelites wept aloud when they heard the threat; and that place was called the valley of tears. We have called attention to ancient history in order to avoid heresy. The valley of tears, moreover, we may understand allegorically as this world, for we are not on...
2025-03-1208 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 70 - Joshua 23-24The Septuagint has translated "And I took your father Abraham from across the river and led him into all the earth." A literal reading of the Hebrew would be "And I led him into the land of Canaan." It is astonishing, therefore, that the translators of the Septuagint would have wished to insert "the whole earth" instead of "land of Canaan," unless they were considering the prophecy so much that they accepted as already done what was still at the time a promise from God. For it was announced beforehand in very clear terms what would take place concerning...
2025-03-1108 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 69 - Joshua 20-22But let us see what sacrament lies within this deed. The former people of the circumcision are represented in Reuben, (Gen. 29:32) who was the firstborn; but also in Gad, who also is the firstborn out of Zilpah;(Gen. 30:10) and Manasseh, no less a firstborn.(Gen. 41:51) But insofar as I say "firstborn," I speak chronologically. Therefore, these things are said not that it might be evident some division and separation is between us and those who were righteous before the coming of Christ, but that they might reveal themselves to still be our brothers even if they existed before the...
2025-03-1013 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 68 - Joshua 17-19And see the names of those two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. Babylon is interpreted confusion, Jerusalem vision of peace. Observe now the city of confusion, in order that you may perceive the vision of peace; that you may endure the one and long for the other. By what can those two cities be distinguished? Can we in any way now separate them from each other? They are mingled, and from the very beginning of humankind mingled they run on until the end of the world. Jerusalem began through Abel, Babylon through Cain: for the buildings of the cities were...
2025-03-0913 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 67 - Joshua 15-16After Ham had been cursed through his one son, [Noah] blessed Shem and Japheth and said, "May God increase Japheth and may he dwell in the tent of Shem, and let Canaan be their slave." (Gen. 9:27) Japheth increased and became powerful in his inheritance in the north and in the west. And God dwelt in the tent of Abraham, the descendent of Shem, and Canaan became their slave when in the days of Joshua son of Nun, the Israelites destroyed the dwelling-places of [Canaan] and pressed their leaders into bondage―Mari Ephrem the Syrian
2025-03-0808 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 66 - Joshua 12-14Just as those who submit to the law, which is the "shadow" of that true law, diligently serve a "shadow and copy" of "heavenly things," (Heb. 8:5) so those who divide the inheritance of the land in Judea imitate the "copy and shadow" of a heavenly division. Thus truth was in heaven, "but a shadow and copy" of truth was on earth. And as long as this shadow remained on earth, there was an earthly Jerusalem; there was a temple, an altar and a visible worship; there were priests and high priests; and there existed regions and towns of Judea...
2025-03-0710 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 65 - Joshua 9-11Actually, as we have recorded in our Scriptures, the sun itself stood still when the holy man, Joshua the son of Nun, asked that favor of God, and it remained where it was until a battle, already begun, ended in victory.… Such are the miracles which God grants as favors to his saints; although our adversaries would attribute them—if they believed them—to the arts of magic.…In regard, then, to human knowledge of the natures of things, the unbelievers have no right to becloud the issue by their assumption that nothing, even by the power of God...
2025-03-0614 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 64 - Joshua 6-8Pay attention to me; how strange was the preaching of God‘s love toward humanity! He who says in the law, "You shall not commit adultery" and "You shall not commit prostitution," changes the commandment by clemency and proclaims through the blessed Joshua, "Let Rahab the prostitute live." Joshua the son of Nun, who says, "Let the prostitute live," prefigured the Lord Jesus, who says, "The prostitutes and tax collectors go into the kingdom of the heavens before you." If she must live, how can she be a prostitute? If she is a prostitute, why should she live? "I sp...
2025-03-0514 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 63 - Joshua 1-5And do not imagine that these deeds are only in former times and nothing so great as this is brought forth in you who are now the hearer of them. For all things are fulfilled in you according to a mystical reckoning. Indeed you who long to draw near to the hearing of the divine law have recently forsaken the darkness of idolatry and are now for the first time forsaking Egypt. When you are reckoned among the number of catechumens and have undertaken to submit to the precepts of the church, you have parted the Red Sea and...
2025-03-0417 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 62 - Deuteronomy 32-34Moses‘ death is recorded to have been even more sublime than his life. He died on a mountain peak and left behind neither trace nor memorial of his earthly burden in life. The impress of beauty was not altered by time but remained unchangeable in the changeable nature―St Gregory of Nyssa
2025-03-0313 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 61 - Deuteronomy 29-31Pay attention to what comes next: "Without love, a measure of money is sufficient for present needs, because he himself said, 'I will not forsake you; I will not desert you.‘ " "You were afraid of all kinds of evils, against which you were saving money; count me as your guarantor." That‘s what God says to you. God—not a man, not your equal or you yourself—says to you: "I will not forsake you; I will not desert you." If a person made such a promise, you would trust him. God makes it, and you hesitate? He made the prom...
2025-03-0212 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 60 - Deuteronomy 26-28The good God reveals an understanding of this gift to his saints and gives it "from his good treasury," as the sacred law attests, when it says, "The Lord swore to your fathers to give to you" and to open "his good treasury." From this heavenly treasury he gives rain to his earth "to bless all the works of your hands." The rain is this: "the utterance" of the law, which falls like dew upon the soul that is fecund and fertile with good works, so that it may possess the moisture of grace―St Ambrose
2025-03-0116 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 59 - Deuteronomy 22-25What does Scripture mean by these riddles? That it is not right for evil and virtue to grow together in the same soul. Nor is it right, dividing one‘s life between opposites, to reap thorns and grain from the same soul. Nor is it right for the bride of Christ to commit adultery with the enemies of Christ or to bear light in the womb and beget darkness―St Gregory of Nyssa
2025-02-2813 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 58 - Deuteronomy 19-21If any of our own people also inquire, not from love of debate but from love of learning, why he suffered death in no other way except on the cross, let him also be told that no other way than this was good for us and that it was well that the Lord suffered this for our sakes. For if he himself came to bear the curse laid upon us, how else could he have ―become a curse‖1 unless he received the death set for a curse? And that is the cross. For this is exactly what is written: "Curs...
2025-02-2709 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 57 - Deuteronomy 15-18"Like me," says Moses. This means according to the form of the flesh, not to the eminence of majesty. Therefore we find the Lord Jesus called a prophet. Accordingly that [Samaritan] woman, is no longer greatly in error when she says, "I see that you are a prophet." She begins to call her husband, to exclude the adulterer. "I see that you are a prophet." And she begins to ask about a thing that constantly disturbs her―St Augustine
2025-02-2612 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 56 - Deuteronomy 12-14God is said to know even when he causes someone to know, as it has been written: "The Lord your God puts you to the test that he might know if you love him." Now this manner of speaking does not mean that God does not know; rather, [it was said] in order that people might know how far they have progressed in the love of God—a thing which is not fully recognized by them except by way of the testings which come about. As for the expression "he puts to the test," it means that God permits te...
2025-02-2511 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 55 - Deuteronomy 8-11Nourish your soul with the fear of God, and God will nourish [your] body. Do these things, so that what you yourself are unable [to procure] may be given you by God. Take note of this, if God does not give the rain and the wind, it avails you naught, even if you are anxious. Obey God, therefore, and creation will obey your needs. If God nourished Israel for forty years in the desert, while they were murmuring and disbelieving, and effortlessly preserved their sandals and clothing, how much more so in the case of believers?―Mari Ephrem the Sy...
2025-02-2414 min
Copts in ConversationEpisode FOUR - ICONS and why we paint the walls of the Church - PART 2This episode is Part 2 of my conversation with Kirollos Kilada. Kirollos Kilada is an artist based in Mississauga, ON, Canada. He holds a Bachelor of Design (BDes) from OCAD University and is currently pursuing a Master of Theological Studies (MTS) in Orthodox Christian Studies at Trinity College at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on Iconography, Sacred Space and Beauty within Coptic Orthodox Tradition.Kirollos has been commissioned to paint Coptic icons for churches and homes in Canada, The United States, Australia and Europe for both Copts and other Christians.As an...
2025-02-2450 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 54 - Deuteronomy 5-7Blessed is the mind of that man who, overstepping the bounds of species and race, deserves to hear what was said to Moses when he stood apart from his people: "Stand here with me."―St Ambrose
2025-02-2312 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 53 - Deuteronomy 3-4The intention of the law was that in everything they should look toward what is real. They should not make up things which are different from reality or misrepresent what is truly male or what is really female, or the nature of beasts or the species of birds or creeping things, or fishes―Origen
2025-02-2211 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 52 - Deuteronomy 1-2And here this other fact will not appear to be without significance, that it is Moses who hears from God all that is written down in the law of Leviticus, whereas in Deuteronomy it is the people who are represented as listening to Moses and learning from him what they could not hear from God. This indeed is why it is called Deuteronomy, meaning the second law. A fact which some will think points to this [is] that when the first law given through Moses came to an end, a second legislation was apparently composed, and this was specially...
2025-02-2111 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 51 - Numbers 35-36The man who renounces the vices and rejects the way of life of his countrymen is in flight like Lot. Such a one does not look behind himself but enters that city which is above by the passageway of his thoughts, and he does not withdraw from it until the death of the chief priest who bore the sin of the world. He indeed died once, but he dies for each person who is baptized in Christ‘s death, that we may be buried together with him and rise with him and walk in the newness of his life―St A...
2025-02-2007 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 50 - Numbers 32-34You have heard that Moses wrote this down by the word of the Lord. Why did the Lord want him to write it down? Was it so that this passage in Scripture about the stages the children of Israel made might benefit us in some way or that it should bring us no benefit? Who would dare to say that what is written "by the Word of God" is of no use and makes no contribution to salvation but is merely a narrative of what happened and was over and done a long time ago, but pertains in no...
2025-02-1913 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 49 - Numbers 29-31But a deeper vengeance is taken on fiercer foes and on those that are false as well as on those who have done greater wrongs, as was the case with the Midianites. For they had made many of the Jewish people to sin through their women. For this reason the anger of the Lord was poured out upon the people of our fathers. Thus it came about that Moses when victorious allowed none of them to live—St Ambrose
2025-02-1813 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 48 - Numbers 26-28A lottery takes place to avoid contention and to assure greater certitude and clarity. The source of this rule is the counsel of God. Devout men do not entrust their affairs to blind chance. This is what Paul means when he says, "We have been called to this destiny, predestined according to the mind of him who moves all things and according to the counsel of his will." Our use of lots bespeaks grace because, by God‘s word, it takes place according to faith. The apostles imply the same idea when they say, "Lord, knower of hearts, designate th...
2025-02-1714 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 47 - Numbers 23-25We are told that Balaam‘s successors moved by this (for the prediction was preserved most likely among them) when they noticed in the heavens a strange star besides the usual ones, fixed above the head, so to say, and vertically above Judea, hastened to arrive at Palestine, to inquire about the king announced by the star‘s appearance―Eusebius
2025-02-1609 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 46 - Numbers 21-22What offense does Balaam commit, except that he said one thing and plotted another? For God seeks out a pure vessel, one not corrupted by impurity and squalor. Balaam was tested, therefore, but he was not found acceptable: "For he was full of lies and guile." In short, when he first inquired whether he ought to go to that vain people and was stopped, he made excuses. Later, when more important legates were sent and more copious things were promised, he was enticed by the richer gifts— although he should have renounced them— and decided that there should be anot...
2025-02-1510 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 45 - Numbers 18-20So in the case of one of us, if he leans to either side, whether from vice or ignorance, no slight danger of a fall into sin from vice or ignorance, no slight danger of a fall into sin is incurred, both for himself and those who are led by him. But we must really walk in the king‘s highway and take care not to turn aside from it either to the right hand or to the left, as the Proverbs say. For such is the case with our passions, and such in this matter is the straight pa...
2025-02-1413 min
Copts in ConversationEpisode THREE - ICONS and why we paint the walls of the Church - PART 1In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Kirollos Kilada is an artist based in Mississauga, ON, Canada. He holds a Bachelor of Design (BDes) from OCAD University and is currently pursuing a Master of Theological Studies (MTS) in Orthodox Christian Studies at Trinity College at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on Iconography, Sacred Space and Beauty within Coptic Orthodox Tradition.Kirollos has been commissioned to paint Coptic icons for churches and homes in Canada, The United States, Australia and Europe for both Copts and other Christians.As an iconographer, he...
2025-02-131h 21
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 44 - Numbers 15-17Why was he punished just for gathering sticks? Because if the laws were obstinately despised even at the beginning, of course they would scarcely be observed afterwards. For indeed the sabbath did at the first confer many and great benefits. It made them gentle toward those of their household and humane. It taught them God‘s providence and the creation, as Ezekiel says; it trained them by degrees to abstain from wickedness and disposed them to regard the things of the Spirit―St John Chrysostom
2025-02-1313 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 43 - Numbers 13-14Later on, a sacred vine put forth a cluster of grapes that was prophetic. To those who had been led by the Educator to a place of rest after their wanderings it was a sign, for the great cluster of grapes is the Word crushed on our account. The Word desired that the "blood of the grape" be mixed with water as a symbol that his own blood is an integral element in salvation―Clement of Alexandria
2025-02-1210 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 42 - Numbers 9-12We would be censured along with those who dwelt in the desert and who desired the disgusting food of vice and filthiness after having eaten the heavenly manna, and we would seem to complain like them: "It was well with us in Egypt, when we sat over pots of flesh and ate onions and garlic and cucumbers and melons." Although this manner of speaking first referred to that people, nonetheless we see it now daily fulfilled in our life and profession. For everyone who has first renounced this world and then returns to his former pursuits and his erstwhile...
2025-02-1114 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 41 - Numbers 7-8What does it mean that Moses often enters the tabernacle and comes out, except that he, whose mind is raised up in contemplation, must go out to deal with the affairs of the weak? Inside he contemplates the mysteries of God. Outside he bears the burdens of carnal persons. And Moses, who always has recourse to the tabernacle in matters of doubt and consults the Lord in the ark of the covenant, undoubtedly offers an example to officeholders. When in their public lives they are unsure of what to decide, they should always ponder in their minds, as in...
2025-02-1015 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 40 - Numbers 5-6What does it mean that Nazirites cultivate their hair, except that they cultivate pleasing thoughts through their lives of continence? What does it mean that, when the time of his vow is fulfilled, the Nazirite is bidden to shave his head and to put his hair in the sacrificial fire? It means that we reach the height of perfection when we have so conquered external vices that we restrain even superfluous thoughts in our minds. And to burn these thoughts in sacrificial fire means to burn them in the flame of divine love, so that one‘s whole heart bu...
2025-02-0908 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 39 - Numbers 3-4Further, the priests are described as being more eminent than the Levites; for this same Scripture tells us that "the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Bring the tribe of Levi and make them stand in the sight of Aaron the priest, to minister to him.‘" Do you see how here too he both speaks of the priests as superior to the Levites and once more makes the Levites appear as more eminent than the children of Israel?―Origen
2025-02-0813 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 38 - Numbers 1-2We gather from the book of Numbers that there may be something greater than Israel too. For there the whole of Israel is numbered and reckoned in twelve tribes, as under a fixed number. But the tribe of Levi, being of greater eminence than the others, is accounted extra to this number and never thought of as being one of Israel‘s number [of twelve]―Origen
2025-02-0711 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 37 - Leviticus 25-27Who is there who has grasped the mind of Christ so well that he knows the meaning of the seventh year of freedom of Hebrew slaves1 and the remission of debts and the intermission of the cultivation of the holy land? Over and above the feast of every seventh year is the feast called the jubilee. No one can ever come near divining its precise meaning or the true import of the prescriptions enjoined by it, except him who knows the Father‘s will and his disposition for every age according to "his incomprehensible judgments and unsearchable ways"―Origen
2025-02-0618 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 36 - Leviticus 23-24In the first place, the figure of the twelve apostles is clearly foretold here in the very number of the loaves, for when the Lord appeared in flesh he chose them to be the first of those by whose ministry he gave the food of life to all nations. And then to these same disciples of his (that is, to our apostles), he says in reference to the multitudes hungering in the wilderness, "You give them something to eat." And when five thousand men had been satisfied from the five loaves, they "gathered twelve baskets of fragments," doubtless because...
2025-02-0509 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 35 - Leviticus 20-22At the end, it is stated, "If a man eats of the sanctified things through ignorance, iniquity and wickedness are laid at his feet, and he shall be bound by a vow." Thus also the apostle teaches us that we are to eat the Eucharist of the Lord with caution, lest we eat to our condemnation and judgment. If ignorance is condemned under the law, how much more will full knowledge be condemned according to the gospel?―St Jerome
2025-02-0411 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 34 - Leviticus 16-19Long before Christ it had been said, "You shall not covet"; long before it had been said, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," a phrase which, as the apostle says, expresses the fulfillment of the whole law.9 And as no one loves himself unless he loves God, the Lord says that the whole Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments―St Augustine
2025-02-0316 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 33 - Leviticus 12-15For from the beginning "the spirit of God moved over the waters," and over and again Scripture testifies to the fact that water is purifying. It was with water that God washed away the sin of the world in the time of Noah. It was with water that every one who was unclean was purified in accordance with the law, and even their garments were washed with water―John of Damascus
2025-02-0222 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 32 - Leviticus 8-11The all-wise Educator, by the lips of Moses, compared association with corrupt men to living with swine when he forbade the ancient people to partake of swine. He made it plain in those words that they who invoke God should not seek the company of the unclean who, like swine, revel in bodily pleasures and filthy habits of life and impure delights―Clement of Alexandria
2025-02-0117 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 31 - Leviticus 4-7Not without reason are "a pair of turtledoves and two young doves" accepted in the sacrifices. For they are worth the same, and you never find separate mention of just a pair of doves but "a pair of turtledoves and two young doves." The dove denotes the Holy Spirit. But when the great and more hidden mysteries are in question and the things that many people cannot grasp, then the Holy Spirit is represented under the appellation of a turtledove—of the bird, that is to say, that always dwells on mountain ridges and in the tops of trees. Bu...
2025-01-3117 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 30 - Leviticus 1-3If indeed the soul takes refuge in God, believes and seeks the salt of life which is the good and person-loving Spirit, then the heavenly salt comes and kills those ugly worms. The Spirit takes away the awful stench and cleanses the soul by the strength of his salt. Thus the soul is brought back to health and freed from its wounds by the true salt in order to be again useful and ordered to serve the heavenly Lord. That is why even in the law God uses this example when he ordered that all sacrifices be salted with...
2025-01-3007 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 29 - Consecration of the TabernacleFor if any one do, without prejudice, and with judgment look upon these things, he will find they were every one made in way of imitation and representation of the universe. When Moses distinguished the tabernacle into three parts, and allowed two of them to the Priests, as a place accessible and common, he denoted the land and the sea: for these are accessible to all. But when he set apart the third division for God, it was because heaven is inaccessible to men. And when he ordered twelve loaves to be set on the table, he denoted the...
2025-01-2918 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 28 - Building the TabernacleFor we are not wrong in saying just the same of Bezalel, that being entrusted by Moses with the building of the tabernacle, he became the constructor of those things there mentioned. He would not have taken the work in hand had he not previously acquired his knowledge by divine inspiration. He ventured upon the undertaking on Moses‘ entrusting him with its execution. Accordingly the term entrusted suggests that his office and power in creation came to him as something adventitious, in the sense that before he was entrusted with that commission he had neither the will nor the po...
2025-01-2814 min
Copts in ConversationEpisode TWO - Coptic Mans in Foreign Lands and the case of Diasporic AmbivelenceIn this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Carol Markos, an aspiring socio-cultural anthropologist and hopes to contribute to the development of the social sciences in Coptic Studies. Carol is a recent graduate of Migration and Diaspora Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, where she completed her Master’s thesis on the role of religious identity in the lives of Coptic youth in Mississauga, Ontario, which she also calls home.
2025-01-271h 59
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 27 - Rebellion at the CampHe sought to imitate the shepherd who would, he knew, carry on his shoulders even the wandering sheep. ―The good shepherd‖—these are the Lord‘s own words―lays down his life for the sheep.‖8 One of his disciples can wish to be anathema from Christ for his brothers‘ sake, his kinsmen according to the flesh who were Israelites. If then Paul can desire to perish that the lost may not be lost, how much should good parents not provoke their children to wrath or by too great severity embitter those who are naturally mild―St Jerome
2025-01-2711 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 26 - The Consecration of AaronThere were two altars in the temple, which expressed the two covenants in the church. The first, the altar of burnt offerings, which was plated with bronze and was situated in front of the doors of the temple, was for the offering up of victims and sacrifices. It signified the fleshly minded worshipers of the Old Covenant. And then there was the altar of incense, which was covered with gold and set near the entrance of the Holy of Holies and was to burn fragrant gums on. This prefigured the interior and more perfect grace of the New Covenant...
2025-01-2617 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 25 - The TabernacleBehold, the glorification of matter, which you despise! What is more insignificant than colored goatskins? Are not blue and purple and scarlet merely colors? Behold the handiwork of men becoming the likeness of the cherubim! Was not the meeting tent an image in every way? "And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain." Yet all the people stood around it and worshiped! Were not the cherubim kept where all the people could see them? Did not the people gaze upon the ark, and the lampstand, and the table...
2025-01-2512 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 24 - The LawFor it is not everyone who may draw near to God but only one who, like Moses, can bear the glory of God. Moreover, before this, when the law was first given, the trumpet blasts, and lightnings, and thunders, and darkness, and the smoke of the whole mountain, and the terrible threats that if even a beast touched the mountain it should be stoned, and other like alarms kept back the rest of the people, for whom it was a great privilege, after careful purification, merely to hear the voice of God. But Moses actually went up, and entered...
2025-01-2411 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 23 - The DecalogueWe should also know that the ten commandments of the law are also fulfilled by the two gospel precepts, love of God and love of neighbor. For the three commandments which were written on the first tablet pertain to the love of God, while on the second tablet seven commandments were inscribed, one of which is "Honor your father and your mother." Doubtless all of the latter are recognized as pertaining to love of neighbor. The Lord said in the Gospel: "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." Likewise we read what the apostle James...
2025-01-2311 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 22 - Manna from Heaven and Water from a RockIf anyone cannot endure what I have said but still clings to the poverty of worldly things, snatching at the things which undergo diminution, let him call to mind the food of manna. Let him tremble at the example of that punishment. For what happened in that instance, this same result one may now also see in the case of covetous people. But what then happened to them? Worms were bred from their covetousness. This also now happens in their case. For the measure of the food is the same for all. You have but one stomach to fill...
2025-01-2212 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 21 - Crossing the Red SeaIt is said in the ode, "For he has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has he cast into the sea." The many-limbed and brutal affection, lust, with the rider mounted, who gives reigns to pleasures, "he has cast into the sea," throwing them away into the disorders of the world―St Clement of Alexandria
2025-01-2113 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 20 - The ExodusThe sacrifice of this lamb was so great that even the shadow of its truth was sufficient for salvation in freeing the Jews from the slavery of Pharaoh, as though already the liberation of the creature from the slavery of corruption was prefigured, the image of Christ‘s coming passion worked for the advent of salvation―Martin of Braga
2025-01-2014 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 19 - Pharaoh hardens his heartGod constantly says, "I will harden Pharaoh‘s heart," and gives the reason why he does this. He says, "I will harden Pharaoh‘s heart and fulfill my signs and my portents in Egypt," as if the hardening of Pharaoh‘s heart were necessary so that God‘s signs might be multiplied and fulfilled in Egypt. God makes good use of bad hearts for what he wishes to show to those who are good or those he is going to make good. And the quality of evil in each heart (that is, what sort of heart is disposed to evil) ca...
2025-01-1914 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 18 - Moses and The Burning BushWhen the almighty Lord of the universe began to legislate through the Word and decided to make his power visible to Moses, he sent Moses a divine vision with the appearance of light, in the burning bush. Now a bramble bush is full of thorns. So too when the Word was concluding his legislation and his stay among men as their Lord, again he permitted himself to be crowned with thorns as a mystic symbol. Returning to the place from which he had descended, the Word renewed that by which he had first come, appearing first in the bush...
2025-01-1817 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 17 - The Deliverer is BornHe who hated the pomp of royalty returned to the lowly state of his own race. He preferred to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of sin. He who, possessing naturally a love for justice, on one occasion even before the government of the people was entrusted to him was seen inflicting on the wicked punishment to the extent of death because of his natural hatred of villainy. He was banished by those to whom he had been a benefactor. He gladly left the uproar of the Egyptians and went to...
2025-01-1706 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 16 - Jacob enters Egypt See how he also taught his sons from the very beginning to show due respect for the old man. Joseph brought them along according to seniority, the text says, and presented Manasseh and then Ephraim. At this point notice, I ask you, how the good man‘s bodily eyes were by this time weak through old age ("His eyes had faded with age," remember, "and he could not see"), but the eyes of his mind were strengthened, and by faith Jacob already saw what was going to happen. I mean, instead of heeding Joseph, Jacob crossed his hands over in...
2025-01-1616 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 15 - Family ReunionOur God himself also exhorts that people with his own prophecy and promises them advancement in the faith, the fruit of his gift, for he says to them, "Joseph shall put his hand on your eyes." It was not that the holy patriarch was troubled as to who should close his eyes, although in the clear understanding of it a natural love is also being expressed. For we often desire to embrace those whom we love. How much more, when we are about to depart from this body, do we take delight in the last touch of our beloved...
2025-01-1521 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 14 - Joseph the Interpreter of DreamsInstead of passing this idly by, let us consider his philosophical frame of mind in finding such a suitable opportunity and in not maligning the Egyptian woman (I make the same point, note) or drawing attention to his master or his brothers, aware as he was that the chief cupbearer was in the ideal position to acquaint the king of his situation once he had come into his own. Joseph assigned no blame for his being sentenced to a term in prison and was in no hurry to demonstrate the injustice committed against him. Rather, his one concern was...
2025-01-1411 min
Copts in ConversationEpisode ONE - LITURGY, that thing we do Sunday morningIn this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Karim Guirguis, currently a PhD student at Trinity College (as of Fall 2023), under the supervision of Dr. Jesse Billett, looking to produce an edition and liturgical theological study of the Euchologion of the White MonasteryKarim received his MTS from the Orthodox School of Theology at Trinity College, where his thesis about the formative telos of liturgy, under the supervision of Fr. Geoffrey Ready. Additionally, Karim presented at a few conferences, and has several papers published in the fields of patristics, hermeneutics, and liturgy and...
2025-01-131h 59
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 13 - Joseph and his dreamsWhy do you envy and hate the righteous, if God revealed to him his own mysteries and made clear through visions what would have happened at the end of time? Why do you grieve at the sight of his embroidered tunic, if the just Father honored him by loving him more than everybody else, and sent him to visit you as a Shepherd among the shepherds, and presented to the world a trustworthy witness and a sheaf for his old age, and raised from the dead a holy firstborn as first fruits? Why do you get angry if the...
2025-01-1312 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 12 - Jacob and his twelve sonsAfter he was called by God, Jacob ascends to Bethel, that is, to the house of God (this is how the name Bethel is interpreted), offers sacrifices to God and is declared chief and master of the holy rites. He teaches his successors and descendants how they must enter the house of God. He orders the foreign gods to be rejected like dung and filth and to change the garments. It is fitting for us to do likewise when we are called before God, or enter the divine temple, especially in the time of the holy baptism. We, as...
2025-01-1213 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 11 - Jacob wrestles with GodTherefore Jacob, who had purified his heart of all pretenses and was manifesting a peaceable disposition, first cast off all that was his, then remained behind alone and wrestled with God. For whoever forsakes worldly things comes nearer to the image and likeness of God. What is it to wrestle with God other than to enter upon the struggle for virtue, to contend with one who is stronger and to become a better imitator of God than the others are? Because Jacob‘s faith and devotion were unconquerable, the Lord revealed his hidden mysteries to him by touching the si...
2025-01-1115 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 10 - Jacob's LadderNotice here, I ask you, the extraordinary care of the loving God. When he saw [Jacob] consenting to the journey in accordance with his mother‘s advice, which came out of fear of his brother, and taking to the road like some athlete, with no support from any source, leaving everything instead to help from on high, Christ wanted at the very beginning of the journey to strengthen Jacob‘s resolve. And so he appeared to him with the words "I am the God of Abraham and the God of your father Isaac." I have caused the patriarch and your...
2025-01-1014 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 9 - Esau sells his birthrightI have already put it to your holinesses yesterday that the reason why the elder son is called Esau is that no one becomes spiritual without first having been "of the flesh" or materialistic. But if they persist in "the mind of the flesh," they will always be Esau. If, however, they become spiritual, they will then be the younger son. But then the junior will be the senior; the other takes precedence in time, this one in virtue. Before it ever came to this blessing, Esau had longed to have the lentils Jacob had cooked. And Jacob said...
2025-01-0916 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 8 - Sarah dies and Isaac marries RebekahSarah‘s death was the occasion for the patriarch‘s first instance of acquiring land. Sacred Scripture in fact shows us in every case the patriarch‘s virtue, in that he passed all his time as an alien and a nomad. And it mentions this latest item for us to learn that the man who enjoyed so much assistance from on high, who had become so famous and had increased in number to such a vast multitude, could not call a place his own, unlike many people today, who give all their attention to acquiring land, whole towns and great...
2025-01-0812 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 7 - The Binding of Isaac and Jehovah-JirehIn two things then was Abraham victorious: that he killed his son although he did not kill him and that he believed that after Isaac died he would be raised up again and would go back down with him. For Abraham was firmly convinced that he who said to him, through Isaac shall your descendants be named," was not lying―St Ephrem the Syrian
2025-01-0708 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 6 - The Hospitality of AbrahamThus the Lord God is said to have appeared as a common man to Abraham while he was seated by the oak of Mamre. But [Abraham] immediately fell down, although he saw a man with his eyes, and worshiped him as God, besought him as Lord and confessed that he was not ignorant as to who he was, using these very words, "O Lord, judge of all the earth, will you not judge righteously?" For if it should be unreasonable to suppose that the unbegotten and immutable substance of God the Almighty was changed into the form of man...
2025-01-0618 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 5 - The Patriarch meets the Priest King of SalemLikewise, in the priest Melchizedek, we see the sacrament of the sacrifice of the Lord prefigured according to what the divine Scripture testifies and says: "And Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, for he was a priest of the most high God, and he blessed Abraham." But that Melchizedek portrayed a type of Christ, the Holy Spirit declares in the Psalms, saying in the person of the Father to the Son: "Before the day star ... I have begotten you …. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." The order proceeds first from th...
2025-01-0512 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 4 - The Promise and the TowerAfter the flood, as if striving to fortify themselves against God, as if there could be anything high for God or anything secure for pride, certain proud men built a tower, ostensibly so that they might not be destroyed by a flood if one came later. For they had heard and recalled that all iniquity had been destroyed by the flood. They were unwilling to abstain from iniquity. They sought the height of a tower against a flood; they built a lofty tower. God saw their pride, and he caused this disorder to be sent upon them, that they...
2025-01-0411 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 3 - The Great FloodIt is not without purpose that Scripture describes all this to us. Its purpose is for us to learn that not only people, cattle, four-footed beasts and reptiles were drowned but also the birds of heaven and whatever inhabited the mountains, namely, animals and other wild creatures. Hence the text says, "the flood rose fifteen cubits above the mountains," for you to learn that the execution of the Lord‘s sentence had been effected. He said, remember, "after seven more days I will bring a deluge upon the earth and I will wipe off the face of the earth al...
2025-01-0307 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 2 - Noah builds the ArkNoah's righteousness stands in stark contrast with the sinfulness of those around him."Therefore, in praise of Noah, Scripture not merely called him ―blameless, but added ―among the men of his day, to make it clear that he was so at that time when the obstacles to virtue were many" St John Chrysostom
2025-01-0207 min
2025-01-0100 min
Bible in a Year with Fr PaulDay 1 - The Creation and the FallToday we begin our journey at the book of Genesis, reading the story of creation, and the fall and expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden
2024-12-3114 min
The Mind of the Early ChurchE17: Theological Awareness Part I feat. Father Paul GuirgisA discussion on the relationship between spirituality and theology with Father Paul Guirgis.
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Music played at the beginning and end of the podcast is titled "Prelude No. 6" by Chris Zabriskie from his album Preludes used under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
2021-06-0143 min