It is a shameful for people in authority not to listen to voices of the weak and the oppressed! Despite all humanitarian appeals to end the oppression of Gerges Barumi, no action was taken to save him. It is shame also for the law and the judicial system. I call the law makers to do their best to save the man. There should be no differentiation between people based on their religion since they are supposed to achieve justice to all people. Those responsible for the presidential amnesty committee and members of human rights committees should move to achieve justice for that young man since this is the reason you are taking your offices. May God save this man and achieve justice for him since He is the just judge for the oppressed.

If we look at the history of Christianity, we would see lots of blood due to many persecutions against the church and its members since its very beginning. The first persecution that came on the church was after Christ ascension to heave. Soon, Shapur Kisra the Persian who waged a fierce war for forty years against Christianity from 335 to 375 in which a large number of Christians were killed, estimated at 180,000 people. There is the persecution launched by the Jewish king Nawas in the year 523 on the Christians in the Najran region, in which more than 50 thousand people were killed. The persecution didn’t stop since the first centuries to this day including the massacres against Syriac, Armenians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire. Such suffering is continuing in various forms, but Jesus had warned his disciples saying: They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. (John 16: 2) There are many reason for such enmity against Christians including their faith that contradicts with Islam that Christ is God. Second, Historic and political reasons that led to Crusades, the Inquisition and other persecutions in the Islamic regions to this day. Third, The social reason: If we look at society, we find that Islamic societies are different from Christian societies in scientific, cultural, social moral and civilizational issues. Thus, religion is used to discriminate against citizens and to get political benefits for certain groups in the society.

Media is the mirror of any society and it is the voice of the people. It is a powerful engine of public opinion, especially in a community with a great deal of illiterates. It can support or destroy the image of the society. Thus, such media can be domesticated to serve the officials and ignore many topics that people are interested to know. In that case, the agenda keeps concentrating on the interests of the regime and the government turning the trivial issues into public opinion. For instance, the cases of kidnapping minor Coptic girls are simply gored for years under the Wahabi extremist culture. Many of them decided by their free will to do so, but many were forced to. Recently, several organizations appeared to work in that field, including a woman who claimed to be secretary of Pope Tawadros to convince young Coptic girls to trust her and follow her to the unknown. Ignoring such cases for any reason like it doesn’t concern the majority is very shameful for the media. Such ignorance gives a chance to such gangs to continue doing their evil job in peace. I appeal to the honorable people of this country, from the media and the legal men, to confront this diabolical phenomenon and open investigations in all governorates of Egypt in order to put an end to this escalating phenomenon.

Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident. This is how psalm 27 verse 3 described peace of the heart that leads to peace of mind and act. Pope Shenouda III wrote that peace comes from faith. A heart full of faith leads to mind full of peace no matter how much problems are surrounding man. Having internal peace may be affected by surrounding circumstances. Having a calm family and home will have a different impact on a person from a home full of shouting and noise. This is the reason monks prefer to live in deserts where they can find peace and calm. Therefore, they enjoy peace of mind. May God grant us such peace and calm in order to save our souls and relations.

President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak is one of the most prominent presidents of Egypt and for me he comes second after Nasser. His achievement can’t be ignored by history or the Egyptians. He is the leader of the air strike in the October war and worked hard to restore the Egyptian land till Taba in Sinai. On the side of the infrastructure, Mubarak has established more than 200 bridges that helped solving traffic problems in Egypt including the October bridge. He is the ones who constructed the metro lines and several mega projects in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood tried to assassinate Hosni Mubarak more than three times because he did not allow terrorism and extremism. He was greatly concerned by security and safety of the citizen. Mubarak era was described as years of illiteracy was the season of private universities that provided quality education even for the rich people, but it cleared the way for the outstanding student in governmental universities. The US dollar under Mubarak era was equal only to 5.5 LE and the Egyptian Stock Exchange was in great position. He was accused of corruption, but several businessmen used his regime. He said that chaos will replace his regime and it was very true. I believe he should be honored and his name should be called on a Metro station to honor his memory among the Egyptians.

The death of former President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak sparked controversy over holding a full military funeral for him. The Law 35 of 1979 regarding honoring senior leaders of the armed forces has resolved this controversy and defines the general form of the funeral for leaders of the October 1973 war, including President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak. The law stipulates that the officers who occupied the positions of the leaders of the main branches and the head of the Armed Forces Operations Authority in the war of October 6, 1973 shall continue to serve in the forces throughout their lives, as an exception from the provisions of Article 12 of Law No. 90 of 1975. This means that the law granted him such military funeral. However, concerning the ruling issued against him by the Civil Court regarding presidential palaces, which some claim prevents him from holding a military funeral, it should be known that the ruling of the Civil Court against military personnel does not strip him from honors or military ranks. This can only be done through a military court ruling. We may disagree or agree with the late leader, but God will judge him and history will reveal his cons and pros. Our sincere condolences to his family and all his lovers.

The days of this week started with love and concluded with humanity. We have seen live examples of love, humility, and generosity in the love of Egypt. The start was on Friday, February 14th, which marked Valentine s Day, and it was a special day for the Egyptian community in Australia, which welcomed the presence of Egyptian guests in their humanitarian mission to support the poor of Egypt. The great writer and thinker Dr. Khaled Montaser and the great artist Ahmed Helmy and Judge Amir Razmy. I had the honor of receiving them at the Sydney International Airport. I can t express how busy their schedule was and how hard did they work to raise donations for the poor. This visit was organized by the Shepherd of Egypt association, which brought joy to the Egyptian community in Sidney. This is from one hand. On the other hand, Sir Magdi Yacoub was honored by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, on Thursday with the scarf of “Mohammed bin Rashid for humanitarian action” during the ceremony of Arab Hope Makers. During the ceremony, EGP 360 million (AED 88 million) donations were also raised for the new Cairo Heart Center inaugurated by Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation. All these achievements was in one week showing the world how the Egyptians love their country and love humanitarian work.

We exalt you, the Mother of the true Light. We glorify you, O Saint, the Theotokos (Mother of God). This is a unique prayer we recite daily in the prayers of the Coptic Church seeking consolation, strength and hope. Father John Nassif, priest of the Church of the Virgin Mary in Chicago, said in his article We glorify you, O Mother of True Light is unique among all churches of the world, in which we honor the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, and glorify the Lord Jesus, who is the head of the Church, its pride and steadfastness. This unique prayer is of Coptic origin and has no Greek origin and is not found in any other church in the world other than the Coptic Church. It was not written in the Council of Ephesus as some books claimed. This confusion may have come from the main topic discussed by Ephesus Council, which is the Mother of God. The prayer is part of the Liturgy and not the Nicene creed. Rather, it is a special prayer said before it. Therefore, it was called the introduction of the Nicene Creed. Yet, it introduces many details about the Christian faith. We don t know its writer, but we need to search for him. We exalt you, the Mother of the true Light. We glorify you, O Saint, the Theotokos, for you brought forth unto us the Savior of the whole world; He came and saved our souls. Glory to You, our Master, our King, Christ, the pride of the apostles, the crown of the martyrs, the joy of the righteous, the firmness of the churches, the forgiveness of sins.

It is scary to imagine myself inside a plane, and I see some passenger entering the cockpit and take the place of the pilot or his assistant to drive the plane even for one moment. It is scary because we know that this means of transportation is very sensitive and complicated. Any error may end with massive disaster that takes no more than several seconds. It is scary to see a pilot like Ashraf Abu Al-Yusr turning a blind eye to what he learned about flying and the sensitivity of the plane and its software, leaving one of the public to take the place of his assistant in the plane s cabin at the time of its flight to put his hands on the control of the plane. He even gave excuse that he turned on the autopilot, but it is also known that manipulating the controls may turn the autopilot off and cause a real disaster. Both the pilot and the celebrity are rich, but have no responsibility and both of them should be held accountable for such big mistake. We should show them no mercy since they could lead to disaster just to have fun and take a photo!

The monastery of St. George for nuns in ancient Cairo issued the largest and most comprehensive encyclopedia in Arabic documenting the biography of of the Saint. His Holiness Pope Tawadros II said that it is the greatest Arabic reference in the history of recording the biography of this great martyr. The book is a study in 96 manuscripts written in five different languages which are Coptic with its dialects, Bahriya, Syriac, Greek, Abyssinian and Arabic. These have been translated into the Arabic language, and many of these manuscripts date back to the sixth century. The study has varied in this book consisting of twelve chapters including a study on the icon of the saint, a study on the melodies about the saint. The book introduced new facts about the saint like the king who tortured him was Danyanus and not Diocletian, and that he was martyred in Iraq in 268 not in Lebanon 302 AD as it was known before. Indeed, we are proud of this distinguished work that proves that the church and monastery can be a spirtual universities providing great scientific research.

Conferences of Al-Azhar institution held under the slogan of renewing religious discourse is only an attempt to improve its image without a real desire to change the current situation. The current religious discourse is a terrorist speech that intelligently selects its words, so that people may think it is different from ISIS and Al-Qaeda. In fact, Al-Azhar is only a political tool and an intellectual terrorist arm of institutions described as terrorist in Europe, such as the Organization of Islamic Countries. Claiming that it represents Islam gave it bigger role than it deserves that it became a state within a state. Thus, its public fund should stop and its schools and universities should be transferred by law into regular educational institutions. The war on terrorism must bear in mind that terrorism inhabits this edifice called Al-Azhar that claim to be moderate, but is too far from moderation. Sheikh Al-Azhar s boycott of the speech of the President of Cairo University is more like wasting his blood only because the university president dared to demand the renewal of the Islamic mind before renewing the language of the speech. Sheikh of Al-Azhar decided to move to protect the entity that generates billions of dollars even it becomes the biggest challenge before developing the Egyptian society.

Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River in wonderful humility, among the crowds of penitents. Yes, he didn t commit any sin, but he was baptized in order to explain to us our faith in the Holy Trinity and the sacrament of baptism. HG Bishop Bakhomius, former Acting Patriarch, in his article Baptism and the Theophania , explained the faith in the Holy Trinity and the sacrament of baptism through the glorious feast of Epiphany. Christ was in the water and the Holy Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove, and the Father saying: This is my beloved son The baptism of Jesus Christ confirms our belief in sacred baptism, which is based on three things: firstly, repentance, which is necessary in the baptism of adults, secondly, believing in Jesus Christ and his redemption, and thirdly, the acceptance of new born from water and spirit. Baptism in our faith is carried out by immersion, and it bears profound dogmatic faith and spiritual messages.

A few days ago, Egypt witnessed a major historical military achievement as President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi opened the South Bernese military base, in the presence of a number of Arab and foreign heads of state and defense ministers and high-ranking diplomatic figures. The South Bernice Military Base was built in a record time, as it took only one year to build one of the giant military fortresses on the southern strategic direction with a strike force in the sea, air and land linked to various regional and international challenges and raises the global classification of the Egyptian armed forces. The South Bernice base is a strong addition to the capabilities of the Egyptian armed forces and represents one of the support hubs in the Red Sea region and Bab al-Mandab Strait, using advanced weapons and improving Egypt’s chance to to become the largest naval air base in the Middle East to be built on an area of 150 A thousand acres. The base aims to protect and secure the southern Egyptian coasts and protect and serve the giant development projects that Egypt has witnessed in recent years since power support development and peace. During the opening ceremony marking the inauguration of the South Bernice base, an air naval exercise with live ammunition (Qadir 2020) was carried out. Various advanced weapons participated in the maneuver, including the Mistral aircraft carrier, the French Raval fighters, the American F-11, the Russian MiG 29, the American Apache attack helicopter, the Russian Kamov, the German submarine 209 and other huge naval vessels, as well as the missiles that were used for the first time. The great Egyptian army has sent messages of reassurance to all Egyptians and the Arab brothers, as well as warning messages for anyone who thinks or tries to threaten Egyptian or Arab national security. Long live Egypt.

Our deeds and sins are exposed and revealed before the eyes of the Lord as He says in the Book of Hosea Now their own deeds have surrounded them; They are before My face. (Hosea 7:2) This should be a good reason for man not to sin. This was explained by Archbishop Bachomious of Behira, Matrouh and Northern Africa. He said in his aricle ’Spiritual Lessons in the Book of Hosea’ that the Lord revealed the sins of his people in the book of Hosea including the sins of their superiors. God also revealed the penalty for trespassing on the will, which represents a personal message for each of us to pay attention to our sins before they destroy our lives. One of the sins that God warned against the bad company with the people of the world and imitating them. God has also warned against being lazy in worshipping and serving the brothers, seeking excuses for the soul that hurts God’s heart, and the sin of pride that comes when a person feels that he no longer needs the Lord. Such sins lead man to lose wisdom and purity and being void of spiritual fruits. Another sin of the chiefs that the Lord announced in the Book of Hosea is the failure of kings to provide service and care to their people and when the head is sick the whole body becomes ill. Thus, the sins of the chiefs are great, for this the church prays special ritual prayers for the kings and the presidents and we must always pray for for God to give all leaders wisdom and understanding.

A Coptic woman called Catharine Ramzy survived slay attempt in Warraq, Cairo, after a fanatic called Mamdouh Ramadan has dragged her in the street and attacked her with white weapon saying this is what she get for walking without wearing a hijab. She has hardly survived the attack by a man who don’t even know her! The man was arrested by police and the matter is currently under investigation that revealed he suffers from mental illness and he had attacked another woman in 2017. However, such statement came without even getting him inspected by doctors! Moreover, if he do suffer from such illness, why wasn’t he locked in proper hospital instead of leaving him kill in peace! There is a big difference between being a murderer and being a psychopaths. Yet, this man has prepared a white weapon and attacked more than once, and needs a real investigation to protect the community and achieve general deterrence.

The Holy bible says: Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Jesus Christ took flesh from the Virgin Mary without a human father. It is a miracle of the Holy Spirit. Father Benjamin Al-Muharraqi in his article We glorify your unaware birth explained that the divine incarnation without human father is not impossible, since Adam was created from dust and then God created Eve from Adam s rib. Both of them were created without sexual reproduction. The divine incarnation was also without sexual reproduction as St. Cyril of Jerusalem said that Eve was born from the side of Adam without sexual reproduction and so did the Virgin Mary who gave birth to Jesus Christ and this is how we understand the Immaculate Conception. On the other hand, we find Saint Cyril the great explaining to us the goal of the Incarnation saying that the Lord Jesus became a human being like us in order to transform our nature and give us a new spiritual birth by the Holy Spirit. Thus, we call God as Father, and we are called sons of God after taking a new nature emanating from the nature of the Lord Jesus. We pray to God to grant us blessings of His incarnation and to preserve our new nature in Jesus Christ.

Prayer is the life of communion with God that expresses mutual love between God and humanity. This is the reason God created Adam and Eve and put them in the paradise. Thus, His Eminence, Bishop Benjamin of Menoufia told us in his article The Effectiveness of Prayer about prayer as the common factor that all the apostles, saints, and martyrs enjoyed expressing their love for the Lord. Prayer does not mean asking for earthly needs since God already knows them and and gives us generously, but prayer means praise and glorification of God and constant thanks to his countless blessings. Moreover, after the fall of man in sin, prayer has other spiritual goals such as asking forgiveness, preserving the purity of conscience and human thought, and feeding the soul in order to triumph over the temptations and desires of the world. Hence, the importance of prayer is to get support over Satan s wars and strengthen love between man and his Lord and among people. Through prayer, a person rises with his spiritual life, feels a permanent yearning for God, and protects himself from vice, impurity, and subjectivity, but seeks spiritual virtue and lives in love, joy, peace, and other fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Netflix launched an offer called ‘The First Temptation of Christ’ that sparked angry responses around the world since the film presented Christ as gay. This shameful act is a moral crime and totally contradicts our firm belief. The film mocks the Bible and the Christian faith and is considered a miserable attempt to spoil the story of salvation of Jesus Christ. Jesus who was sinless said ‘Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?’ (John 8: 46) It is worth noting that the teachings of the Bible reject, condemn and warn about homosexuality, and there is a big difference between rejecting homosexuals as persons and rejecting their behavior. The Bible recommends respect and love for all people, but this does not mean accepting their bad behavior. I believe homosexuality is completely rejected because it contradicts the nature that God created us and that it is the result of an imbalance in psychological development, behavioral decline, immaturity in the personality, lack of sense of value and is clearly insulting the human soul. It could be a disease like any disease that requires treatment. Moreover, we believe in freedom of expression, but this suspicious work does not fall under the section of freedoms or creativity in any way, which confirms the validity of our vision that there was an American movie produced in the eighties under the name of ‘the last temptation of Christ’, which is based on the novel of Nikos Kazantzakis issued in 1953. This movie sparked controversy after demonstrating bad relationship between Christ and Mary Magdalene, and was banned in several European countries and faced sharp criticism. The director of the film presented himself to the courts in Rome because of this film. The European Court of Human Rights has triumphed for religious sanctities, and issued a historical ruling a year ago and decided that abuse of sanctities and prophets does not fall within the freedom of expression. There must be a delicate balance between the right to freedom of creativity and expression and the right of others to protect their religious feelings, and the Netflix network should respect such feelings. Therefore, this abusive offer must be immediately dismissed and removed, before Netflix apologize to all Christians of the world.

Recently, I took a taxi in Germany with my daughter. As I spoke few Arabic words, the taxi driver asked about our origins. I told him I am from Egypt and I knew that he is from Afghanistan. Suddenly, he asked me a strange question: Do you support al-Sisi or the Muslim Brotherhood? I asked him: what do you think of the Brotherhood? He told me that they are believers, and they are the best Muslims on the face of the earth. I told him: The, who spreads terrorism in the world, and who made September 11 attacks? The Americans and Israel, he answered me. They did this to accuse the Arabs and the Muslims.

From the top of Mount of Olives, which is located east of Jerusalem, there were many important events mentioned in the Bible. Several churches were built in the location to commemorate these events. The mountain was named after the many olive trees that distinguished it. Father John Nassif, the priest of the Church of Our Lady in Chicago, mentioned in his article Events on the Mount of Olives seven important events that took place on the Mount of Olives. It was the place where the prophet David fled, barefoot in front of his son Absalom, who wanted to take over his father s kingdom. When David arrived at the top of the mountain, he worshiped and prayed, and God sent him Hushai the Archie, who saved him from the evil plan of Achtiophyll. The Lord Jesus used to go to the Mount of Olives to pray and spend the night. A church was built there called Our Father in Heaven written on its walls the Lord s Prayer from inside and outside in one hundred and seventy-two languages, including Coptic and Arabic. The Lord Jesus passed by and went to Jerusalem and was received by the crowds with palm fronds and spread their clothes on the way. Moreover, From the top of the Mount of Olives, the Lord Jesus wept over Jerusalem. In the western slope of the Mount of Olives, there is a Gethsemane orchard in which the Lord Jesus prayed on the night of crucifixion, and an angel from heaven appeared to strengthen him, and there was built a big church decorated with mosaic icons for all events at that night, in the midst of the church, the rock on which the Lord Jesus knelt and prayed. From the top of the mountain, Jesus ascended to heaven forty days after his resurrection, having blessed his disciples and commanded them not to leave Jerusalem to preach the Gospel until they had received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Statistics show that the Yemen war has cost both parties $ 950 billion to date, while the Iraq war cost $ 640 billion and the Syrian war 680 billion dollars, Libya war 390 billion dollars, Somalia war 190 billion dollars, and the Sudan wars 120 billion dollars! Imagine with me if the Arabs, especially the rulers were wise or patriotic enough to use this money for the welfare of the people. This money would have been enough to convert all Arab citizens to a higher standard of living than Europe, America, Australia and all rich countries. Yet, the Arab rulers prefer destroying the country to leaving their palaces. Arab culture does not know true peace and encourage sectarianism. Each party can call the other infidel and simply start war with it without trying to talk first. They simply accuse America, Israel and the West of inciting war as if Arabs are babies who lack understanding. In fact, violence and blood has been all around our history even before the emergence of Israel or America. Will we continue to deceit ourselves and play the same blame game over and over with the West or will we wake up and hold ourselves accountable before God will judge us and we lose everything.