Fasting is a sign of love for God and His commandments by humans. It becomes a powerful means to deepen the love of God in the heart of man. This is how Abba Benjamin, Bishop of Menoufia, told us in his article Fasting and purity explaining the relationship between fasting and purity. Through fasting, the body is purified of instincts and materialistic tendencies. Saints added praises and spiritual practices to fasting in order to receive the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul says, I oppress my body and enslave it . Repression means submission to the leadership of God through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul also says: If you live according to the flesh, you will die Sin comes from the inside the good man from the treasure of his good heart brings out good deeds and the wicked man from the treasure of his evil heart brings out evils Therefore, Christians should sustain spiritual jihad and fasting that purifies our hearts.

Enas, 33 years old, was full of greed and insanity when she planned to kill an old Coptic woman who rents an apartment in her house. She was thinking what kind of mistake her father committed when he allowed a Coptic Christian infidel woman to rent the apartment. She planned and befriended her to make sure when the right time to attack is. The poor Coptic woman Tahani Mikhael started to trust Enas and treat her like a daughter of her own. Without warning, Enas visited Tahani and told her to leave the apartment immediately. The old woman was surprised and entreated her for being a lonely old woman. Enas revealed her ugly face assuring that there is no place for an infidel woman. Refusing to obey her strange request, Enas attacked her and stabbed her 19 times in her neck and chest. The poor woman couldn t resist and left only few scratches in Enas face.

Last week one of the wonderful men died in state after long battle with disease. This is Dr. Tharwat Bassily. I had no chance to meet personally Dr. Tharwat, however, I meet his deeds and heard about his amazing work to help everyone, not just the poor but everyone. Life sometimes is tough when god people leave us, but we will always keep them in our mind because they had great impact in our life and our future.

Once again, the Copts decided to waiver their rights and chose to accept a customary reconciliation session instead of law enforcement in Koum Loufy village where their houses were set on fire. By doing so, some people said they took an initiative to show love and make peace, but the truth is they did so to protect their children since they are treated as weak minority that police won t be able to protect in case those who are attacked them are held accountable.

The best way to evaluate a person in his life is through tests and temptations. This helps to evaluate one s experiences and personality. That s why David the Prophet asked God in Psalm 139 :23-24 saying: Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Pope Tawadros II calls us in his article (Test Them All) to test them all; hold on to what is good (1 Thessalonians 5: 21) Our faith in Jesus Christ should be the axis and pillar of our life. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? This goes along with saving oneself from evil Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. This heart should express love through good deeds The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5: 6)

Putin s visit to Egypt was part of a Middle Eastern tour through Turkey, Syria and Egypt. He met with Bashar al-Assad and came to end the long-term compromise between Egypt and Russia. President Vladimir Putin said that Egypt will get the latest nuclear technology after Moscow and Cairo signed an agreement for Russia to build a nuclear power plant in Egypt, with Russia extending a loan to Egypt to cover the cost of construction. Putin added during his visit to Cairo that direct flights between Egypt and Moscow will return soon but he didn t say when as if he was trying to secure a decent means of transportation for fans of World Football Cup. It was clear that he is working for the benefit of his country and he was able to get what he wanted.

There is no doubt that Egypt has gained a lot of experience in dealing with terrorist attacks. This was revealed during the crises of Al-Rawda mosque. It was such a brutal attack that caused a great loss of lives (311 martyrs and more than 100 wounded). The terrorist had developed weapons more than any criminal militias all over the world! During the crisis, media reporters tried to interrogate the imam of the mosque to get a scoop, but the media coverage was accurate in general and the officials did a good job in the crisis. The real problem is the lack of reform of the cultural and religious discourse that President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi called to fix three years ago but in vain. The religious discourse is not even able to reach to the public. Therefore, the simple people remain the precious hunting of the fanatics and extremists.

The US president made a decision last week announcing “Jerusalem “as official Capital for Israel. Once president Trump announced that, the whole Arab region started to attack and condemn this step proclaiming that will undermine the peace process between Israel and Palestine. In fact, the Arab world as we get used doesn’t know anything except yelling and shouting or destroying properties to explain their anger or to express a political opinion. This is our big issue in the Arab region that we don’t know how to express our opinion in peaceful way and use the legal political channels to take steps against what we don’t like. Unfortunately, the world and the international system doesn’t work by this way, which means if you have something against any nation, there is legal and political channels you can go to, or if you have big influence on the world, you

Great people are those who leave great impact at the end of their journey. Three important people left this week. One died, the other was killed and the third just left her office. A female manager in a news television left her office after taking her position for one year. She made an incredible change in the form and content which was assured and agreed upon by most of the people who loved or hated her. Many people didn t like her for being rude and aggressive many times, but those people agreed she was good at what she does and she left a good impact.

True fasting should be accompanied by a righteous repentance. It is devoted to the sanctification of God and takes us a step forward. Abba Joseph, Bishop of Texas, in his article Why did we fast? asks what we got after all fasts. He said that it s all about the quality and not the quantity. Mount Mokattam was moved in only three days through fasting and praying. Fasting therefore, should be accompanied by prayer, praise, love and forgiveness. The bible says: Declare a holy fast;

Yesterday the draw for the world cup 2018 resulted that Egypt will face Uruguay, Russia, and Saudi Arabia in the world cup which supposed to be held on June 2018. Many people and sportive expert started to be pessimistic about meeting Saudi Arabia and Russia especially that the tournament will be held in Russia which will make it hard in Egypt to meet Russia among their fans. Having said that, as a professional team we have to act professional and do our best and let the world respect our team through a balanced plan between attack and defense. Egyptian team has a lot of professional player which supposed to help us to play good performance and do our best to reach the next round of the tournament. In conclusion, I want all Egyptian players to raise the slogan of” Yes we can”, and to not be just a slogan but also to believe in it.

In the past I used to ask myself how the terrorist think. I tried sometime to imagine why they hate Christians and how they feel when they kill other people for just having a different faith. However, this question changed a little after the recent attack against Al-Rawda mosque in Arish in which more than 310 Muslims were killed by Muslim terrorists as they performed their prayers! I remembered that Pope Shenouda II, former Coptic Pope, used to say those who attack Copts will not stop there and will target Muslims later. This is now clear as terrorists are now attacking mosques just like they attack churches.

The cowardly terrorist attack on Friday February 24, 2017 that led to the killing of 309 and wounded 129 worshipers in Al-Rawdah mosque in Arish is far from religion. This is true since the real aim of such terrorist attacks is to fall in disputes about false interpretation of Islam. This is a conspiracy that uses religion to achieve something evil against the Egyptian people. The Egyptian television channels are keen on spreading negative information. Some people may accuse police and army of negligence. Others accuse al-Azhar of complicity. This led many Islamic scholars to benefit from the situation and claim they spread awareness and fix the situation. The truth is that several foreign agendas aim to keep the Egyptians busy in such useless discussions away from the real reason.

Sheikh Mohammed Abdul Fattah is the Imam of Al-Rouda mosque in Arish that was attacked terrorists who shot and bombed hundreds of worshippers during Friday prayers. The bomb exploded just as he started his sermon. Sheikh Mohammed was lucky to stay alive and he was saved for being surrounded by many injured people.

I write this article to declare I disagree with HG Bishop Makarios on his latest statement on accepting the baptism of Catholics and about the Protestants which included insults to these churches. Such statements contain unacceptable references to Catholics and Protestants, at the time we are in dire need to love, unity and commitment to the teachings of the Bible. The statement doesn t help the church and may be destructive to the Council of Churches of Egypt by calling for division and non-acceptance of the other. Moreover, they contradict with the ideology of His Holiness Pope Twadrous II, at the time Bishop Makarious stated he only mentioned the vision of the church. Unfortunately, he mentioned in his statement some information that are far from the faith and included accusations like the Catholic and Evangelical churches only arrived to Egypt with the British and French invasion. This has nothing to do with the faith!

First of all I want to introduce my condolence to all Egyptian on the last accident happened and killed more than 300 Egyptian and injured more than 100 innocent person in one of the most brutal terrorist attack happened against Egyptian may be in its whole history. Moreover, I want to emphasis that the whole world is sympathize with Egyptian against this Berber attack that we were only seeing it in Iraq but not in Egypt.

Every now and then, fanatic voices appear in media to call Christians infidels and cause tension as well as religious dispute. People s reactions vary between supporting and denouncing, but both parties usually reach nothing at the end but tired throats. Soon, the dispute comes to an end, even with some casualties, before it rises later by another fanatic. However, fanatics learned recently to use the brand new slogan: Christians are partners in the homeland. They do this right before they start cursing those partners and inciting against them. They realize that calling someone an infidel is a permission to many simple people with no or low education to attack those enemies of God. They also know that Egypt is full of those simple people including more than 14 million illiterate Egyptians.

Power does not mean violence since violence only expresses weakness, while power means having true and unshakeable faith emanating from strong love supported with tolerance, patience and powerful prayer. HG Bishop Benjamin in his article The Concept of Power told us about the meaning of power and its most important images. He explained that Power means victory over sin, seeking virtues and adherence to the right. Power appears in several images, the most important of which is Love. This means giving and sacrifice even one s life for the others justly like Jesus Christ and martyrs did. for love is as strong as death.. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. (Song of Songs 8)

It was not a good surprised to watch the interview between the Egyptian media reporter Imad Adeeb and the Libyan terrorist Abdel Rahim Mohammed Abdullah Al-Massmari, who killed Egyptian people. The terrorist explained that Prophet Mohammed killed his uncles, and therefore, he doesn t feel bad for killing those infidels! This story made Brigadier General Khalid Okasha, security expert, say that the terrorist organization benefited a lot from this interview. I wonder how come media reporter and a decent television network takes such decision. What are the morals related to such decision?

No one succeeded is a banner that was hanged on the doors of private schools in the sixties, where private schools were the solution and refuge for those with low grades. At that time, our government schools were an example of success unlike its current really bad situation. I remember this frustrating sign while remembering the following scenes: Scene 1: President Sadat confessing he left the extremists tampering with the future and capabilities of the country. He announced in a famous speech the arrest of Christian and Islamic leaders including Pope Shenouda III which was received by a hysterical and joyful round of applauds by members of the Parliament.