Our Coptic Church is the secret of the joy of our lives because it is the House of God and the residence of the Angels. Thus, David the Prophet said: I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Bishop Pachomius, former acting Patriarch, said in his article the Church is the place of joy that the church offers us the ways to ensure our gladness and joy.

A repetitive scenario of attacking the Copts by angry mobs denotes ignorance and racism, ignited by lack of renewal of religious discourse and disrespect for the other religious. Imam of a mosque calls people to attack a church of a service building aiming to mute sound of Christian prayers. I hope that such fanatic leaders will leave office soon before they set the homeland on fire. I also hope that religious discourse will be renewed instead of spreading such destruction. This goal can t be achieved without renewal of curricula and showing respect for the constitution and law. Freedom of worship should be respected even for the atheists.

After Mohamad Morsi died I feel the current regime succeeded in turning the people to be a monster. Being happy that Mohamad Morsi died and some of th3e media celebrated the death of a person before being an ex-president to Egypt. Unfortunately, the current regime is not a merciful regime and is very crucial. This regime is turning everyone in Egypt to be scared and not having mercy on any person died even if we were not agreeing with that person.

Egypt in the last five years embraced the African continent after the lifting of the freeze on its membership in the African Union. This year it became the President of the Union and gave great concern to the African countries. Egypt received the African youth in Aswan Upper Egypt and launched an intuitive to treat 1 million Africans, which is an international version of the Presidential initiative to treat 100 million Egyptians. Then Egypt embraced the first African anti-corruption forum in Sharm El-Sheikh (AACF) aiming to establish a shared knowledge base between different regions of the continent on the risks of corruption and its severe negative effect on development. Yet, there was nothing said about those with corrupted conscious who refused to call a school after the name of a Coptic martyr called Abanoub, which is the third case in few months.

I don t like writing about this case since it hurts me and make me worried about the homeland. This Martyr Abanoub Nageh was killed twice: the first one by the bullets of the terrorists who attacked his ambush and the second by the extremists who refused to call a school on his name because of his Christian name and faith! This decision was issued by Governor of Assiut who visited his mother to offer his sincere condolences. The governor is indeed trying to encourage patriotism and equal citizenship among the Egyptians, just like president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, and to teach young children about the martyrs who died to save their lives and homeland.

It is said that Al-Mu izz li-Din Allah the Fatimid upon entering Egypt, he gathered around him scientists and dignitaries said to them: This is the my gold and this is my sword. Both are valid for those who claim any! Indeed, he did not need a sword, since his gold was more powerful and far-reaching. Governors have the power of the carrot and the stick in the form of sword and gold. In the days of Abbasids, the men of science and the intellectuals realized the size of corruption mixed with authority. They knew that they are not allowed to share power, but rather to follow the decisions of the governors as much as possible.

On the fiftieth day after the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Pentecost day came in which the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles while they were in Jerusalem. In that great day we celebrate the octave, which is a feast for salivation offered by the incarnation of our Lord. Therefore, the church sings for the Lord who ascended into heaven and sent us the spirit of comfort. We worship Him for His glory and passion as He shared our life and never let us orphans for His great love.

Sisi and Saudi Arabia try to convince the whole world that they are fighting terrorism and in fact they are the one to create the atmosphere for terrorism to exist and grow everywhere. Saudi s leaders and the crown prince ordered to kill the Saudi s Journalist Jamal Kashogi and still lying about it. Saudi leaders are the killer outside of the law and took revenge of an innocent person because he was criticizing the crown prince. The last report from the UN referred to Saudi leader as the one responsible of killing Jamal Kashogi and keep repeating the same lie that the crown prince had nothing to do with this crime. In fact, with us supporting all tyrant regimes in the region that in the long run will result in creating injustice and that injustice will hurt everyone. Saudi Arabia created the terrorism around the world and now want us to believe that they will fight it!!

Our life without God s blessing is worthless, and blessing is obtained by obeying God and His commandments. This should bless our lives by love and joy. The late Pope Shenouda III in his article The blessing talked about the blessing, its effectiveness and its types. Since God created Adam and Eve, He created them in His image and likeness, and God blessed them and said to them, Go be fruitful and multiply , and the same blessing was for Noah and his sons after the floods. Our father Abraham was promised to be made a great nation and blessing to all nations. Elijah was a blessing in the house of the widow at the time of famine. Also Joseph the righteous was a blessing to the others.

Some militants from the village of Ashnin Al-Nassara in Magaghah, Minya Governorate assaulted two houses of the Copts and destroyed their contents to punish them for what they said a crime committed by one of the Copts who used to live in the village. A post that insults one of the Sheikhs was their reason to commit their crime. Family of the Coptic man was lucky to escape. The extremists insulted Christians and Christianity. The Church in a statement said that Fady Youssef, his brother and uncle were arrested following the attack! It is so sad that such repeated and regrettable incidents of attacks on Copts by some extremists disrupt public order, threaten the safety and security of society, harm national unity and social peace, intimidate and endanger the lives of others. Yet, the criminals who committed such crimes are still demanding forced displacement of families of Fady Youssef! It is even a bigger crime scene that violates the Egyptian Constitution in Article 63 as well as the international law. In case the Coptic man has committed a crime, he should be punished according to the law and by the state, not by the angry mobs!

The Coptic Orthodox Church is considered one of the oldest traditional churches, which adopts the old patterns, which extends in its roots to the first church, so it is called an abbey church. This gives it the status of originality in believes and practice and guarantees greater stability. It is a living being, composed of human beings who carried these beliefs and agreed on the system of practices that they translate in their worships. Therefore, it is called the Church of the People. In this way, she seeks to combine the originality and the contemporary to reach her mission, which is the proclamation of God s love for mankind in what she calls the measure of salvation by the dedication of love. Hence, she tries to fix her way according to her beliefs. The ecumenical councils came to achieve that goal all over the world against currents of hatred, division and disintegration.

How painful it is to write about the martyrs at the time we supposed to rejoice. It is so sad to see innocent young people die for no good reason even though they died for their homelands. They were supposed to celebrate the feast and may have visited the graves according to the Egyptian customs to remember the dear ones who died, but they may have never expected to join them on that day! The recent terrorist attack in Sinai brought new brave soldiers into the grave whose families knew they are serving the country and willing to sacrifice their souls for it.

Lately the government announced fees to be imposed on all governmental employee in vacation forcing them pay for health insurance while they are away. Sisi and the Egyptian government make their best to let all Egyptian hate themselves by taking very severe economic measures and by annoying them even while they are away on vacation.

A Coptic Christian woman from Shousha village in Minya disappeared before she appeared declaring she had converted into Islam and got married to a Muslim man. She decided to return to the village and dwell in the house next to her family. Fanatics in the village are trying to humiliate the Copts in the village by celebrating their victory of catching this woman. They are even trying to attack a number of Copts to incite a sectarian strife. Indeed freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Constitution, but according to the law, she must get divorced from her Christian husband before she gets married to another.

The death of Christ was meant to give life. Death couldn t stand up to the force of life in Him. Resurrection made his death a sacrifice, power, and glory. Father Ibrahim Azer, priest of St. Paul and St. Anthony Church in Beni Suef, said in his article entitled Head of life that Lord Jesus decided to be such sacrifice on behalf of the whole world in order to give it salvation. Through His death, Jesus Christ invited us to carry the cross with joy and giving thanks. He accepted pain and didn t escape from death. Moreover, he declared he was Christ, but didn t perform any miracle during the judgment process till he died.

As the Egyptian universities are trying to improve the quality of education, the Dutch Leiden classification listed 5 Egyptian universities out of 963 international universities. According to the report, the top five Egyptian universities have a distinguished publication during the period 2014-2017, in the top 10% of the international journals. Of the 963 universities, Cairo University ranked 341 worldwide, after publishing 194 papers, Ain Shams University ranked 582 in the world after publishing 105 papers, And the University of Mansoura ranked 681 globally, after publishing 97 research, The University of Alexandria ranked seventh in the world after publishing 91 papers. Zagazig University ranked 8th in the world after publishing 72 papers.

Makram Ebid Pasha once prayed saying: May God make us Muslims and Christians share love of this country. His statement simplifies the concept of citizenship and belonging to the homeland. We may argue and disagree in opinion, but the ultimate goal remains building humans who share love and respect one another. Humans have lost such good deeds and feelings as wars spread all over the world. Such poor migrating people can’t find others to help them and give them what they need. People are looking forward to finding new homeland that they can live in peace and find their basic needs without facing discrimination.

Finally, Mohamad Salah could achieve on of the most valuable championship in the Europe. We all were waiting for this moment to come. We say how Salah was playing well and be striker of the England league for two times in a row. Salah did his best this year with his team to be able to achieve the England league, but they lost it was only one-point difference between Liverpool and Manchester city. Salah although he didn t take part in the second match against Barcelona, however, he wore a T-shirt saying, “Never give up” and Liverpool did the miracle and won against Barcelona 4-0. Salah T-Shirt became the slogan for every Egyptian and everyone tries to keep the hope up while the Egyptian football team close to start the African championship. We all hope that the Egyptian team will do good and make good results to make all Egyptians happy especially after a long time of disappointing.

Do not touch me ... but go. The Lord Jesus told Mary Magdalene when she met Him after the resurrection and called on her. She was the first preacher of the resurrection of Lord Jesus. Bishop Pakhomius, Bishop of the Beheira, Matrouh and North Africa, in his article Do not touch me explained to us the meaning of the words of the Lord Jesus to Mary Magdalene, who was the first to receive the good news of the resurrection. He reminded her of His words that he will rise from the dead and wanted to show her his Divine nature. At that time, the Virgin Mary didn t go to the tomb believing her Son is mightier than death.