Believe it or not: the Egyptians fast 467 days every year! I do not think there are people in the world who fast as much as the Egyptian people. Egypitan Muslims and Christians fast total of 467 days per year. The fasting days of the Copts are: 55 days for Great Lent, three days for Jonah fasting, 42 prior to Christmas, 40 days for the fast of the Apostles, and 15 days for the fast of the Virgin, which may be increased willingly to 21 days. Moreover, they fast Wednesdays and Fridays most of the year, which raises the total number to 256 days, which may increase optionally to 266 days.

I finished reading a book about the Coptic cuisine of the writer Charles Aql, featuring the Coptic cuisine in a fun and light style. The author begins with the famous and most popular Egyptian meal, beans or foul, and reveals to us that there are 120 different ways of preparing beans. He also talks about two types of pancakes, the first type, "pie of angel", which is vegetarian pie prepared in the Virgin monthly feast. He also talks about Fayesh, which is a more complicated pie that may take several days to prepare. The writer also talks about the sea food, which is very important in the Coptic culture since it refers to the Immaculate Conception. Here we should mention the increasing prices of fish in Egypt despite the fish farms announced by the government. The president said that the Egyptians have to boycott the goods that are rising in prices, but does he know about the World Bank s report that 60% of the Egyptian people are below the poverty line! Welcome to the holy month of Ramadan and many happy returns.

As we celebrate the resurrection and Sham El-Nessim, the Egyptians are looking for joy and fear it at the same time. They think joy may bring bad news after all, but they love jokes and laugh till they cry! Today, the homeland is rising from death of terrorism to joy and peace. We celebrate many feasts around the year including a number of religious and international feasts! We offered many martyrs and our hearts are full of pain, but we are looking forward to the joy of resurrection.

It seems that we might have a third world war without recognizing that. Unfortunately, the US policy leaded by trump will put the world on its edge. Trump so far failed in his negotiation with North Korea, created a lot of tension with Iran after withdrawing from the nuclear agreement, defended Saudi Arabia after killing the Saudi Journalist “Jamal Kashogi”, and obtained a trade war with china and let the economy goes down every day. We must remind ourselves that sometimes wars happen unintentiona

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the secret of true joy. All the writings of the Gospel and the New Testament are based on the Resurrection that gave meaning and value to our lives. Thus, Pope Tawadros II told us in his article Resurrection is our joy said that Resurrection gave humanity true joy and satisfaction. Jesus said: I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. Therefore, they were happy to see him after the resurrection: After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

The Almighty God wanted to approach man and declare His love, so He incarnated from the virgin Mary. Yet, He was in heaven and earth God wanted to give power to man through his resurrection and tolerated pain to save man. He was born poor, but made several miracles to prove He is the powerful God.

Thine is the power, the glory, the blessings and the Majesty , Emmanuel our God and our King This is how the Coptic Church addresses Jesus Christ in the Holy Week to declare it follows him in his pain step by step. Pope Shenouda III in his article The Week of Pain told us about the sanctity of the Holy Week, pointing out that the church hymns are sad and its flags are black during this week since Jesus Christ has suffered. The readings from the old and new testaments reflects such pain. Furthermore, the prayers are held in the second choir since Jesus Christ was crucified outside the city.

Saudi Arabia announced lately executing of 37 persons. Their accusation was terrorism and threaten the national security. Egypt as well executed 39 persons, a lot of them was young people. I don’t want to discuss the execution as a punishment although I disagree completely with it.

Hamada Yassin is a university student at the Faculty of Arts, Beni Suef University. He was born blind and since he was very young, he started working to provide for his family. He had a computer at his home, but he couldn t afford its maintenance. Thus, he learned simple programming and understand the basics of Windows, and learned how to install windows and fix computers. Hamada worked in a small shop for the maintenance of electronic devices in his small village, but he was not treated well by the owner and had to leave the work. At the university, he took several course in the field of electric devices maintenance, and soon the university of Beni Suef hired him to operate the blind students lab. He was honored by Dr. Mansour Hassan, president of Beni Suef university. Greetings to Hamada and to all those who helped him and honored him.

A few days ago the world stood stunned by the wondrous behavior of the Pope of Rome Francis when he got down on his knees, being a 82-year-old man with a chronic pain in his knees and lives only with the left lung. He did so and kissed the feet of the leaders of southern Sudan, kneeling with great difficulty and asking them to stop the civil war. Before the pope did this strange act, he hid in a spiritual retreat for several days, and when he met them, he first prayed with them and gave them a spiritual talk: I ask you, as a brother, to remain in peace, I ask you this from my heart. There are many problems and conflicts among you, but they will not overcome us, keep them between you and solve them in quite. In front of people, put your hands together and seek unity. Then he kissed their feet. Social media had tons of comments between the opposition and the supporters.

Too much talking about national unity and love and tolerance among the Egyptians after the terrorist attack on St. Peter Church in Abbassia. Yet, I can t describe those said to be humans, but indeed they are not since they spread hatred and extremism that even Islam rejects. Koran has given good recommendation and description for the Christians, but Salafist and Wahhabi thought severely attacks them, and now we have opened the Rafah crossing to receive more of those extremists. Police has to do their best to prevent such violence against the Copts, or we can accuse them of complicity or ignorance that bring shame on them.

With every strikes and demonstration starts in the Arab countries people start to dream to have freedom and welfare life as people in the west has. Unfortunately, people in our Arab region didn t learn the lesson after almost 5 countries failed change their regime and their style of life. I meant ( Lybia – Syria- Yemen- Egypt – Tunisia ).

Regimes fall by revolutions or military coups, but a successful revolutions only insist on overthrowing the regime until its roots, choosing its replacements till they achieve the rotation of power. I don t envy the Sudanese brothers who overthrew a regime till its tail. They hardly accept the third man giving his good history. I do not know why the Arab leaders always leave behind their men who often belong to the military to rule. This new regime usually is more powerful and harder to break since it learned the lesson from the previous regime. It even takes revenge of those who over threw the previous regime.

A huge fire broke out inside the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, leding to the collapse of its historic tower and its roof. The scene was painful and sad not only for the French people, but to the whole world because the cathedral is a hallmark of human civilization. The French people have gathered in the vicinity of the famous religious and tourist edifice to watch a genuine part of their history and tradition burn. It is a great loss and a disaster for human and civilization heritage beyond description, given the great religious, historical, literary and cultural symbolism for the French people and the entire world. It is also included in the UNESCO World Heritage. The building is known to contain religious treasures, and rare paintings.

This Cathedral is visited by about 14 million tourists each year. This means a great loss of money, but it is really a devastation of a cultural and historic place. It is a loss to the history of human civilization. The French government has announced that it will immediately begin to renovate the Cathedral. I know exactly what the French people feel about this disaster since they are cultured, life-loving, enjoyable, reassuring, optimistic about their future, hardworking, and respectful.

A new church was closed today in Suhag after many discussions about closing churches and its negative impact on the Coptic public opinion, especially as we are getting ready to the referendum on the Constitution. People forget the number of churches legalized and all steps taken by the regime in the path of citizenship and makes people angry. In fact, such closure is a disgrace on the dignity of citizens and equal citizenship.

Finally, the Sudanne s President Omar al-Bashir forced to step down by his army. This scene looks exactly like the scene happened in Egypt 6 years ago. Army step down a president and forced anther one step down. I have just was reading a book about why some countries are rich and some other are poor, although both of them could have the same potential. The book was explaining that land, labor and natural resources are main factors for production if used rationally.

The monthly statement of the Egyptian Ministry of Finance showed that the number of tourists to the country jumped by 47.5 percent to 9.8 million tourists comparing to the same period in the last year. This good news show that the tourism sector benefited from the improvement of security situation and the floating of the Egyptian pound. Such good news related to tourism sector should increase by activating the Path of the Holy Family tourist project, which is supported by the Vatican. Egypt is the only land outside Jerusalem that was visited by St. Mary and Joseph with Jesus who fled to Egypt to escape Herod.

Growth is a characteristic of spiritual life in order to reach the main goal in our life, which is the eternal life. Thus, His Eminence Bishop Benjamin of Monofia, in his article ‘The Life of Growth’ explained that growth is a characteristic of life in general and spiritual life in particular. Man tries to overcome all what disrupts him according to the saying of St. Paul the Apostle: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead &(Philippians 3: 13) Such pursuit of spiritual growth is the ultimate goal of life. Thus, St. Paul warns us of preoccupation with any other purpose as an alternative to eternal life: ‘Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you’.

I send this message to the Governor of Egypt, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, while he is holding a meeting with US President Donald Trump. I want him to remember the importance and status of Egypt that was mentioned in the holy books and visited by many prophets and scholars throughout history. Mr. President, I want you to remember that Egypt has always been the heart of the heart of the Arab world, and great source of science, literature and art. It has Al-Azhar, Al-Husayn, Sayeda Nafisah, St. Tereze. On its land many great people lived like: Naguib Mahfouz, Abdel Wahab, Mustapha Mahmoud, Sargios, Mustafa Amin, Faten Hamamah, and other religious scholars, pioneers of science, literature and the arts.

Since I have worked for years in higher education and scientific research at the University of Alexandria, one of the oldest universities in Egypt and the Middle East, I am very proud of the positive steps taken by the political leaders in Egypt to promote university education and scientific research in the past few years. In a very successful move, Egypt hosted the World Forum on Higher Education last Thursday under the theme The Future Begins From Here . The conference was organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Egypt under the patronage of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi with the participation of fifty-five different countries of the world. The World Forum on Higher Education comes as part of the Year of Education activities in Egypt is a confirmation that the bright and enlightened future can only be achieved through quality education and modern scientific research.