NEBAB #6: Lent Week 6- Gebre Hier

   NEBAB #6

The Orthodox Tewahedo Magazine

LENT WEEK 6: GEBRE HIER (ገብርኄር)

The Spiritual Education Unit

Ethiopian Orthodox Church

Archdiocese of the Caribbean and Latin America


6th Week of Lent: Gebre Hier
In this issue:
Gospel: St Matthew 25:14-30

    1. Gebre Hier- Faithful Servant

    2. Tend the garden- What is stewardship?

    3. Faith and works

    4. “Ask Abba/Kes”

    5. A Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam

    6. Children’s corner

    7. Orthodox Q&A


Commentary on the Gospel:
St Matthew 25

Continuing on from last week’s teaching concerning His second coming, in this chapter our Lord teaches in parables how to prepare for judgement day (verse 13). In this week’s gospel, He speaks of servants being given talents. The one who has 5 talents is a member who has faith, hope, mercy, patience and joy. The one who has 2 talents has faith and hope. Faith is important as the foundation of hope- hope without faith is just wishful thinking. The one who has 1 talent has faith- and he must work, that his faith not be alone! (James 2:14-17) The good servants took what they were given, worked hard, and even though the numbers they produced were different, they both produced 100% profit, according to their ability- and let no one say that God is unfair! The one who buried his lord’s gold is like one who says “I have done no sin” because he slept all day, refusing even to go to work. It is not enough not to sin, we must do the works of righteousness!

May we hear the word of life!


Tend the garden- What is stewardship?

The gold given to the servants did not cease to be their master’s gold, even while in their hands. They worked with what was their master’s first and then gained their own- being made ruler over many things (Matt 25:21).
Here we see the necessity for patience in the Christian walk, and let us learn it again from the life of our holy father St Anthony- may his blessing be upon us.

In his youth, St Anthony, living a life of asceticism in the desert, was being tormented by the devil, much like St Job’s suffering. St Anthony bore it out, enduring the abuse Satan inflicted on him, as he was defended by his faith in God. When the demons left him, the heavens opened and his guardian angel appeared. And he began to converse with the angel;

“Who are you?”
“I am your guardian angel.”
“What are you doing here now? I needed you before, but you weren’t here! You can go back now!”
“It is because of your longsuffering that I am here- if you had not been patient I would not have come!”
Patience, along with hope, is the foundation of stewardship. It can sometimes feel like God’s back is toward us, in which case those who are eyeservants will drop the work assigned to them, until their master turns to observe them again. We who would be good and faithful servants must be steadfast to work even when God is silent- believing completely that even when He is silent He is not sleeping.

Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:4)


Faith and works:
Using your talents
It is a mistake to think only of the talents given as gifts- they are responsibilities we must fulfill. Let us consider how we can use our talents faithfully. If we have…
        + Physical ability: We can clean and maintain the church, and even build more churches!
        + Good memory: We learn and then teach the doctrine of the church in Sunday School.
        + Artistic talent: We can be iconographers, or decorate the church on feast days!
        + Social skills: We can organise mahiber (an assocation of members) and serve both church and the outer community!

This week’s challenge has 2 parts:
        1. Ask around, both your priest and your brothers and sisters, what in their view is your God given talent?
        2. With your parish priest’s advice, develop a plan to use that talent to serve the church



Ask Abba/Kes

What does our Lord mean when He says “My Father is greater than I”? (St John 14:28) 
It is a great mystery. God the Son teaches us that He and the Father are one (John 10:30), and He does not do anything except what the Father wills (John 3:17). He teaches us the Mystery of the Holy Trinity, into which we must now go.
The Father begets, the Son is begotten, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. In our human understanding we may call the Father as the “Source”, but He was never without the Son or the Holy Spirit, nor is  any one superior to any other.
BIBLE QUIZ!
Where in the 3 Epistles of St John is the Holy Trinity mentioned in a single verse? 

A Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam
A miracle performed by Our Lady Mary, Mariham, Holy Virgin, Mother of God. May her intercession be with us, forever, amen.
In a certain city was a beautiful church. After its construction was completed, a painter came, entered the church, and built a high scaffold. He climbed up on it to paint. After he completed the painting of Our Lady Mary, Mariham, Holy Virgin, he began the painting of the glorious archangels Michael and Gabriel.
As shown in this icon, the traditions around the story of this miracle state that the painter’s frescoes depicted heaven and hell. Satan, seeing the painting, was angry about how he was being (truthfully) depicted and broke the scaffold.

Suddenly, the legs of the scaffold, which the painter was sitting on, broke. All of the scaffold’s boards fell to the ground. The painter began to fall too, but he was caught on nothing in the middle of the air. Nothing was below for him to step down onto and nothing was above him to hold him up. He screamed out loudly for the people [in the church] to help him. But no one was able to reach up to him because the church was very tall. 
Our Lady, the Holy Virgin, full of grace, reached out of the icon, and grabbed hold of the painter’s hand and tightly held onto him with her holy hand. She lowered him bit by bit until he reached the ground. He stood up on his feet, unharmed, for nothing bad had happened to him.
And, look! The hand of Our Lady Mary, Mariham, Holy Virgin, remains extended out of the painting until today. Everyone who enters into the church can see it. Everyone who saw this miracle was amazed, worshipping the God Most High, and praising Our Lady Mary, Mariham, Holy Virgin. 
May her prayer and her blessing and her supplication be with Maryam Hanota and with all of us children of her house, forever, amen.


O Holy Virgin Maryam, pray for us!


LIJOCH! The Children's Corner
MEMORY VERSE: ST MATTHEW 25:21
“HIS LORD SAID TO HIM, WELL DONE GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, YOU WERE FAITHFUL OVER A FEW THINGS, I WILL MAKE YOU RULER OVER MANY THINGS, ENTER INTO THE JOY OF YOUR LORD.”

MATCH THE WORDS TO THE RIGHT VERSES

I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains.

For our God is a consuming fire.

And killed the Prince of Life, whom God raised from the dead, of whom we are witnesses.

Hebrews 12:29            Acts 3:15            Philemon 1:10

BIBLE QUIZ ANSWER: 1 John 5:7

ORTHODOX Q&A

What’s this white scarf you’re wearing?

Wearing our white netela is a sign of purity, as seen in our Lord’s Transfiguration, and with the angels who appeared at the tomb after His Resurrection, but there is another reason. The Church is the kingdom of heaven on earth, and looking forward to God’s kingdom, we wear white to represent that we have been washed in the Blood of the Lamb and hope to praise God day and night with the saints (Rev 7:13-14).  
 
“Happy Easter! Wait, you haven’t celebrated Easter yet?”

At the council of Nicaea, the Church made her declaration of the date the Resurrection of Christ is to be celebrated. It comes on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. It must not fall with the Jewish Passover. In 1582, the Roman pope abandoned the necessity for Easter to come after Passover, and combined with his changes to the calendar, this resulted in two groups of people observing the same feast on different days. 
 
Send us your questions at: seu.eotccarla@gmail.com


References

Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam: Princeton Ethiopian Miracles of Mary Project (pemm.princeton.edu/stories/33)


CONTACT US:
Archdiocese headquarters: Medhane Alem (Saviour of the World), Old Golden Grove Rd. Arouca, Trinidad and Tobago.
Tel. 868-642-4230.
e-mail: eotc.arch.carla@gmail.com

 

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