NEBAB #19: The Season of Flowers- ዘመነ ጽጌ (Zemene Tsige)- Week 4
NEBAB #19
The Orthodox Tewahedo Magazine
THE SEASON OF FLOWERS- ዘመነ ጽጌ (ZEMENE TSIGE)- WEEK 4
The Spiritual Education Unit
Ethiopian Orthodox Church
Archdiocese of the Caribbean and Latin America
Zemene Tsige- 4th Week
In this issue:
Theme of this week: begizehu halefe kiremt (the time of winter has passed)
1. The significance of winter
2. The desert bandits who met the Holy Family
3. Faith and works
4. “Ask Abba/Kes”
5. A Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam
6. Children’s corner
7.ይበል ግዕዝ
8. Orthodox Q&A
What is winter?
The mezmur of this week is begizehu halefe kiremt which means ‘the time of winter has passed’. This winter does not refer to snow and freezing temperatures, but the word kiremt in Ethiopia refers to the season between Pentecost and Tsige, which is the rainy season. Our Caribbean rainy season is of course different, but we certainly understand both the struggles and blessings of the rainy season and can celebrate its end and the season it brings next!
What is the significance of kiremt in our church’s liturgical calendar and what does this week’s mezmur say to us?
Kiremt, or winter, is a season during which the getsawe, or lectionary, reminds us of the coming judgement. It contains the month of Pagume, another reminder of judgement, and many of the gospel readings for that season focus on the second coming of our Lord and our God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
But now the time of winter has passed and the flowers bloom, says the mezmur! It goes on to put in our minds genet or paradise- the garden of Eden- for us to see the blooming of the flowers as a reminder- and a shadow- of the place properly created for the human race (as we know, this earth was made for the animals).
The mezmur then puts in our minds the hope of returning to that garden paradise, and reminds us that the trials and the perils and the judgement will come and go, but at the end of it all- for those who believe- waits paradise. The mezmur continues to remind us that Kristos ser’a senbete- Christ made the (Christian) sabbath- for us!
Let us consider the rest of the week as winter. Once it passes, we can find joy, comfort, and peace, nowhere else but the garden of Eden. That garden is the church, where we can go to eat the fruit of the tree of life, in the form of the Holy Body and Precious Blood of Christ.
May Christ remember us in His mercy!
The lifelong criminals next to the throne of God
Beloved readers, I hope you have been remembering the flight of the most royal family- the Holy Family- into our beloved continent of Africa. Today we will look at two men they met on their journey, and what their similarities and differences teach us about the nature of sin, the nature of humanity, and the mercy of God.
These men were thieves- one a Jew and one an Egyptian. The manner of their life of crime was as such- they would fall on a person or group travelling through the desert, take all they had and kill them. By this they made their (crooked) living. They would divide the spoils, taking turns to claim the booty of each robbery.
When these thieves rushed the Holy Family, tears fell down the cheeks of our Lady Mary.
The Egyptian thief, seeing this, was moved with compassion in his heart, and by much persuasion and by giving up some of what would have been his loot, his partner- the Jew- agreed to let them keep their clothes.
As the Holy Family had no possessions to speak of, the robbers could only take their clothes. (Because of their poverty, all our Lady had to make clothes for her Son was the gold they had received from the wise men. The Jewish thief realised he could sell it for a high price which is why he wanted to take it.)
When the Egyptian returned their clothes and asked “Bless me, my Lord”, our Lord made the sign of the cross over him, and blessing him said,
“Truly I tell you, you will go into paradise before Adam, and the kingdom of heaven will be granted to you from the Father”
His companion gave a mocking reply:
“If this child is a child of the prophets, how can he say that he who was a shedder of blood all the days of his life will go into paradise? Or that its keys will be given to him? Or that he will enter before our father Adam?”
Our Lord answered him and told him that he would not inherit eternal life with his companion because he has despised the words of his Lord.
These two men would eventually be tried for their crimes and were crucified on opposite sides of our Lord. I wonder what our Lady and Salome felt when they saw these two again? On the cross they again demonstrated their natures, the penitent Egyptian who opened his heart to his Lord, and the jealous Jew who in spite of the miracles in the desert and the words of the prophets despised his own Fellow Israelite and Messiah, Jesus Christ.
May God grant us the mercy He granted the thief on the right hand, and may we open our hearts to Him as this gentile did!
Faith and Works:
Sync up your clocks with creation
Phenology is the word for the study of the timing and cycles of the natural world. It is one of those words that exists only because we changed the way we did things and had to invent a term for the original (e.g. manual car). Genesis tells us that God gave us the natural world to tell us the time, heavenly bodies for the days and years, plants for the seasons, and we all know that we can predict when a storm is coming based on animal behaviour. We have become very abstract in our timekeeping- the clocks are computerised and the seasons are tracked mathematically, even when it would be more helpful for us to look out the window and see what time it is. This week’s mezmur tells us that winter has passed and now the flowers bloom. Let us be more aware of the ways creation tells us the times and seasons. And for the children: make a chart of what the plants, the rivers, or the sky look like each month of the year!
Ask Abba/Kes
"Where does the controversy of eating fish during fasting or not come from?"
The Ge’ez text of the ፍትሐ ነገስት fetha negest (lit. Law of Kings- an ancient church code of laws for Christian conduct) says ዘእንበለ ዓሣ ze’inbele asa- even fish has been interpreted by some people as saying “except fish”.
The phrase ze’inbele asa faithfully translated means to say “even include fish in the foods you fast from”, but those who desire to eat fish interpreted it their own way. However, our Holy Synod has made it clear that we are not to eat fish during our fasting time.
BIBLE QUIZ!
Psalm 19:1- The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His _ ?
A Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam
A miracle performed by Mary, the Mother of God. May her prayers and her blessings be with us, amen. A poor widow had only one son. That widow would enter the church and stand in front of the icon of Mary. She would say, “Our dear Lady, I have only this son. Now I am dedicating him to you; protect him.” She would pray like this every day whenever she entered the church. Later, her son grew up. He grew into a young man. He went to the robbers and joined up with them without his widow-mother knowing. After a while, the people arrested the robbers. That young man was seized with them. The official commanded them all to be crucified.
[At the time,] that woman still did not know what had happened to her son. She stood in the holy church pleading on behalf of her son, as she usually did. Another person who entered church heard her. He said to her, “Don’t you know what has happened to your son?” She said to him, “No.” He told her, “The official has arrested your son with his fellow robbers, and now they are crucifying him.” When the woman heard this, she screamed loudly and wept bitterly. She lifted her eyes to [the icon of] Our Lady Mary. She said to her, “Look, they have arrested my son—the one I dedicated to you and asked you to protect—with the other robbers. If you were able to protect him, he would not have joined with the robbers. Now, if you do not rescue my son, I will take your son from your lap in his place.” While the woman was walking toward [the icon of] Our Lady Mary, there was a great clamor. Many people were standing at the doors of the church. When the widow heard her son, she turned and saw him standing with a crown in the church. She ran and hugged him.
The people gathered [and] asked him, “How are you? What happened to you? How were you saved?” He told the people, “When they set out to crucify me, they began to hang me and to nail my body to the tree. Then I saw a woman. She came to me. The nails were unable to touch my flesh. After this, the woman lowered me from the tree. They caught me [again]. She said to me, ‘Go to the church to your mother. Look, she wants to take my son from me in your place.’” When the gathered people heard this, they shouted loudly and praised Our Lord Jesus Christ and his Virgin Mother, the Mother of Mercy. As for that woman and her son, they continued to serve until their dying day in the church of Mary, the Rescuer of all who place their hope in her.
May God have mercy on us through her prayer. Amen.
O Holy Virgin Maryam, pray for us!
LIJOCH! The Children's Corner
Memory verse: St.Matthew. 2 : 19
Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,
ይበል:ግዕዝ (yibel Ge’ez)
Let's reclaim our forefathers’ language
Now for a slightly more complex grammar lesson: the passive form of the verb. In Ge'ez, verbs are the most important thing- they are transformed in many different ways to communicate new and different meanings, and knowing verb roots goes a long way to understanding Ge'ez.
Ge'ez verbs are simple- usually a short word using mostly 1st form vowels.
Eg: ሞገሰ mogese- be gracious, ምዐዘ mi’aze- smell (sweet)
Adding the prefix ተ- to the beginning of the verb makes it passive, i.e. “being done to”, rather than active, i.e. “doing to”
Eg: ተሞገሰ temogese- be given grace/be someone’s favourite, ተመዐዘ teme’aze- to be scented with the smell of (something)/to have fragrance
ORTHODOX Q&A
Where are the details of the flight of the Holy Family recorded?
Our church is the church of both written and oral tradition. The best way to learn about their flight is to hear it from the mouths of the fathers, but some of it has been written down in the books of the visions of Theophilus and Timothy of Alexandria, as well as the books Negere Maryam and Dersane Ura’el.
Send us your questions at: seu.eotccarla@gmail.com
References
Short message on behalf the Spiritual Education Unit:
His Grace Abune Thaddaeus, Head Administrator Archimandrite Abba Gebreyesus, and all clergy and faithful- thank you for the opportunity to share this labour of love with you. Thanks also to the team of the Spiritual Education Unit for their hard work.
-Liqe Teghuan Tekle Mariam Greene
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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