NEBAB #2: Lent Week 2- Kidist
NEBAB #2
The Orthodox Tewahedo Magazine
LENT WEEK 2: KIDIST (ቅድስት)
The Spiritual Education Unit
Ethiopian Orthodox Church
Archdiocese of the Caribbean and Latin America
2nd Week of Lent: Kidist
In this issue:
Gospel: St Matthew 6:16-24
1. Kidist- Holy
2. The Three Spiritual Disciplines of Our Church
3. Faith and works
4. “Ask Kes/Abba”
5. A Miracle of our Lady Mary
6. Children’s corner
7. Orthodox Q&A
Commentary on the Gospel:
St Matthew 6:19
In verses 16-18, our Lord shows us what are known as the anqese meswa’it (door of almsgiving), anqese tselot (door of prayer), and anqese tsom (door of fasting). With these 3, He frees us from vainglory, teaching us humility. In verse 19, He then uplifts us to a higher virtue- voluntary poverty.
We are not called to be destitute, as we have responsibility to sustain ourselves and our families, and we have to have something to give the poor, but rather we are called not to have excess of anything.
If we save our breakfast for lunch and our lunch for dinner, the food will go bad. If we keep more clothes than we can wear in our closet, they will become discoloured and moth-eaten. Ministering to the poor and sick merits us their blessings- which never rot.
May we hear the words of life!
Kidist- Holy
Our Church has dedicated the second Sunday of the fast to holiness because it is a dedication of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’s coming to earth for the salvation and blessing of mankind, to be exemplary for holiness during His coming in the apostasy era through His work and His fast which is the Great fast of all fasts. It is only through a life of holiness that as children of God we can inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Liturgy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is said every Sunday “Holy things for the Holy” because God is holy and as we are made in his image and likeness we are expected to be vessels of our Lord Jesus Christ, honouring his name.
In the hymns of Saint Yared on this great Lenten fast, the songs sung on the 2nd Sunday of Lent are centred around teachings of holiness and especially the holiness of the great sabbath day, Sunday which God himself has sanctified and given to us and where we honour the glorious resurrection.
“For my power is made perfect in weakness” (1 Cor 12:9)
Is it possible to be a holy person?
Indeed, God’s goal for his church is to produce saints, since He created us in his image and likeness, “being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the living and abiding word of God” 1 Peter 2:3
The mystery of the Incarnation is that we lost our holiness when we sinned but God Himself came to restore us to the status of holiness.
Holiness is an obligation and a requirement for every Christian. This is why Saint Paul, speaking to the Galatians, spoke in this very manner “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Galatians 4:19.) We are to understand this travail to stand for the agonies of concern that they might be born in Christ. Then he labours for them once again because of the dangers of their seduction by which he sees them being disturbed “Christ is “formed in you” by nothing else but irreproachable faith and the way of the gospel”.
Do you see his parental compassion? Do you see the anguish that is fitting for an apostle? Do you see how he has lamented more bitterly than women giving birth?
Let’s make sure his work and the work of all our fathers isn’t in vain!
The 3 Spiritual Disciplines of our Church
ON FASTING AND ALMSGIVING
~ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM~
Don’t say to me: “I have fasted for so many days! I have not eaten! I have not drunk wine! I have gone without bathing!” Show me instead that, being wrathful, you became meek; and being cruel, you became compassionate to your fellow man. If you are intoxicated
with wrath, to what end do you afflict your flesh? If you are filled with envy and covetousness, what benefit is there in drinking only water? I am not concerned with what is on your table, but whether your evil disposition has been transformed. If the mistress, by which I mean the soul, commits fornication, why do you whip her handmaid, by which I mean the stomach? If it is the soul that has gone astray, why do you oppress the body?
I say this not to condemn you, but for the sake of those who are negligent. You know that, whenever I see you taking wing, I desire you to fly still higher, for such is the tyranny of love. And just as lovers of money are never sated with gathering gold, I too always desire your spiritual progress. Therefore, brother, if you wish to be received by God, fast as the Ninevites. They did not receive the Law, as Paul said: For when the nations who have not the Law do, by nature, the things of the Law, they are a Law to themselves, though they have not the Law (Rom 2:14).
Do not, then, render the fast futile, because fasting does not ascend to heaven by itself but only if it has almsgiving as its sister and companion. And she is not only her sister and companion, but also a conveyance. And how do we know this? Because the angel said to Cornelius: Your prayers and your almsgiving have ascended as a memorial before God (Acts 10:4).
Almsgiving is thus the wing of prayer. If you do not provide your prayer with wings, it will never fly. When, however, your soul sprouts wings, it flies immediately to heaven. How long will the love of money and the desire for possessions last? All those things, brother, last no longer than the present life. But you will say to me, “Say these things to yourself!” And indeed I do say these things to myself, and also to you, because this is advice for everybody. When I myself hear these things and amend my ways, then I am benefited by you.
Even if it is a slave who says these things, I would still take the advice; and if it is a free man, I listen eagerly, because it is not a person’s station in life but the utility of the advice that makes me accept their words. For if that great Moses, who spoke with God, did not shun the advice of his father-in-law, though he was a barbarian, but to the contrary received his advice, which was confirmed by God (Ex 17:18-24), how much more should we? I am not telling you to give away everything you own, but from your surplus to give to the poor, so that your surplus may become the foundation of your salvation.
Faith and works:
Set your house in order
The purpose of prayer is to make the force of anger submit to the mind. The aim of prayer is not to get to the end but to come into the presence of God. If you have not finished your prayers, it is not a sin if you come into the presence of God, you have achieved the goal of prayer.
Your prayer is as if you are saying to the Lord, “Come in”. Prayer corners can be placed in an east facing corner of the house, prepared as a small worship space. One may use personal icons, candles, prayer beads and prayer books as they prepare themselves for encountering God in the “Secret Place”.
Bonus Challenge:
Create a physical space in your house reserved for personal and family prayer
Ask Kes/Abba
“I was wondering why we pray to Mary. I understand it is because she could pray for us and tell Jesus about us but isn’t Mary just like us a human who is saved by God’s Grace? And how can she hear our prayers?”
Indeed, the Holy Virgin Mary is human, like us, and it is through God’s Grace that she was chosen and sanctified. However, she holds a unique and exalted position in Christianity, especially within Orthodoxy, as the one who bore God incarnate in her womb. In Luke 1:28, the Archangel Gabriel greets her with, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” This signifies her special role and the honour God bestowed upon her. We pray to Mary, asking for her intercession, not as a deity, for she is not God, but as the most honoured among the saints, who has a special closeness to her Son. In the Orthodox tradition, we believe that the saints live in Christ and are made alive by Him, transcending death (John 11:25-26). Because they are with Christ, they can hear our requests and intercessions.
BIBLE QUIZ!
Who in the Bible made his request to a king’s mother, instead of asking directly?
A Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam
Now there was a certain man who was striving strenuously to become a martyr for the sake of Christ; and his name was George the Younger. And it came to pass that being in prison, having been condemned by the judges to suffer there for many days, one day he fell asleep suddenly. And on the twenty fifth day of the month Genbôt, at the eleventh hour of the night, our holy Lady, the Virgin Mary, came into the prisonhouse in the form of a dove, and with her outspread wings covered over the place in his head where the wound was.
And he woke up straightway, and raised up his hands in the air and took hold of her wings, and she flew out of the prisonhouse and departed; now she was shining with splendour like the sun. And as soon as she had laid her hands upon his head George knew that he had been made whole, and a mighty strength came into his body; and he rejoiced greatly and was exceedingly glad, because she had graciously bestowed upon him health and healing. And he remained without eating and drinking for four days, because of the exceedingly great joy that filled his heart through the beauty and sweet odour of our holy Lady, the Virgin Mary, and the Godbearer. George was evilly entreated and cruelly beaten in prison.
As of old thou didst appear unto him in the form of a white dove, O MARY, thou King's Daughter, thou wise one who didst embrace everything, And like a cherub didst spread out thy wings over George's wound,
Even so, O my Lady, overshadow thou me with thy healing of fire.
O Holy Virgin Maryam, pray for us!
LIJOCH! The Children's Corner
MEMORY VERSE- 1 PETER 1:15
“BUT AS HE WHO CALLED YOU IS HOLY, YOU ALSO BE HOLY IN ALL YOUR CONDUCT”
ORTHODOX Q&A
“What is a Spiritual Father?”
In Orthodoxy, the purpose of our lives is to grow in the image of God, achieving with God’s active help, a spiritual growth called God likeness, or Theosis. It is a grave error, however, to try to do this by ourselves, without a guide and direction. In the tradition of our Church such a director usually is a bishop, priest, or monk. This is the “Spiritual father”.
“When I pray, my thoughts are scattered, how should I pray for my prayer to be heard?”
Prayer is a celestial journey of the soul, transcending the mundane to commune with the Almighty. As the Gospel of Matthew (6:7-8) teaches, our prayers need not be adorned with grandeur or verbosity. A simple, contrite heart is the altar upon which true prayer is offered. God heeds not the elegance of words but the purity of spirit. Approach the throne of grace with a humble heart and a spirit of contrite. Seek not the fleeting glories of this world but the eternal virtues of the next. Let our speech reflect goodness, shun the company of the wicked and align not with the adversary, for our battle is spiritual.
References
Kidist: Mahibere Kidusan- Kidist (eotcmk.org); catenabible.com
3 Spiritual Disciplines: On Fasting and Almsgiving, St John Chrysostom
Miracle of Holy Virgin Maryam: One Hundred and Ten Miracles of our Lady Mary, E.A. Wallis Budge (Ed)
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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