NEBAB #32: Lent Week 2: Qidist
NEBAB #32
The Orthodox Tewahedo Magazine
LENT WEEK 2: ቂድስት - QIDIST
The Spiritual Education Unit
Ethiopian Orthodox Church
Archdiocese of the Caribbean and Latin America
In this issue:
Gospel: St Matthew 6:16-25
1. Called to be Saints
2. Pursuing Holiness
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
Commentary on the Gospel:
St Matthew 6:16
Moreover, when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward
"They have their reward"- why does our Master and God Jesus- let all praise Him whenever His name is mentioned- say this concerning the hypocrites? Hear an interpretation.
A hypocrite is anyone who does good works like prayer, fasting and almsgiving for the attention and praise of other people, and not for the love of God and for one another (Matt 22:36-40). Our Lord says of them that they will indeed receive the reward they set out to get! Since they fasted to appear to others to be holy, pious or disciplined, and so to receive admiration from others, that is exactly what they will get. However, St John Chrysostom says, these people are actors. The actors' glory lasts only while they audience sits and admires them, and as soon as they get up, they move on to some other concern. If you want temporary glory, no one is stopping you from getting it.
But if you gain this temporary glory you distance yourself from the glory of God! The fathers go on to say that when our Lord said that they have received their reward, He meant that they have lost it.
Consider a woman who makes the sign of the cross in public thinking "People will see me and know that I'm a praying woman!", when those people do see her, their attention is what receives her prayer, and not God! Or if you, Orthodox Christian with your long periods of fasting, say to your brothers and sisters, "Oh, what a blessing it is to be fasting so much, and even though it is hard, we should all be grateful!", making a great show out of your fasting, your fasting does not reach God, being stolen by the ears of those to whom you have boasted!
If your works are for vainglory, when that vainglory comes it steals your works and rusts them away. This week, focus on preparing treasures that cannot be stolen and never rust- treasures that cannot be noticed by others, only by God- Whose name let it be praised now as it will be forever in the heavens.
May we hear the words of life!
Called to be Saints
The 8 weeks of The Great Fast, also known as Lent, have names and themes laid out in St Yared’s Tsome Digua. The second, Qidist, means ‘Holy’. To understand what it means to be holy, let us consider the following.
St Paul tells his Roman congregation that they are "called to be saints" (Rom 1:7). Over the next few centuries, many Roman Christians would accept their calling, suffering great persecution and in many cases receiving the crown of martyrdom, producing some of the greatest examples of the early Christian era. These early Romans Christians were living in what was at the time the world's greatest empire, but when she tried to exert her control on them, she found that they did not fear her expert tortures or her military might, as the Christians had an Emperor greater than Caesar. These early Roman Christians are a perfect example for us of being 'set apart'- or holy.
When the empire ordered everyone to make sacrifices to Jupiter and Mercury, Christians set themselves apart from the idolatry, suffering whatever consequences came with it. St Valentine, a priest who was martyred in the 3rd century, is even said to have accused Jupiter and Mercury of their sins publicly before the Roman officials! When the crowds gathered to watch people torn apart by wild animals, the Christians set themselves apart, and often found themselves in the lions' mouths, like St Ignatius, disciple of St John the Evangelist. When Rome's daughters were being married off to pagan rulers, the virgins like Sts Thecla, Barbara, Lucy, Arsema, and countless others set themselves apart as brides of Christ, and received the tortures and martyrdom by which they glorified their Bridegroom.
As Christians, we too are called to be set apart from the world- to be saints, just like Ignatius, Valentine, Arsema, Barbara, and even Paul himself all did. The period designated as the Era of the Martyrs may have ended in the 4th century, but there is no end to the era of the saints. God is always looking, in each parish, in each country, calling His next great saints from among the congregation. Answering that call means growing closer to Him in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, it means making the sacraments our life, participating in the life and mission of the church, and setting ourselves apart from the world with all its distractions that only take us further away from God.
This week, let us take stock of our lives. We are all called to be saints- how do we answer the call, and in what ways are we currently ignoring it?
Pursuing Holiness
From the procession of the Host from the Bethlehem, to our cries of “Ye, ye, ye” at the occasion of the breaking of the Body of our Lord and our God Jesus Christ, to our partaking, Qidase presents the opportunity to see and participate in the life of our Lord.
If we enjoy watching movies, and even imagine ourselves in their fictional worlds, how much more should we long to see this glorious reality unfolding before our spiritual eyes?
How, then, can we see this?
To be holy,
Set apart from what is worldly,
Not just outwardly, but in our hearts, that would truly be
A victory.
Cry for me, dear brethren,
for I am yet to find my own repentance fountain,
Yet to keep the gate of my lips, (Prov. 13:3)
And my feet from the snares of sin.
This is not only to my own ruin.
The path to sainthood let us not leave,
And our cross, if put down, we must quickly retrieve.
A place is blessed through a saint’s toiling there,
And how can we speak of the power of their prayer?
Our evangelism mission, we could accomplish. (St. Matt. 28:19)
Imagine how many men we could fish. How I wish!
Think of your brother, your cousin, your friend
For whom your heart aches at the thought that their end,
On this earth, might not lead to heaven.
Unless we repent, we will all likewise perish. (St. Luke 13:3)
This is nothing new, dear brothers. And who am I to teach you, my sisters?
I simply ask for your prayers,
Your godly sorrow, your tears. (2 Cor. 7:8-10)
Pray that we humble ourselves with silence,
Lay up knowledge and become a well of life, (Prov. 10:11, 14)
With pure water, free from the pollution of concupiscence,
Although we may live where it is rife.
Faith and Works:
Laying up treasures
"Lay up for yourself heavenly treasure... be prepared to live in the highest where Christ is." St Yared opens the gospel for us in this week's mezmur- showing us what we are preparing for.
Why worry when you can pray?- Prayer that is not genuine toward God will be stolen away by the thieves of vainglory or pride, and eaten by the moths of other people's attention or your own self-importance, but genuine prayer goes to God and does not get corrupted or fade with time. "Your prayers from years ago are still working today". If we continue to worry about our concerns after we have presented them to God, that worry will also steal our prayer! Pray about it and then leave it in God's hands.
Build your heavenly palace- When St Thomas went to India, the king asked him to build a palace for him just like the world famous temple in Jerusalem. St Thomas took his money and invested in jobs for the poor people of the land, making them Christians and teaching them self-sufficiency. When the king saw no palace, he was ready to kill Thomas, but an angel revealed to him in a dream that the palace was being built in the heavens. You cannot take your wealth with you in the form of money, but you can help the poor to invest in your heavenly reward!
Ask Abba/Kes
"The book of commentary of the gospels says that the righteous 'were purified until they reached the rank of the angels'- what does this mean?"
'The rank of the angels' refers to the angels' purity, but not to the order of honour of created beings. Yes, St David said that we were made a little lower than the angels, but this order was actually reversed! When God became Man, He took human nature [uniting it with His divine nature] and elevated it above the angels. In honour, mankind has been put above the angels by the Incarnation. St Paul said, "did you not know that we will judge angels?" (1 Cor 6:3). Man has been given that gift- as St John Chrysostom who made the angel stand in one place for 9 years.
Another interpretation- the desert fathers are sometimes referred to as 'earth angels' because through the word of the gospel changed the customs of man from earthly to heavenly, the church being heaven on earth.
BIBLE QUIZ!
In which Psalm does David say that we were made a little lower than the angels?
A Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam
There was a certain woman who had made a vow that she would fast [in honor] of Our Lady Mary. When her husband learned about her vow, he made her to stop fasting and forced her to eat. One day she opened her box and found it full of gold. Since she knew and was very sure that neither this gold nor anything else could be hers in the world to come, and that Our Lady Mary had given it to her instead of the reward for her vow, she was sad and wept very bitterly.
When her husband saw that she was sorrowful, he was very sorry for her in his heart, and he asked her about the matter of her sadness. She said, “I am very sad because you have made me give up fasting to Our Lady Mary.” He said, “Fast as you please!” So, the woman fasted instead of eating.
Afterward, when she went to her box and opened it, she found no gold whatsoever inside. She rejoiced greatly, for she knew that Our Lady Mary was well pleased with her, and that she had put her [treasure] [in the place] where there is no decay. The woman told her husband all that she had seen, and he repented of what he had done and joined the fast. He served Our Lady Mary with all his might and obtained [everlasting] life through fasting.
O Holy Virgin Maryam, pray for us!
LIJOCH! The Children's Corner
Memory verse: St Matthew 6:20
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal
The following pictures are each based on a verse from Matthew 6. Match the pictures to the verse!
💰🚫🎺 : Verse _
🫲🏾❓️🫱🏾 : Verse _
🚫🍲💦😄 : Verse _
🚫🪙🌎 : Verse _
🐦⬛🚫🌾🛖 : Verse _
💭➕️📏🧍🏾♂️ : Verse _
ይበል:ግዕዝ (yibel Ge’ez)
Let's reclaim our forefathers’ language
ቅድስት
qidist
Qidist comes from the root verb ቀደሰ qedese - to sanctify, to hallow (make holy). From this root we get the common adjectives ቅዱስ qidus and ቅድስት qidist, the masculine and feminine forms of the adjective 'holy'. We also get the word ቅዳሴ qidase, which literally means a proclamation the holiness of God, and is commonly used to mean the liturgy. The liturgy is called qidase because it's actually named after one specific prayer- the very first liturgical prayer ever uttered by the angels in heaven- qidus qidus qidus- "Holy, Holy, Holy, perfect Lord of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of the holiness of Thy glory".
In the Our Father prayer, we say አቡነ ዘበሰማያት ይትቀደስ ስምከ abune zebesemayat yitqedes simike- our Father who is in heaven, let Your name be hallowed. As we have previously learned, the prefix ተ- te- in Ge'ez usually signifies the passive form, so ቀደሰ qedese - to hallow, becomes ተቀደሰ teqedese - to be hallowed. From there we can add the prefix ይ- yi- or sometimes የ- ye-, which is the most common way to form the subjunctive mood in Ge'ez.
The subjunctive is not hard to understand. It expresses something that is not necessarily true as though the speaker would like it to be true. This is often translated into English as 'let it be', so you can think of the subjunctive as expressing 'let it be'. E.g. ኮነ kone - to be, can become ይኩን yikun - let it be/so be it. In this case, ተቀደሰ teqedese - to be hallowed, becomes ይትቀደስ yitqedes - let it be hallowed, where the 'it' refers to ስምከ simike - 'Your name'. So ይትቀደስ ስምከ yitqedes simike means 'let Your name be hallowed' or- 'hallowed be Your (Thy) name'.
Look out for the prefix ይ- yi- or የ- ye- before a word in Ge'ez where something like 'let there be light' or 'let your hearts be in heaven' is said, and you'll find examples of the subjunctive all over.
Grammar concepts to revise: the passive voice, the subjunctive mood
ORTHODOX Q&A
"Where does it come from that everyone from the age of 7 needs to participate in the fasting periods?"
Our parents Adam and Eve spent 1 jubilee (a period of 7 years) in Paradise before being expelled from the Garden. They could not keep their one command- to fast from one tree, so based on that, our fathers have given us the canon that we should begin fasting after 7 years- sort of picking up the baton where our parents dropped it.
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
Miracle of the Holy Virgin Mary: pemm.princeton.edu/en-us/stories/167
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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