Spiritual Words. Blessed New Year!

[Mark Sadek]

Blessed New Year!

"The whole year will be fortunate for you, not if you are drunk on the new-moon [New Year’ Day], but if both on the new-moon [January 1st], and each day, you do those things approved by God. For days come wicked and good, not from their own nature; for a day differs nothing from another day, but from our zeal and sluggishness. If you perform righteousness, then the day becomes good to you; if you perform sin, then it will be evil and full of retribution. If you contemplate these things, and are so disposed, you will consider the whole year favorable, performing prayers and charity every day; but if you are careless of virtue for yourself, and you entrust the contentment of your soul to beginnings of months and numbers of days, you will be desolate of everything good unto yourself."

St. John Chrysostom, A Homily for the New Year.

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“Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert."  Isaiah 43:18-19

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The Gospel reading for the 23rd of the Coptic month of Kiahk, January 1:
13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. 14 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. 16 Woe to you, blind guides, who say, `Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.' 17 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18 And, `Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.' 19 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20 Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. 21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. 22 And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it. 23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! 25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, `If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' 31 Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. 33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.  Matthew 23:13-36
Departure of David, the Prophet and King.
Departure of St. Timothy, the Anchorite.

The Gospel reading for the 24th of the Coptic month of Kiahk, January 2: John 21:15-25
Martyrdom of St. Ignatius, Patriarch of Antioch.
Departure of St. Philogonus, Patriarch of Antioch.
The Birth of St. Takla Haymanot, the Ethiopian.

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Prayer Requests:
If you have an update on a prayer request, please let me know.

Please remember the following in your prayers:

Sherry - Cancer.
Y - Anxiety.
Kamal D. - Cancer.
Luis F - Advanced respiratory disease
MH - Drug Addiction
Sophie - born premature
Mary D. - Cancer
Karas A. - Child in need of 3 surgeries
Vincent - Shoulder surgery
Abe - Back surgery
Luz R - Cancer
Z - Transient Ischemic Attack
Sherif
Talaat
Elvia - Cancer
M F - Purity
Ensaf - Surgery
Beverly - Cancer
PP - Breast Cancer
SC - Anxiety/ Strength
Mark - Anger, anxiety and job success
M Biju - Paralyzed from an accident
Vero - Brain tumor
Antonius - Crohn's disease
Theo - Anger
Henry - Cancer
M H - Colon cancer
E - A young girl with Crohn's disease
Moura - Stage 3 cancer
Christina - Depression
Theodore - Heart surgery
Elizabeth - Rheumatoid arthritis
Thomas - Mental illness
Mira M's family
Lialie E. - born with heart and spine issues
Yus - Stress and Anxiety
Teresa - Serious complications from diabetes
Jessenia W - Bipolar depression
Sam - Drugs Addiction
B.E.
Hannah - Battling epilepsy, depression and anxiety
Yaga - Cancer

The unity of the Churches and all Christians.

Egypt and the Christians in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Ethiopia and Pakistan. "Blessed is Egypt My people." Isaiah 19:25

Please pray for the peace and safety of the world.

Please remember me in your prayers.

"casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7

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