The Morning Offering

Christians Under Attack

Cathedral Complex with St. Mark Cathedral on Right

Islamic Attack on Coptic Cathedral

On Sunday, April 7th, Egypt’s Coptic Christians suffered yet another attack by fanatical Islamists. Following the funeral for a number of Coptic Christians who were attacked and killed after Muslims accused some Coptic children of having written on the wall of a Muslim building, it was open season, once again, on the Christians.

The Coptic community have accused the State Security and police of overlooking attacks on Christians, and their places of worship, as the frequency of such attacks has increased dramatically. Monasteries and churches have especially been targeted, although apartments and businesses owned by Coptic Christians have been frequent targets as well. Yet it is unprecedented in significance that the Seat of the Coptic Pope, Saint Mark Cathedral, has been attacked.

After last Sunday’s Saint Mark Cathedral funeral service for Egypt’s most recent Christian victims of jihad, including one man set aflame, gangs of Muslims attacked the Christian mourners, resulting in the deaths of two more Copts, including one shot through the heart.  Hundreds of Christians retreated back into the cathedral, both to get out of harm’s way, and to protect their holiest site.  They were trapped there all night, enduring projectile and firebomb attacks.  State Security also opened fire on the cathedral, and heaved tear gas canisters into the cathedral's walled compound.

Although several Egyptian media outlets and newspapers published a variety of pictures showing mobs attacking the cathedral in front of absolutely indifferent, possibly approving, security forces, virtually no reports appeared in the Western media. Recently, a Coptic bishop in Germany told the German press that this was what would happen in Germany, once the Islamists gain a majority in the population.

The Coptic people are the indigenous people of Egypt, becoming Christians after the Apostle Mark brought the Gospel of Christ to their land. Invading Islamists from Arabia subjugated these Egyptian Christians, making them a ten percent minority in their own country. 

Please, join me in praying for the safety and well being of our Coptic brothers and sisters. Let us also remember to pray that God will protect from all harm, the numerous ancient churches and monasteries throughout Egypt, that are now under siege. The time for political correctness is past. Islam has proven itself to be a danger to all who would refuse to be subjugated.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Burning of Bible in front of St. Mark Cathedral

Friday April 12, 2013 / March 30, 2013
Fourth Week of the Great Lent: Adoration of Cross. Tone three.
Great Lent. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)
The Meeting of the Mother of God and Saint Elizabeth (movable Feast on March 30. If March 30 should fall between Lazarus Saturday and Pascha, however, the Feast is transferred to Bright Friday).
Venerable John (Climacus) of Sinai, author of The Ladder (649).
St. Sophronius, bishop of Irkutsk (1771).
Prophet Joad (I Kings 13:11 -10th c. BC ) who dwelt in Bethel.
Holy Apostles Sosthenes, Apollos, Cephas, Caesar, and Epaphroditus, of the Seventy (1st c.).
St. Eubula, mother of St. Panteleimon (304).
Venerable John the Silent of St. Sabbas monastery (558).
Venerable Zosimas, bishop of Syracuse (662).
St. John II, patriarch of Jerusalem (5th c.).
Hieromartyr Zacharias, bishop of Corinth (1684).
St. Osburga of Coventry, virgin (1015) (Celtic & British).
Translation of the relicts of the Martyr-King Edmund of East Anglia (Celtic & British).
Venerable John the Hermit of Cilicia (4th c.).

You can read the life of the saint in green, by click on the name.

THANK YOU, to all of you who have been able to contribute towards the support of the monastery. These difficult times of economic hardship have impacted the monastery, and those of you who have been able to donate, have been our lifeline. May God bless you for your generosity, and kindness.

With love in Christ,  
Abbot Tryphon

Donations can be made directly to the monastery through PayPal, or you may send donations to:

All-Merciful Saviour Monastery
PO Box 2420
Vashon Island, WA 98070-2420 USA

Genesis 12:1-7

Promises to Abram

12 Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
² I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
³ I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

⁴ So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵ Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. ⁶ Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.
⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Proverbs 14:15-26

¹⁵ The simple believes every word,
But the prudent considers well his steps. ¹⁶ A wise man fears and departs from evil,
But a fool rages and is self-confident.
¹⁷ A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, And a man of wicked intentions is hated.
¹⁸ The simple inherit folly,
But the prudent are crowned with knowledge. ¹⁹ The evil will bow before the good,
And the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

²⁰ The poor man is hated even by his own neighbor, But the rich has many friends.
²¹ He who despises his neighbor sins;
But he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he.

²² Do they not go astray who devise evil? But mercy and truth belong to those who devise good.

²³ In all labor there is profit, But idle chatter leads only to poverty.

²⁴ The crown of the wise is their riches, But the foolishness of fools is folly.

²⁵ A true witness delivers souls, But a deceitful witness speaks lies.

²⁶ In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, And His children will have a place of refuge.

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