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"Hosanna to the Son of David! This is the King of Israel! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" Is what everyone was shouting and praising when Christ entered into Jerusalem with a donkey. Yet, only a few days later, they were instead shouting, "Crucify Him!" You people of Jerusalem! You did not know who He was when He entered your city. You looked at what everyone else was doing, and simply copied them.







Today marks the start of passion week. After all the celebrations for Palm Sunday, the curtains and decorations of the Church are all changed to black, signifying, not Christ's passion, but rather, our sins, as we hear in the fraction to the Son in the divine liturgy: "Be sorrowful, oh my soul, for the sins that have caused the suffering of your compassionate redeemer." Let us ask Christ to bless us, to open our eyes to see and know Him, and complete for us this Holy week of Pascha so we can experience the Joy of His resurrection.

When in darkness, we cannot see. If we want to be able to see in darkness, it's simple; we need light. We can refer back to 1 John 1:5-7 – "This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." – Jesus opens our eyes to see the truth. To see and believe that we are saved from our sins. Christ opened a man's eyes so that he can see, let us pray that He likewise, opens our eyes to the truth.

Rise, take up your bed and walk. The man who was lame for 38 years was finally able to walk after an encounter with Christ. The weeks of lent are structured in such a beautiful way; we can see the many different ways that Christ seeks His beloved people. The Second week; the prodigal son. He came to his senses through his own conscience, and decided to go back to his father - A person who is able to get closer to Christ, but is held back by sin and desires. Third week; the Samaritan woman. Christ went to have an encounter with her, offering her the life-giving water - a person who is ignorant to the message of Christ and therefore, cannot reach him. And this week, we can see the encounter Christ has with the Lame man.. He goes to Him - A person who wishes to come closer to Christ, who's salvation is right next to him, but his body is unable to do anything. This is when Christ comes and helps out those. Let us pray that we are all like this man, always seeking Christ, even at our lowest points.

The Annunciation. This is the day where the Angel Gabriel came and visited the Pure St Mary to tell her about God's plan in bringing His Son into the world. The perfect plan of God was fulfilled through the obedience of St Mary, and we can learn from her willingness to accept God's plan. Her ability to say yes without questioning how it is possible can be a great lesson for us. Now, St Mary did question, but she asked how this will happen, rather than asking if this will happen. Quoting the words of the Angel who visited her, "With God, all is possible," we can see that if God wills something to happen, it will. This is further discussed on this week's podcast for Coptic Voice Radio.

The Love Of The Father. God is our Father who is in the Heavens. When we look at our Fathers here on Earth, we can see their immense love for us. If this is the case, how much greater is God's Love for His children on Earth? Psalm 26 says, "For when my Father and my Mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me." Even if our earthly parents leave us, we can be assured that God the Father will not leave us. When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we begin with 'Our Father who art in Heaven'. We refer to Him as the Father in many instances in prayer, and this is clearly for a reason. We will look further into God being Our Father in this week's podcast for Coptic Voice Radio.

Carrying the Cross. Christ had carried the Cross on His way to be crucified, but His body was unable to push any further. After falling 3 times, comes Simon of Cyrene to carry the Cross for Him. If you were Simon in this situation, would you consider carrying the cross of Jesus a blessing or a burden? When carrying the cross for others, we need to remember Simon of Cyrene who carried the Cross for Christ, and do likewise to all of our brethren, as though they are Christ Himself. This week includes a live reflection with Dima, and a Gospel reading of Matthew 4:1-11.