Faith Unto Ages

To Bear Suffering Patiently

The world teaches that it is necessary to live a life of comfort; one free of struggle, hardship, and misfortune. It considers one that is free of these as having a ‘successful’ life, because suffering is viewed by it as being something completely alien to goodness. Because tribulations come in many different forms – be it poverty, hunger, famine, war, sickness, or death; those with a carnal mind either conclude that there must therefore be no God. Others suggest that if one does exist, that He is either too far from us or unconcerned with our condition, and therefore unloving.

On the contrary, Christianity views suffering with great joy and a sign of God’s love for us. When we suffer, especially for His sake, it is pleasing to Him, not because He is a monster who delights in torturing or punishing us for sin, but because through it we become partakers of His own suffering.

The Early Church Fathers: Were they Miaphysite?

A common misconception about the Oriental Orthodox Church is that it’s Christology is ‘Monophysite’, meaning, that She followers the erroneous teachings of Eutyches of Constantinople that Jesus’ humanity had disappeared into His Divinity.

On the contrary, the Church teaches that Jesus Christ is Fully God and Fully Man; but One Concrete and Composite Nature from Two. This form of Christology is known as ‘Miaphysitism’, which has its basis in the teachings of the Early Church Fathers.

Below is an explanation of our Church’s Christology is more detail by His Holiness Pope Shenouda the Third, followed by a Florilegium on this dogmatic teaching.

Lenten Reflection: What the Censor can Teach Us about Ourselves

A vessel which is used within the Divine Liturgies of the Orthodox Church is the Censor. It has various other names as well, such as Thurible, Shoria, Tsena, and Poorvar.

It has its origins in the Old Testament Levitical offerings, with God commanding through Moses that Aaron “shall then take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, with his hands full of the incense compound, beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. He shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat on the testimonies, lest he die” (Leviticus 16:12-13).