Fr Raphael Ava Mina, the personal deacon of Pope Kyrillos writes: His heart was full of love for his children. A divine fire of love pulled him towards his sons and daughters. He could not help but to love them and open his heart before he opened his door to them. For them, he suffered, grieved, wept, became depressed and exhausted.
Author: Bishoy
5 PDF books about the life and miracles of Bishop Makarios of Qena
Bishop Makarios was the saintly bishop of Qena. A man of austere asceticism, an anchorite of his own right, a lover of the people, a man of fervent prayer, one who had an ineffable adoration and devotion for the divine liturgy, a strict faster, a wise confessor, a comfort and solace of the distressed, a friend and converser of the saints especially the Theotokos, a lover of silence, a true God-bearing elder, a modern St Macarius of the wilderness of the Sheheet, a promoter of the psalms, a clairvoyant, one who forsook sermons and gave love instead, a friend of the poor and suffering, and a worker of a great deal of miracles - healing incurable and curable illnesses, granting babies to the infertile, solving marital issues, saving Copts from civil injustice and a helper in the time of the stress of exams.
“I am willing to undergo martyrdom and death by torture if it comes to that, but I will never close the monastery.”
THE GREAT ABBOT of the Pskov Caves Monastery Father Alipius used to describe himself as follows: "I am a Soviet archimandrite." And he would eagerly confirm this statement in word and deed. At the beginning of the 1960s various members of a provincial Party commission visited the monastery with one goal-to figure out some way to close down our monastery. As they inspected the monastery, they saw pilgrims fixing the hedges and the flower beds, and immediately complained to Father Alipius: "How is it that these people are working here illegally?
The dying nun who became worried about her eternal destiny
In September 1999, our beloved sister Mother Anasimon (consecrated as a nun in 1970) was in the last stages of her illness. She was suffering from cancer, but continued to live a life of thankfulness and total surrender to her Saviour. In the course of the last year of her life, she underwent four consecutive operations. They were followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy in order to remove the tumours from her body, a process that entailed great pain.
The secret to St Nektarios’ holiness
A nun who was at the monastery of St. Nektarios, when St. Nektarios fell asleep and countless of miracles started happening with the Grace of the Holy Spirit and through the prayer and the intercession of St. Nektarios, was thinking and saying: “What did that man, our elder, do? He was not a great ascetic just like the ascetics of the desert. He did not do long fastings, he did not do long all-night vigils, he did not do long prayers.
The BEST online English account of the life of St Pishoy Kamel
For all of you, who personally knew Fr. Pishoy, you must agree that human words fail to describe this great father. For in describing him, we are describing the mighty work of the Holy Spirit in a human being, who allowed himself to be an instrument in God’s Hands to be fully utilized for service and for the growth of God’s Kingdom. How can one describe the work of the Holy Spirit?! Any words used will not do him justice, but it is a minor effort to show how the Cross had a pivotal effect on his life and how he wanted it to be effective in our lives. The Cross certainly played a distinctive role in his life. By human standards, his life on this earth was short. But what he did in his few years was magnificent by the power of the Cross. We shall look at how the Cross played a vital role in Abouna Pishoy’s personal life, in his service, and during his illness.
Mother Erene’s passion for praising and church hymnology
Our Mother’s passion for the Church hymns was remarkable. She knew them all by heart. When we learn that there are about 150 important hymns, in addition to countless short ones, we realise how much she loved them and was able to understand and absorb the minute details of their different tunes. Each hymn or chant has its own rhythm and deep special meanings. Each one is intended to evoke its own sublime and inimitable spiritual effect; for its music is “entirely divested of every earthly sensation."
We can’t be holy and spiritual, yet avoid confession and communion
The Lord of Glory told me, "William, it is true that you act according to the commandments, but you do not confess your sins; nor do you receive Communion. You do not take My flesh. and blood. How can you have companionship with Me? Did not I say in Scripture, "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you" (John 6: 53).
Two St Kyrillos miracles for those who suffered long
Eng. Zarif Gayed Shehata from Cairo writes: In 1971, I suffered from a severe allergy in my chest. I saw many specialized professors in medicine, and tried numerous medications, but without any improvement. My case was deteriorating, and I would have several asthma attacks in one day. The doctors did not know what else to do, and I was forced to live with these violent attacks, using several different medications and various inhalers.
Fr Faltaous, St Mina and St George readjust a leaning building!
After much insisting, he said to us, ‘Something happened, God intervened with you and with this piece of land…’ He kept repeating this phrase multiple times, and then he said to us, ‘If I record exactly what is happening right now with regards to this building, everyone will think that I am crazy.’
The Art of Orthodoxy 