Day 25 (4th Thursday of the Great Fast)
“But I give myself to prayer.” (Ps. 109:4)
“Pope Kyrillos VI and the Life of Prayer
+ The life of Pope Kyrillos VI was full of good deeds, but his attachment to prayer topped all of his good deeds. Whenever we saw him was during prayer because prayer was his first priority.
+ He organized his daily life according to a schedule of continuous prayers, after midnight he prayed the midnight hymns and continued with the Divine Liturgy at dawn. Then he met his children and prayed for them until the afternoon, during which time he continued with the Vespers prayers, etc. In him we saw the practical fulfilment of the commandment, “Pray without ceasing” (Thess. 5:17)
+ We also never saw him without the blessed bread (ologia) which is a sign Liturgical prayers and offerings which he offered on the altar with vehement prayers and tears.
+ Whenever he prayed for his children who asked for his personal prayers, he always used parts of the Psalms while he placed his hand on their heads for blessing and absolution. He kept the Psalms in his heart and the Psalms also kept him and his children.
+ Whenever we heard him giving advice to his flock he always used to command them to pray, to the point that some people were not satisfied with this advice and answered him saying,
“Will prayer buy us bread? Will prayer solve our problems?” but Pope Kyrillos used to answer telling them he has nothing but prayer. What is amazing is that through prayer those people’s problems were solved and they returned to him regretful, thankful, and asking for more prayers.
+ During his sleep and during his waking hours, and even when he was unconscious-under general anesthesia for an appendectomy, all those who were around him heard him praying the Psalms. In him the words of the Holy Bible which said, “But I give myself to prayer” were fulfiled.
+ Whenever he visited any place, prayer was the main purpose of his visit. He used to visit the churches very early in the morning and pray the Morning Praises and Matins, or in the evenings praying the Vespers.
+He tried to reach the heaven with prayer, and he did reach it, bringing it even to earth. We have seen saints visit us on earth, for example St. Mary’s apparition in Zaytoon and St. Mark’s relics returned back to Egypt. His strong relationship with St. Mina is proof of his relationship with the heavenly and a way through which we can reach them-through prayer “You reconciled the earthly with heavenly and made the two one.” (from the Gregorian Liturgy)”
Fr. Marcos Girgis
4th Thursday of the Holy Great Fast
ካብ ውሽጢ ኤርትራ ዝተረኽበ ንቤተ ክርስቲያን ተዋህዶ ንምቁጽጻር ብመንግስቲ ኤርትራ ክካየድ ዝጸንሐን ዘሎን ሽርሒ ዘቃልዕ ቪድዮ
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