The end is at hand

The dark night is comeing to a end I think, in this advent season I feel Christ is comeing back in to light, or in more truth I am comeing back in to the light of Christ! With this great news I will end in this to the Holy Mother of God,

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy!
Our life, our sweetness, and our hope!
To thee do we cry, poor banished
children of Eve, to thee do we send
up our sighs, mourning and weeping
in this valley, of tears.
Turn, then, most gracious advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us; and
after this our exile show unto us the
blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus;
O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary.

Pray for us, O holy Mother of God

That we may be made worthy of the
promises of Christ.

Coptic Prayer Before Studying

Most blessed Lord, send the grace of Your Holy Spirit on me to strengthen me that I may learn well the subject I am about to study and by it become a better person for Your glory, the comfort of my family and the benefit of Your Church and our Nation. Amen

Christ, the true light, who enlightens and sanctifies every person coming into the world, let the light of Your countenance shine upon me (us) that I (we) may see Your unapproachable light; and guide my (our) steps in the way of Your commandments, through the intercessions of Your all-holy Mother and of all the Saints. Amen.

Diaconate

A deacon is a clergyman who assists the bishop and priests. He is ordained, not to the priesthood but to service. He has a three-fold role of service:

Charity: in which he is of service to the community.

Word: in which he proclaims the Gospel and preaches.

Liturgy: in which he assists at Mass, is an ordinary minister of the Eucharist and baptism, witnesses marriages, leads the community in prayer, especially funeral services and the Liturgy of the Hours.

The deacon finds his identity not in what he does, but in who he is. Deacons minister in many different settings from the traditional parish to prisons, hospitals, convalescent homes, juvenile detention centres, shelters for the homeless or the abused, soup kitchens, police departments, and corporations. Regardless of where a deacon finds himself, it is there that he serves.

Deacons are the eyes, ears, hands, arms and feet of the bishop. Ordained by the bishop, they serve as the bishop directs. Usually this is in a parish setting, but it could be anywhere the bishop feels a need. Having received the same sacrament of Holy Orders that a priest or bishop receives, the deacon works in harmony with the priests and the bishop to build up the Kingdom of God.

Service as a deacon can take on broad meanings. One quickly finds that whatever one does it is diaconal service! As deacons we bring our ministry to the workplace. We bring the presence of Jesus to the markets where we shop, to the places where we play, to our families.And, of course, we must not forget our Liturgical role. This role is not the primary focus of our lives as deacons, but is secondary. It is important that the community see us ministering from the altar vested as a deacon, but this liturgical role flows out of and is a result of our other roles of charity and service to the community

I will be ordained a Deacon this January it is a honor to be lifted up to this Holy Order. I ask for your payers that I may be the most I can be to all I come in contact with.

Reflections on Gnostic Humility

When you can find God in a beautiful sunset, you haven't yet arrived.

When you can find God in all living things, wisdom is still far off.

When you can find God in the deepest recesses of your heart, Gnosis is still eluding you.

When you can find God in not just the extraordinary, but the ordinary, you still have more steps to take.

But when you can find God in the most vile, repulsive, disgusting, reprehensible thing, then your enlightenment may just be right around the corner.

Take no glory in it, for it is fitting that there should be no rewards for seeing things as they actually are. Such an action is not a privilege, but our duty. Let us not be heros unto ourselves, but rather let us commit to the work we were born to accomplish.

Fr Bryan

The peace that Christ gives me is the center of my life, he is my romodel and the happness of my soul. I find in all the light of Christ. I find Christ in the eyes of a baby and the cold heart of a killer. There is no place that he is not known. Christ is us and we are him. That to me is the very meaning of what he wanted us to know. He wanted us to know God and to know God we must know our selfs. We are the sons and daughters of the unknow God. That is happness.

Queen of Heaven

Let us think of the Queen of Heaven, as Gnostics how does the mother of Christ affect me? If we look at the Roman Catholic Church she is the Co-Redemptress, If we applied this idea to Sophia, then this fits in very well with my ideas. When I think of the Holy Mother of God I can see her as divine. I fill that Mary was a member of the Pleroma; I see it as God begetting God just a Gnostic concept that the church holds on to but has hidden it. Now when I say God, I’m meaning that these people have found there God in side. They remembered were they came from. They found the Holy within. I hope to go in to this more later, but the idea of Mary being Divine fits in well with my own myth .

Holy Spirit/ Decent of the Christ

When Jesus was baptize the Holy Spirit decided to him, if we take away from what the Gospels say of him and his birth we know of him as a mere man, If he was Christ Jesus from birth what was the point of this event? If just a man, was the Holy Spirit the Christ becoming one with him? Was it the Unknown Father using him through the Christ to awaken us and lead us back home? When I talk of this Christ descending was it a awaking of man Jesus, him remembering were he came from? Was it a psychological awaking, something that we all can experience?