St Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church Seattle, Washington

Today is the beginning of the blessed Coptic year. It is necessary to keep it a holy day with full purity and chastity. Let us start a new demeanor as St.Paul the Apostle says, "Therefeore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; Behold, all things become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation." (2 Cor. 5:17-18) And Isaiah the Prophet says, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (Isaiah 61:1-2) And David the Prophet says, "Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness; and Thy paths drop fatness." (Psalms 65:11) We ask our God to keep us without sin and help us to act according to His will with the intercessions of the pure Saint Mary and all the Martyrs and Saints. Amen.

On this day also was the departure of the holy Apostle Bartholomew, one of the twelve disciples. to this Apostle fell the lot that he was to go to the oasis (the great oasis, Al-Khargah). He and Peter went together. There he proceeded and preached to the people. He called them to the knowledge of God, after performing before them signs and wonders that amazed their minds. He had originally entered the city with Peter, who sold him as a slave. He worked in the vineyards of a rich man and whenever he trimmed the vine branches, they immediately bore fruit. It happened that the son of the governor of that city died, and Bartholomew the Apostle raised him up from the dead. Then all the people believed and he strengthened them in the knowledge of God. After that, our Lord Jesus Christ commanded him to go to the land of the Berbers and sent St.Andrew, his disciple, to help him.

The people of that city were exceedingly wicked, and would not accept any of the signs or wonders the disciples performed. Yet the two disciples continued to preach and teach them until they entered the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then, they appointed priests over them, built churches for them, and after that they departed. St.BAtholomew left for the cities on the Mediterranean coast, where the inhabitants knew not God, and preached unto them and converted them to the knowledge of God and the belief in our Lord Jesus Christ. He taught them to perform the works which were worthy of Christianity and commanded them to be pure and chaste. When King Agrippa heard of him, he was exceedingly enraged and commanded his servants to put him in a hair sack, to fill the sack with sand, and cast it into the sea. And so were consumated the struggle and martyrdom of St.Bartholomew.

May his blessings and  prayers be with us all. Amen.

Also on this day in the year 98 A.D., departed St.Melyos, the third Pope of Alexandria after St.Mark. This Saint was appointed in the fifteenth year of the reign of Domitian, the son of Vespian, Emperor of Rome, fifty-five years after the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. He pastured and guarded the flock twelve years and departed in peace.

May his blessings and  prayers be with us all. Amen.

On this day also Job, the righteous man, was washed in water and was healed of all his sickness. The people were then in the habit of dipping themselves in water whereby they were blessed for the rest of the year.

May his blessings be upon us all and Glory be to God forever. Amen.