After St. John the theology of married love was largely neglected in the twentieth century. Russian religious philosophers encountered western secular thought. They realized that Orthodox tradition contained an underdeveloped potentiality to address the spiritual meaning of human love. The fruits of their work are available in Marriage: an Orthodox Perspective, by Father Jon Meyendorff, and especially in The Sacrament of Love, by Paul Evdokimov. The former sets forth briefly the history of Christian marriage and the teachings of the Orthodox Church on the subject. The latter has many profound things to say about the differences and relationships between men and women in the light of Orthodox tradition.

For a long time there was apparently no specifically Christian wedding ceremony. If a husband and wife received baptism, their marriage was thereby incorporated into the body of Christ. If Christians wished to marry, they were expected to obtain the bishop’s permission. As St. Ignatius says, "It is right for men and women who marry to be united with the consent of the bishop, that marriage be according to the Lord and not according to lust." After a marriage had been contracted in accordance with the civil law, the church ratified the union as a Christian marriage by admitting the newlyweds together to the Holy Communion. It appears from Chrysostom’s sermons that in his time the actual wedding took place in the home, at a banquet which could be the occasion of unseemly display. He urges that the clergy be invited to the party in place of customary pagan singers and dancers, in order that marriage begin in seriousness and holiness. Elsewhere Chrysostom refers to wedding crowns 24. The rite of crowning seems to have been introduced by the fourth century as an elaboration of the blessing given to a newly married couple at the Eucharist. The crowning of marriages continued to take place at the Eucharist, and to be culminated by the reception of Holy Communion, as long as the Roman state maintained a separate system for registering marriages according to the law. When the state gave the Church responsibility for all marriages, whether men and women involved were committed Christians or not, it became necessary to provide a wedding ceremony which could be separated from the Eucharist. So the rite of crowning began to be used alone. Those couples who were not able to receive the Holy Communion could instead share a common cup of wine. This is now the crowning is once again made a part of the Eucharistic Liturgy. In situations of persecution the crowning may be dispensed with, if the couple are less likely to attract dangerous attention by simply receiving Communion.

Along with the development of the wedding ceremony, there followed a development in its interpretation. In the earlier stage, the Church received a natural marriage made according to human laws, and lifted it up into the kingdom of God. The existing human marriage was transfigured by the Church’s blessing. Later on, a more legalistic mentality raised the question, who is the minister of the sacrament of marriage? The western answer was that the couple themselves were the ministers of the sacrament, as they made the contract with each other. The Society of Friends have carried this view to its logical conclusion. The eastern Church, in contrast, decided that the priest must be the minister of the sacrament, as he brought the marriage into being by giving the Church’s blessing. In consequence of this difference in the understanding of marriage, the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches have different attitudes to divorce. If marriage is essentially a contract undertaken by two parties, it cannot be dissolved except by the death of one of the parties, provided that the right conditions for the contract were met at the beginning. So annulment may be possible but not divorce. If, on the other hand, the sacrament of marriage offers a gift of grace to which human beings may respond inadequately, then the possibility exists that a marriage may fail. But if the couple do respond inadequately, then the possibility exists that a marriage may fail. But if the couple do respond to the gift of grace, a marriage in the risen Christ should not be dissolved by the death of the body. Hence the Orthodox Church is hardly more willing to approve a marriage after the death of a spouse than after a divorce. Remarriage is forbidden to deacons and priests in either case, as the clergy are expected to teach by their example what the ideal should be for all Christians. When the Orthodox Church does allow a second marriage, the rite prescribed differs from the crowning of a first marriage and has predominantly penitential character.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, executive producer of "Mary, Mother of Jesus," a two-hour TV movie that was aired on NBC, before the Western Christmas 1999 says she wants to present a Mary "more appropriate for our time." Here Mary is "a mother, a teacher, and a revolutionary rather than the beautiful, but rather placid—but not very passionate—woman depicted in the Middle Ages." In other words, Shriver robbed Mary’s holiness and gave her a completely opposite character contradicting the Bible, and also history

It’s a blameworthy try. It gives an even more false image of Mary than the medieval church did. In the film, Mary ends up being the only good person in Palestine—and that includes her Son!!! Shriver describes her as the only person who knows what is going on around her. Joseph is also misrepresented as a flighty, angry man who shouts "You’re dead to me!" upon discovering his betrothed is pregnant. James is the crazed younger brother who just doesn’t measure up. Even John is a moron who only goes to Jesus’ crucifixion because Mary forces him. All is untrue.

Jesus, meanwhile, is a bit of a bumbler himself—though he is barely present in the film. When he is around, he just doesn’t get why everyone doesn’t see things as he sees them. He’s lost in the world, looking for direction, often provided by his Mother, opposite to what you read in the Gospels. It seems that Jesus was repeatedly harsh to his mom. When Mary asks Jesus to turn the water into wine at Cana, Jesus’ replies, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" At least, that’s what happened according to John’s gospel. In the NBC film, he gazes into his mother’s eyes and sees how much she wants him to live up to his full potential. The film actually does show the famous "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" sermon (Matt. 12), but Mary is completely understanding. Without a moment’s hesitation she calmly assures James that Jesus is just speaking in metaphor, that he’s inviting everyone into his family. What a fabrication?!

Stranger still, the writers of the program opted to give Mary key lines of Jesus’ dialogue. The Good Samaritan parable becomes a bedtime story Mary tells the 12-year-old messiah. And a young Mary tries to save a woman caught in adultery from being stoned. All of this is a vicious imagination. Every historical film, especially biblical films, they do not have a creative license to distort events and make the bible fake. The Bible doesn’t say, for example, that Mary was hurt by Jesus’ question "Who is my mother?" or that Jesus actually made up his parables right there on the spot, so it’s difficult to criticize the film for contradicting Scripture. At times, it’s obvious how painstakingly careful they were not to contradict Scripture, especially when the script abruptly changes from 1999 vernacular to King James English. And until the last minute of the film, "Mary and Jesus" didn’t strike many as all that different from "The Jesus Film" or any number of other movies depicting the life of Christ. Until the last minute, that is.

As mentioned, the writers gave Mary many of Jesus’ lines. (Oddly, Mary’s best lines in the Bible, her Magnificat, her hymn upon hearing the good news that she would bear the Savior, aren’t included until the closing credits). They give Mary one of Jesus’ biggest lines: The Great Commission. Or, to say the least, it is a pitiful version of it.

NBC should be commended for actually having a Jesus film that depicts the Resurrection. But we cannot praise the network for it. The next scene is phony; the disciples are walking with Mary down a Jerusalem street:

"Your work is finished," John tells Mary. "No," she replies. "Our work has just begun." "Then what must we do?"

Mary turns to the camera and delivers the last line of the program: "Go out into the world ... Try to teach as he taught. Live as he lived. Love as he loved." The film, in many instances make Mary substitute Jesus as a leader and gives the speech of the Lord to her; this is totally a counterfeit and misleading reproduction.

Blech.

Adapted from Christianity Today. By: Ted Olsen

St. Demiana was martyred on the thirteenth day of the blessed month of Tubah. She was a chaste virgin, the daughter of Mark, governor of El-Borollus and El-Zaafran. She was the only daughter born to her parents. When she was one year old, her father took her to the church in the monastery of El-Maima. He offered alms, lit candles and oblations so that God might bless her and keep he in His care.

After a certain time, Emperor Diocletian sent for Mark to appear before him in order to worship the idols. He refused at first, but he later accepted and worshipped the idols. When Mark returned to the governorate, St. Demiana knew what had transpired and she rushed to meet him. She did not greet him, but said, "What is it that I heard? I would have preferred to hear about your death rather than to hear that you have renounced your faith and left the God Who created you, to worship gods made by hands. Take note that if you do not return to your first faith and renounce the worship of stones, you are not my father and I am not your daughter," and she left him.

Mark was greatly moved by the words of his daughter, and he wept bitterly. In haste, he went to Diocletian and confessed the Lord Christ. When the emperor could not convince him by threats and promises, he ordered him to be beheaded.

When Diocletian knew that St. Demiana was the cause of her father renouncing the idols, he sent her a prince who tried to convince her to worship idols, and threatened that if she did not heed his orders, she would be beheaded. The prince went to her with two hundred soldiers and some instruments of torture. When he arrived at her palace, he said to her, "I am a messenger sent from Emperor Diocletian. I came to call upon you according to the emperor’s orders, to worship his gods, so that he can grant you all that you want." The saint shouted in his face saying, "May God denounce the messenger and the one by whom he was sent. Don’t you have any shame at all to call stones and wood gods which are inhabited by devils? There is no god in heaven or on earth except one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Eternal Creator, the Everlasting, Who is everywhere, who knows all the secrets and Who can throw you in hell where there is everlasting pain. As for me, I am the maidservant of my Master and my Savior Jesus Christ, and His Good Father and the Holy Spirit, to Him I confess and upon Him I depend, and with His Name I die, and by Him I live forever."

The prince became exceedingly angry and ordered her to be placed in the human torturing press, until her blood poured out of her body. The virgins were standing and weeping. When they put her in prison, the angel of the Lord appeared to her, and he touched her body with his illumined wings, and she was healed of all her wounds. The prince used all his evil imagination to torture her, once by scratching her flesh and another time by putting her in boiling oil. Through it all, the Lord raised her up safely. When the prince saw that this torture was in vain, he ordered her to be beheaded, and all the other virgins with her. They all were granted the crowns of martyrdom.

May their prayers be with us and Glory be to God forever. Amen.

Many times we think of Jonah the prophet as a person who tried to fulfill his own will and escape from God. Our Church present us with a different understanding of his story.

Inside the whale, he saw the Salvation performed by Christ through Death, Burial and Resurrection. Jonah presented the most beautiful praise concerning the effectiveness of the Resurrection in our personal lives. He gave an example of how to see the hope of the new life, even under the most stressful conditions.

Read Jonah’s praise and use it in your prayers: " I cried out to the Lord because of my salvation, and He answered me out of the belly of Sheol. I cried and You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all your billows and your waves passed over me.

Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple’.

The waters surrounded me, even to my soul, the deep closed around me, weeds were wrapped around my head.

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed around me forever; yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God.

When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple.

St. Athanasius Sunday school class).

+ Was born in Alexandria in 228 AD. His name in Coptic: "Pavly" means little Paul; "Pavlos" means Paul.. Paula in Arabic.

+ In his early twentieth, he got into disagreement with his older brother Peter because the older brother kept a larger portion of their father's inheritance for himself and gave him a smaller portion. On the way to see the judge, he saw a funeral procession. He inquired and was told that the dead person was one of the wealthy residents of Alexandria. He left his inheritance for his brother and went to live in an abandoned cemetery near the city. His brother looked for him everywhere and for a longtime.

+ After three days the Angel of the Lord led him to a cave in Mount Namra near the shore of the Red Sea in the eastern wilderness (desert). He lived in this cave more than 90 years (70 years according to the Synxarium) without seeing the face of a man.

+ Near the cave there was two palm trees and a water spring. The palm trees produced twelve clusters of dates (the fruit of the palm tree). He drank the water of the spring and ate the dates, one cluster a month (this amounts to very few dates a month). Also, a crow brought him half a loaf of bread each day.

+ His dress was of palm branches ("Zaaf Al-Nakhl") softened with the sponge of the palm tree ("Loof Al-Nakhl").

+ When St. Anthony had a thought that he is the first to live as an ascetic, he heard a voice saying: "There is one in the eastern wilderness, the world is not worthy of. He preceded you and because of his prayers the plants grow to their fullness and the rivers floods to its measure in due season." The angel guided St. Anthony to his place.

+ When they met they embraced as if they knew each other for a longtime. They prayed and shared with each other how great is the Lord to each of them. In the evening, the crow came with a full loaf of bread which was a sign that it was the will of God that they see each other.

+ Anba Paula expressed to St. Anthony that he will depart the world very soon, and asked to be buried in the robe that St. Athanassios (this robe was given to Athanassios by the Emperor Constatntine) wore.

+ St. Anthony "Antonious" traveled to Alexandria, a long journey from east to north west through mountains, desert and valleys, informed the Pope and asked and received the robe Anba Paula requested.

+On his way back to the eastern wilderness, he saw the angels carrying the soul of Anba Paula to heaven. When he arrived to the place he found out that he already has departed.

+He was perplexed thinking about how to bury him, and suddenly two lions appeared and in obedience they bowed their heads. He drew a rectangle on the sand and commanded them to dig a tomb which they did.

+St. Anthony wrapped Anba Paula in the robe of Pope Athanassios and buried him without making identifications because it was the will of Anba Paula that no one is to know where he was buried.

+ He took the dress of palm branches and went back to Alexandria and gave it to the Patriarch. Pope Athanassios wore it three times every year on the three great feasts: Christmas, Epiphany and Resurrection.

+St. Athanassios recorded the story of Anba Paula, and the Pope wrote it in a book about Anba Paula Awal Al-Sowaah (1^st Hermit).

+He is the first in a special rank of monastics called Anchorites (Soul travelers). Anchorites reach a higher level of spirituality, their souls travel to different places like the angels of heaven. God willing, will have an article on anchorites in the near future.

+ The Coptic Church has a monastery in the eastern wilderness after Anba Paul, Anba Paula's Monastery. It is near the cave where Anba Paula lived. There is also a monastery named after Anba Antoniuos, St. Anthony Monastery near by. These two monasteries date back to the fifth century AD.

+ The Church celebrates Anba Antonious on the 30th of January and Anba Paula on the 9th of February. In the intercessions and praises the church mentions the two of them together almost always. The prayers and blessing of Anba Paula and Anba Antonious be with us. Glory be to God in his Saints.

Sources:

1) Anba Paula's Monastery Pamphlet;

2) Coptic Church Synxarrium