Icons

In this icon, Archangel Gabriel is represented in swift motion as God’s messenger and also holds in his left hand a staff, the ancient symbol of a messenger. His right hand extends toward the Mother of God in both greeting and communion. Seated to emphasize her superiority over the Angel, the virgin accepts God’s calling with her arms raised in a gesture of…

The Commemoration of the Feast of the Holy Ascension of Jesus Christ occurs Forty days after the Resurrection of the Lord. There is a very brief mention of the Ascension of Jesus at the very end of the Gospel of St Luke. St. Luke’s description of it in the first chapter of Acts of the Apostles is also brief, yet it made an understandably profound impact on the newly…

The Crucifixion is the ultimate example of Love by the Incarnate God, Jesus Christ, the Savior. He bore the sins of the world, past present, and future, to pay our debt and restore us to the eternal sonship. By the Lord Jesus’ Christ’s death, he trampled death, and opened the doors of paradise to us once again. This event is recorded in all four Gospels. A hymn in…

This icon depicts the event of Christ’s descent into Hades, fulfilling the prophecies after His death on the Cross on Good Friday. Some key components in this icon: Christ’s cape/robe is flowing upward, which symbolizes his radical descent into Hades to save those who have died in the flesh. Additionally, below Christ’s feet you find the gates of Hades broken (in the…

After Herod gave the command to slay the children in Bethlehem, the just elder Joseph was warned by God in a dream to depart into Egypt (Mt. 2:13-16). According to tradition, as soon as Christ entered Egypt with his Mother and St. Joseph, all the idols fell on their faces, shattered and broke to pieces in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. When the dwellers saw this,…

In the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, the Old and New Testaments “meet.” Christ, the Founder of the Law, submits Himself under the Law in order to fulfill it. Simeon, witness to this event, was one of the Seventy scholars appointed by Ptolemy II, king of Alexandria, to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek language, a translation now known as…

The Incarnation is the self-emptying love of God. Christ took upon Himself our human nature, except without sin, that He might restore the original beauty of mankind that was made according to His image and likeness. One of the hymns composed for this feast, states: “Today, the Virgin comes to give birth to the Transcendent One and the earth offers a cave to the…

In this icon, the focus of attention is on the portrait of Christ, seated sideways on a donkey. In contrast with emperors who rode mounted upon a war-horse, Christ rides the best of kings who come in peace. This fulfills Zachariah’s prophesy: “Behold your King is coming to you… mounted on a donkey” (Zach. 9:9). The colt “on which no one has sat” typifies the new people…

The Holy Feast of the Pentecost is celebrated on the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of Christ. The Icon of Pentecost depicts the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and the Virgin Mary in the likeness of tongues of fire. The role of the Spirit is not to add anything to the riches of Christ but to enlighten, manifest and interpret. The Spirit Who is given to…

The Glorious Feast of the Resurrection is the crown of all the feasts in the Coptic Orthodox Church, for we are able through Christ’s resurrection to say, “ ‘O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1…