Let us consider those who serve under our generals and the order, obedience, and submissiveness with witch they perform the things commanded them.  All are not prefects or commanders of a thousand, or of a hundred, or of fifty, or the like, but each one in his own rank performs the things commanded by the king and the generals.  The great cannot exist without the small, not the small without the great.  There is a kind of mixture in all things from which rises mutual advantage.  Take our body for example.  The head is nothing without the feet, and the feet are nothing without the head.  The very smallest members of our bodies are necessary and useful to the whole body, but all work harmoniously together and are under one common rule for the preservation of the whole body.  Let our whole body, then, be preserved in Christ Jesus, and let everyone be subject to his neighbor, according to the special gift bestowed upon him.  Let the strong not despise the weak, and let the weak show respect to the strong.  Let the rich man provide for the wants of the poor; and let the poor man bless God, because God has given him one to supply his need.  Let the wise man display his wisdom, not by words, but through good deeds.  Let us consider, then, brethren, of what matter we are made.

-Clement of Rome

Taken from Day by Day with the Early Church Fathers, page 155.

We (StMarkDC) had a wonderful retreat earlier this month where we saw God answer prayers and work so many miracles.  Bishop David, Fr. Bishoy and Fr. Anthony delivered five amazing talks on trusting God in full.  Over 450 young adults attended the retreat from all over the world and every part of it was an amazing success, glory be to God!  Thank you for your prayers.

All the content from the retreat is now online:

• Audio and video of the talks are up on OrthodoxSermons.org.
• Gigapan shot of retreat attendees during Bishop David’s talk.
• Flickr photo album, if you additional have pictures send them to me.
• Download the retreat presentations and booklet.
• Download high quality videos: Talk 1 Talk 2 Talk 3 Talk 4 Sermon Talk 5

A few of the retreat testimonials:

• Thank you and God bless you for all that you do. This retreat helped shape my perspective and bring me closer to God during a challenging period in my life.
• I loved the retreat and benefited greatly from it. I never felt this way about retreat before…it was amazing! Thank you for caring.
• This one went deeper and deeper. Thank you for all of your preparation, tremendously hard work, service, and continued guidance. To Bishop David, Father Bishoy, and Father Anthony, we love you SOOOO MUCH!
• This was the best retreat I have ever attended
• The retreat coordinators did an excellent job. I’m sure it was not an easy task given the number of people attending the retreat. Thanks for all of your hard work and may God Bless you all!

Last week a post over at Sneakers and Books caught my attention, Nader was highlighting a BBC “Extreme Pilgrim” program featuring Fr. Lazarus Saint Anthony.  Back in the summer of 2000, I got to spend several weeks with Fr. Lazarus on a mission trip to Kenya and Tanzania.  At that time he was serving as a monk priest in Musoma, Tanzania.  At first he came off to our mission group as a strict ascetic , but as time passed, we all warmed up to him and looked forward to hearing his stories and wisdom at our nighttime gatherings.

Thanks to Mixahl at OrthodoxFathers.org for finding the video.

Wishing all my readers, the CITRT community, family and friends a Merry Christmas.  Our church is “old calendar” so we don’t celebrate the Nativity of Christ until January 7th (13 more days of festivities).  I leave you with a few beautiful nuggets.

• St. John Chrysostom’s Christmas Homily
• ORTHODIXIE - Word & Virgin, Mary & Child
• An Arabic Christmas Carol (Byzantine Hymn of the Nativity)

JellyTelly, a new Christian online video channel from Phil Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales, has launched. For those who are curious, they seem to be using Ooyala to for their video distribution.

Happy Thanksgiving!  While we are are on the subject of giving thanks, I am going to highlight this wonderful campaign, Advent Conspiracy, that is working to bring back the true meaning to Christmas.  The vision: Christmas was meant to change the world. It still can. Worship more. Spend less. Give more. Love all.

Watch the video, it hit home with me and I am sure it will for you. This season is a wonderful time to think about how I can give more to those who have less.

This past Sunday, my cousin, Daniel Habib (now Fr. Daniel), was ordained to the priesthood at the hands of His Eminence Metropolitan Hedra and His Grace Bishop Serapion.  He will serve as a priest for the Diocese of Los Angeles at Saint John Coptic Orthodox Church in Covina.  Congratulations to him and his wife Marsha,  I pray that God grants them an amazing, fruitful ministry.

Just started on a three week tour of Coptic churches throughout the Northeast, Canada and possibly California.  Our hope is to be able to learn how the various churches are using their gifts to do ministry and to share with them what we have learned from our churches and along the tour.  I’ll be traveling with my wife, a group from London and a few others from the various places in the US.  We are blogging at copticlearnshare.wordpress.com.  We are already off to a great start, please keep us in your prayers.

This summer my wife and I will be joining a group touring the Northeast, Canada and California visiting churches to learn about the gifts and talents God has given each of the churches and how they are used for His glory. We hope to take what we have learned and share them with the church as a whole. Please keep this tour in your prayers. More details on the tour blog:

Coptic Learn & Share

Modernity Meets Monasticism in Egypt’s Desert, by Will Rasmussen