{"id":37208,"date":"2016-05-07T10:51:40","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T08:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/site\/?p=37208"},"modified":"2017-01-14T09:38:23","modified_gmt":"2017-01-14T07:38:23","slug":"%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d9%86%d8%a8%d8%a7-%d8%a5%d8%b1%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%a7-%d8%b9%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%a9-125-%d9%85%d8%a8-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d9%86%d8%a8%d8%a7-%d8%a5%d8%b1%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%a7-%d8%b9%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%a9-125-%d9%85%d8%a8-2\/","title":{"rendered":"On life (125) -\u201dThe Destroyer of Heathendom\u201d \u2013 7\/5\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times;\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">\u00a0 \u00a0Tomorrow, Egypt and several countries celebrate the martyrdom of St. Mark, the Evangelist of Egypt. He was also called the \u201cdestroyer of heathendom\u201d, for, due to his evangelism, he converted many people from heathendom to faith. We learn the following lessons from St. Mark\u2019s life:<\/span><\/h2>\n<ol dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #800000;\">Weakness is changed to strength:<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">\u00a0 \u00a0When Christ was arrested, St. Mark was a youth who fled in fear. Yet, he changed to a great evangelist who never feared death. Rather, he roamed heathen countries, destroying paganism therein. In fact, St. Mark was that young man who was wearing \u201cnothing but a linen garment\u2026 When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.\u201d Like everybody, Mark got scared. Yet, he overcame fear after the Resurrection, and went to evangelize with Christ amidst pagans, fearless of weariness, danger, jail, and even death. He was martyred in 68 A.D. by heathens. It is true that we go through weakness and despair. Yet, resorting to God and strongly believing in eternal life and good people help us overcome this tribulations. Do not give up to weakness or despair, lest you waste your life.<\/span><\/h2>\n<ol dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" start=\"2\">\n<li>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #800000;\">Correcting the path of life:<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times;\">\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0St. Mark accompanied St. Peter in his evangelism in Jerusalem and Judea, after which he accompanied Sts. Paul and Barnabas in their first evangelistic trip. Yet, he decided to leave them and return to Jerusalem. Nobody knows why he did so. Yet, he embarked on another journey with Barnabas, heading to many countries in endless service. He went to Cyprus, then Africa where he evangelized in the Western Pentapolis. Then, he came to Egypt where he established the See of Alexandria and became the first patriarch of the Coptic Church. What a long, hectic journey, full of toil to fulfill his mission! He might have hesitated at first. Yet, he was able to evaluate his life and correct his path.<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<ol dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" start=\"3\">\n<li>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #800000;\">Facing ideas with ideas<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; color: #000000;\">\u00a0 \u00a0When St. Mark arrived in Alexandria, the cultural capital of the Roman Empire then, he found it full of creeds and ideologies. So, he decided to face ideas with ideas, which is why he founded a theological school through which he refuted pagan ideas and philosophies and paved the way for sound ideas to last forever. Many happy returns!<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #80d2f7; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #800000; font-family: 'andale mono', times;\">General Bishop<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #80d2f7; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #800000; font-family: 'andale mono', times;\">Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Tomorrow, Egypt and several countries celebrate the martyrdom of St. Mark, the Evangelist of Egypt. He was also called the \u201cdestroyer of heathendom\u201d, for, due to his evangelism, he converted many people from heathendom to faith. We learn the following lessons from St. Mark\u2019s life: Weakness is changed to strength: \u00a0 \u00a0When [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[240,170,1007,5371,642],"class_list":["post-37208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag---2","tag-170","tag-1007","tag-5371","tag-642"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37208"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42211,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37208\/revisions\/42211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}