We experience today a great trick promoted by the media, which is called the Coronavirus. We have experienced similar tricks like swine flu and Ebola virus. It happened that a friend of mine passed away, after suffering from Cancer. His funeral was held in a popular neighborhood called Bassatin, where the people are having a normal life without extra cleaning or sanitizing procedures and non of them put on a mask. Yet, they have suffered nothing and non of them was reported positive! In few days, the world will announce the end of the epidemic and that the crisis is over. I know the crisis is only caused by illusion where a person is under the illusion of a high temperature, or shortness of breath, which are the symptoms promoted by the media. This is our real virus that exaggerate the problems.

Our Christian believe that God disciplines those whom He loves. For whom the Lord loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights. (Proverbs 3:12) This is clear as the psalm says: ‘ The Lord has chastened me severely, But He has not given me over to death. (Psalm 118: 18) Thus, if we consider such pandemic as punishment or rather a discipline from the Lord, we should not forget about his love as lover of mankind. He only wants us to return to his bosom and to live with him. It is written: ‘Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Return to Me,” says the Lord of hosts, “and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 1: 3) Also Jesus said: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. (Matthew 5: 17) However, he is offering forgiveness ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1: 9) In fact, God is trying to return us by all means. It is not a matter of wrath, but endless love. He is God who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. ((1 Timothy 2: 4)

The peoples of the world are now living in a climate full of anxiety and fear of infection with the Coronavirus amid strict precautionary measures taken by the governments all over the world as a result of this deadly epidemic. All institutions were affected, including churches and monasteries of various denominations. The people were deprived from participating in prayers and Sunday Schools, and they were only allowed to watch them online. Christian televisions are broadcasting several programs and are doing a great service at this difficult time. People are praying to God to save them from this pandemic, especially as we approach the celebration of resurrection. Yet, the procedures may be prolonged, and the strict procedures may continue. This means that the people will be deprived from attending the Holy Liturgy inside the Church. At such hard times, most countries of the world cooperated and leave the differences aside, even problems and wars and unite to care for humanity and to support one another. I know that Christian Channels broadcast the prayers, but there are different timing, which means each country has different celebration. I hope that all the peoples unite and broadcast each liturgy from different country on time starting with New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Europe And east of the United States of America, Canada and Australia, the Gulf states, Egypt and the south and west of the United States. This will allow everybody to follow-up services inside the church as full as possible even if they are not allowed to attend church due to Coronavirus.

While everyone was busy and couldn t find a minute to set a lone and enjoy the moment without being rushed to do something whatever this thing is work, play, watch TV, Reading, Covid19, give people another aspect of life that was not available before. Covid19, gave all people the chance to set a lone, some people call it boring and some other people call free time, however, some other people find it a great chance to set a lone and enjoy the moment of not being rushed or must run from place to place to finish something.

I know that the horror of Corona virus will end soon, and I shall tell you why. God from time to time would like to request and save what has perished just as he did at the cross with crucifixion and redemption. He only reminds us of his presence and love, especially for those who are lost and far from his bosom. God who transferred the mountain of Muqattam after the prayers of his people of Egypt will surely listen to prayers of millions of people all over the world. The holy week will come soon and the Christian people will cry to the Lord day and night asking for mercy. God has allowed the Egyptians to suffer in the past in Plagues of Egypt, but today it is a message of love as God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4) I see this pandemic as message of love and warnings so that we can go back to his bosom and ask for the mercies of God. We shall worship God and cry for his mercy and He will surely listen and save His people.

I always tell my friends who are subjected to verbal intimidation by some Islamists that they should not be angry with these insults, but rather to be happy because these insults indicate that our words are actually making some change. I find 3 kinds of those rude religious people: First, the negligent rabble and they know nothing about Islam and are used by the political Islam leaders to intimidate the opposition. This was declared by Gomaa Amin, member of the Muslim Brotherhood supreme council, that the MB obtain victory through its negligent members. In fact, they are useful even for the intellectuals since this kind reveals the ugly face of the extremists. Second, the arrogant ghettos who think they have and know it all. They are interested in insulting Christianity in order to appear powerful, but in fact they reveal their own weakness and ignorance. Third, the organized people who follow organizations. Those insult you in a political speech and accuse you of being follower of the regime. All of them know nothing about democracy and don’t accept freedom of speech and other freedoms. Political Islam has fallen and is turing into a despised minority like the Nazis in Germany.

For the second time in few years, Egypt imposes curfew ‬, but it should be noted that special procedures need to be taken. The government should think how many hours are needed for the people to buy their basic needs. Are basic commodities available for a period of time, and their prices should be kept low since many people are not working and they are not able to work and provide for their families. From one side, those who work for the private and public sector should receive their wages in order to be able to provide for their families. From the other, what will happen to thousands of those who work on daily basis. I hope this scenario won t make the people angry and bored due to the curfew. This way there will be extra burden on the security forces. I think we need to raise awareness among the people of social distancing.

Looking at the clock and hearing its clicks as if they are hitting my face. I imagine having power to freeze time, but I know I don’t have it. I have many questions in my head: Where are we going? when that crises will come to an end? This pandemic proved we are very weak and life is very complicated. We are like a tiny gear in a huge machine. I believe that the life will not return to the original situation after the crisis is over. Those who will be lucky to survive the pandemic will have to face collapse of the stock market, sharp decline in oil prices, high unemployment rates, increase in the public budget deficit, the high value of the domestic and external public debt, high inflation rates, increasing price of dollar exchange rate, which may reach 50 EGP, collapse of real estate and land prices. Dear gentlemen, the situation is very serious, not only on health, but on all other aspects of life.

The world nowadays is panicking about Coronavirus and trying to take cautious measures and impose emergency around the country, however, Egypt, unfortunately is not taking serious measures to prevent this disease from spreading. For example, the government announced closure of coffee shops and restaurants from 7pm to 6 am which means that restaurants and coffee shops will work for almost 12 hours a day and in my opinion that is very long hours for the seriousness of this disease.

An initiative to empower women was launched by the Ministry of Environment to clean and plant rooftop within the framework of the governorate s sustainable development plan. 400 job opportunities were enabled as women were trained to recycle and plant rooftops in cooperation with “Plant a tree organization along with the celebration of International Women s Day. One of the participants described the initiative as a source of hope for single mothers who represent 30% of Egyptian families. The initiative came to empower women and save the environment. The project aims to achieve the sustainable development goals of Egypt 2030, as it achieves the economic, social and environmental dimensions. The participants receive also free support, seeds and training. Greetings to Dr. Yasmine Fouad and all those working with her, with my best wishes.

I lived my life without fearing death. However, I had to face it several times in war and in surgeries. Yet, I suffer these days when I see the poor dying because of the floods. They had to live in very bad conditions and nobody cared for them till they died. Hearing discussions of people thinking that religion is against science make me feel sick. They think that Niqab provides protection against Coronavirus and some of them see taking communion as a matter of faith. I pray that minds don’t get lost in that account. Being positive and help other people is crucial, especially in hard circumstances, but people criticized Bishop Makarious of Minya for getting on the streets and help the poor after the floods. They said he shouldn’t appear helping others and accused him of making a show. Yet, he was not the one who took the photos for social media. Their hatred for the man made him attack even the good things that he does! I see this as death of their conscience. Such death appeared clearly with the pharmacists who raised the price of sanitizers and masks without realizing that the epidemic will affect them and death will prolong them and their money as well. Welcome death that will take me away from the so called living, but dead by reason and conscience.

The life will inevitably come to an end and everyone will stand before God the just Judge on the last day. The Church reminds us of this throughout the year in the daily prayers to make us ready to meet the Lord. His Eminence Bishop Bakhoumius of Beheira, Matrouh and North Africa said in his article Fasting and Preparing for Heaven talked about how to prepare to meet God on the last day, explaining that repentance is the only way to get prepared for that day. Such repentance can be achieved by fasting and praying. The Great Lent is a season for repentance and worship asking for mercy. The Agbeya is another set of messages to repent each day showing us that we are weak and to remind us that life will eventually come to an end. Therefore, fasting supports our spiritual struggle in life and spiritual readings lead us in the way. We should have hope in God’s mercy and ask for saint’s intercessions to support us in life. It is time to seek repentance in order to have a joyful meeting with God.

While coronavirus is spreading like an enemy everywhere, its time for all people to show their love and sympathy with others who are infected or scared to get this fatal virus. The life taught us to learn from our mistakes and to not repeat them especially the tough one, sometimes disasters comes to review ourselves and our priorities we are taking in this life.

It is a shameful for people in authority not to listen to voices of the weak and the oppressed! Despite all humanitarian appeals to end the oppression of Gerges Barumi, no action was taken to save him. It is shame also for the law and the judicial system. I call the law makers to do their best to save the man. There should be no differentiation between people based on their religion since they are supposed to achieve justice to all people. Those responsible for the presidential amnesty committee and members of human rights committees should move to achieve justice for that young man since this is the reason you are taking your offices. May God save this man and achieve justice for him since He is the just judge for the oppressed.

If we look at the history of Christianity, we would see lots of blood due to many persecutions against the church and its members since its very beginning. The first persecution that came on the church was after Christ ascension to heave. Soon, Shapur Kisra the Persian who waged a fierce war for forty years against Christianity from 335 to 375 in which a large number of Christians were killed, estimated at 180,000 people. There is the persecution launched by the Jewish king Nawas in the year 523 on the Christians in the Najran region, in which more than 50 thousand people were killed. The persecution didn’t stop since the first centuries to this day including the massacres against Syriac, Armenians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire. Such suffering is continuing in various forms, but Jesus had warned his disciples saying: They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. (John 16: 2) There are many reason for such enmity against Christians including their faith that contradicts with Islam that Christ is God. Second, Historic and political reasons that led to Crusades, the Inquisition and other persecutions in the Islamic regions to this day. Third, The social reason: If we look at society, we find that Islamic societies are different from Christian societies in scientific, cultural, social moral and civilizational issues. Thus, religion is used to discriminate against citizens and to get political benefits for certain groups in the society.

Media is the mirror of any society and it is the voice of the people. It is a powerful engine of public opinion, especially in a community with a great deal of illiterates. It can support or destroy the image of the society. Thus, such media can be domesticated to serve the officials and ignore many topics that people are interested to know. In that case, the agenda keeps concentrating on the interests of the regime and the government turning the trivial issues into public opinion. For instance, the cases of kidnapping minor Coptic girls are simply gored for years under the Wahabi extremist culture. Many of them decided by their free will to do so, but many were forced to. Recently, several organizations appeared to work in that field, including a woman who claimed to be secretary of Pope Tawadros to convince young Coptic girls to trust her and follow her to the unknown. Ignoring such cases for any reason like it doesn’t concern the majority is very shameful for the media. Such ignorance gives a chance to such gangs to continue doing their evil job in peace. I appeal to the honorable people of this country, from the media and the legal men, to confront this diabolical phenomenon and open investigations in all governorates of Egypt in order to put an end to this escalating phenomenon.

Far from this ongoing conflict in Syria between the forces of the Syrian regime on one side and the terrorist militias and their successor Erdogan on the other, It is clear that the new Corona virus has decided to spread in some countries like China, Iran, South Korea, Italy and North Korea. They are clearly agree to disagree with the United States of America. There is a clear hostility between these countries and the American regime. Trump could not accept that the South Korean film to win the Oskar, even though everyone praised the movie and its makers and its idea. There is clear clashes between the USA and many countries of Europe, especially Italy. I know that the virus is spreading in many countries in the Gulf area and it America itself, but using a weapon may kill some of my soldiers, but it will kill much more on the other side. The point is that America may have invented and used this biological weapon against its enemies. The retarded regimes in such fascist countries provided a perfect space for the spread of the virus while its people are accepting death from the hand of God claiming having a great deal of faith.

With Coronavirus spreading everywhere as an invisible enemy, all countries have to co-operate in their best interest to find a solution to this disease who killed thousands and is expecting to kill more in the coming days. When I see and read the news, I see some accusations here and there about who caused the virus to spread, especially between US and China and I don’t think this is the right time to spread the accusations.

Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident. This is how psalm 27 verse 3 described peace of the heart that leads to peace of mind and act. Pope Shenouda III wrote that peace comes from faith. A heart full of faith leads to mind full of peace no matter how much problems are surrounding man. Having internal peace may be affected by surrounding circumstances. Having a calm family and home will have a different impact on a person from a home full of shouting and noise. This is the reason monks prefer to live in deserts where they can find peace and calm. Therefore, they enjoy peace of mind. May God grant us such peace and calm in order to save our souls and relations.