St. Paul American Coptic Orthodox Church Podcast - Sermon
Jun 14, 2026 · 25 min · 10 segments
Fr. Kyrillos Ibrahim - Homily for the 1st Sunday of Paoni. The Lord gives a parable of a friend's persistence at midnight to obtain bread from his friend for a visitor in order to instruct us to…
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Someone recently asked me, somebody who was adult raised in the church, somebody recently asked me, why are we fasting for the apostles? And I thought that was a good question.
And I turned around and said, what do you think about the fast that we offer before the feast of St. Mary? And the person assumed that we fast for St.
The reality is that this is a kind of misunderstanding of the fast of the apostles and the fast that we have before some of the feasts like the saints, like the feast of the Assumption of St. Mary.
We don't fast for any person, not even one of the great saints like the Mother of God.
All of the fasts are for the Lord, but all of the fasts are in preparation for the grace that is epitomized by the feast.
So if we look, for example, after the apostles received the gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
And yet we are told that as they began their ministry throughout the year, the world, that they fasted and prayed in order that the Holy Spirit would fill them and guide them and give them the discernment to fulfill their vocation, to fulfill their mission.
So even though they received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, even though we received the Holy Spirit in baptism, yet we are in need of that practice of prayer and fasting in order for the Holy Spirit to fill us.
to guide us, to help us in our discernment, and to accomplish in us the vocation that God has given to each one of us.
So even though we may not be preaching in Judea or Samaria as one of the apostles were, but yet each one of us has a mission that is connected with the salvific works of Christ for the world.
Each one of us has a vocation, even if it's in our home, even if it's in our communities.
And so the question then becomes, are you and I in need of prayer and fasting in order to invoke the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives to fulfill our vocation? I will leave this question for you and for myself to answer, and then you can ask yourself whether this is a fast that applies for all of us or not.
Someone recently asked me, somebody who was adult raised in the church, somebody recently asked me, why are we fasting for the apostles? And I thought that was a good question.
And I turned around and said, what do you think about the fast that we offer before the feast of St. Mary? And the person assumed that we fast for St.
The reality is that this is a kind of misunderstanding of the fast of the apostles and the fast that we have before some of the feasts like the saints, like the feast of the Assumption of St. Mary.
We don't fast for any person, not even one of the great saints like the Mother of God.
All of the fasts are for the Lord, but all of the fasts are in preparation for the grace that is epitomized by the feast.
So if we look, for example, after the apostles received the gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
And yet we are told that as they began their ministry throughout the year, the world, that they fasted and prayed in order that the Holy Spirit would fill them and guide them and give them the discernment to fulfill their vocation, to fulfill their mission.
So even though they received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, even though we received the Holy Spirit in baptism, yet we are in need of that practice of prayer and fasting in order for the Holy Spirit to fill us.
to guide us, to help us in our discernment, and to accomplish in us the vocation that God has given to each one of us.
So even though we may not be preaching in Judea or Samaria as one of the apostles were, but yet each one of us has a mission that is connected with the salvific works of Christ for the world.
Each one of us has a vocation, even if it's in our home, even if it's in our communities.
And so the question then becomes, are you and I in need of prayer and fasting in order to invoke the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives to fulfill our vocation? I will leave this question for you and for myself to answer, and then you can ask yourself whether this is a fast that applies for all of us or not.
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