Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on September 27, 2022
💭 My Note: We Christians are in sadness these days. And we should be deeply saddened. While we were rejoicing in the victory of distance running stars like Letesenbet Gidey, we should be very sad as well that the suffering mothers and fathers of Letesenbet Gidey and Co. are not able to celebrate the Meskel festival due to the weekly drone fire coming down on them. There is time for everything!
❖ But:
✞✞✞ [Romans 8:18]✞✞✞
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
The shadow of war hung over Ethiopia’s Meskel festival in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, with high security, low turnout and Orthodox Christian priests calling for peace and forgiveness in their sermons.
The event – usually a joyous affair where huge crowds gather around bonfires – marks the moment when the 4th century Roman Empress St Helena found Christ’s cross in Jerusalem.
As they do year after year, hundreds of priests, musicians and singers clad in white robes came together on the vast expanse of the capital’s Meskel Square.
But the mood was much darker and the clergy kept turning to the conflict raging again in the northern region of Tigray.
“Truly speaking, this year, we Ethiopians are not celebrating the festival in full happiness,” said Archbishop Abuna Markos, resplendent in a white robe with gold trim and embroidered silver crosses and blue floral designs.
“Just like the mothers were crying under the cross, our mothers in the North are also crying. They are suffering. This suffering is common to all of us. It’s our own,” he said, holding a gold cross encrusted with red gems.
The war in Tigray, which broke out in November 2020 and has spilt over into other regions, has killed thousands of people, displaced many more and left an estimated 13 million people in desperate need of food aid.
The conflict has pitted Ethiopia’s federal army, its regional allies and the Eritrean military against forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that controls Tigray’s regional government.
The central government and its allies accuse the TPLF, which long dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition, of seeking to reassert its dominance, while the TPLF accuses the central government of abusing its powers and oppressing Tigray.
Both dismiss each other’s accusations. After months of relative quiet, fighting flared again in August.
“On this day, my prayer for the new year is that God says ‘enough’, because he is the owner of peace and he declared peace through his cross by denouncing hatred,” said deacon Haileyesus Meleku, holding an ornate silver staff.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on September 9, 2022
💭 On Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022 / Pagumen 3, 2014, according to the Ethiopian calendar) Orthodox and Catholic Ethiopian Christians celebrated Feast of the Archangel Raphael.
❖ Sunday, 11 September is New Year’s Day which marks Meskerem or September 1st, 2015 — the first day within the Ethiopian calendar.
💭 Ethiopian Christians call the Rainbow as “The Belt of Mary”
The three distinguished colors Green yellow and red are vested with Religious interpretation in the Ethiopian Church. These three colors represent the Covenant given to Noah by the Almighty God. They are extracted from the Rainbow sign given to our forefather Noah. It is not deniable that these three colors are the dominant colors that one can easily catches by naked eye when we look at the Rainbow on the clouds. Hence as the matter of representing the Noah’s Covenant, Ethiopia keeps these three together as prominent sign, since the time before the Old Testament. With these colors we remember the Covenant our father Noah received from God. That is why one meticulously finds these three colors in most of the frames (Hareg – ሐረግ) of the parchments.
That Rainbow is the similitude of our Lady Holy Virgin Mary. When we see the Rainbow on the sky, we remember the Covenant that God promised not destroy the world in water. Now in the New Testament we have received the actual Covenant that we are sure the promise of redemption has been fulfilled by Her Son. Less destruction we are saved from everlasting death. The New Testament as the new Covenant come to us by the New Rainbow, Holy Virgin Mary. When we see her in the middest of us we know God is with us. Looking at the Green-Yellow-Red flag is looking to Holy Virgin Mary.
Besides, these colors were the ones revealed to the Ethiopian Scholar Saint Yared in Axum, when he received the three special melodies, Geez, Ezil, Araray from God. He was communicated with three birds each colored different, The first in Green, the second in Yellow and the third in Red. These colors represent Holy Trinity. The Three Person of the One God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were revealed to St Yared, one of the biggest holy scholars of the Ethiopian Church. The mystery of Holy Trinity is the primary Dogma of The Ethiopian Church. For an Ethiopian Orthodox these colors manifest Holy Trinity. This is an affirmative act by God’s hand that these colors are given to the Church. Both in the times before Christianity and after Christianity Ethiopian Church is vested with these special Colors.
Dictating the Church and it’s followers not to hold, to put the sign on their clothing, and to tie on hands and heads is equivalent to denying the freedom to worship. That is why we do not accept any intervening force that hails against us not to hold the Flag. We hold the flag not from political motives, but because it is a religious deed. The flag was in the Church in its fullest dignity before the birth of the political parties.
😲 Some mind-blowing coincidences related to the death of the Queen (R.I.P) who had Ethiopian ancestry:
Just 2 days before Queen Elizabeth II died she accepted the resignation of Boris (Real first name Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson)) and accepted Liz Truss (First names Mary Elizabeth) as former/new PM.
👉 Queen Elizabeth II full name is: Elizabeth Alexandra Mary.
😇 The Feast of the Archangel Raphael
One of the most important miracles of Saint Raphael is commemorated on the third day of Pagumen (Ethiopians follow a 13-month calendar – and the 13th month is called Pagumen).
One of the most important miracles of Saint Raphael is commemorated on the third day of Pagumen. The miracle is related to a Church dedicated to the archangel and is said to have been constructed on an island outside the city of Alexandria in Egypt. It is said that the church was threatened to be demolished by a whale and started shaking whilst the believers were praying inside the church. It was later saved miraculously by the Archangel Raphael.
The story described in the Book of Tobit, an Old Testament scripture, states that Saint Raphael was revealed to a man named Tobia who had a blind father called Tobit. The archangel instructed Tobia to fish in the River of Tigris and the heart and liver of a fish is said to have been served to Tobit, and that cured his eyes. According to the same story, a woman named Sarah (not the wife of Abraham) was married to seven husbands one after another, but all died on the first night of the marriage.
Saint Raphael intervened and told Tobia to marry Sarah. He miraculously exorcised the evil spirit and Tobia was spared the fate of Sarah’s previous husbands. St. Raphael is also believed to have been empowered by God to intervene for fruitful marriage, fertility and to reduce the labor during childbirth. He is also said to have performed a number of miracles on this day (Pagumen). That’s why the day is celebrated with special vivacity in the churches dedicated to the Archangel.
Pagumen is also called Rehiwe Semay literally meaning ‘The opening of heaven’. It is believed that on this day the prayers of believers reach before God in a special manner, and hence the term Rehiwe Semay. The rain that falls on this day is also considered Holy; it is believed that it blesses Christians and protects them from infirmity and bad fortune. On this day, we see children rinsing in the rain to receive blessing. Women add drops of the sacred rainwater to their dough to have their Injera and bread blessed.
😇 May Archangel Raphael’s Intercession be with us, Amen!
A Texas suspects she was poisoned by touching a napkin stuffed in her car’s door handle outside a Houston restaurant. Doctors agreed she had been poisoned but were unable to identify the poisonous material.
Erin Mims joined her husband at a Houston-area restaurant to celebrate her birthday last Tuesday afternoon. As she left the restaurant she noticed someone stuck a napkin in the door handle on the passenger side of her car, Fox 26 Houston’s Sherman Desselle reported.
She pulled the napkin out of the door and opened it to get in the car. Once inside she asked her husband if he stuck the napkin in the door — he said no.
Mims decided to go back into the restaurant and wash her hands. A few minutes later, she began to feel a tingling sensation in her arm.
“Maybe five minutes, my whole arm started tingling and feeling numb. I couldn’t breathe,” Mims told the Fox 26 reporter. “I started getting hot flashes, my chest was hurting, my heart was beating really fast.”
Mim’s husband quickly took her to a hospital where doctors raced to determine what substance had been used to create the numbness and other symptoms her body experienced. Her vital signs jumped all over the place, she explained.
“The doctor came in, and told me it wasn’t enough in my system to determine what it was, but said it was acute poisoning from an unknown substance,” the woman said. He told her he thought it might have been an attempt to kidnap her.
Houston Police Department officials took an assault report but told Fox 26 they had not seen any kind of similar complaint before. An official with the Drug Enforcement Administration also said they had never heard of this type of attack.
Fox 26 consulted with poison control expert Mark Winter from the Southeast Houston Poison Center. He said her symptoms could match up to hundreds of different toxins. He called her exposure “casual” or minimal, the report explains.
Mims told Fox 26 she decided to share her story on social media and then her post went viral. She said several people said they had similar situations. Fox 26 said they were unable to confirm the reports.
“All I could do was think about my babies. It was the scariest moment of my life,” says Mims.
😇 Today, according to the Ethiopian calendar it’s Saturday, August 14, 2014 – Saint Abuna Aregawi commemorated on this very Day.
💭 Ladies and gentlemen; I swear to you; If America does not stop supporting the evil fascist Oromo regime of Ethiopia – and if it does not refrain from its diabolical plot to disintegrate, weaken and destroy the historical Christian-Zionist Ethiopia – then, mark my words, the state of Texas would become the first state to secede from the National Union of the United States of America very soon.
☆ TExas
☆ TEgray (Tigray)
☆ TEdros (Tigray Native)
☆ TEsla (Besides, Elon Musk owns Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH = Ethiopia)
👉 Elon Musk’s ranch and his SpaceX Starbase are located in Texas.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on August 22, 2022
😇 The Feast of the Assumption of Saint Mary | Filseta — ፍልሰታ 😇
Filseta (Ge’ez: ፍልሰታ) or The Assumption of Virgin Mary is a feast day observed by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church in commemoration of the Dormition and Assumption of Mary.
The Assumption of Virgin Mary is the most highly honored feast among all the feasts of the Saints. Observed on August 22 (August/Nehase 16 According to the Ethiopian calendar), the Feast of the Assumption commemorates the entrance of Saint Mary’s corporeal body and soul into heaven as she preceded the faithful believers, taking her seat at the right hand of her bridegroom and Son. The feast is based on the conviction that the Lord did not permit the body in which He Himself had dwelt to fall prey to corruption and dissolution: though Mary as a human being underwent death, she was taken up into heaven. To Ethiopians, the celebration of this event bears a powerful witness to the eschatological truth of their faith. As members of the Church, they await the final consummation. On the Last Day, the righteous will rise from the grave and be united once more to a body–not a body such as we possess now, but one that is transfigured and “spiritual” a body in which inward sanctity is made outwardly manifest. The Ethiopian faithful, assured of their resurrection first and foremost by the resurrection of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, are being further assured by the Assumption of their sister, the Virgin Mary, and therefore observe the Feast of the Assumption with high honor and supreme joy. (1 Cor. 15:40-42)
Ethiopian Orthodox Christians have a striking loyalty to their faith which is easily observed during such seasons as the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God. This devotion is expressed, as we have seen, through the rich and varied hymns and prayers dedicated to the Virgin, in addition to the splendid titles and the poetic imagery which are associated with her. Thus, Ethiopians have retained a sense of the mystery and miracle of the incarnation of God, God’s relationship with humanity, the divine maternity of Mary, her favor with God and her identity with the people of God throughout the ages. Almost every facet of the Ethiopian Orthodox liturgy and worship is an elaboration of the grace of God extended to humanity in the mystery of the incarnation of our Lord anti Savior Jesus Christ through the holy Virgin Mary. In this respect, Ethiopian Christians see the election of the Virgin by God as the instrument for the work of salvation.
The Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is important for Ethiopian Orthodox believers for several reasons. For one thing, much of the life of the Orthodox is spent in recitation of the prayers and of the devotional literature honoring the Virgin Mary. Throughout their lives, they listen time and again to the stories of the Virgin’s life and hardships, joys and sorrows contained in the apocryphal gospels and The Book of the Miracles, as well as others. These stories form a part of the Orthodox Christian’s very consciousness; they strengthen his or her identity and experience in its similarity to the Virgin Mary From the beginning of their Christian life, the Orthodox believers are assured that Mary, in so far as she is a human being, is their sister; and because she has suffered in a fallen world like all human beings, she is their Mother, well acquainted with the pain and agony of this world and ready to comfort and save. Finally, because the Virgin is above all the Mother of God, she is their hope, for through her our salvation has become accessible in her Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thus, the celebration of the Feast of the Assumption is not merely an interlude between engagements; for the Ethiopian Christian, the annual Feast of the Virgin is the ever-repeated Culmination of a life-time of teaching and learning, listening and believing. In this Feast, the believer celebrates all that the Virgin Mary has come to mean to him or her. It is here, in the context of her Assumption, that the faithful affirm the attributes of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary. She is to them the intercessor, the virgin mother, the sister, the Lady of Sorrows, the queen–seated beside her Son, our Lord and Saviour, in heavenly glory.
In addition, the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary emphasizes the nature of God, God’s concern for the world which He created, His desire to redeem and save it through the willing participation of a humble woman, the two-fold Virgin Mary, who was pure in body and in soul. In this respect, the Feast of the Virgin represents a celebration of God’s love and charity. God gave His only Son to the world that the world might live through Him; the Virgin Mary willingly chose to participate in that salvation, and to bear to the world God Himself! Thus, the Feast of the Assumption is a time when the faithful express their gratitude to Mary through the works of charity, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked; visiting the sick; comforting the sorrowful, welcoming the stranger. In this way, they hope to express something of the unconditional love of God as expressed in the life of the Virgin Mary, His Mother. Indeed, the very name of Mary, understood within the context of the life of the Ethiopian Orthodox Incarnation Church, has come to be associated with the kindness, the tenderness, the love, and the mercy of God Himself. The Feast of the Assumption is also a time when the faithful examine their lives in light of the purity, holiness, and obedience of the virgin. Remembering her faithfulness to God and sacrificial love for her precious Son, the faithful are reminded of their own relationship to Him, or lack thereof. In this spirit one fasts, one prays, one dedicates anew his or her life to God. The Virgin Mary is associated with all of this. In her, the Orthodox see the purity of her virginity and thus, the willingness and capacity for serving God. In the purity of her obedience to God expressed in her response to the angel’s message, “Behold, I am thy handmaiden, let it be done to me according to thy word”, they see her faithfulness and in the purity of her gratitude and love for God. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name! they see the meaning of humility and thanksgiving. Mary is the expression of what God intends for them; she is the one, though human, who expresses the perfect will of God; she is humanity par excellence. One could say that like the Apostles before them the faithful fast in order to see and perceive the attributes, the holiness, the purity, the wonder of the Virgin Mary. (Luke 1:38, 1:49)
The celebration of the Feast of the Virgin is clearly a celebration of God’s victory over death as expressed in the assumption of the Virgin Mary and of the eschatological assurance that what Mary enjoys, eternal life in heaven’s glory, is that to which we can look forward in the future. Because the Virgin Mary shares in our death and has assumed her place in God’s kingdom, we have the sure hope that we will one day share her victory over a world of sin, decay, and corruption. She is the first-fruit of God’s eternal kingdom. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has received her in the heavenly places; He has made a place for His blessed Mother. For this reason, we, too, await the day when we will be joined together with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Mary, who is in every way a human being, like ourselves a daughter of Adam, assures us of our hope. In a sense, one could say that for the Ethiopian Christian, Mary is the guarantee of the promise of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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