His Holiness Pope Tawadros II prayed Holy Liturgy this morning in St. Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria and His Holiness ordained 18 priests as hegumens.
Before the prayers of ordination, His Holiness said that hegumen ordination is a way of appreciation from the Church to the priest and encouragement and an addition to the Church’s work. His Holiness also spoke in his sermon about “The Treasure” that the priest owns, through the verse “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7). This verse was also in the Pauline Epistle in today’s Liturgy readings.
His Holiness mentioned that the priest has a treasure that he serves with and His Holiness described it from 3 aspects:
1- Life of Consecration: to consecrate and dedicate all your life, time, energy and concerns to God. The priest is fully consecrated and through this consecration he will be able to serve and teach because all the days of his life will be dedicated to God, and blessed is he who keeps his treasure
2- The Grace of Priesthood: it is a grace that we do not deserve, we receive it and through it we are able to practice the Holy Sacraments and to serve and carry out our pastoral work. This is through the treasure we have which is the grace of priesthood.
3- Serving people: to serve everyone with no exceptions, and a priest should ask himself daily how many people has he served today?

The Bishops of the districts of Alexandria participated in the prayers, H.G. Bishop Bavly, General Bishop of Montazah, H.G. Bishop Elarion, General Bishop of West Alexandria, H.G. Bishop Hermina, General Bishop of East Alexandria and Fr Abraam Emil, deputy of the Patriarchate in Alexandria and a number of priests and congregation of Alexandria.

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