February 2024 Letter

Dear brethren,

In the Agpeya prayers that we are used to pray every hour – among the prayers – Kyrialison (Lord have mercy) 41 times. It is useful to know the reason for determining this particular number, so let’s quote from the book: “Lectures on the Liturgy of the Church of Alexandria” by Father Athanasius Al-Makari to explain this:

By the sixteenth century, the Agpeya manuscripts began to mention that “Kyrialison” should be prayed (41) times, which is what we practice in the current Coptic rite.

The interpretation of this number (41) since the Middle Ages is that it is a reference to the 39 lashes with which Jesus was flogged, in addition to hitting Him on the head with a single reed, and stabbing Him with a spear in His side. This explanation does not mention the nails with which the Lord was nailed into His hands and feet.

As for the Holy Liturgy Book, it states that “Christ was slapped by servant of the high priest one blow, and flogged forty lashes. In this sense they say in every prayer (41) Kyrialison.”

As a spiritual contemplation of “Kyrialison” (41) times, let’s remember that the punishment for flogging according to the law of Moses was forty lashes except one, lest if the flogging exceeds this limit, the man who is flogged will be despised in the eyes of the one who flogs him, so they reduced it one in compassion: “Forty blows he may give him and no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him with many blows above these, and your brother be humiliated in your sight” (Deuteronomy 25: 3). Therefore, it was the custom in ancient times that the guilty was flogged with forty lashes except one, for mercy.

In the New Testament law, after the Lord has taken away our punishment from us, and with His lashes and sufferings we have been healed, we invoke Him with forty requests of mercy with an additional one beseeching the Lord’s mercies. They have reduced the forty lashes by one, out of pity from man for his fellow man, and we increase the forty requests for mercy by one, in pleading for the Lord’s compassion and mercy on man.

As a continuous request for mercy, we reverently remember the Psalm’s prophecy of Jesus’ lashes, which were invoked because of our sins, “The plowers plowed on my back; They made their furrows long” (Psalm 129: 3).

May the blessings of St. Mary & St. Mercurius and all the martyrs and saints be with us.

Belleville, February 1, 2024

رسالة شهر فبراير ٢٠٢٤