Treasures of Grace-Great Fast (Expanded Edition)-Linking the Readings & Sermons

The Coptic Orthodox Church was very purposeful in her choice for each day's readings. In this work, translated from what was published originally in Arabic in 1958, Archdeacon Banoub Abdou (1900-1967) attempted to shed light on this wisdom. Annually, there are five Katameros books in the Coptic Orthodox Church. Katameros is a Greek word found 45 times in the Holy Bible that means "from day to day" or "daily." Thus, Katameros refers to the allotted liturgical readings according to each day. Each book serves a specific season of the Church's liturgical calendar year: The Great Fast, Holy Week, Holy Fifty-Days, Annual days, and Annual Sundays. In his compendium, Archdeacon Banoub Abdou begins each day "Linking the Readings" where he gives an overall summary linking all the day's readings, highlighting the connecting themes between the prophecies, Gospels, and the epistles. The Archdeacon also includes a sermon on each of the Gospel readings. Linking the Readings (previously published), the cliff-notes version, did not include these sermons, but covered the span of the whole Fast. The First Volume of this trilogy covers the readings from the Vespers of the Ninevites' Fast until the Second Sunday of the Great Fast. The Second Volume covers the readings from the Third Sunday and the Fourth Sunday. The Third Volume covers the readings from the Fifth Sunday until the Seventh Sunday.

The purpose of this book is to aid the Coptic reader understand why the church in her wisdom chose those specific passages to be read on each day during the Great and Holy Fast, and to aid every reader dive deeper into the meanings within these select Biblical passages and muse over the beauty of God's word and its amazing linearity throughout the Holy Bible.