Anyone else used to love the emails of the late Fr. Antonious Henein of Holy Virgin Mary Church in Los Angeles, with their short Patristic sayings and beautiful icons?
Someone once told me a story about Abouna Antonious. Fr. Antonious lamented, “I can’t spread the gospel because I am a parish priest, and my efforts reach so few.” But someone told him, “but Abouna, your emails reach around the world.”
Fr. Antonios will always hold a special place in my own heart because his emails led me to Coptic Orphans in 2006. Here’s an email he sent after the Resurrection feast in 2005, still timely seven years later:
Dear beloved,
Blessing in the name of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Please let me share with you what I have read today.
Christ is Risen!
Thou didst descend into the earth to save Adam; and not finding him there, thou didst descend to hades and raised him and all his children with Thee, like the grain of the wheat that if it should die, it beareth much fruit.
Pray for me as I pray for you all.
Fr. Antonious Henein