Beata LeMariyam - በዓታ ለማርያም
The Entrance of Our Holy Mother Virgin Mariyam, into the Temple
On Tahisas 3 (December 12) we commemorate the entrance of our holy mother Virgin Mariyam, into the Temple when she was three years old, for she was dedicated to God. Her mother, Hannah was childless. she was exceedingly sad and so was her husband Joachim who was a blessed old man. They fasted and prayed to God fervently and with a remorseful heart saying, "If You give us a fruit, we will devote the child to Your Holy Temple". God answered their prayers and gave them a holy child Who would give birth to her creator and named her Mariyam.
According to their vows, they raised her for three years, after which they brought her to live in the Temple. Beata is one of the thirty three feasts of Holy Virgin Mariyam, the word ‘Beata’ means “her entry”.
Zechariah the high priest was happy to receive her but he was so worried about her sustenance and gathered the priests to discuss. At that same moment the Archangel Phanuel appeared to them holding of heavenly bread. Zechariah the high priest assumed the Angel came to reveal his glory to the people and tried to accept the heavenly food from the hand of the Archangel. But the Angel didn’t approached him, or any of the other priests. But as soon as they left the child alone Archangel Phanuel came down covered her with his wings and fed her. From that time she received her sustenance from the hands of Arch angel Phanuel for 12 years.
May Her intercession and blessing be with us all.
Prophet Elijah- ነብዩ ኤልያስ
According to Ethiopian Orthodox calendar The prophet Elijah was born on December 10 [Tahisas 1], in the province of Gilead, to his righteous parents, his father, Joshua, and his mother, Tonya, who had lived in the house of Levi. On the eighth day, when they had performed circumcision, they named him Elijah.
When the prophet Elijah grew up learning the Law, he left his mother, his father, his relatives, and all his money and lived in the wilderness. St. Paul in the Hebrews' message, "They went about in sackcloth, on carpets, and in goatskins; they were distressed, afflicted, afflicted, hungry, thirsty. These are the things that the world does not deserve: the forest goes for the mountain and the mountain, the cave for the caves and the crumbs for fear. " Hebrews 11:37
"Elijah" also means a lamp to the house of God, that olive oil might shine upon all that are in darkness. When the Israelites were in darkness when they broke into the law of God, worshiping idols, the prophet Elijah arrived and brought them back to God with a bright heart.
One of the great miracles the prophet had done with the power of God was to make rain and to revive again [1 Kings 17: 2]. The sacrifice of the Lord in the presence of the priest, and the disgrace of the priests [2 Kings 18: 38].
One day, as the prophet Elijah was praying, the angel the Holy Raguel was revealed and told him, "Rejoice, for the time has come for you to ascend to heaven. You will live in a land of complete happiness. A place where no sickness, death, sorrow, but full of blessing. There is one like you, Enoch, who writes the commandment of the Most High God.
"When the time came for God to bring Elijah to heaven, the prophet went from Gilgal to Jericho, and his disciple Elisha said, "By your living soul, I will not leave you." When they arrived in Jericho, there came small prophets from Jericho. Elijah's ascension was revealed to them by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and they said to Elisha, "Do you know that today the Lord will take away your Lord from you?" He said, "I know, keep quiet." Then Elijah went with Elisha, when he said, "Sit down here, for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan . I will not leave you."
Fifty men from the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. 8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.
10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.”
11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two. 13 Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14 He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. [2 Kings 6-14]
As Elijah crossed the Jordan River into the living nations, the believers born of the water and the Holy Spirit will inherit the kingdom of God. Our Lord said in the Gospel of John that "a person who is not born again cannot see the kingdom of God."
The prophet Elijah was one of the fifteen prophets (Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Jonathan, Gad, David, Solomon, Elisha, Ezra, Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and John the Baptist). This is a prophet who spoke physically with our Lord on the Mount of Tabor, a priest who broke down the sacrifice of idols, a traditional priest who initiated the ordinance;
Our Lord, our Savior, Eyesus Kirstos, has called John "Elijah" when he witnessed the greatness of the Holy Spirit of baptism. Our Lord calls John “Elijah” because it implies that he is teaching ahead of the Second Coming of Eyesus Kirstos,
James 5:17, KJV: "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months."
May the prayer of Prophet Elijah be up on us!