Unto the age of all ages
We thank you for every condition, for you have covered us, helped us, guarded us, Accepted us, spared us, and brought us to this hour. Coptic liturgy, St Basil
Read Isaiah 19:19—25
As soon as I responded to God in Jesus’ name I came out of my isolation. I am not alone. I participate with everyone else who calls upon Jesus. I am among them. In all places. In all times. Egypt and Assyria are the very places and people groups that in the Biblical account have been hostile to the people of God. In a curious way it would be true to say that, according to the Bible, Israel itself, the third people mentioned in Isaiah 19, they too have been hostile to the people of God. Though they are the people of God! Yet when I call upon God in Jesus’ name there are people, and have been for the last 2000 years in those places, who also call upon God in Jesus’ name. They have often suffered for it. And they have known great blessing. Even if I have not known it personally, I have been blessed by the ancient churches of the Middle East. In this prayer I pray with the church of Egypt.
O Christ, our God the great, feared and true, the only begotten Son and logos of the Father, poured fragrance is your holy name … You are the true evening sacrifice who offered yourself for our sins on the honoured cross, according to the will of your good Father. This, with whom you are blessed, with him and the Holy Spirit, the life-giver, who is one essence with you, now and at all times and unto the age of all ages. Amen.
— Coptic Liturgy of St Basil