Women of the Bible

Daily ContemplationsFasting and Prayer Program

The Holy Great Fast

2025

This 25th anniversary edition of the Fasting and Prayer Program is dedicated to Sam Bassilious (1962-2024).

A true servant, dear friend and a wonderful role model for family life.

The Fasting and Prayer Program was first published in 2001 as a service for the youth of St Mary and St Mina’s Coptic

Orthodox Cathedral in Bexley (Sydney, Australia). The Program continued to be published for several years later at a

local level, until Sam Bassilious, a faithful servant of St Mary & St Mina’s Cathedral and co-founder of COPT (Coptic

Orthodox Publication and Translation), felt that many more people could benefit from a spiritual program during the

blessed days of the Holy Great Fast. The Fasting and Prayer Program then spread both nationally and internationally.

Our Lord gifted Sam with many talents and he dedicated his life to various aspects of Church Service, from youth

groups to publication endeavours, and the design of the Cathedral itself. He served wholeheartedly with a humble heart

and a heavenly wisdom, using his talents for the glory of God and the edification of others. No service was too big or

too small for him, he served faithfully in whatever he was called to do. Every year Sam diligently ensured that a Fasting

and Prayer Program was published and distributed, even in his very last days. Before Sam went to rest in the arms of

his Lord and Saviour during the Holy Great Fast last year, one of his final wishes was to continue with the publication

of the Program. He also specifically asked for the theme: ‘Women of the Bible’.

This is the Program that is in your hands today. Contributions have been made by family, friends and the community

that Sam served; in honour of him, his unwavering dedication to the Program and his desire to ensure that written

treasures, particularly those of the Coptic Orthodox Church, were made available to the Diaspora.

Sam - may your memory be eternal and may this Program be a small token of our love and appreciation for all you

have done for us. May your legacy of service, leadership and commitment continue to inspire generations to come.

* * * * * * * *

The Holy Great Fast, in the Coptic Orthodox tradition, is a 55-day spiritual journey to the foot of the Cross of our

Lord Jesus Christ. It is a time of fasting and prayer and spiritual struggle that culminates in Passion Week (Holy Pascha),

which is the most important week of the year, and the richest spiritually.

This Program is designed to enrich you on your spiritual journey by providing daily contemplations, Bible readings,

prayers and key references, expressing how our spiritual life can benefit from the examples set by ‘Women of the Bible’,

through their humility, faithfulness, steadfastness, forgiveness, and trust in God.

We conclude with the events and rites of the Holy Pascha week – as our late Pope Shenouda III wrote in his book,

‘Contemplations On the Prayer of the Holy Week: Thine is the Power and the Glory’, it is “a week full of holy memories

of the most crucial stage of salvation and the outstanding chapter in the story of redemption”.

We pray that this Fasting and Prayer Program will be of benefit to your spiritual life.