The Immortal Church

The publication of Orthodox Prayer Life, the first book written by Abouna Matta El Meskeen (Father Matthew the Poor) in 1952, was essential for the Coptic generation at that time as the church was tight-fisted and in parched spiritual condition. There was a dire need for the generation to become appreciative of the essence of Orthodoxy: ascetics, worship, and mysticism.

Fr. Matthew the Poor later felt the need to establish an educational foundation about the church, to help with correcting misconceptions or filling in incomplete knowledge; therefore, he wrote this book, The Church Immortal, in 1959 from his cave at the Amriya Desert, near Alexandria, Egypt.

It is his view that theology is close to man and easier to understand than any other subject, as long as it springs from true intuition, experience, and behavior and not solely from logic, analogy, or polemics.

The reader of this book will enjoy first correcting theological ideas and definitions that have taken the wrong course over long years. Then the author will take the reader into a joyful path, starting from the Old Testament of the Bible, to prove that the properties of the church with all its subtle details of faith, salvation, and missionary work are latent in the rites and offering of the Old Testament.

This journey starts at the tent in the desert, with the presence of God within it, then addresses the general specifications of the sacrifices of Christ in the Tent foundation.
The reader will see the multiplicity of offerings and the cause/purpose of the diversity of offerings in the Old Testament.

Father Matthew the Poor makes the connection between the Old Testament offerings and the relationship between Baptism and the Holy Communion. He deeply connects also the sacrifices and the offerings of the Old Testaments with the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You will find also a full description and explanation for the temple in the Old Testament, and the removing of the Partitions of Hostility in the New Temple.

We see that now, we have become members in the Temple of His body. All of us are united with the Body of Christ. The mystical action of the church body is revealed in the present time, and the body of the church extends and encompasses the past and the future, uniting as one.

The author explains the "personality of the Church" and her "Catholic Oneness," as well as its identity, and its new characteristics.
He describes the personality of the church and its living past, Its immortal present,
Its future of resistance, and suffering as a price of glory...and its responsibility.

We see that the personality of the church is above partisanship, above suffering, and above titles.
The personality of the church is above errors.

This book is an essential reference to connect the symbols and all the treasures of the Old Testament through the light of the Church of Christ, its sacraments, dogma, faith, and characters. It has deep spiritual guidelines in which the church clergy, leaders, shepherds, servants and even members can use through their lives to align their "curriculum" of faith with the right path of the "Church of Christ in which He established across the ages."