Dear listeners,

Due to circumstances beyond my control, last week I could not post a podcast episode. Never fear, however, this week’s episode is rich enough (and long enough) to count for TWO. So, Episode 7 is now Episode 6 and 7. My guest on the Hunger for Righteousness podcast is author, artist and creator Michael El-Gamal, the mastermind behind Creative Orthodox. It was an enormous pleasure to talk about the Desert Fathers and Mothers with someone who has immersed himself in their lives and stories like Michael has.

The topic of the correlating Hunger for Righteousness chapter for this episode (Chapter 6) includes discussion about reading Scripture, with a recommendation to use the Lent lectionary as a guide when beginning a Scripture reading practice. To help with this, Appendix B of the book includes references for the Coptic Orthodox Lenten lectionary. Since it might be harder to read in the print copy of the book, Paraclete Press has allowed me to share Appendix B as a free download to my readers. So you can access it here and print it out, if you like, for suggested Scripture readings during this season.

In our conversation, we mentioned a few of Michael’s books, including A Forest in the Desert, a graphic novel about St. John the Short, who also features in Chapter 7 of Hunger for Righteousness. For younger readers, St. John the Short and the Tree of Obedience is a gorgeous picture book retelling the St. John’s most famous story. Michael also has a wonderful YouTube documentary, What’s So Great About Antony the Great? which you can view for free here. Michael shares most of his beloved Desert Fathers and Mothers artwork on Instagram, so be sure to follow him there.

We concluded our conversation with this story about Abba Theodore and Abba Pachomius, which Michael has generously allowed me to share below.

Thank you so much for listening! As always, I welcome your comments and feedback, which you can share right on the bottom of this post. Join the conversation! That’s the best thing about podcasts.

-Phoebe Farag Mikhail

P.S. Unfortunately, I have not had the time to review and edit the transcript of this episode, so if you are using closed captions, please forgive the imperfections of Substack’s AI-generated transcript!

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