Raiati

This biblical chapter contains one of the most beautiful conversations of the Lord. The incident that precedes this passage is when Jesus was still in Judaea, the district that surrounds Jerusalem, and felt that there is a machination from the Pharisees so He decided to move to Galilee, his land. Therefore, He had to pass on his way through Samaria. He arrived in a city named Sychar which is very close to Nablus, the city that still exists in our days. In that village, Jacob’s well (or spring) existed and also this well still exists today and an Orthodox Church is built there.

It was the sixth hour, i.e. noon, when a Samaritan woman came. In our country, when I was a child, they used to use this timing and call it “the Arabic clock”. The woman had a pottery jar and the well was 32 meters deep and she was able to draw water. Jesus had no bucket to draw water. The Lord asked her to give Him a drink but she refused because He was Jewish and Samaritans were a sect that split from the Jews for dogmatic and racial differences as their race was mixed with foreigners. When she refused to give Him water to drink, He told her: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water”. The woman replied: “Where can you get this living water?” Then Jesus said: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst”. What water did He mean? She didn’t understand anything.

The Lord wanted to wake her up spiritually and asked her to call her man (the word used in the American translation is “husband”). Our translation is better because she had no husband but had lived in the past with five men and now she lives with another one. She saw that Jesus knows her situation, so she said: “I can see that you are a prophet”. She also asked Him a theological question: “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain (Mount Gerizim), but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem”. Then, He explained to her that worshiping God is neither here nor in Jerusalem. God doesn’t care about the location. “God is worshiped in the spirit and in the truth”; which means in the heart and in the depth of human entity. The expression “in the truth” means worshiping in God Himself; i.e. a direct worship that needs neither the hill of Zion (where there Temple was) nor this mountain that used to have a temple for the Samaritans (It was destroyed before Christ’s coming to this world).

This conversation is the most important part in today’s Gospel. The woman left her jar which was the reason she came for (getting water) and started preaching her people and prepared them for the preaching of the apostles that is mentioned in the Book of Acts. The Church named this woman “St. Photini” and our Arabic usage for the name is “Photin” which means “enlightened”.

May God help us to be guided from all our hearts, as this woman did.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “السامرية” –Raiati 20- 13.05.2012

In the early seventies of the previous century, when the Holy Synod made the law for parish councils, they thought that it is good to have a committee of several people monitoring the issues of a parish from the spiritual, educational and financial aspects. In every community, the possibility to be active in work exists but also carelessness could exist too; you could find there good tempered or bad tempered people. Now I am not evaluating the success or failure of this law, because this could vary between different places and different piety levels in people.

Among the difficulties that exist is that the bishop cannot know all people that he appoints, and believers never agree on directing the bishop to the best options. Also, in some villages of the Archdiocese people do not accept that the priest is the head of the council. Those want to monopoly the management of affairs and to limit the role of the spiritual father to fulfilling prayers without having any opinion in his salary for example or in helping poor people who are under his care at the first place. The purpose of these lines isn’t to criticize the existence of these councils because the synod made them legitimate and there is no possibility to cancel them. However, how do we act if the management committed mistakes? How can the council have a good management instead of being simply a management machine?

The real question is: How do the members of the council live with each other? Our answer is that there is no living except in love, tolerance and forgiveness in a way that none of them would be stubborn in his opinion but accept the right one.  An Orthodox believer isn’t only a human being that belongs through baptism to the Church of Christ, but he is the one that carries the righteous opinion. Therefore, if you felt during a conversation that your colleague has a more righteous opinion than yours, you should dump your opinion and follow his because this person might have gotten more inspiration from Christ or might have been directed to the right position because of his experience. It doesn’t matter if you were the leader of the thought or not; the important thing is for the truth to be inspiring for everyone in order for all of us to be sons of the truth.

What happens with us sometimes? Conflicts that are based on familial reasons or on the policy of the village occur, knowing that in this archdiocese we are a group of villages. If we carried love, we would love all families because they all belong to Christ who loves them all equally. The Church is not composed of families but of individuals. If you loved the truth, you would stand against your brother if he was against it.

The love for appearing, control and power comes from the devil. The humble person disappears; he suppresses his pride and doesn’t claim that his family is great or better than others. God judges all people: He doesn’t judge families but individuals. Your father might be a saint while you are bad. The only familial connections we have are among the good and the righteous. The bad man is a stranger for you. However, serve him well because he is Christ’s lamb.

Do not divide the parish council into cliques or groups in conflict. Unite them: Let your method be uniting the brothers. You must be one body in the council if you wanted to serve the community or if you willed to become a united community through Christ’s blood.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “مجالس الرعية” –Raiati 19- 06.05.2012

The book of Acts is the book related to the beginnings of the Church; it is a book that tells about the work of the Holy Spirit that was transmitted to the universe after the resurrection of the Lord. The passage that was read from this book today tells us that Hellenistic Christians complained about Hebraic Christians because their widows were overlooked in the daily service which is the distribution of subventions and food to those women. Hellenistic Christians are Christians that speak Greek and live in Jerusalem and they were Jews that migrated from Palestine and lived in places where people spoke Greek such as Alexandria. After their conversion to Christianity, they willed to keep Christ’s memory by living in Jerusalem. As for those who were named as Hebraic by the Book, they were from Jewish origins and converted and stayed where they were, i.e. Palestine.

The apostles thought that they should leave “the wait on tables” because this took a lot of their time and their priority which was preaching. They thought that they could delegate seven believers to fulfill the service on tables. They got them by an election, and they believed that the distribution of material is not enough and that they should be “full of the Spirit and wisdom”. Any service in Church requires virtues: dealing with people, treating them without authority, having tranquility and peace in the soul, in addition to be just with people in the distribution of money or food… Also there is the removal of barriers between two different people or races such as the Hellenistic and Hebraic.

The Divine Book named those seven and said about Stephen who was one of them that he is full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and we shall see in the Book of Acts his theological knowledge and his martyrdom.

Did these seven have a position or a rank? The common opinion is that they were deacons: The first deacons in Church. However, St. John Chrysostom didn’t agree with this opinion. The common thing in the early Church is that deacons used to be responsible for the social work in addition to their ritual service. The seven did have a kind of consecration because hands were laid on them, which is a sign for an ordination. Any consecration, whether for a reader or a bishop, needs the laying of hands. The seven weren’t deacons in the common modern sense, but they did have an official position even if it was temporal. Becoming a monk, which isn’t considered as a sacrament by most of scholars today, was considered a sacrament by ancient scholars because the bishop or abbot lays his hand. A sacrament is anything that contains dedication for God through a tangible sign accompanied by a descent of grace. Priesthood is the election of the grace for a specified service. This isn’t a privilege for anyone but a free divine delegation. Immediately after this, Luke (The author of the Book of Acts) says: “So the word of God spread (through preaching). The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly”. And when he says that “a large number of priests became obedient to the faith”, he means the priests of the Temple that joined the Church.

Then, generations converted into Christianity, and they had great struggles in faith.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “انتخاب السبعة” –Raiati 18- 29.04.2012

On the evening after Resurrection, Jesus entered with his glorified body, without being subjected to the thickness of walls, to the disciples when they were meeting in the attic “for the fear of the Jews”. The disciples feared that their people would destroy them in order to end the whole case of Jesus permanently. Jesus greeted them normally, and because He knew that they would doubt His appearance, “He showed them His hands and side” and therefore they recognized that He is the Lord. After confirming that He is the rising one – with Jesus knowing that they are filled with Him – the time had come to delegate them and send them, so He says: “Receive the Holy Spirit”. The Spirit dwells in me and I have His gifts. You shall have all His gifts in order to build the Church so that every believer takes the gift that is chosen for him by the Divine Spirit: Teaching, managing, preaching… as Paul shows in his epistle to the Romans. Then He also tells them: “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven”.

The background of this speech is that Jesus, through His death and resurrection, made the new covenant with us; this is the covenant that Jeremiah spoke about, in chapter 31, when he said: “I shall forgive their trespasses and forget their sins”. The apostle doesn’t forgive according to his own will. He knows God’s thought about every sin, and he expresses the divine forgiveness or doesn’t. In the Gospel of Matthew it is written that: “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18: 18). This stresses on the fact that the Church after Pascha and after the spiritual renewal, became the only place in which we repent and gain forgiveness. The Church used these words as a basis for the sacrament of repentance. Thomas, who was absent on the eve of Pascha, doubted the Lord’s appearing. When the Lord appeared again after a week, i.e. on the Sunday that we call St. Thomas Sunday, the Lord reproved him for his lack of faith. Then, Thomas said to the Lord: “My Lord and my God”. Such strong confessions are rare in the New Testament. As for His words: “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”, this doesn’t mean that we should easily believe whatever is said to us. Faith is something inside the soul; it was thrown there by God. Lots of people that lived in the time of the Lord saw His miracles and heard what He said, yet they didn’t believe. The eye and the ear are not enough.

Perhaps, Jesus’ reproving for Thomas carries a meaning that Thomas must have believed in what the disciples said. Lots of people doubt, and those don’t have a less understanding ability that other people. They usually say: This issue isn’t easy for the mind. Doubt is a satanic temptation, it is a defect in the faith that we had. Logical understanding doesn’t always come through faith. Also, logical doubt doesn’t come through the lack of faith. Faith is throwing yourself into the Father’s bosom and submitting yourself to Him. And if you found yourself in confusion or suspicion, accept what the Church says i.e. the righteous doctrine that we took from our ancient fathers throughout generations. Believing in heaven, eternal life, the Holy Trinity, the intercession of saints, in icons, the forgiveness of sins… All of these are things that let doubt enter our minds. Become informed in what the Church says and “be faithful not unfaithful”.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “أحد توما” –Raiati 17- 22.04.2012

The phrase “Christ is risen from the dead” reveals the peak of our faith. It also became common as a consolation expression for those who feel the resurrection. St. Seraphim of Sarov has made up an expression to salute others in every encounter: “My joy, Christ is risen”. Also, we, who don’t feel ashamed of faith in our Paschal visits, still greet by saying: “Christ is risen”.

Should we consider it only as a common phrase for Orthodox people? Or should it be a phrase that comes from the bottoms of the heart into the tongue in order to revive a friend that we are greeting and support his faith and encourage him to accept the Savior’s Resurrection as a new power and life for him? If we meant to say it, we would do so whether we were happy or tired, sick or healthy, rich or poor. This expression is superior to any situation and life circumstances. It is valid and effective and it transfers the grace from our mouths to the ears and consequently the heart of the other.

We repeat this expression from the Paschal liturgy to the Thursday of Ascension so that we feel satisfaction from the vitality of resurrection knowing that we have moved from death – any kind of death – into life. There wasn’t any joy in the depth of human soul when death was triumphant and when people knew nothing but death. But when they knew the new life in Christ, death stopped being an existing truth and we started calling death “dormition” because we know that, through Christ, we are transferred to a new life in heaven.

The whole problem of man is death while all things before death are difficulties that we can overcome. When Christ came, he solved this problem and gave us the promise of resurrection. This is called the Final or General Resurrection. However, this is preceded by a first resurrection which is baptism in addition to many other resurrections which are our continuous repentances and receiving Holy Communion. All of these are a preparation for the Final Resurrection. This means that our life has become, in Christ, a permanent resurrection and that if we fell, Christ’s body and blood will revive us and make us rise in the hope of coming resurrections.

Our pattern of life, we as Paschal people, is a resurrectional pattern. Our chants are also resurrectional because all words in Church lead to resurrection and contain it in a way or another. Therefore, we stressed that every Sunday, being the beginning of the week, is a Pascha in which we mention the one that is risen from the dead. Without any doubt, celebrating Sundays preceded historically our celebration of Pascha.

In order for the Paschal joy to be fulfilled in us every day, we must not forget that the Son of God was incarnated to live our life and to share with us everything except sin. “If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord” (Romans 14: 8).

Jesus lives with us through life and death. And if He was attached to us in death, He would revive us immediately even if this was in an unseen way. He lets us become with Him and for Him until He gathers us in the last day. If you read this, say: “Truly, He is risen”.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الفصح” –Raiati 16- 15.04.2012

Perhaps the thing that made the Church choose this passage for today from the Epistle to the Philippians is the fact that it speaks about joy. We receive this joy from Jesus’ last entrance to Jerusalem. “Rejoice in the Lord always”. The Lord’s passions are not a source of sadness because they led us to salvation and showed this salvation through the Resurrection. The Passions and Resurrection are two faces for one truth: Christ’s triumph.

Joy shows dreams and hope. The reason behind that is the fact that the Lord is near. Modern exegetes say that Paul was anticipating the Lord’s coming to happen during his life. Whether this is right or not, the Lord is always near through the Word and the Eucharist. During the Holy Week, we taste that the Lord comes to us spiritually everyday of the week until this coming shines on the morning of Pascha. Other than the Savior’s nearness to us, nothing else matters. We are attracted to “Prayer and petition with thanksgiving”, and thanksgiving is a form of praying. The purpose of praying is purification; without the will for purification there is no prayer. Purity, in us, comes from God’s peace in us which is supreme to any logical understanding. If God’s peace became in us, it shall “guard our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ”. You would move in peace towards Him, and He would become your residence. You would be there: up with him.

After saying this, the apostle wants us to think about supreme things which he names: whatever is true, chaste, right and pure. Chastity is the form of purity that is related to the body, while purity is more general and dwells in the heart. He also wants us to be admirable (have a good reputation) which comes from good behavior. Even if we were so, some people would still gossip about us.

In order to facilitate these virtues, he tells them: “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice”. Paul considers himself a source for teaching the faith that the Lord has put in his heart. Faith came to them through hearing, learning and the traditions of the Churches that Paul established. Also, there are the things that the believers see during worships, in the Divine Liturgy.

The believers saw this group of gestures – hearing, watching and the ritual activity – with Paul. This way, faith is transferred to us through recurrence of religious knowledge and through imitating the veterans. We completely dip children in water in baptism because this was transferred to us through tradition. Also, we draw the sign of the cross because of the tradition of the ancients. Signs and symbols in our Church are like icons, incense, clerical clothing and ecclesiastic architecture: They all come from what we have seen. Chanting was also transferred to us through generations and we have sensed that it teaches faith and urges people to be pious and to be in communion with the brothers while chanting together in one tongue and one spirit.

If we taste this in every divine service, we shall start from today chanting the chant of the bridegroom, the divine groom, and the call for vigilance will start too. If this vigilance was present throughout the days of the Holy Week, our joy would be fulfilled to receive Pascha.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “رسالة الشعانين” –Raiati 15- 08.04.2012

In this passage from the Gospel of Mark, the Lord lets the disciples enter His great mystery. He was ascending with them towards Jerusalem and He prophesied that the Son of Man, i.e. Himself, will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes. Scribes are those who used to copy the Torah in order to be read over as many people as possible and because of this work they have become knowledgeable people. He said: “They will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles”. By “gentiles” Jesus meant the representative of Rome in Palestine, Pontius Pilate.

The Jews and Gentiles both took part in the killing of the Lord. Jesus spoke about the form of his passions: “they will mock Him and spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him. Three days later He will rise.” This is what the other Evangelists also said.

Then, there is a weird conversation from the sons of Zebedee, James and John (The evangelist). They still thought that Jesus is a temporal political king, so they asked to be ministers in his government. Therefore He asked them if they could take the passions that He will take. But, as the others, they couldn’t understand anything from what will happen to Him. The disciples felt mad from James’ and john’s will to be special among them although none of them understood yet that Jesus’ kingdom wasn’t from this world.

Then, Jesus called the twelve disciples to tell them that Gentile nations have their rulers. While among you, nobody dominates and if you wanted to search for the great among you, he shall be a servant for you. Service is the only way to the known greatness in Jesus’ kingdom. Then, He stressed on the word servant as He said: “whoever wants to be first must be slave of all”.

The model is in front of you, the Son of Man that didn’t come to be served but to serve. Not only that, but also to die.

For us, the great is the one that says about himself that he is the smallest. The Bishop used to sign his letters this way “the poor among bishops”. This means that he is being humble to the extreme so that the believers would believe him and so that he could fulfill a righteous service. We all came to be a ransom for others, as the Lord did. We cannot become anything except through the Lord’s grace.

Through this feeling, we come towards the Lord’s passions, death and resurrection. It is the feeling of ignoring our ego, our interests, benefits and the love of appearing. You cannot take anything from the Holy Week unless you felt poor towards God as St. Mary the Egyptian did: The saint that we celebrate today who stayed 47 years in the dessert to gain the atonement of her sins.

Putting our sins to death starting from today gives us acceptance for Pascha.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “إلى الآلام” –Raiati 14- 01.04.2012

Salvation is the purpose of the Annunciation of Divine Incarnation. The fruit of Annunciation was defined by the author of today’s epistle saying that “Both the one who makes people holy (Christ) and those who are made holy (The faithful) are of the same family, i.e. of the Father, and this establishes the existing brotherhood between us and the Savior. Our brotherhood to the Lord appears through praising him in Church and through Jesus’ declaration (from the epistle): “Here am I and the children God has given me”.

We also have a main common factor with Christ and it is the fact that we carry, with him, the flesh and blood that he shared with us through His incarnation from Mary in order to abolish, through His death, the devil and his effectiveness and to liberate us from slavery that we were in because of the fear of death.

We commit sin because we fear death as we think that sin revives and resuscitates us. However, as soon as we feel that we will die through it, it gives us the feeling of “nothingness” because this is what sin is about as it carries no power for life.

After that, the author says that God has taken Abraham’s offspring. “For this reason he had to be made like his brothers”. And the most important resemblance for us is that He died, for death is the most important thing in our life and the most eloquent expression of Jesus’ love for us. The author’s most eloquent expression of Christ’s death was the he called Him a “High Priest” and He is the only one that was sacrificed for God His Father. He, willingly, offered this sacrifice in order to “make atonement for the sins of the people”.

Then, the author clarifies that Lord Jesus suffered while being tempted, and this temptation was harsh through hitting, mockery, the crown of thorns, and through being nailed on the Cross and stabbed with a spear. And because He tasted temptation, He became “able to help those who are being tempted” i.e. us, who believe in him.

The road started with the Annunciation, and since He started preaching Himself, the Jews became His enemies and wanted to make Him silent and suppressed. However, He was crowned through His triumph over death. Therefore, if we held the memory of the Annunciation today, we should be aware that we are getting ready to continue in His path on earth, until its end, through the crucifixion and Resurrection. We should taste our march with Him because there are no other ways than Him.

Today is a day of joy because it reveals to us God’s nearness to man, not only as He used to say through the prophets, but through the fact that He descended and “set up His tent in our own neighborhood” and lived with us in all the phases of our lives. The final expression of this is that He died with us, and our death became a way to be dwelling with him. Our death became a way to be closer to Him after being a “wage for sin” and a curse.

All of this is a Paschal anticipation. Pascha is the only anticipation and our acceptance of God’s power. After being separated from Him, He tells us that Mary’s acceptance for the incarnation has made us sons of God after being the sons of rage.

Also, for the fact that the Annunciation is always celebrated during the Lent, we understood that austerity, asceticism and repentance are all necessary to understand the Lord’s brotherhood and leadership for us towards salvation through Crucifixion and Resurrection.

We pass through the feast of Annunciation in order to take a turn towards the Holy Week in which we feel joy and get ready for Christ’s triumph in Pascha.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “البشارة بالخلاص” –Raiati 13- 25.03.2012

This Sunday that is called “The Sunday of the veneration of the cross” is actually a veneration of the crucified. The Church noticed that some believers get tired when the Lent is halfway through. Therefore, in order to make them continue their quest without boredom, the Church made a small memorial for the Lord’s passions.

The sacrifice that was raised on the cross is Christ himself. Through it, He has become the Chief Priest; actually, He has become the only chief because He is the one that offers and the offering at the same time.

In today’s Gospel, Mark reveals for every believer the meaning of the cross and how a person must commit to the cross and be slaughtered through Christ’s passions. He shows that this would be following the Savior’s way, as he says: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”.

First, you have to show commitment. Your will must be engaged to Christ. This leads you into getting rid of selfishness, the love for yourself and lusts. This is what the Lord talked about when he said: “One must deny himself”. However, in order to truly get rid of your desires, you must take up your cross, i.e. endure the discomforts of life as the Lord took up His cross. Following the Lord causes you physical and psychological fatigue. People around you and people you deal with torture you in the first place. These pains are a condition to follow Christ. If your whole life was a fuss, you would be following your desires and not Christ.

The Gospel draws this meaning by saying: “whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it”. Losing life means tiredness and staying away from sin. All of this is controlling your desires, monitoring your soul and supervising yourself.

He reaches the peak by saying: “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?  Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” You might win all the money and glory of the world, and yet your soul might be in sin. What would you be winning? Hell would have entered your soul which contains money, glory and power i.e. contains “nothing” in the eyes of God but a real misery for the soul. How could you redeem your soul? Would your soul be a price for these glories and lusts?

This fall means that you feel ashamed of the Son of man. If you didn’t feel so, you would endure everything and testify for Christ who would embrace you to His chest.

You are asked to choose between the Savior and the Savior’s enemy, sin. Those two cannot exist together in one heart. You are asked to be biased to Jesus and not to add to Him anything else or what is against him.

If you were with Him, you shall go to your job, family and all your natural concerns. And you would be coming from Him to all of these and everything you do would be sanctified. You would be taking up your cross with joy.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “السجود للصليب” –Raiati 12- 18.03.2012

After wandering around the Lake of Tiberias, the Lord entered Capernaum where he lived after leaving Nazareth. He was received in a house that might have been owned by one of the disciples. The number of visitors increased when they heard that “He was preaching the word to them” i.e. Moses and the prophets. Then, they brought a paralyzed man to him (according to our translation), i.e. a hemiplegic man. And when they couldn’t get near him because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof. Such roofs, made of wooden boards and some soil, are well known in Lebanese mountains.

Jesus immediately says to the paralyzed: “Son, your sins are forgiven”. In their custom, this is blasphemy, because none of the Jewish priests or prophets ever said such an expression. The teachers of the Law only knew Jesus as a man. This is why they disapproved the fact that he is capable of forgiving sins.

However, He proved the validity of His claim of being able to forgive by giving physical healing after forgiveness. He said to the ill person with authority: “Get up, take your mat and go home”. He confirmed to the Jews through forgiving and healing that He has authority over man’s body and soul.

Then, immediately after the paralyzed was healed by a word, “He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all”. “This amazed everyone” and therefore they said “We have never seen anything like this”. Perhaps, among those people, there were some who handed Jesus over to death. It is obvious from this miracle that the first concern of the Lord is healing the soul from sin, while the second one is healing the body. Jesus has done this through making many miracles.

If someone got sick, the most important concern for him is to repent, because the disaster wouldn’t be to die but to die without repentance. It’s not a problem if the ill person asked for his healing from God; however he must not forget the healing of his soul. If a priest was called to pray for a sick person, his prayer and request to God shouldn’t be limited in healing. The important thing is our rise from sin, while our safety is handed to God’s care over us. Maybe sickness is sometimes a shock to remind is of the importance of going back to the Lord.

The Lord might allow a sickness or an accident, but this doesn’t mean that he is the reason behind it. God isn’t the reason of our pains. He lets us rise from them in order to get closer to him.

Who is aware that sin is the biggest disaster and that there is nothing worse than it? I wonder how we take care of our health so that it doesn’t drop, but we rarely take care of our souls in order not to fall into temptation. Does the irascible person ask himself for example: How can I train my soul to gain calmness? Also, who says to himself: I shouldn’t follow a certain group of people in order not to do the bad things they do? How can I try to embrace myself to Jesus in every social situation I fall into? And how can I strengthen my soul in faith, in the spirit of prayer and in continuous prayer so that I don’t fall? Putting it in one phrase: Am I a real lover for virtue, or is it just an illusion? Is my real concern to commit to Lord Jesus, in order for him to become my life?

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “شفاء المفلوج” –Raiati 11- 11.03.2012