Raiati

“Orthodoxy” is a very old word that means the righteousness of the opinion or the right faith; it also means the right glorification because the faith of our fathers inspired them to write the prayers that express this faith. If you compared the doctrine to our prayers and chants, you will find that they are the same.

Why did the Church insist on specifying a Sunday during the Lent for the righteous faith? The reason is that if your doctrine was deviant, then fasting wouldn’t benefit you at all. Faith is the starting point of the Christian life and its basis and continuity. Therefore, praying support you through the struggle of fasting because it is full of divine thought that is taken from the Holy Book that straightens your faith.

Why do we insist on Orthodoxy, not only on this Sunday but throughout our lives? Because there are groups that deviated from the Church since the first century, and the big disaster came with Arianism that was considered a blasphemy in the first council because it rejected Christ’s divinity. Actually, all heresies derive from this one.

Today, Arianism is repeated by Jehovah’s Witnesses that reject the Lord’s divinity, and this is why they aren’t Christians.

Today’s Gospel expresses the Orthodox faith by saying: “you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man” (i.e. Christ). If Lord Jesus was the bridge between heaven and earth, then this would be an expression for him being God.

In the epistle, the author shows the holiness and spiritual greatness of people in the Old Testament and after that, the passage ends by saying that “none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect”.  This means that perfection is through Jesus, and ancient people had to wait for him and for his disciples (us) in order to become, with us, one Church to receive together the divine glory.

If we marched together in this Lent through the study of the Bible and spiritual readings and prayers that are filled from the Divine Book, we shall be able to be ready for the feast. We shall live resurrection daily in the Lent if we overcame sin and waited for the Savior that is coming to us and ate his body and blood and live through them until God transfers us to him through death.

Pascha, historically, existed before the Lent. We know Pascha since the first century, while the Lent took four centuries to become fixed. Pascha is the belief that Christ is a Lord and a God. He gives the Righteous faith that we mention on the first Sunday. All the coming Sundays contain, in a way, this faith and wait for Christ that is coming to us and expect his last coming.

Who gives us, in this day, the gift of being filled – every Sunday of this Lent – with the power of Pascha that is spread all over the days of this fasting? Who can make us Paschal and Rising in joy? We hope to be together in these days in order to be able to be together in the blessed Pascha.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “أحد الأرثوذكسية” –Raiati 10- 04.03.2012

Today, before entering the Lent, we read from Matthew: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you”. This means that you wouldn’t be fasting if you didn’t love your brother, and one of the most prominent factors in this love is forgiveness because without it there is no communion, the communion of the Holy Spirit that unites you. To clarify this meaning, He says: “But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins”. This starts by having a soft heart because some do have cruelty.  After this, you shall have conciliation. I remember confession in my childhood when the priest used to ask before confessing: “Are you having any problems with someone?” It was common among us that conciliation is a condition for Holy Communion because Communion is sharing between the members of the community.

The second part of this chapter is a call for happiness on the day that the Jewish person fasts and forgives. When the Lord said “do not look somber as the hypocrites do”, he probably meant the Pharisees that love to appear for people to say good things about them. In Christian fasting, your first relationship is with God and you do not need attestation from anyone as we all are in a state of happiness. And if any of us invited the other for a meal, you should show that you are fasting and your guest must share this with you. It is meaningless to give the guests a choice and prepare two kinds of food – Lenten and normal – if the number of guests was big. If a person wouldn’t accept to abide by your fasting, do not invite him.

The passage from Matthew starts its third part by saying: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven”. This is a prohibition from “the love for silver” as we call it in the Lenten book known as Triodion. This isn’t a prohibition from having a personal wealth. Big economical activities require having lots of money whether in the form of trusts or real estates.

These words aren’t Jesus’ whole teaching about money, this teaching that our fathers talked about saying that money is something you are trusted for and is between your hands as a trust that you should be ready to distribute to the needy or use for the sake of who needs it. Jesus didn’t ask all believers to become poor in order to enter the Kingdom of heaven; however he did ask them not to be attached to earthly things. The Lord wanted to clarify that you cannot serve God and money, because if money enslaved you, you won’t be able to love Christ.

He clarified this at the end of this passage when He said: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. The whole story is a story of the heart and its movement. Where is the direction of your heart? If it was directed towards passion for money, then there will be no place left for the poor in your heart. If you were wealthy or rich, do not give a big stature for what you own. You don’t rise through what you own. You rise through your love for God and His love for you; you are independent from everything on earth. As much as you become liberated from your slavery to what you own, you become a slave for God.

Getting out of your drowning in the sea of money is a condition for the Lent that starts tomorrow in God’s mercy and the flow of his graces on us.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الاستعداد للصوم” –Raiati 09- 26.02.2012

“Sunday of the last judgment” which is also called “Meatfare Sunday” is the last day of the season in which we can eat meat; however we could still eat dairy products and fish. The Church used it as a soft transitional period between the possibility to eat anything and complete fasting.

The Church read for us a chapter from Matthew related to the last judgment so that we examine our hearts before accessing the Lent and purify ourselves ethically in such a way that we recognize the purpose of the lent before starting it, which is purifying the soul from its sins. The Lord wanted us to know that we will be judged and that our relationship with Him is serious. Therefore, He gave us the image of the last judgment that we saw in the gospel of Matthew. He borrowed the image of goats to talk about those who committed sin willingly, and the image of sheep to talk about the righteous people who did good works. He also defined Himself as the one sitting on the throne.

In this reading, Jesus is a Judge. He gives the righteous ones the “kingdom prepared for them since the creation of the world” and attributes to them their good deeds which we could find some of in the beatitudes (Matthew 5). There, He says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst”. He also clarifies – when the righteous ones asked him – that His concern is the person that has no clothes, the sick and the imprisoned. They asked: When did we see you hungry and a stranger…etc.? Here He answered with the heart of this biblical chapter: “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”.

The Lord unifies Himself with all those that are in need, and calls them his little brothers and sisters and this is a mode of love.

In parallel to His questions with the righteous ones, He says to the evil ones: “I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat… I was a stranger and you didn’t invite me in”. So the evil ones ask: “When did we see you thirsty or strange or with no clothes?” and it was normal for His answer to be: “whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me”.

Lots of people live as if the Last Judgment won’t happen. We repeat our sins hoping to repent, but we don’t. Repentance cannot be delayed because if it was, in many cases it would remain delayed and the person would die in his sin.

If we differentiated between good and evil, then the judgment is something normal, or else God Himself wouldn’t differentiate between good and evil. If God was away from you because of something evil you did, your soul shall stay in this same situation after your death. You rely on God’s mercy? This is His own business. Your only concern is to repent.

The actuality of the Last Judgment is rationally present. It is normal for the good person to be happy to confront his Lord after death. This is heaven. While if he confronted his Lord while being against Him, he shall be disturbed and frightened, and this is hell. God wouldn’t be just if he considered that the good and the evil are equal.

In fact, you choose your heaven or hell. God doesn’t judge neither randomly nor arbitrarily. Both heaven and hell are inside you according to your situation on earth. Some hoped that God will eliminate hell because of his mercy. I can only say that such words are not found in the Bible.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “أحد الدينونة” –Raiati 08- 19.02.2012

This scriptural parable is perhaps the most fluent example on repentance. “There was a man who had two sons”. The young one wanted his pleasures which can’t be fulfilled without money. His only source is his share from the heritage. He requested his share from his father and got it. This part from the heritage contains many things including money. He took it and traveled to a far country and lived with this money in “wild living”. This is what his self-wanted since leaving home.

There was a severe famine in that country. Who would feed him after spending all his money? He had to work, so he looked for a job in that exile. The job was to feed pigs, and eating pigs is forbidden in Moses’ Law. The word indicates the impurity that this young man drowned into. It seems that his wage was small and he couldn’t feel satiation.

Then, his feelings were moved and he remembered his father knowing that he would welcome him and feed him after his hunger. “I will set out and go back to my father”. Rising from sin was the first movement, and the second one was: “I go back to my father” and confess to him with my sins. The first sin was leaving the paternal home which necessarily leads to being thrown into the bosom of adulteresses. However, the complete salvation from sin needs a verbal confession. I shall say to my father: “I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants”. He walked for a long way and “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him”.

I imagine the father standing daily for a long time on one of the house’s roofs being told by his heart that his lost son must come back. The father didn’t say a word of blame. He didn’t tell him that leaving home causes danger after this leaving, and there were two dangers: hunger and dissipation. The father expressed his yearning to his son not only through the act of the hug and kiss but also through a tangible way as he put on him the best robe, a ring in his hand and sandals on his feet and he slaughtered the fattened calf for him saying to his servants: “this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found”.

The older son felt sad towards this reception because his father distinguished the repenting sinner over his son that didn’t commit any sin and didn’t violate any order from his father; so the latter told him: “we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found”.

The real story in the whole story is that of the affectionate father that embraces to his bosom the thankless son and maintains the obeying son that has a stainless life. The quality is in the father and he is the one that has tenderness.

While progressing towards the blessed Lent, the Church reminded us that the essence of the Lent is repentance and that we should ask for this in all the days of this great struggle in order to be worthy to see the Great Friday and the day of Resurrection.

The Lord is ready to receive you in his mercy if you were a sinner, and if he embraced you to him you will feel his tenderness and nothing will take you away from this tenderness. And if you felt this strongly you would be close to a sincere deep repentance and you would not leave the house of your heavenly Father which is his love and you would get used to this love that would increase in you day after day if you persisted in praying especially in the coming Lent.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الابن الشاطر” –Raiati 07- 12.02.2012

This is the second pastoral epistle to Timothy who was assigned by Paul as a bishop over Ephesus in Asia Minor. The apostle told him “You know all about my teaching” and Paul cares a lot about the validity of the teaching, which he called his Gospel, and he cares a lot about being a model to his disciple. Timothy’s following to the apostle’s way of life also means: My way in managing the Church. And his usage to the word “purpose” could also mean: My intentions and convictions.

Then Paul mentions his faith, endurance, love and patience. He lived these virtues in the midst of persecutions, and he clarifies that he suffered in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra (three cities in Asia Minor). These three cities are mentioned together in the Book of Acts 14: 21 and Paul said to the faithful in these cities that “through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God”.

What happened with him was happening to all the believers, and he expressed that by saying: “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”. Paul must be talking here about some Christians especially leaders. In Christian history, everyone that performed a persecution used to torture the leaders, i.e. bishops and priests, because our enemies thought that by killing the leaders they could exterminate the Church, and this is not right because the Church stayed alive despite the suppression over the spiritual leaders and their imprisonment and killing.

Then, the apostle asks his disciple to continue in his straight faith that he took from his family as he says: “from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures”. The expression “Holy Scriptures” means that Old Testament because the Gospels weren’t written yet, and Paul doesn’t refer to his epistles because they weren’t considered holy books yet.

The author of this epistle ends this passage by hoping for Timothy to be “wise for salvation”. And wisdom, as the writer says, comes from “the faith in Jesus Christ” and Christ is the wisdom and the power of God (1Corinthians 1: 25). He who is responsible for the Gospel in Church takes the teaching and the model from the one that preceded him. It is not enough to have a school of theology to learn the faith because we need the example of teachers and the purity of their lives.

The second thing in choosing theology students is that it is better to choose a person that knows the Holy Scriptures before entering the institute, and a person that is ready to accept suffering for Christ and sometimes this suffering comes from the members of the Church themselves. The insistence of Paul on teaching makes us eager to have a priest who is educated theologically and pure in his way of life. Purity alone is not enough, and knowledge alone isn’t either. The responsible person in Church must be on the likeness of Timothy. The energy of the Church comes, to a large extent, from the first leader and from those who he guides.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “حديث عن الفضائل” –Raiati 06- 05.02.2012

After separating between the believer and the non-believer in the second epistle to the Corinthians, Paul said the following: “You are the temple of the living God”, referring to the fact that God doesn’t dwell in temples built by hands and going beyond the Temple of Jerusalem. He establishes the living structure of Christians on a promise from the Old Testament: “I will live with them (i.e. the chosen people) and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people”. Here, he doesn’t say that every Christian is a temple of God but the Church, with its members connected through grace, is God’s temple.

Paul’s words are taken from Leviticus: “I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people” (26: 12). It is also based on Ezekiel: “My tabernacle also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (37: 27). Paul concludes from this that they should “come out from them (i.e. from the Gentiles) and be separate”. The intention here is not a social isolation and composing an anti-Gentile sect, but to be separate from their impurity and if you reached this purity you “will be my sons and daughters”. The idea of God as a father is partially found in the Old Testament. Jesus confirmed it and it is clarified in the prayer that he taught us “Our Father who art in heaven”.

The promise to be sons and daughters to the Lord has a condition which is to “purify ourselves from everything that contaminates the body and spirit”. By “everything that contaminates the body”, he probably means rapacity, drunkenness, and sexual relationships outside marriage. While the things that contaminate the spirit include all harmful lusts that have no relationship with the body (lying, hatred, malice, viciousness, and everything issued from the soul and harms others).

And if you did this, this would be “holiness out of reverence for God”. The apostle asks us to be holy as God is holy, being pure from every evil or every evil-like things.

The word “holy” in the apostolic time didn’t refer to those who are in heaven and were beatified by the Church. It refers to all the baptized that Paul hoped for them not to sin after baptism because it is a covenant with God and a serious connection with Him.

You are characterized by the quality of the new life. Through your behavior you become in God’s likeness even if lapses are inevitable. The perfect purity before the coming of the Kingdom is what we hope and work for, however every human commit sins. Nevertheless, Paul insists that we have become a new creation and that we are with Christ, through baptism, from today and not tomorrow. For Paul, our heavenly life starts here, and there is no duality between earthly and heavenly behaviors. “The kingdom of God is within you”. We do not differentiate between the worldly life and the coming one after death. All our existence is filled with Christ starting from today. Our love for Christ lets his love for us descend on us. This way we become together “the temple of the living God”.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “هيكل الله” –Raiati 05- 29.01.2012

Timothy is Paul’s spiritual son and his representative in Ephesus to serve there. He wrote him this first epistle from Macedonia, and from his last imprisonment he wrote him his second epistle. Timothy could be considered as the bishop of Ephesus, and the apostle as the supervisor of the bishop in the region that he was assigned to. From this fatherly character Paul advises his disciple and says: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young”, because believers used to dignify the spiritual leader especially if he was an elder, and priests were called elders in the New Testament. Then he asks him to have some virtues as an example for all virtues.

He mentions “speech” first which refers to the pure suitable speech, and he also probably wanted Timothy to be an example in good preaching and this is what he will mention in a while.

Then he mentions “conduct” which means good morals. Some of these are words and others are behaviors, therefore do not let anyone stumble over a defected behavior. Purity, honesty and integrity are part of this behavior, and the climax is love and a song was written on love before this epistle in the first epistle to the Corinthians (chapter 13).

He doesn’t have here any order of virtues because he mentions faith, the originator of love, after love. After this list he says: “devote yourself to reading”. He means by that reading the Old Testament and the epistles that he wrote because the Gospel wasn’t written yet. Then he insists on him to preach and teach. Preaching is what is done in the divine service, especially in the Liturgy, while teaching doesn’t have any specific setting. It is organized and sequential lessons.

“Do not neglect your gift, which was given to you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you”. Prophecy means here that no one takes the dignity of priesthood except through an inspiration from the Holy Spirit. Someone in Church expresses the inspiration of the Spirit. The Laying of hands is the ordination. In a time not so far from this epistle we see the whole community electing the bishops and deacons. Most probably, Paul ordained Timothy with the participation of the priests of Ephesus.

After these words, Paul makes all virtues in one package so that everyone sees Timothy’s progress (Let your light shine before people). And the great Apostle asks his disciple to be diligent in these gifts and not to neglect any of them, as if he is saying that if you weren’t decorated with virtues, how can you continue in your episcopate which is a divine commissioning? How do you respond to this commissioning if you were void from divine charity? What would you give the parish and people if the Lord wasn’t dwelling in you through the Holy Spirit?

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “تيموثاوس” –Raiati 04- 22.01.2012

The beginning of this chapter, “When Christ, who is our life, appears”, refers to the second coming. This results in the fact that you too appear with him in glory after your resurrection from the dead. Glory is when the uncreated powers of God dwell in you, these eternal powers that shine from his essence. You shall not reach this glory except through “putting to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature”. This is an expression from Paul intending to say that sins are like a body inside your bodies. Paul compares sins as a whole to a strange self connected entity.

After these words, he mentions some sins; some related to the body or committed through the body and others found in the whole human entity like what we call “evil desires”. However, he gives a special place to greed for money or for any other thing that man can own such as the love for power, and he compares greediness to idolatry.

He mentions that God’s wrath descends on those that commit these sins, and he assures that after leaving idolatry, they also left the sins that idolatry lead to. Then he considers that the list of sins that he mentioned must be completed so he mentions anger and rage…etc. He ends by mentioning lying which is rarely mentioned in the Book after the Lord’s words: “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes ‘ or ‘No, no’”, because what is in the heart must be on the tongue, and we as Christians don’t have any duplicate or schizophrenic personalities. Therefore, honesty was a main basis for us.

If these sins and other sins hit a person, he shall remain in his old self as he was before Baptism. And on the opposite side of this old man there is the new man and the Apostle used this meaning by saying: “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”. This man is renewed in knowledge which is the knowledge of God, the intimate knowledge that creates an overlap between the creator and you through Christ.

Because of the confusion in Colossi between some Jewish influenced religious sects and because of what the Apostle called philosophy, he wanted to say to the Colossian believers: “Here there is no Gentile or Jew”; Jews used to hate the Greeks and gentiles in general and feel pride towards them. Also the expression “circumcised or uncircumcised” carries the same meaning. The thing that refers to the gentile in the Greek mind is the fact that he is uncircumcised, and in Christianity we are not attached to this anymore and we do not differentiate between the circumcised and uncircumcised. Also if the “Barbarian” believed, he shall have the same dignity that the Greek used to brag about. The “Scythian” comes from a people that lived in Eastern Europe, and he enters salvation as all nations do. Also there is no more difference between the “slave and free”. Although slavery in the times of Paul was still in the Roman community, it didn’t carry inferiority. The slave as the free participates in salvation. Before cancelling slavery from the Roman legislation, the slave had the same dignity that the free had in Church. The important thing is that “Christ is all and is in all”. He doesn’t differentiate between races, social statuses and ranks. Unity was given by the Lord through the Salvation that he fulfilled through his death and Resurrection.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الأخلاق عند بولس” –Raiati 03- 15.01.2012

The title of this passage is unity among the plurality of the gifts that the Holy Spirit distributes and that are various but do not separate between us. Christ is the distributer of graces. A person gets a certain amount and the other gets a different one. The gift of a person complements the gift of the other for the unity of the Church.

Paul’s return in his words to “When he ascended on high…etc” is taken from the Psalms and is applied on Moses’ ascension to Mount Sinai where he took the Law and gave it to people. The apostle here hints that his intention by quoting the words of the Psalms is Christ’s ascension to the heavens. Then he explains the divine intentions as he says that He, who ascended, is the one that descended in incarnation. He descended in the Jordan River. This is why these words are read on the Sunday that comes after the Divine Theophany. And for He was incarnated and baptized, His purpose is to fill all things.

After that, the apostle lists the roles that people are invited to do in Christ’s body. Descending to “earthly regions” in addition to incarnation refers to the descent to hell through death.

“Apostles and Prophets” seem to be the two main functions in every local Church. The word “apostles” doesn’t refer here to one of the twelve. It refers to the person that preached the nations and therefore brought new people to Church. Prophets are the people that transfer God’s will to the gathered community through a divine inspiration. He doesn’t use the word bishops but pastors. He doesn’t mention the role of the bishop or elder (priest). This became clearer for St. Ignatius of Antioch and Clement of Rome a while after writing this epistle (around 90 and 100 A.D.).

The teachers are not the preachers. A preacher works in the liturgy while a teacher gives organized lessons that are coordinated and continuous.

“The building up of Christ’s body”, the Church, is the purpose of the existence of these mobile functions. The aim of the gathered Church is for all of us to come in the unity of the faith that combines us and make us one and is known though the knowledge of the Son of God i.e. through entering Christ’s depths. The word knowledge means the great unity.

This way, we become together a perfect man, one man in the plural sense. And therefore we achieve “the whole measure of the fullness of Christ”. The measure of the Lord is our measure. This is a complete unity.

In this passage of the epistle to the Ephesians, the image of the Church is neither the vine nor the temple as in other places. It is the image of the man that is composed of many people that become, in Christ, one man having His measure. This is the high spirituality where we do not differentiate between Christ and Church.

After this image that we extracted from the epistle to the Ephesians, it is not acceptable to say “I am sitting home on Sunday morning and there is no need to join the others”. Know that you and the others compose the one Christ.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “مواهب الروح القدس” –Raiati 02- 08.01.2012

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy”. The word philosophy that is mentioned here is found only once in the New Testament. It doesn’t refer to the Greek philosophy from which Plato and Aristotle came. It refers to the worldly spirits that people used to believe in. This philosophy tempts you, kidnaps you and dominates you who have fallen in heresy in the Church of Colossi.

The worldly spirits that are connected to the universe are related to astronomical beliefs and to ascetic prohibitions and angelic worship. The rampant heresy in the Church of Colossi is a kind of fabrication (i.e. it is a mixture between different dogmatic components). The contrary of that is Christ only. In Him all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. The Rising Christ from the dead combines in his person all the Divinity that is found in him before incarnation and the created world that He directly took from the virgin, He also combines the universe with Himself through His resurrection from the dead.

If there was any power or authority in the physical universe, Christ would be the head of all components, and here Paul moves on to the dogma of Baptism, and as he went beyond the Pagan thought concerning the cosmic bases, he also goes here beyond the Jewish circumcision. In Christ you were circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands; it is not the putting off of the prepuce but the putting off of “the sinful nature” through the circumcision of Christ. Here he compares the sins to a body put in our entity. You put that off through the circumcision of Christ, through baptism, and baptism is your resurrection with Christ’s resurrection. This is an echo of what was written in the epistle to the Romans: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life”.

It is clarified through this passage that as Paul got rid of Paganism, of the bases of this world, he also wants to get rid of Jewish circumcision. And this is what happened in the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem. We pass beyond Jews and Pagans if they didn’t take Christ. Resurrection saves us from every old thing, and falling into Judaism again or into any kind of Paganism attacks Christians even if they were baptized like the Colossians.

This is possible in every generation. Paganism and Judaism are renewed in different forms. Only the person that sticks to the Savior’s resurrection being a new life can resist in front of all intellectual and philosophical temptations that we have joined day after day. We need to renew the baptism in us through examining every thought that attacks us and standing in front of it in the life that Christ gives us.

Every person that mixes Christ with something different or with something that is anti Christ would be committing a heresy even if he thought that he is in the Church. He is in it physically, but his mind belongs to something else. Christianity is not only baptism. It is a continuation of baptism; it is constant death with Christ and a constant resurrection with Him. The sad thing is that very few believers compare what they read or hear with the Gospel. The real believer goes back to the Gospel to examine every thought and asks knowledgeable people if he had little knowledge in Christianity.

The important thing is to live every thought through the Gospel that is in your hands.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الحياة الجديدة بالمعمودية” –Raiati 01- 01.01.2012