Aziz Matta

In this bad time that we are living in, people can approach each other through love because no one can add anything to love. Love requires two things: The first is to stick to the righteous faith and not deviate from it in order to satisfy human beings; and the second, to love all those who believe in Jesus regardless of their doctrine because this shows mutual respect and that no one feels that he is better than the other or disparages the other but we all try to be better in honoring. Those who have good knowledge in our doctrine must clarify this doctrine to whoever wants to learn it. Explaining it is a must, yet it is also a must to avoid controversy and to stay calm.

Participating in each other’s joys and sorrows is a well-known habit among the Lebanese. But we should add to it charity towards the poor from another Church. We are not allowed to ask a poor person to go back to his Church if that Church couldn’t help him. By this, I am not talking about individual giving that you might be practicing but about a giving from our Church as a whole if it was available.

As for worshiping, it is not our habit to participate with others except in exceptional conditions. The important thing is for every one of us to be sanctified and to love his rituals and participate in the Divine service with those who have the same belief as him. Rapprochement doesn’t happen through admixture but through practical love. To stand next to each other and to exchange visits among Churches isn’t our way to get to know each other deeply. Meeting the other happens in the depth of the soul and not visibly. As for when we should appear together, this needs more organization and should be done by those who are responsible.

I feel sorry when I see some of our children not praying in their Churches on Sundays because they have to drive their cars for extra five or ten minutes to reach an Orthodox Church. They say that we are all the same. This is my hope, in God’s grace. However, now we are not united in what we say and what they say. We are in front of a scene of two divided Churches that we hope for their unity after dialogues between Churches and overcoming difficulties that exist to this day. These are theological issues and cannot be overcome easily.

Saying that we want to become united today whatever it takes is rejected because Church issues are serious issues and problems cannot be solved without the opinions of Patriarchs, bishops and scholars. Those who know and those who don’t are not the same. In this sense, nothing is impossible to agree on. Agreeing requires us to be all according to the faith “that was delivered once to the saints”.

The journey is long and hard and needs lots of endurance. The expression that I always hear – “We, lay people want unity now” – can only be replied by saying “guide me to the solution of the problem”.

There also exists the issue of celebrating Pascha. Churches are seeking to do that and have established a global committee to solve the dilemma. While following this issue, I say that the delay isn’t from the loitering of spiritual authorities. There are nations that still refuse this agreement and in an inveterate Orthodox country, a great number of believers split from the Church when some Churches adopted the western calendar for fixed feasts (Christmas, Annunciation).

Uniting the fixed feasts didn’t let us take a step closer to rapprochement. Theological difficulties are still there. Also, the Latins and evangelicals celebrate Pascha in one day yet they didn’t get closer to each other.

The only thing that could be done on the regional level, and not on the global level, is for others to adopt the Orthodox date for Pascha because the global solution didn’t come yet and because we cannot be divided from our Orthodox brothers, while Catholics who live with us in Lebanon were allowed by the Pope to celebrate with us.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “قربى المسيحيين بعضهم لبعض” –Raiati 6- 05.02.2006

In today’s Epistle (1Timothy 4: 9–15) Paul addresses his disciple Timothy after making him a bishop or overseer in Asia Minor. After telling him that God is the savior of all people, he asks him to teach that to the faithful. The first job of the priest or bishop is to teach. Therefore, he must know the dogma which is the substance of the Holy Book and its interpretation; he must also know what our fathers said about the bible while interpreting it knowing that they based their interpretation on the statements of the Councils.

It is required from the priest then to go deep down our tradition, at least in the main issues if he wasn’t able to know everything. We add to these main issues the history of the Church, the Divine services and knowing the most famous Saints. How could a person teach if he doesn’t know anything or if he knows just a little? Therefore I will not respond to the request of those that want me to let a person with little knowledge into priesthood just because he is pious. We all invited to piety.

However, education is not enough. The apostle assures that the clergyman must be a model in speaking, in pure speaking that carries no anger, tension, prejudice, bias or gossip. Then he continues: in behavior, and here comes an endless list of virtues containing chastity in the love for money which is something the priest is exposed to while performing the divine sacraments. Here, the believer differentiates between a clergyman that desires money in a sick way and a clergyman that is satisfied with what he is given and that doesn’t object on any amount and if he wasn’t given anything, he doesn’t nag and ask. And if the priest felt any deficiency, he complains to his bishop so that he wouldn’t owe favors to anyone.

After that, Saint Paul the apostle highlights three qualities that seem the most important for him: Love, faith and purity. Love is the peak because “God is love” as the Evangelical John says in his first catholic epistle. He must love all the sons of his parish. He must love those that love him and those that have a reticence or complaints towards him. He must go to those and confront them to understand what they have towards him; he must accept their remarks if they were right and be patient towards them if they remained on their enmity and distance from him, and must strengthen his service to them in order to gain them for Christ.

And finally, he mentions purity. This virtue means purity in money and also in behavior with the women of the parish through staying away from joking with men and women and in general avoiding being funny.

After that, the apostle asks his disciple to devote himself to reading. In the times of Paul, they read the Old Testament because the New Testament wasn’t written yet. But today, the commandment to read means reading all the Holy Book and different spiritual books including, of course, the available old and new theological books for the priest and bishop in the languages he knows. He can also read what he can from different cultural books, and for me, he must also read newspapers in order to know the conditions of the country and the world to know the pains of people and their worries in this world.

Then, Paul urges his disciple to preach and teach. As for preaching, the Holy Canons makes it obligatory in every service especially in the Divine Liturgy. And in case the priest couldn’t master the methods of giving speeches, and didn’t have enough knowledge of our teachings, and hears the faithful complaining about his preaching and was convinced with their arguments, he must then not preach or just say a few simple instructive words without taking much time because our Liturgy has no place for a long sermon.

And what Paul calls “teaching” is a different thing than preaching. It is the organized teaching for children and adults, and we must not neglect the adults. This happens through Bible study evenings or in Christian education classes in schools or in lectures. And not every clergyman is qualified to do this.

Finally, Paul asks Timothy not to neglect the gift that he got in ordination but to develop all his powers because we learn everyday and we try to gain virtues also everyday so that our development becomes obvious to the faithful and they glorify God in us.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “فضائل الكاهن والأسقف” –Raiati 05- 29.01.2006

The heresy of “the reformed church”, which is a part of the Baptist movement, believes that God comes to a person only once during his life and saves him and this way he becomes saved forever. In the epistle that we read today (Colossians 3: 4–11), Christ doesn’t become everything in us if we didn’t leave our desires. We continue being between an ascent and a descent until, if we had an honest repentance and stayed with the Lord when he appears in the last day and didn’t embrace sin, he shall justify us in his judgment. In this world, Paul tells us: “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling”. We are saved through hope, but salvation is not a passport that lets us enter the heavens automatically.

The apostle asks us to put our desires to death. This is what he meant saying: “Put to death, therefore, the members of your earthly bodies”. By the word “members” he means the bad factors that form the entity of the sin, this entity that he compares to a body, because when vices hold on together they attract one another.

Paul has two lists of desires: the first one starts with sexual immortality and ends with grief and the second one starts with anger and ends with lying. These two lists might not contain all sins, but it is obvious that according to the apostle, you cannot become a new man if you were still drowning in one of the hidden sins in you. You have to be “renewed in knowledge in the image of your creator”, and knowledge means knowing the Lord, his words, and the behaviors of his Messiah in this world that reveal to you the fact that you are God’s beloved one. Knowledge means knowing that God loves you. Only by knowing that, you shall stop sinning and become a new person.

If you examined your heart, and were honest in this examination, you might find something remaining from a sin or another. When you struggle through continuous prayer, through reading the Bible, forgiving others and righteous deeds, the Lord shall purify you.

Destroy one sin from those that the apostle mentioned and you shall see all other sins collapsing. And once you gain the corresponding virtue, you will notice after a while that all other virtues are descending on you.

The fathers revealed to us methods of purification in addition to the general spiritual struggle (praying, spiritual reading, fasting and charity). Liberation from each sin has its own way. For adultery, as an example, Paul tells us in another occasion that we should “flee from sexual immorality”. This is a desire that can’t be fought except through going away from a person, a relationship or a situation. None should feel powerful in this war.

As for greed, it cannot be fought except through giving, in order to be trained not to be attached to the money you make. You should survive from the love of money on the biblical basis: “He have freely scattered his gifts to the poor, his righteousness endures forever”.

Lying could be fought by fighting fear and by being trained to be brave and to resist in front of everyone, in addition to all other main spiritual war methods such as praying, reading, and charity that can heal all sins.

Once you are liberated from these tendencies and the falls that result from them, you shall put on the new man, Christ, and in him there will be no more conflicts between a Pagan and a Jew or any race and another. All social differences will be diminished. However, this unity, which Paul invited us to, is not possible unless we were liberated from lusts and desires and surrendered to Christ.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: التجدد الروحي” ” –Raiati n^o3- 15.01.2006

The Ecclesiastic year starts on September first, while the civil year starts today. However, people are used to organize their matters according to the civil regulation. Today, we remember the circumcision in the flesh of our Lord since it is an event of the Savior’s life mentioned in the Gospel, and it means that he respected Moses’ Law in order to save us from it through his blood and enter a new life in Baptism. Since we were emancipated from all physical signs, faith has become the only connection between God and us. Those who have become in Christ’s Kingdom don’t need any tangible sign and this is why circumcision of Christian children was cancelled. We do not oppose anyone who wants to do it for health reasons although modern medicine says that circumcision has no benefits.

One of the great teachers of Alexandria, Origen, wrote a beautiful page about circumcision saying that we should circumcise the sin from our senses: we circumcise our hearing so that we don’t hear impure things; we circumcise our sight in order not to see what might insult our Christian entity…etc. In other words, we should start the New Year in chastity and not spend New Year’s Eve in gambling and entertainment.

After that, the church put the memory of one of the greatest bishops in history, St. Basil the Great, who died in 379 at the age of 49. He deserved the adjective “Great” because he was great in asceticism, in organizing worship and monastic life, social work, resisting the political authority that was anti-orthodox, and has played a big role in theology. Ecclesiastically, January first, is a full day. We enter it with hope as we wish that God gives us peace first and then economical prosperity. We pray for our country that suffers from horrible crimes against the safe and innocent. Therefore, each one of us should focus in his individual prayer on asking safety for all people, so that God provides peace between all our sects and so that no outside party would stab us and we would still be able to find our means of living and raise our children.

In addition to praying, there is another effort, and it is that whoever wants should volunteer to fast a day or more, and this fasting would be a kind of prayer for God to receive Lebanon in his mercy and goodwill. The year 2006 shall be new if the heart is renewed and purified. When we achieve repentance and decide to stay and dwell in it, we shall be renewed together and stay away from hatred and cursing. Perhaps God would then see this and save us from tests that are above our energy and would cut the hand of anyone who wants to kill the leaders of our patriotic life or any press man. Then, we would be able to walk wherever we want without being afraid.

I feel sad when I see that the number of believers today is low. Oppose this bad habit and come to the Lord’s Table so that your souls would become beautiful and free from all evil in order to ascent together to Christ. Time passes, and your tomorrow from the aspect of food, work and familial life would become today. Economical life is in constant ascending and descending. And most of the time, you are weaker than political mafias that can disturb the life of the country and defect its system.

Maybe the only thing remaining for you is to become a good person through your individual behavior. Try to make yourself spiritually beautiful and enhance the people of your house. When a lot of people do that, a beautiful society and a noble country shall be created.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “2006” – 01.01.2006

A young man I know, having a lot of knowledge in theology, came to me years ago and asked me about my opinion concerning him desiring priesthood. I hesitated in giving a direct response as I told him that studying takes from him a lot of time and that priesthood also requires a lot of time and it is difficult to write volumes while taking care of the parish.

Many of you might not be interested if I talked to you about theology professors and about them needing to make use of all their time. But you are interested to know your priest’s attention towards you assuming that he is a lover of Jesus and that he entered this service because of this love. The time of mercenary priests is gone, and the time of big sacrifices and giving all the time of the priest to the parish has come. You know that the liturgy takes time, and not only on Sundays; other evening services in the lent, vespers, weddings, funerals and baptisms also take a long time especially if there were a lot of families. However, the main issue is not an issue of time. It is an issue of the heart of the pastor. Is his heart with Christ? Priesthood is a full commitment to the Gospel’s case in a way where it is not allowed for the priest to have any more place for another work.

In the immemorial past, they used to see that the village’s priest could be a farmer, and then we allowed priests in cities to have an extra job because of the few resources or of the small size of their parishes. However, when the priest is responsible for a big parish, he doesn’t have any free time for another job unless more than one priest  gather in one church. This church must also have one free leader.

However, and regardless of these details, the priest’s heart must be for God and he needs at least two hours a day to study the Holy Books and read theological articles. In addition to that, there are the visits, and their purpose is not only to ask about the sick and the sad but to also know the spiritual situation of the house especially the marital understanding and the development of the members in knowing the Lord. Of course, this cannot be done in details in big parishes, and therefore, we need new priests that can know the situation of every individual as much as possible: “I know my sheep, and my sheep know me. And I call my sheep by their names”. We cannot continue having large parishes just to satisfy the priest and keep the big living he makes. These issues must be arranged with laws and regulations but I cannot sacrifice the spiritual need for the sake of the financial comfort of the priest.

Then we have visits: There are “in group” visits and family visits. In group, biblical meetings in houses are essential as explaining the divine word is inevitable because we live through this word and it can get some people back to the Divine Liturgy that they are neglecting. It is also important to distribute “Raiiati”. This is a minimal level of reading and a love bond between us.

However, these meetings cannot replace the personal encounter that the priest makes with the person that asks his guidance or the priest’s interference to transmit Jesus’ spirit in every believer. This doesn’t mean that a layman cannot take care of another person, guide him and direct him towards religious books. Therefore, it is important to organize spiritual sessions in which people meet and their souls flare with the love of the Savior to worship God in every place and spread his word.

I feel amazed when I see parents taking care of their children. I feel amazed by the long continuous effort until the kids grow up, become nourished, play, speak and understand. This thing happens on the level of the body and the upbringing; we need a similar thing on the level of spiritual understanding, Christian education, continuous pastoral work and taking care of every soul.

And all of this descends from the priest’s heart that is flaring with Jesus’ love. God is able to make for him a new heart.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “قلب الكاهن” –Raiati 50- 11.12.2005

It is common for people to say: This priest is ordained for the church of a certain village. The 6^th law of the fourth Ecumenical Council (451) has clarified that a priest is appointed for an ecclesiastic service in a city, a village, a memorial place for a martyr, or a monastery. The name of the city or village was mentioned in public during the ordination by saying: “The divine grace ordinates (the priest’s name) to the service of priesthood in (the name of the church) in (the name of city or village)”. This means that a clergy is not ordained in a general way, and this was the wish of the council to forbid priests from moving easily from a place to another and violate the law.

Sometimes, if a church had a few number of people, a priest might be appointed for this church and another one at the same time. It was common for us, and is still applied, that a priest stays in his village until he dies or becomes healthily unable unless a disciplinary decision was taken against him or he started a schism or problems in the parish, then he must be transferred to another place. Facts showed that if he didn’t succeed in this church, he might succeed in another one.

Sometimes, a priest might want, for personal reasons, to move into another archdiocese so he takes the permission of his elder to do that. In this case he will be appointed for a different church from the one he was ordained to originally. In addition to that, pastoral experience taught us that transferring a priest that showed maturity and piety from a very small parish to a big one could be beneficial for the parish. Eventually, the bishop is the responsible pastor for everyone and knows the situations of the archdiocese and knows where each priest might be beneficial. In other words, he knows whether a priest could manage a smooth parish or a parish that has some difficulties.

The archdiocese is one church and has one administration that works through consultation between everyone especially between the priests and bishop. This is based on the faith that the bishop is the father of everyone because he has no earthly benefits and his only wish is for Christ to become the head of the community, and in this context the priest is left in his place or transferred to another one.

During war, our priests were either displaced or became sick or died and in some cases they filled empty churches. All of this imposed changes between people. But now, and after things returned to their normal state, it was necessary to organize things again in order to decrease the number of churches that have the same priest. Limiting several parishes under one pastor will make him unable to pay good attention to all churches. This is beyond man’s energy. This will make pastoral care a nominal thing. The situation could barely develop to become ritual through doing the Divine Liturgy and some prayers. But does anyone ask about families and teach and take care of children? A part of this will surely become weak.

This is the basis: When the size of the parish becomes smaller, pastoral care will become greater as we move from quantity to quality. We need a high quality of care and a constant presence of the priest in a specific community, in a certain village of this Mount.

Moreover, we have a big number of theology students and the bishop of Mount Lebanon must put each one of them in a place. It is not possible to give two or three churches for one priest and throw this student after his graduation on the street especially if he was a lover of Christ and an active discerning young man.

My policy is to narrow broad regions and increase the number of servants of the temple so that the word of truth becomes heard in all places and we embrace our children and build new temples. More than one new church awaits us. We already have the piece of land for some of these churches (for example “Hadath”) or we have bought the land (for example “Naccach”) and in other places we will buy because hundreds of families don’t have a pastor. Remember God’s words: “I will strike the shepherd (or cancel the shepherd), and the sheep will be scattered”. God will sustain the priest if his region became smaller and his soul will become greater because his brother took his place seriously.

In addition to that, we face today the issue of aging priests that need a colleague to help them. We don’t want anyone to leave his church unless he became physically unable to serve. However, another priest or a deacon must help him and he must accept this with love.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “نَقْلُ الكاهن” –Raiati 46- 13.11.2005

When you forgive the other in his presence and accept his qualities that differ from you, you would be admitting that God allowed him to be as he is, this means that he could be worse than what you want him to be. However, this is the world, and in this world people are formed according to how they came from their mothers, to how they grew up in their societies, and to the various experiences they had.

A person being as he is, means that you should expect him to behave according to the way he knows and you might not like that. You shouldn’t be satisfied from forcing yourself to accept him, but you should accept him and hope to reform him. Humanity is a painting, in which every color is different from the other, and God wanted us this way, different, because we are free and there is no model through which humans are formed. For if you accepted the other, you would have accepted God’s will in his worshipers; and his unfathomable will is diversity.

Accepting the other results in cooperating with him if he was close to you, I mean if he was in your environment or if your profession forced you to cooperate. Of course, you must know whether he was straight or a thief, an honest person or a liar. You have the right not to deal with him in your profession. This professional cooperation doesn’t force you to love him; you should stay in your straightness and honesty.

Forgiveness requires not killing the other because Christ is present in every person you deal with and because He who gave man his life is the only one allowed to take it back. This means that you should never be angry, because anger is the source of cursing, harming and then killing. This also means that you shouldn’t be angry but be a friend of the person you’re dealing with, because friendship is a side of love that could do anything.

One of the aspects of forgiveness is accepting the person coming from another religion or from outside your church. People have their religions from their birth, so you must be merciful with them and not mock their religious positions, and if you argued, do that with full respect. Do not agree verbally on positions that your church doesn’t accept; don’t be flattery especially that you might not know all their beliefs.

Our country is a diversified society. You should confront but not challenge. You should be happy in their feasts and for the good thinking they have, but you should have your precautions on things when you should. Do not argue a lot, and if you did, do it politely because we should pay attention to our fellowship and have with them a human unity after our religious or doctrinal unity became impossible.

You shouldn’t be affected by anyone and shouldn’t have any maliciousness or spite. Give a service wherever you can because serving softens the hearts. And if the person you wanted to make closer to you became sick, stay next to him for this shall make him closer to you if he was gentle. And his enmity towards you might disappear if some of his enmity was lost. Burn his bad qualities with clear and active love. Remember the words of the Lord: “whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also”, i.e. destroy the enmity of his soul with unlimited kindness and maintain his status and reputation and praise him in his absence if he deserved it because this shall encourage him and enhance his ethics. And if we supposed that he remained evil, remember what the Lord said: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you” because the purpose is to live in love on earth as a beginning to the Kingdom of God.

Lenience becomes mutual forgiveness between you and the other, and God becomes the bridge between you. This would be your victory over yourself and an invitation for the other to enter Christ’s zone.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “المسامحة” –Raiati n^o45- 06.11.2005

Patience is not getting defeated in front of difficulties, it is not submission. The patient person doesn’t say: “I can’t do anything because things happen this way and this way they will stay”. Each one of us gets sad if he was shocked from things, but the patient person does not stay in his sadness forever because he is steady in God. The patient person is wounded like you but he hopes that God will heal his wounds and give him attentiveness and condolences. He might wait a lot but the condolence will eventually come to him.

He doesn’t wait the change to happen with time, because time doesn’t heal everything. A believer knows the importance of the divine grace and that it initiates in our salvation. He endures in order to keep this grace and not lose it through amusement. He believes that God is his father and that he doesn’t leave him a lot of time with pain or bore.

In daily life, you bump into a lot of walls but you hang on in front of them because faith can move mountains and walls so that no wall stays in front of you. If you stick to God you would let them move. Didn’t the Lord say: “He who endures to the end will be saved”? Why did he say “to the end”? Because true faith conserves you to the end. As much as you can empty yourself from disbelief and from sins, the doors of heaven will open in front of you and the Lord will shower you with his grace.

If you follow God in every word from him, then he will follow you. Stay in the spiritual attentiveness and do not sleep to death. Stay in your spiritual activity through keeping the bible and prayer. Do not nag, complain, and curse so that God’s name will stay dwelling in you. Stay calm and remember death because it might surprise you. Get over the harmful pleasures that could harm you if you chose them. You might be sad for a second if you didn’t choose it, but you will be happy after a moment since the Holy Spirit would have come upon you. The communication between you and God makes you watchful on yourself, observing your mind and heart with the power of the divine word and prayer which is the power that makes you a confronter to each distress.

This is why the apostle said: “When you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently this is commendable before God” (1 Peter 2: 20). You will then understand that, after Christ makes himself in you, patience will come from the inside. This spiritual building that you have done inside you makes you the owner of yourself in everything and firm in front of anything; and what you ask from all saints is “the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ” (Rev 1: 9).

Patience does not freeze nor stonify you. On the contrary, it makes you wonderfully energetic in this world; it makes you change people and things that surround you. Being patient, you are remarkably mobile, enduring prisons, torture and the persecution of some people to you because your soul doesn’t know desperation since you constantly have hope.

A lot of what surrounds us is full of evil. You might not change your entire environment, but you can change yourself and some people around you. You can teach a lot of people patience, so do not be afraid if a lot of things don’t change in your life, family, environment and country. Your fight and that of the people that are with you is the only guarantee for the change. Naggers and complainers don’t change anything. Those who curse you are abusing themselves only.

Stay on your morals and in the humble service and in silence in front of gossipers and green-eyed people because this way you might save them. Know that you are situated on the rock which is Christ and that what awaits you is a kingdom prepared only for those who crucified themselves with the desires. You are promised with the light of Christ today and tomorrow.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الصبر” – 23.10.2005

Loving the priest of your parish will not make him embarrassed because of money. Help him so that he doesn’t have to beg and become arrogant and care about the earned money and so that money wouldn’t become his obsession. When you do so, he will not complain anymore from the dereliction of the parish. Help the theology student or the spiritually intellectual person to enter the service of priesthood without worrying about feeding the family that he will form.

We tried in several places to use the idea of institutes so we made a salary for priests. We didn’t put enough effort to make this salary sufficient in all places. I do understand that small villages are excused for their dereliction. And this means that a central fund must be created in order to take care of the priests of small parishes. However, I believe that the priest’s needs won’t be fulfilled unless we adopt the system of familial or personal subscriptions. When I ask a parish council about the reason for only paying two or three hundred thousand Lebanese pounds for the priest, they answer that this is the amount we are collecting in Church. In principle, the active priest that has a mission influences our people to come back to their churches, but this might take a long time and also some might still not come. Relying on what is collected in church in Sunday’s liturgy doesn’t solve any problem.

I am not in the process of talking about financial organization, but I am talking to you about your love to the priest and expressing this love through giving money. Traditionally, the local pastor is given money for serving Sacraments. After a long thinking, I do not find any problem in keeping this tradition in the places where it became dominant. Very few people don’t give anything. In this case, I hope that the spiritual father doesn’t remind these people of their duties towards him. “You have taken for free, therefore give for free”. The priest should obviously serve the poor and the rich with the same enthusiasm.

For me, it is important for the believer not to think that the parish council pays the priest enough money. Most people don’t know that the status of the priest is usually mediocre. And I don’t think that anyone lives in affluence. It is not your job to tell him to be austere. He imposes austerity on himself, but he cannot impose it on his children. If you had a generous soul, you would wish a life of dignity for everyone you love. And this implies that your pastor must be free from heavy burdens so that he doesn’t sadden his family and become distracted by his quest to make money because, in this case, his spiritual determination will be weakened. Ancient Civilizations used to facilitate the living of people that used to give them intellectual production. Your priest is ashamed to search for a funeral and a wedding in places outside his parish. Don’t make him do that. You, as an individual, can allocate a monthly amount of money for him, even if this amount was small in order to remember that “It is more blessed to give than to take” and to feel that there is a spiritual bond with him that is expressed in a tangible way.

Some people might have a list of families that they help and this is a good thing. Write the name of your priest on this list and on the top of it. If you waited for your son’s baptism to give and waited for your wedding and for someone to die in your family, you might not give your priest more than 10 or 15 times in your whole life and this is a small amount. Give in order to feel that a power went out of you and to feel that you have participated with the servant of the word because he will wish for you every good, success and health.

This is some of the generosity that you redeem yourself with; God becomes happy with you because you are trained, through this, to have vastness. If you put an effort and felt that you have helped, you will feel something greater which is God’s sympathy towards you. What reaches the hands of the priest shouldn’t be the topic that the faithful talk about in their meetings. This issue would be cut once all of you become convinced that the priest prays for you and for your families. Honor him at least with a nominal amount if you were in need and generously if you were affluent in order to become, through giving with love, one body of Christ.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “أن تعطي الكاهن” –Raiati 39- 25.09.2005