In the Sermon on the Mount the Lord takes us from the tangible sin into its origin, into what we call lust, i.e. the internal emotion, as he says for example: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sisterwill be subject to judgment” (Matthew 5: 21-22). Jesus is interested in the heart; he wants to purify it from the factors that corrupt it. Hatred is one of the things that corrupt man; it is the continuation of grudge and the reasons that activate it.

Hatred is the retraction from others and the isolation of the self that eliminates others mentally as it doesn’t dare to eliminate physically. It is a moral killing of the person that you believe is annoying you or affecting your benefits and pride. We start hating the person that’s different from us, as if his existence eliminates ours; we start considering that he has no freedom to be the person he wants to be.

Hatred is a lust in the soul that many people fall into on all levels, even people that consider themselves spiritual when they are actually not. It is a kind of petrifaction that hits most people. This stubbornness destroys the person that falls into it because he who closes himself in front of others and eliminates them would be threatening and drying his heart.

The Great St. John Climacus recognized the danger of this feeling when he said: “Hatred is the fruit of anger and a desired bitterness”. The bitter person cannot be creative, giving, or serving in his kindness. The wild angry person perishes himself and the others because he doesn’t give them any importance or credit. The danger of hatred is that it takes root in the person and needs grace from heaven to descend on the heart like “dew” and soften it.

When the Scripture talked about God in the Psalms it said that he is “slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger forever”. The Lord disciplines without hating any of his sons, while the person that gets angry and hates a lot is somehow mad and needs a heavenly power to be healed.

Yes, people do have stupidity and bad intentions towards us and some of them even carry refusal and compulsion. Most of the time, these people do not know why do they hate. Therefore, the Scripture said about those: “they hate me with cruel hatred”. They wouldn’t like your face, speech, appearance, or a word you have said that they interpreted wrongly and got hurt. They wouldn’t say why they’ve been hurt by you, so they become sad and transform their sadness into hatred. After that, they would start abhorring every action you do and add it to what you’ve said before and make a big deal out of those. However, you might be sweet hearted with no evil or hurting intentions, and in this case they would be killing themselves and you would carry no responsibility. They oppress you, and you’d be wondering if you should disappear from their way in order for them not to harm themselves through hatred. However, where shall you hide if they were from your family or environment or colleagues? Should you stay quiet all the time to make them comfortable? And if you did that, how can you witness for the truth?

You wonder why can’t you be different and stay friends? Isn’t diversity the beauty of this world? What would harm them if you were more talented than them? God gives talents and these are for his glory; may God be glorified in whoever he wants. Some have more gifts than others. You might have fought and tried hard in order to purify yourself and know and understand, while others might have stayed in their laziness wanting you to also be with them in this mental poverty.

If you thought that others are envious (envy and hatred are twins), pray for them so that God would take away their sin and let them revive through an effort similar to the one that made you revive too. Remember those weak people in your daily prayer in order not to become bitter yourself. When you do so, perhaps they might taste love and know how to be happy like you.

Perhaps the miracle happens and the “dew” descends on them.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الحقد” – 21.05.2000

This Archdiocese was blessed on Tuesday March 14^th by the visit of Mr. Anastasios (Yannoulatos) the Archbishop of Albania. This was a part of his Beatitude’s visit to the Antiochian Church. However, his Beatitude Mr. Anastasios honored and specified for us this day because of his heart and of his early growing.

The secret behind this might be the fact that he comes from the “life” brotherhood that was the whiff of spiritual renewal at the boundary of the previous two centuries. Reviving people happens through the reviving word that comes from the Gospel which is preached through all the methods of delivery. And this brotherhood, through its young members, cooperated with the youth movements in Greece. And this is how we knew this man. His vision to tomorrow’s Church with its emission and openness was similar to our vision. This is what made him a big apostle and a big bishop. Without any doubt, teaching in the University helped him clarify his thinking and support it especially that he was the professor of religions including Islam. But the spirit that was in him led the Albanian Church in the past nine years.

He rose with the Church of Albania from a complete desert (lack of construction, lack of Church unity) into an obvious and active existence. He leaned on the faith preserved in the hearts through a lethal persecution, a persecution that erased all the features of Christianity in a way no other regime did. He challenged all of this without having any money in his hand, and revealed to the whole world that knowledgeable people are able, through the power of the spirit and some intelligence, to do construction.

The people that welcomed him felt that grace is poured on his lips and that this grace is what makes him a great Bishop. He stepped on our land in the monastery of our Lady of Kaftoun. Perhaps the most important thing we saw in him- and this is found in every feature of our features- was him entering the sanctuary and kneeling in front of the altar that he was constantly touching with his head as if it was a part of him. Our gift for him was an icon of St. Joseph of Damascus to tell him that our unity in all Churches is the unity of martyrdom and that we died here so that all generations would live through those who died with love. He started explaining for us the attempt to destroy Christ in his country. However, he emerged from under the ruins of the ugly history so that the youth of Albania’s Orthodoxy is renewed like the eagle’s youth.

We had lunch in the monastery of our Lady of “An-Nourieh”. He got the chance to see quickly in both monasteries the experience of our monastic life as we gathered around him the Abbots of all monasteries in addition to some of their brothers. Afternoon, we visited some displaced villages of the Mount, and he saw there the pains that we tasted that were similar to what his sons tasted. In the two Bhamdouns, Mansouriyeh and Alay, the faithful welcomed him. He prayed, we chanted and he gave us a speech. He never said: “I build and I established…etc”. He gave credit in everything to the Divine Grace.

While accompanying him, I got to know his wisdom in pastoral care and in facing difficulties. We told you previously in “Raiiati” about his interest in displaced Muslim Albanians from Kosovo to Albania: A poor Church like his collected money from the world in order to embrace homeless people that are not even from its religion, taking into consideration that this Church doesn’t have the ability to do charity. However, Christ wanted us to share.

The end of the trip was a visit of his Beatitude to the Church of the Theotokos in Mansouriyeh, Al-Maten. The Great Compline had finished and the man was exhausted but he entered the entrance of kings through the crowd of people that came to pray from the town and from neighboring towns. I felt that the enthusiasm increased and that piety was obvious. The choir of the Eparchy felt that it is nice to chant “Christ is Risen” so we did, while he chanted with his companions the troparion of Pascha in their language.

After dinner, we stood up and didn’t end the Paschal chanting. This way, and without any analysis, we jumped into Pascha to tell ourselves and others that the faithful respond to each other through the love of that who rose from the dead and that they want his eternal Pascha to be a Resurrection for all Churches.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “أنستاسيوس” –Raiati n^o13- 26.03.2000

Christianity carries too much kindness to the extent where sometimes we think that we see the wrong and do nothing in front of it. Actually, dealing with things in modesty and smoothness doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take a strong position when needed. Therefore, the Holy Book spoke a lot about reproaching. It is written that the Lord: “began to reproach the cities in which most of his works of power had taken place, because they had not repented” (Matthew 11: 20). Warning the mistaken, therefore, might reach severe blaming.

And for the faithful not to be annoyed from the remarks of the responsible, Paul doesn’t only ask the bishop to preach but to also “rebuke those who oppose the word” (Titus 1: 9). Rebuking could be a part of the sermon, according to the occasion and subject, because he, who loves, disciplines. What kind of love doesn’t target reformation? And here we mention John the Baptist who used reproaching with Herod, for the issue of Herodias, although the king was simply listening to him. The loving brother wants to expose his mistakes in front of his friend and confess so that these mistakes go to the top of his soul and don’t stay hidden deep down. Paul said concerning this: “But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light” (Ephesians 5: 13). We don’t believe in a friendship in which my mistakes and yours are both hidden and not revealed. This is not a friendship. This is a plot against truth.

A person might reform himself without the help of an instructor. However, man usually loves his sin as he destroys himself. Sometimes he might know what he is destroying, and prefers its destruction over its restoration. We cannot see someone falling into hell and not help him to ascend.

You might think that you shouldn’t blame a person that was wrong towards you in order not to seem annoying and you might also decide to stay silent towards his action because it saddened you. However, the Lord says: “If your brother sins, rebuke him” (Luke 17: 3). Matthew also says that but with a weaker tone: “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you” (18: 15). Why should you rebuke? Because you recognized his sin and you shouldn’t reveal it in order not to turn into gossip. The fact that the sinner disturbed you, hurt and harmed you or caused you bitterness is not the reason to rebuke him. Your self is not what should concern you in this case, and the issue is not an issue of self dignity. You should renounce yourself and your wound. The important thing for you is the other that hurt himself while hurting you. You are concerned with his salvation from his evil and not with your salvation from grief. You are sad for his situation. And this is our philosophy of love that includes the love for enemies and our interest in their salvation.

It is important not to get emotional if you rebuked someone, because anger takes away the benefit from this reprimand. Anger indicates that you are interested in your wound and not in the harm that happened in the soul of the mistaken. In this sense, you shouldn’t be harsh and shouldn’t curse the other because cursing is not rebuking. Show the wrong things and reveal the nature of the mistake so that he recognizes the importance of what he did.

After that, “If he repented, forgive him” as it is enough for you if he came back to God. And From God, he shall come back to you.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “وبِّخ واغفر” –Raiati n^o9- 27.02.2000

We have agreed with Catholic Churches on the level of the Patriarchs of the East that the First Communion must not be celebrated in schools but in parishes. The Orthodox side suggested this idea and the Catholic Patriarchs accepted it. We all knew that this decision won’t be easy for schools that hang on to their independence; however, we were told that Catholic schools accept the decision.

Nonetheless, the news that I hear from our region show that some of these schools are asking our Orthodox students to get permission from their parents to have the First Communion “in the parish”, i.e. in the closest catholic parish to them. This way, these institutes would appear that they obeyed the order of their authorities by cancelling the First Communion at school, but they actually took the kids to the parish.  The apparent part of the decision is preserved; however, there is a violation in the spirit of this decision because what we wanted in our agreement with the Catholic authorities is for boys and girls to have communion in their Orthodox parish if they were Orthodox. We don’t only refuse the expression “First Communion” because we take communion with Baptism, but also refuse the participation in the sacraments with non-Orthodox Churches.

I will not remind you today that the decision not to participate is mutual in our Church and theirs, but it often occurs that a Catholic priest acts leniently with his Church’s orders and does what he wants. We are more committed to the orders of the spiritual authority. The basis in Christianity is that a right doctrine is a condition for a person to have communion. In this sense, when a person leaves a doctrine and adopts another one, he won’t be your partner in faith and consequently not a partner in the Holy Grail. A united grail is an image that expresses a united faith.

We could go back and elaborate on the issue if we had to. However, I wish to say a couple of things today: First, that it’s a pity that some school administrations are escaping from the decisions of the Patriarchs. Second, is that I feel wrathful that some parents ask the priest of the Orthodox parish to permit their child to have communion in a Catholic parish as if they have never read this bulletin in which we wrote numerously and as if they didn’t understand that our Church – and not the parents – takes the decisions in religious issues. We have warned schools not to deal with parents this way but to deal with us through their Catholic spiritual authorities.

I also feel sad when some parents feel that their child must feel happy with his friends by doing what they do. Why don’t they tell their child: “You have your Church, and you already had communion in it a month or a year ago… when you got baptized”? How do you accept to have a “First Communion” and it is not your “first”?

I want parents to understand that we have an identity and authenticity and that we show it without being shy. We do not contend anyone for his doctrinal belonging. But why is this disturbance for Orthodoxy? If the school administration’s excuse is either their ignorance of our position or their aware refusal for our position, what would our excuse be for all this approach towards Christian brothers that we love, respect and have dialogue with? However, the conditions of unity between us are not complete yet, and consequently we don’t have the ability to meet together at the Lord’s Table.

Our Church has transparency and loves all Christians. If a person knows that he is a real son of his Church, he would say what it says and act as it wants him to act for the salvation of his soul and for recognizing God through recognizing the truth.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “أوّل قربانة» أيضًا وأيضًا” –Raiati 8- 20.02.2000

Archimandrite Lev Gillet the French, who converted to Orthodoxy in the late twenties in Paris, taught me that one of the best methods to destroy someone’s hatred is to mention his name in your prayers. If you raised his name to the Lord several times, you would be able to bring him into your heart too. He used to tell me: “mention the Lord’s name on him”, this way he will be embraced with the Lord’s presence and might change. As for you, you must change.

In our daily life, we go against someone because we misunderstood a word he said, a behavior he did, or because he hurt us and we considered this as a sin from him. In front of this, blaming might not be beneficial and must be postponed until he calms down. Meanwhile, embrace the offender’s name to Christ’s chest for this shall make you see him on your chest too. After that, you are allowed to blame him mercifully.

When I used to ask one of the faithful if he carried love towards a person that harmed him, he used to answer: “I don’t hate him”. This isn’t love, of course. This is simply being polite. Loving him means paying attention to his tiredness, to his complexes, to his sorrow and joy; it means that you should serve him in the situation that he is in. Love doesn’t wait, love initiates. Remember the Good Samaritan and how he healed the wounds of the wounded and took him to an inn (or dispensary in today’s language) and asked for him to be taken care of. He fully committed to the left-alone person. Of course, you cannot carry the responsibility of tens of people, but you can do that towards those who God put in the path of your life: Starting from the members of your family, the people you work with, friends, and especially the sick and sad. These are your parish, don’t neglect them. Any small gesture towards them, especially during their hardship and when they are hurt or had a shock, would give them a lot of happiness. Every one of us lives in an attention after another. The spiritually strong person is the only one that is satisfied with God’s looking after him. However, God wants us to take care of each other: Wondrous bonds attach our hearts as if we are one person separated through different figures.

Do not consider an incident that happened with your relative as silly; it might be very important for him. Do not say in your mind that you shall visit your friend if he passed through a big distress only. He might only have a small contusion: Take the phone and ask about him. When you get closer to people, they will feel comfortable with their Lord. The important thing is not to keep your friends in order to be consoled through them, but for them to live in consolation. “You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much”. Daily details could be, on the level of personal bliss, the most important among all things. This bliss always carries something divine.

These details mean that you should talk gently to your wife and children in the evening and show your care. And if you were an employer and had employees around you, show a word of care concerning the health of each one of them and ask him about his family. This is one example among many. When your responsibilities grow, your soul and you work will push you to be careful from close people. This is normal in work and production. However, minimal decency is required from you: Don’t say a word that has a personal nature to your assistant after a day that saddened him. Every assistant wants to be existent in the eyes of his employer. Your wife, children, and relatives love to be existent in your eyes. Moodiness is allowed only to a small extent. If you heard that a person feels left alone, put an effort to create the opportunities and methods to save him from that.

Sometimes you don’t understand why a person feels that you are treating him with brusqueness. Double your effort and take the initiative to get closer to him and to make him closer to you.  The important thing is for none of us to live alone.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “تقاسيم على المحبة” –Raiati n^o7- 13.02.2000

Mercy is the attitude of the heart towards the sinner and the abuser. Mercy is forgiving him, not carrying hatred towards him and treating him with meekness. However, all of these are accompanied with softness or strictness in disciplining the sinner. This discipline should be free from temper and decided by the mind that should examine the situation and love at the same time. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6: 36). This follows the expression “love your enemies”, and is followed by “Do not judge… forgive” and also: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye”. God’s embracing to us leads us to embrace others; And God’s fatherhood to us implies our brotherhood with everyone.

However, love is not free from any discipline. “The Lord disciplines those he loves”. The Holy Book that talks about God’s love also says: “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath” (Romans 2: 5). When the Lord gets angry, he continues loving you, but through his wrath he disciplines you. His fatherhood makes him bring you back to your awareness as a son. It is written in the epistle to the Hebrews that “we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it”. And for the person being disciplined not to think that he is hated, the apostle continued his thoughts saying that those that are trained with discipline will be given from the Lord fruits of righteousness of peace. He also continues his idea by saying: “strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees”. This treatment sometimes needs strong exercise.

Being soft is a method and not a purpose or a basis. This might work with sensitive slender natures, but doesn’t give any results with thick natures that have planned for evil. These natures need strictness that might sometimes reach smashing. Of course, after smashing you have to fix, but sometimes we have to pass through smashing in order to reach the cure. Sometimes we need a moral slap, and other times we also need to cut a relation and stay away and show some anger. Yelling might never benefit us, but harsh words- without cursing, insults or contempt- might work so that the sinner wouldn’t think that through our silence we are agreeing on what he did or that he didn’t hurt the truth.

The important thing is to show the sinner that we are not being rebellious because of our pride but for the truth and because we care about the sinner and want him to come back to the truth. He might not recognize that he deviated from the truth unless he became spiritually mature in order to understand that. We have, therefore, to bring back to him his spiritual feeling or remind him about the divine commandment that he violated if he could sense it. We can show him the wrong side in his behavior and the deviation that he did.

All of this indicates a patient calm treatment. Being silent towards what is wrong means that we don’t want to be annoyed and disturbed, and this way the sickness will continue and we won’t be loving the person that we diagnosed. Neglecting the situation and depending on time might not work, because time doesn’t always bring calmness and mistakes will be repeated and accumulated until they explode. However, waiting for a little time is beneficial for the person disciplining and the one being disciplined to face problems calmly.

The great person is the person that once he recognizes his mistake, he leaves his stubbornness and confesses. The person that we conciliate is the one that reconciled with truth and accepted his soul in this truth. We should teach people that truth saves them and that if they existed in this truth, they would be in peace and joy, and this one big face of love.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الرحمة والشدة” –Raiati n^o6- 06.02.2000

I am not talking here about the relationship between an abbot and his monk from the aspect of obedience. We have lots of writings about this relationship which is based on the fact that the abbot is modest, humble, and gives birth to others in Christ. Obedience is based on the virtues of the spiritual father because the monastery is not a military camp; and when Apostle Paul described us as Christ’s soldiers, he was referring to our seriousness in commitment to Christ and not comparing the Church to an army.

Christ is the only one that gives us commands, because he is the Lord and has the word of salvation and deserves obedience as he obeyed the Father and gave himself to death, death of the cross. We also obey people that have left their ego and reached great spiritual maturity and illumination; those are able to direct others without emotion, any intent or lust for control. Dionysius the Areopagite- who is a writer that appeared in our region in the beginning of the sixth century- says that he who reaches illumination should be made priest. This means that you should obey him not because his was ordained as a priest, but because he was ordained after he was illuminated and noticed by others. Priesthood itself doesn’t give spiritual maturity and fatherhood. When a person is upgraded to a position, he doesn’t automatically become free from desires and consequently worthy for guidance. Only the Holy Spirit can make someone worthy for true guidance.

The Church understood that as it doesn’t give someone the right to practice the Sacrament of Confession immediately after his ordination. It waits for the spirit to descend on him and give him maturity so that he becomes able to give people true guidance. With hope, we wish for him to achieve spiritual fatherhood. Actually, we give him the right to loose sins but he doesn’t automatically become a counselor. This is related to how much he is close to Christ.

This person must study the Holy Book, pray deeply and warmly, and become purified from his sins. If he didn’t do these a lot, his words won’t be coming from the Spirit. If he knew that he is weak, let him make people’s sins loose without saying a word. The Sacrament of Repentance would be fulfilled. True guidance is learned from the Holy Spirit and not in books.

However, if the Spirit inspired you to say something, give an advice and not an order. Nikon- an abbot of a big Russian monastery who died in 1963- wrote about this issue based on the teachings of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov saying: “I remind you that I do not oblige anyone to take my advices anyways. An advice is just an advice, and the final decision is for the person that asked for the advice” (From a letter he wrote in 1951). He saw that the priests of his time were not really able to discover God’s will in specific situations. They could only clarify God’s commandments. And therefore, Father Nikon clarified to one of his spiritual daughters that she must consider him a journey companion more than just a father. He said that she must not consider him greater than he really is and must feel free to leave him if she felt that his advices are not beneficial.

He did not have a spiritual father himself. He used reading and praying that could be very beneficial if there were no spiritual fathers with spiritual differentiation.

It is obvious that if you guided people, you shouldn’t kill the personality of the spiritual son. You should not think instead of him, let him think and grow and carry his responsibility in front of God. “No one could solve others’ problems that life put in front of them” (Henri Bergson). Do not disrupt someone’s brain or heart. God said: “My son, give me your heart”. Help him make his heart ascend to his Lord. He leans on you; Throw him on the Lord’s feet and disappear.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الفرق بين النصيحة والأمر” –Raiati n^o05- 30.01.2000

You cannot take a final position from a person only from exchanging thoughts with him. Every mental giving is a way of treating, i.e. a relation between two human entities. A pure philosophical position is related, in a way or another, to the heart. Man is a complete entity and not just a brain. The scientific position itself is a commitment. The human brain is not a train that moves from a station to the other; it is a confrontation and an embracing.

Therefore, it is wrong when someone thinks that if he gives convincing arguments, according to him, it will automatically be transmitted from a brain to another. There are people that don’t surrender to logic and are usually annoyed from strict logic. There are also people that don’t accept the truth even if we proved it, even though it is confirmed for us. There are some people that their hearts move when they’re convinced, and others are convinced when their hearts move. Some minds are less preponderant than others. Some understand through their heart and intuition. Some analyze thoughts, and others can’t think beyond the tangible incident and can only talk about daily life stories.

We, as Christians, have a big relation with the mind and a relation with the heart. There are human models close to calm prudence and others close to emotion and reaction. Those who are closer to logic can analyze and believe people until the opposite is proved. While those who are closer to emotions usually tend to misunderstand; they deal with actions through reactions.

Since the mind and passion are mixed in every person, it is important to deliver the truth to him, the healing truth through passion and logic together. We must respect him to the maximum; the person that has descent morals does not hurt anyone or show him negative pride so that the other’s heart will stay pure to be able to understand. It is difficult to accept an argument from a person knowing that he hates you; you react to his argument through emotion. You must buy his love so that he accepts you and your thoughts. He might like you but reject your thought, but he won’t refuse your person. You don’t teach him only by going down to his mental level, but also by going down to the status of his heart. This means that you should be humble and heartbroken.

The condition for communication is to have a calm tone. Shouting often cuts the communication, because it usually carries a refusal for the other. If you shout at someone, he’ll think that you hate him and this will make him stop listening and might hear nothing.

If your nerves became tense do not talk; ease your anger. Stay quiet for a while until you feel that you became calm. This way you purify your mind and do not shock or hurt the other.

If you heard the other person shouting, pray for him and embrace him in your heart. And if you saw him nervous, postpone your answer to another time and do not admonish him unless he was very close to you. Some shouters are like angry monsters so they curse and swear. A person like that is not able to understand. If you can answer him after he becomes calm, make him first feel secure towards you through nice words that he might accept or not.

This is a pedagogic attitude; having cold nerves does not mean not having feelings, but the important thing is that the other person understands that you are agreeing with him and you are not far from him but calm. Talk to him and show him interest in the subject and his person. However, in all cases stay honest and show him that you are internally angry without any shouting. Show you difference and the points of your difference, and there is no problem if you decided to stop talking to him for a while to make him understand that you are sad. But make him understand that this break from him does not carry hatred towards him. You can stay far from him until he accepts making up with you on the basis of the truth.

The only important thing is to seek the truth, what you want comes last in comparison with the truth as it is not meant for you to win. You are nothing but a servant for the truth. Train others to love the truth, this way you become the raiser of every person life put in front of you. You are not in control of anyone. You take people’s hands and lead them to God that revives their hearts. You are a preceptor because you love.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الموقف التربوي” – 23.1.2000