24
Mar 2019
In this beautify season of the Holy Lent, it is an opportunity for each one of us to be closer to God. Through the fast, the prayers, the charity work, through all kinds of piety work we can please Him and we can tell Him how much we love him. Every Sunday of the Lent is like a journey towards to the beautiful event of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every Sunday there is a special reading that brings us closer to that event. Last Sunday we spoke about the man who......
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17
Mar 2019
This very spiritual journey of the Holy Lent—if we live it with a pure heart, can have a blessing in our personal and family life. When Jesus fasted, he was training us. This is a lesson for us – when we fast, we have to read the Bible, and receive the peace that we need in our life. In the beginning of each Sunday Liturgy, we give “peace” with our hands. If we are mad with someone, we have to instead have peace with each other. In our Liturgy book, page 24,......
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10
Mar 2019
We are honored to release the Patriarchial Encyclical for Great Lent. You can watch the video of the full reading of the letter, issued from Damascus, here. May the Lord accept your fasting, repentance, prayers and almsgiving. May He make you worthy to rejoice in the Feast of His Resurrection, enjoying good health of spirit, body and mind. May He have mercy on the souls of the faithful departed, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, St. Peter, Chief of the Apostles, and all the martyrs and saints. ...
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03
Mar 2019
When I see the church is full of believers, my heart is full of joy and happiness. And more than me, our heavenly father is full of joy and happiness. He is very happy as he sees all his children coming to His House. Today is called the Sunday for all the Faithful Departed, all those who were one day with us here on earth and then they joined the rest of the people of heaven. And today, we had a special prayer for those people. First, a lesson about that from......
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24
Feb 2019
Today on the church calendar calls on us to remember those priests who have departed, those who have served on the altar of the Lord during their lives. Especially the ones that we know, the living ones and the departed ones. Patriarchs and bishops, too. We talk about a very high, and very blessed sacrament of the priesthood. How high it is and how blessed they are in serving. The writer of a hymn says “I was amazed. How elevated is the priest’s reign? A priest is higher than an angel and......
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17
Feb 2019
I ask our heavenly father that he open our hearts and open our eyes, so we can see him and accept him in our life. We can accept him in our heart, because without his help and mercy we cannot actually see him and hear him in our heart. Today is the last Sunday of the Epiphany, celebrating the baptism of Jesus Christ, then we have 3 Sundays and then the Great Lent. Today’s text is really beautiful Luke 5:1-11, when Jesus calls His first disciples. It has so many meanings. I......
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10
Feb 2019
As we all heard at the beginning of the Liturgy, we learned from St. Mark, about when Jesus chose his disciples. And then after Jesus picked those 12 disciples, He blessed them and prayed over them, and breathed in their faces, and they became high priests or priests. Each one of the disciples became Abouna. What is the job of an Abouna, or priest? We have to continue His job. He told them to go and preach the word of God. What do the priests do? We continue the job of God,......
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03
Feb 2019
Today we celebrate one of the most important feasts in the church. We call it the presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ at the Temple. This feast is always celebrated 40 days after Christmas. This is a feast where the biggest encounter happened – the meeting between the Old Testament and New Testament; the meeting between the Old Man and the New Man; the Old Law and the Grace. We ask our heavenly father to ask to be with us, like Simeon the elder. The story goes, where one of the Roman......
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20
Jan 2019
We were recently blessed to host His Eminence Mor Grigorios Melki Urek, Metropolitan Patriarchal vicar of Adiyaman Turkey, to participate in our Holy Liturgy and provide the Sunday sermon. Here is a general English translation of the key parts of his sermon from Turkish. My dear brethren, I am not sure how to say it, but since I know many in this group have come from Diyarbakir, Adiyaman and Mardin, and the surrounding areas, that is why I am going to speak in Turkish. But of course, some people may not understand.......
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13
Jan 2019
In today’s reading, John the Baptist is preaching all over the world about the coming of the kingdom of God. When he heard that John was in prison, he started preaching to repent. Because the kingdom of God is at hand. (Matthew 3:2) To talk about the kingdom of God, we talk about two ideas. To be in the presence of God, or He is with us. It is not just the afterlife, it starts from the coming of the Lord to save us. And the condition is to repent. To have......
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