Friday, March 29, 2024

Met Ephrem (Kyriakos): The Fast is Forgiveness and Reconiliation

 Arabic original here.

The Fast is Forgiveness and Reconciliation

The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee points to humility. Without humility, and spiritual work loses its value.

The purpose of the fast is to make one humble, to "deny oneself" (Mark 8:34).

The Sunday of the Prodigal Son points to repentance and to God the merciful Father.

The Sunday of the Last Judgment points to reckoning and salvation.

The Forgiveness Sunday is tied to mercy, love and reconciliation.

The word of reconciliation is the word of life (cf. Philippians 2:16 and 1 John 1:1).

Mercy and forgiveness lead to reconciliation with God and with others, push away resentment and hatred, and bring reconciliation.

"God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:19).

"God has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18).

This reconciliation is reciprocal, but God's mercy is first of all His initiative, by means of the mystery of redemption, which causes us sinners to take the initiative to reconcile in Christ Jesus.

All of this is through the mystery of repentance, humility and forgiveness and it is also through love, mercy and redemption.

The fast is springtime for souls, when man is renewed and nature is renewed.

It is when joy, a springtime joy, must spread.

After all this, we hope and advise that mercy and forgiveness, and not resentment and hatred, prevail in every affair, for the sake of reconciliation in the mystery of Christ's redemption and great love. Amen.

+Ephrem

Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Bp Constantine Kayyal: Meatfare

Arabic original here.

Meatfare

The topic of today's Gospel passage is love.

The Lord Jesus gives a parable about the Last Judgment and affirms to us that the standard of judgment is love, personal and tangible love for the people that God puts along our way.

Love that corresponds to our social, economic and political interests and concerns is good and useful, but it is not pure and uniquely Christian love.

It is true that we are called to establish a just society governed by equality and brotherhood, but the true Christian love to which the Gospel calls us and on the basis of which humankind shall be judged is "that we love one another" and reconcile with one another so that all may know that we are Christ's disciples.

This is the true Church, the living Church of Christ, not a social or national institution.

The sole standard of judgment is man's relationship to his fellow man, not only man's relationship to God. Our sole path to heaven is through our fellow man.

Yesterday we prayed for our departed loved ones. We pray for them because we love them and so that we may encounter them in Christ who is love and in whom there is no difference between living and dead because all are alive. When we love Christ, we also love His elect because He endured disgrace and crucifixion for the salvation of all humankind.

Today we also remove meat from our tables in order to prepare to enter into greater struggle through fasting, prayer and self-discipline in order to make the soul close to others in order to draw closer to God.

The purpose of refraining from meat and its derivatives is to make money more available to give to our brothers in need out of love for them. This is the most important expression of true love and of the communion that exists between the members of the Church, the body of Christ.

Let us pray that our mighty God may grant us the strength and love to pass through this holy forty-day fast and to bear love for our brothers in our hearts and minds every day and every moment, so that we might be worthy to attain the most sublime goal, the fullness of the stature of Christ Jesus.

Bishop Constantine

Abbot of the Patriarchal Monastery of Mar Elias Shwayya

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Met Ephrem (Kyriakos): Faith and Prayer in the Thinking of the Fathers

 Arabic original here.


Faith and Prayer in the Thinking of the Fathers

"Faith is the substance of things hoped-for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).

Faith is also perfect trust in Christ, a trust that comes from His love for us and from His love for all creation.

Prayer comes out of our faith in Christ.

Saint Seraphim of Sarov says:

Prayer can bring down the Holy Spirit who transforms the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, and it can preserve the world's equilibrium.

Faithful prayer has an apostolic activity, in faith and through prayer we acquire great power.

All this results from our perfect trust in Christ.

We have said that faith is tied to prayer. Prayer leads one to God. At that point, grace leaks into one's heart.

Salvation is in Christ by His redemption and His love. "Your faith has saved you," said Jesus to the blind man of Jericho (Luke 18:42).

In the Bible there are many parables that reveal the power of faith which works miracles. All of them are tied to perfect faith in Christ.

The Lord Jesus said to the pagan Syro-Phoenician Canaanite woman (Mark 7:26): "'O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.' And her daughter was healed from that very hour" (Matthew 15:28).

Saint Gregory Palamas says, explaining this miracle: "Her tongue was moved by the Holy Spirit."

This means that her faith in Christ caused her to bring God's power to heal her daughter who was afflicted by the demon. Of course, all this was helped by her deep humility.

Faith in Christ only occurs and is active through one's liberation from the passions, especially through rejecting one's egoism.

The Canaanite woman also connected her faith to prayer when she cried out, "Lord, help me!"

Therefore, Saint Gregory Palamas says, "Humility is always tied to faith in Christ. Humility is fitting for the faithful and faith is fitting for the humble."

Faith in God grows and increases through repetition of the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!"

+Ephrem

Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies


Saturday, February 10, 2024

Met Ephrem (Kyriakos): St Ephrem the Syrian

 Arabic original here.

Saint Ephrem the Syrian

Repentance with tears inflames the hearts of the faithful in the spiritual writings of Saint Ephrem.

What first attracts attention is his call to contrition and repentance.

For him, repentance is connected to the judgment and tears, to remembrance of the judgment and  shedding of tears.

This is not in order to torture oneself, but to attain the kingdom, according to the commandment of the Gospel, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17 and 3:2).

He warns sinners about falling into despair and encourages us to repentance without losing hope in God's mercy. He tells them:

"I hope that all those whose consciences torment them on account of their sins will not despair...

but rather will approach God without fear and weep before Him. May they not lose hope, for the Lord is greatly delighted with those who repent and approach with the joy of their return to Him because He says by the Prophet Hosea, 'After all this, return to Me' and through the Evangelist Matthew:

'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest' (Matthew 11:28). So never despair, even if you have sinned."

But how do we repent?

Repentance is returning to God. Does this path, the path of return require hating sin to the point of hating sinful life? Self-renunciation: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate ... even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26).

Accordingly, repentance requires keeping love for one's brothers, especially the weak ones, because he who has love has God. It also requires humility because one who is humble resembles God to the point that he sorrows and suffers along with the sinner and does not disdain him, thus revealing his own self.

All this is in accordance with what the Lord said: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40).

The issue, the issue of repentance naturally requires effort because the kingdom of heaven is taken by force and the violent bear it away. War is declared against the passions and lusts and against Satan's snares. Therefore the saint says:

"We have been tied to our lusts as though with iron chains and no one strives to become free of them, but rather sticks out his chest while he is bound by them. What wicked snares the filthy devil weaves! How was he able to darken our minds so that we would be concerned with what is contrary and prefer what harms us rather than the good things to come!"

Ephrem followed in the footsteps of his bishop, Jacob of Nisibis (302-338), and like him knew both culture and asceticism. When the passions are transformed, the heart is emptied of selfishness and wicked individualism and is oriented toward the unselfish love that does not ask anything for itself.

This struggle of repentance will make us worthy to see Christ risen in glory, either partially, as though in a mirror, through the prayer of the heart, the Jesus Prayer, or directly, after illumination.

This also causes us to have a foretaste of the kingdom while we are on earth. This is the glory of Christ and it is heaven for those who have attained sincere love. It is seen in the form of uncreated light, while those who remain in extreme selfishness see God's glory as an immaterial, burning fire. This is hell.

Indeed, sin is destructive and it is true what is said in the hymn, "Wicked is complacency, great is repentance."

He who digs his own grave in his heart shatters the man of sin and opens the door of the resurrection.

Saint Ephrem washes away his sins with his tears and makes his soul rejoice in God's grace.

+Ephrem

Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies  

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Met Ephrem (Kyriakos): The Mystery of Repentance

 Arabic original here.

The Mystery of Repentance

At the beginning of Jesus' preaching, He says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17).

We must receive every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord in a spirit of repentance, by confessing that we are sinners. This is what constitutes the foundation of our spiritual life.

The key to understanding the Gospel, the word of the Lord, is obedience.

Obedience to God's word is the key to our salvation and obedience requires denying our own will.

All this-- I mean, obedience to God's word and also self-denial-- constitutes the key to repentance, the key to the kingdom of God.

We cannot understand and live the mystery of repentance unless it is connected to God's word and self-denial.

Obedience to the words of the Lord is tied to denying one's own will. "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself" (Mark 8:34).

Every day of our life, the Lord commands that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, saying, "Repent! Obey My words! Deny yourselves!"

Obedience and self-denial is the key to the Gospel, the key to the kingdom. At that point, we possess power and light. This is the mystery of repentance.

The Prophet Isaiah says, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined" (Isaiah 9:2).

This darkness, the shadow of death, all this is the result of the sin that oppresses us and kills us in its shadow.

Confessing our sin is the door of repentance. The holy forty-day fast is the season of repentance.

Saint Isaac the Syrian says, "One who confesses his sins is greater than one who raises the dead."

The mystery of repentance and confession is a renewal of our baptism. Every day, the Lord brings good tidings of the kingdom of God. He speaks of "that baptism that I am baptized with" (Mark 10:38), by which he means baptism and death.

The word repentance, metanoia, means a change of mind, a change in thinking. At the beginning of the Beatitudes, the Lord says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3).

They are pure from every evil, sinful thought after confessing their sins and repenting of them.

+Ephrem

Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Open-Access Book: Arabic-Type Books Printed in Wallachia, Istanbul, and Beyond

 To see the table of contents and download the entire book for free, go here.

Arabic-Type Books Printed in Wallachia, Istanbul, and Beyond

First Volume of Collected Works of the TYPARABIC Project

Edited by: Radu-Andrei Dipratu and Samuel Noble

Volume 2 in the series Early Arabic Printing in the East
 

This first volume of Collected Works of the ERC Project TYPARABIC focuses on the history of printing during the 18th century in the Ottoman Empire and the Romanian Principalities among diverse linguistic and confessional communities. Although "most roads lead to Istanbul," the many pathways of early modern Ottoman printing also connected authors, readers and printers from Central and South-Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the Levant.

The papers included in this volume are grouped in three sections. The first focuses on the first Turkish-language press in the Ottoman capital, examining the personality and background of its founder, İbrahim Müteferrika, the legal issues it faced, and its context within the multilingual Istanbul printing world. The second section brings together studies of printing and readership in Central and South-East Europe in Romanian, Greek and Arabic. The final section is made up of studies of the Arabic liturgical and biblical texts that were the main focus of Patriarch Athanasios III Dabbās’ efforts in the Romanian Principalities and Aleppo.

This volume will be of interest to scholars of the history of printing, Ottoman social history, Christian Arabic literature and Eastern Orthodox liturgy. 

 

Monday, January 15, 2024

Met Santiago (El Khoury): Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!

Arabic original here.

Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" With these words, beloved, Jesus declares the beginning of His evangelical ministry.

The call here is a call of repentance and an invitation to the kingdom.

Christ teaches us here, from the very beginning, that repentance is our path to the kingdom and there is no other path apart from it.

Last Sunday, the Evangelist Mark told us about how the Baptist went ahead of the Lord, preaching repentance.

This Sunday, Christ follows up and approves the Baptist's preaching, confirming his teaching and presenting more in order to reveal the purpose of repentance: the kingdom.

Starting off, we might wonder, what is repentance?

Repentance, beloved, is living every moment of our life with vision of the kingom, living in this world in the hope of eternal life.

This means for our heart to be liberated from the pleasures of this life, from its enticements, and for us to cast out worries and troubles out from it and to cling to God.

People today often strive for God, seeking repentance, but their repentance often falters. The question is: why?

Why are we unable to truly repent?

The repentance that seizes the kingdom by force is supposed to be perfect or have a quality of perseverance, but we usually repent verbally and in a truncated manner, or only a little or for a few moments.

Repentance is not achieved when we offer an aspect or moments of our life to God.

Repentance such as this is Pharisaical repentance, something dry and barren that God deplores because through it one attempts to justify himself before God, rather than striving for God to make him righteous.

Repentance is not a collection of religious duties, laws or canons and having a relationship with God is not based on rights and duties.

What is required is for us to surrender ourselves wholly to our Father, to God. "O my son, give me your heart," in the sense of "give me your whole self" at every moment, not only in times of hardship or temptation or just occasionally.

The final question that arises is: how do we live repentance in the midst of this turbulent world?

The malady that our contemporary world is suffering from  is forgetting God.

The world today is stuffed with various luxuries, pleasures and means of relaxation that appeal to people and attract their attention.

In their great abundance and availability, God is usually forgotten and the affairs of life are ordered and priorities are defined according to them.

Because they take up a lot of time and effort, life is spent in vain and in this way people are cut off from the purpose of their existence as "citizens of heaven" and these means are cut off from their purpose, so instead of using them as tools and means for service and love, their purpose is inverted and they become and end in themselves.

Therefore, repentance comes as the cure to the ailment of forgetting God.

Repentance today requires us to bring back the proper order of priorities in this life according to the standards of the kingdom. That is, it requires us to opt for everything that is useful to and serves the kingdom and for us to cast aside everything that is vain and not useful, everything that is entirely bad.

This calls for us to be watchful and to test everything around us, lest our hearts become attached to any "earthly care" to the point that it becomes an obsession that distracts us from our greater concern, which is God.

What is required, then, is for us to seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness in every concern.

In short, repentance is for us to undertake every activity by praying, "Our Father who art in heaven..." before we do it and to refrain from any activity that we cannot pray before doing.

+Santiago

Archbishop of Argentina and Buenos Aires