Life in Christ is communion. The psalmist said: “I am a companion of all who fear You and keep Your commandments” (Psalm 118:63). I would not be diminishing what the Scriptures say about the communal life if I said that these words are the most eloquent of what has been said about it. I am ...
Read moreMonthly Archives: January 2024
Born in Gaza
It is the title of a documentary, filmed in 2014, that tells the story of ten children from Gaza who, like all their peers, are humiliated by Israel. Mohamed, Udai, Mahmud, Sondos, Rajaf, Malak, Hamada, Montasem, Bisan, Haia. They are all shedding tears and blood. They have all been broken by death… The film, to ...
Read moreA Need for a Face
I fell ill before the feast, then once again after it. Both times, I was overpowered by the viruses that are filling the world nowadays. Between one illness and another, my companion, the brother priest together with whom I serve one parish, fell ill. People say that, after “Covid” (I do not know if it ...
Read moreVictory of Gaza
Much has been said about Israel's criminality in word and deed. Wars are waged with weapons of all kinds, iron and fire, and maneuvers of speech and other things. Listen, for instance, to their President, Isaac Herzog, saying: “There are no innocent people in Gaza”; or their Defense Minister Yoav Gallant describing the people of ...
Read moreThe Bishops’ Invention
Of the words that buzz with recognition of the truth is the saying of Peter Brown, the historian: “the bishops are the ones who have invented the poor”. This is a testimony to the Spirit of God Who gave people on earth to spread out in it that people are brethren. Brown did not say ...
Read moreServing Righteousness
If you crucify people for sins that they had actually committed or that you assume they had done, expect that you will face one of two dangers: that you will do injustice to those you crucified, or that your ability to notice your personal mistakes will be diminished. If you have room for a piece ...
Read moreFeasts of Theophany
The layout of the feasts of “Theophany” reveals that Jesus is a God Who is immersed in danger, surrounded by a threat from here and there, a God Who is, by and large, on the run and rejected. On the feast of Nativity, no biblical phrase hurts more than that of Luke the Evangelist: “there ...
Read moreThe Living Church
There are several things that leapt out at me upon reading the recent document in which Rome allowed the blessing of same-sex couples. I will mention three of them now. The first is to separate the blessing from the work of the Church Sacraments. The second is to separate it from God, given that the ...
Read moreWords in the Feast
I read Elias Khoury’s article “the Sun of Righteousness” in which he called on us to read the Word made flesh “in the context of the time in which we live”. The article is a section of the hymns of the feast whose function is to extend the worship to our daily life, to our ...
Read moreSila’s Wishes
I read tardily the wishes of little Sila. The criminals' bombardment reached her before her wishes got to be discovered. Who can convince the “state” of hatred, which imagines that God is with it, that it does not commit crimes against anyone as it commits crimes against God? Nothing is dearer to God's heart than ...
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