What does it mean to have a monastery on earth? This is a question that seized me after Brother Zaher Semaan invited me to meet with some brethren from the Movement at the “Monastery of Virgin Mary the Consolatory”, which I mentioned yesterday. It was not the first time I have heard about this monastery ...
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Antiochian Church
New Land
The land here is vast and wide. Life is a journey. A few days ago, my son advised us that we will be spending the weekend in Ottawa, the capital of the country. The trip from his house takes two hours by car. I told him to postpone it because of a pain in my ...
Read moreSome Change
My loving friend Nicolas Nassif, who dwells with God today, had told me, as an advice, that, to invigorate my life, I should leave my place of residence as well as my ministry for a few days a year, for two or three weeks, to another expanse and other faces. This advice has guided me, ...
Read moreThe Spirit of Antioch
After the Sunday Liturgy, a young man invited me to have a cup of coffee in the church hall. Explaining his invitation, he said: "perhaps some of the brethren would like someone to answer some questions they have". This is what happened. I spoke to them a little bit about commitment to God in a ...
Read moreFrom Sunday
Here, I made the acquaintance of Fr. Mark-Arsenios Wyatt. Our first meeting was on the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos. The man is Canadian. He was raised ecclesiastically under Fr. Maximos Saikali who counseled him to study theology at St. John of Damascus Institute, in Balamand (Northern Lebanon). Besides studying, Fr. Mark was ...
Read moreBrethren in Life
To this day, I have prayed here, in an expanse I am visiting, in three churches that are affiliated to our diocese in North America. It is such a precious tradition that we make a pilgrimage to the local saints in whatever city we happen to be in. I have been told about churches here ...
Read moreThe Church of Wisdom
The priest does not move from one diocese to another prior to his obtaining his presiding bishop’s permission and that of the bishop in whose diocese he will reside. Before my departure, I visited Metropolitan Silouan Moussi to ask for his blessing and prayers. I learned that he would write to Metropolitan Saba Isper that ...
Read moreThe Mystery of the Church
Of those I met in this wide expanse, are relative brethren, some of whom I did not know were here. We met in our home, in the Church. How wondrous is the mystery of the Church! How wondrous is her ability to break the boundaries between people, regardless of their origin, color, or gender… wondrous ...
Read moreTravel
Tomorrow at dawn, my wife and I will leave Lebanon to spend, with my son and his family, at their house, in the “faraway country”, several weeks which were determined by some known factors as well as some other private ones. I suggested to my friends, the administrators of the page, that I stop writing ...
Read moreThe Mother First
It is a word that I repeat for the good of us all, in whatever position we may be. It is about time, in our churches, that we repent of individuality and improvisation. We are here, in this expanse whose emptying is required, and which is the origin of the Christian dissemination throughout the entire ...
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