tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76878869617712382632024-03-19T06:07:58.794-04:00Notes on Arab OrthodoxyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1262125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-78561862850897119022024-03-14T04:47:00.006-04:002024-03-14T04:47:43.379-04:00Bp Constantine Kayyal: Meatfare<p><i>Arabic original <a href="https://archtripoli.com/Karma/2024/March/10">here</a>.</i></p><h1 style="text-align: center;">Meatfare</h1><p>The topic of today's Gospel passage is love.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>This is the true Church, the living Church of Christ, not a social or national institution.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p><b>Bishop Constantine</b></p><p><b>Abbot of the Patriarchal Monastery of Mar Elias Shwayya </b><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-9883702182958472782024-03-03T06:02:00.004-05:002024-03-03T06:02:46.854-05:00Met Ephrem (Kyriakos): Faith and Prayer in the Thinking of the Fathers<p><i> Arabic original <a href="https://archtripoli.com/Karma/2024/March/3">here</a>.</i></p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: center;">Faith and Prayer in the Thinking of the Fathers</h2><p>"Faith is the substance of things hoped-for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).</p><p>Faith is also perfect trust in Christ, a trust that comes from His love for us and from His love for all creation.</p><p>Prayer comes out of our faith in Christ.</p><p>Saint Seraphim of Sarov says:</p><p>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.</p><p>Faithful prayer has an apostolic activity, in faith and through prayer we acquire great power.</p><p>All this results from our perfect trust in Christ.</p><p>We have said that faith is tied to prayer. Prayer leads one to God. At that point, grace leaks into one's heart.</p><p>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).</p><p>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.</p><p>The Lord Jesus said to the pagan Syro-Phoenician Canaanite woman (Mark 7:26): "<span class="text Matt-15-28" id="en-NKJV-23662"><span class="woj">'O woman,</span> <span class="woj">great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.'</span> And her daughter was healed from that very hour" (Matthew 15:28).</span></p><p><span class="text Matt-15-28" id="en-NKJV-23662">Saint Gregory Palamas says, explaining this miracle: "Her tongue was moved by the Holy Spirit."</span></p><p><span class="text Matt-15-28" id="en-NKJV-23662">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.</span></p><p><span class="text Matt-15-28" id="en-NKJV-23662">Faith in Christ only occurs and is active through one's liberation from the passions, especially through rejecting one's egoism.</span></p><p><span class="text Matt-15-28" id="en-NKJV-23662">The Canaanite woman also connected her faith to prayer when she cried out, "Lord, help me!"</span></p><p><span class="text Matt-15-28" id="en-NKJV-23662">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."</span></p><p><span class="text Matt-15-28" id="en-NKJV-23662">Faith in God grows and increases through repetition of the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!"</span></p><p><b><span class="text Matt-15-28" id="en-NKJV-23662">+Ephrem</span></b></p><p><b><span class="text Matt-15-28" id="en-NKJV-23662">Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies<br /></span></b></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-30686788733912968942024-02-10T08:49:00.004-05:002024-02-10T08:49:34.812-05:00Met Ephrem (Kyriakos): St Ephrem the Syrian<p><i> Arabic original <a href="https://archtripoli.com/Karma/2024/February/4">here</a>.</i></p><h3 style="text-align: center;"><b>Saint Ephrem the Syrian</b></h3><p><i> </i>Repentance with tears inflames the hearts of the faithful in the spiritual writings of Saint Ephrem.<br /></p><p>What first attracts attention is his call to contrition and repentance.</p><p>For him, repentance is connected to the judgment and tears, to remembrance of the judgment and shedding of tears.</p><p>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).</p><p>He warns sinners about falling into despair and encourages us to repentance without losing hope in God's mercy. He tells them:</p><p>"I hope that all those whose consciences torment them on account of their sins will not despair...</p><p>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:</p><p>'<span class="text Matt-11-28" id="en-NIV-23488"><span class="woj">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."</span></span></p><p>But how do we repent?</p><p>Repentance is returning to God. Does this path, the path of return require hating sin to the point of hating sinful life? Self-renunciation: "<span class="text Luke-14-26" id="en-NIV-25580"><span class="woj">If
anyone comes to me and does not hate ... even their own life—such a person
cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26).</span></span></p><p><span class="text Luke-14-26" id="en-NIV-25580"><span class="woj">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.</span></span></p><p><span class="text Luke-14-26" id="en-NIV-25580"><span class="woj">All this is in accordance with what the Lord said: "</span></span><span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj">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).</span></span></p><p><span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj">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:</span></span></p><p><span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj">"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!"</span></span></p><p><span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj">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.</span></span></p><p><span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj">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.</span></span></p><p><span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj">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.</span></span></p><p><span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj">Indeed, sin is destructive and it is true what is said in the hymn, "Wicked is complacency, great is repentance."</span></span></p><p><span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj">He who digs his own grave in his heart shatters the man of sin and opens the door of the resurrection.</span></span></p><p><span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj">Saint Ephrem washes away his sins with his tears and makes his soul rejoice in God's grace.</span></span></p><p><b><span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj">+Ephrem</span></span></b></p><p><b><span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj">Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies </span></span><span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj"> </span></span></b> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-65142861754115272242024-02-06T08:21:00.001-05:002024-02-06T08:54:21.200-05:00Met Ephrem (Kyriakos): The Mystery of Repentance<p><i> Arabic original <a href="https://archtripoli.com/Karma/2024/January/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%AF-21-%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A-2024">here</a>.</i></p><h2 style="text-align: center;">The Mystery of Repentance</h2><p>At the beginning of Jesus' preaching, He says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17).</p><p>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.</p><p>The key to understanding the Gospel, the word of the Lord, is obedience.</p><p>Obedience to God's word is the key to our salvation and obedience requires denying our own will.</p><p>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.</p><p>We cannot understand and live the mystery of repentance unless it is connected to God's word and self-denial.</p><p>Obedience to the words of the Lord is tied to denying one's own will. "<span class="text Mark-8-34"><span class="woj">Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself" (Mark 8:34).</span></span></p><p><span class="text Mark-8-34"><span class="woj">Every day of our life, the Lord commands that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, saying, "Repent! Obey My words! Deny yourselves!"</span></span></p><p><span class="text Mark-8-34"><span class="woj">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.</span></span></p><p><span class="text Mark-8-34"><span class="woj">The Prophet Isaiah says, "</span></span><span class="text Isa-9-2" id="en-NKJV-17832">The people who walked in darkness</span><span class="text Isa-9-2"> have seen a great light;</span><span class="text Isa-9-2"> those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,</span><span class="text Isa-9-2"> upon them a light has shined" (Isaiah 9:2).</span></p><p><span class="text Isa-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.</span></p><p><span class="text Isa-9-2">Confessing our sin is the door of repentance. The holy forty-day fast is the season of repentance.</span></p><p><span class="text Isa-9-2">Saint Isaac the Syrian says, "One who confesses his sins is greater than one who raises the dead."</span></p><p><span class="text Isa-9-2">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.</span></p><p><span class="text Isa-9-2">The word repentance, <i>metanoia</i>, 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).</span></p><p><span class="text Isa-9-2">They are pure from every evil, sinful thought after confessing their sins and repenting of them.</span></p><p><b><span class="text Isa-9-2">+Ephrem</span></b></p><p><b><span class="text Isa-9-2">Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies<br /></span></b></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-50253926274113260352024-01-17T09:32:00.002-05:002024-01-17T09:32:17.127-05:00Open-Access Book: Arabic-Type Books Printed in Wallachia, Istanbul, and Beyond<p><i> To see the table of contents and download the entire book for free, go <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111060392/html#contents">here</a>.</i><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Arabic-Type Books Printed in Wallachia, Istanbul, and Beyond</span></h2>
<h3 class="subtitle productSubtitleMainContent" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">First Volume of Collected Works of the TYPARABIC Project</span></h3><h3 class="subtitle productSubtitleMainContent" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span>Edited by:</span>
</span><span class="metadataAndContributorsFont"><span class="contributor" style="font-weight: normal;">
<span class="displayName linkAnimation">Radu-Andrei Dipratu</span>
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> and </span><span class="contributor"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
<span class="displayName linkAnimation">Samuel Noble</span></span>
</span></span>
</h3>
<div class="serialBreadcrumbsDiv">
<div class="serialBreadcrumbs">
<span class="subTitleInfoProductPage">Volume 2 in the series</span>
<a class="linkRegularSidebar ga_parent ga_parent_series" href="https://www.degruyter.com/serial/eape-b/html">Early Arabic Printing in the East</a></div><div class="serialBreadcrumbs"> </div><div class="serialBreadcrumbs"><p>This first volume of Collected Works of the ERC Project TYPARABIC focuses on the history of printing during the 18<sup>th</sup>
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. </p> <p>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. </p> <p>This
volume will be of interest to scholars of the history of printing,
Ottoman social history, Christian Arabic literature and Eastern Orthodox
liturgy. </p><p> </p></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-38137857137950308692024-01-15T08:27:00.002-05:002024-01-15T08:27:33.922-05:00Met Santiago (El Khoury): Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!<p><i>Arabic original <a href="https://archtripoli.com/Karma/2024/January/14">here</a>.</i></p><h3 style="text-align: center;">Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!</h3><p>"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" With these words, beloved, Jesus declares the beginning of His evangelical ministry.</p><p>The call here is a call of repentance and an invitation to the kingdom.</p><p>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.</p><p>Last Sunday, the Evangelist Mark told us about how the Baptist went ahead of the Lord, preaching repentance.</p><p>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.</p><p>Starting off, we might wonder, what is repentance?</p><p>Repentance, beloved, is living every moment of our life with vision of the kingom, living in this world in the hope of eternal life.</p><p>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.</p><p>People today often strive for God, seeking repentance, but their repentance often falters. The question is: why?</p><p>Why are we unable to truly repent?</p><p>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.</p><p>Repentance is not achieved when we offer an aspect or moments of our life to God.</p><p>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.</p><p>Repentance is not a collection of religious duties, laws or canons and having a relationship with God is not based on rights and duties.</p><p>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.</p><p>The final question that arises is: how do we live repentance in the midst of this turbulent world?</p><p>The malady that our contemporary world is suffering from is forgetting God.</p><p>The world today is stuffed with various luxuries, pleasures and means of relaxation that appeal to people and attract their attention.</p><p>In their great abundance and availability, God is usually forgotten and the affairs of life are ordered and priorities are defined according to them.</p><p>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.</p><p>Therefore, repentance comes as the cure to the ailment of forgetting God.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>What is required, then, is for us to seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness in every concern.</p><p>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.</p><p><b>+Santiago</b></p><p><b>Archbishop of Argentina and Buenos Aires</b><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-46308580710474847932024-01-05T08:07:00.005-05:002024-01-05T08:07:58.340-05:00Asad Rustom on the Era of Patriarch Cyril al-Za'im (IV): Cyril's Relations with Rome<p><i>Translated from</i>: Asad Rustum, <i>Kanisat Madinat Allah Antakya al-'Uzma</i> [The Church of the Great City of God Antioch], Jounieh: Editions St. Paul (1988), vol. 3, pp. 119-125. </p><p><i>Arabic original online <a href="https://www.hindawi.org/books/17413716/1.4/">here</a>.</i><br /></p><p><a href="https://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2023/06/asad-rustom-on-era-of-patriarch-cyril.html"><i>Part I here.</i></a></p><p><i><a href="https://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2023/07/asad-rustom-on-era-of-patriarch-cyril.html">Part II here.</a></i></p><p><i><a href="https://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2023/09/asad-rustom-on-era-of-patriarch-cyril.html">Part III here.</a></i></p><p><b>Cyril and the Catholics</b></p><p>Euthymius mentioned that Patriarch Cyril of Antioch was firm and unbending in his position, so he discussed and debated with him about the issue of union, to no avail. He then insisted that the French consul in Sidon, Monsieur Boulard, speak to the patriarch about this issue and he did so. Father Laurentius, the head of the Franciscans in Jerusalem, wrote a long letter to Cyril, informing him about what had been done in the name of the pope to return the patriarch of the Maronites<b>, </b>Ya'qub Awwad, to his see and to return all of his rights and dignity. He then pointed out what the popes of Rome had done of this sort for the Eastern patriarchs and bishops. He reminded Cyril how his grandfather Macarius had complained to Pope Alexander VII about the oppression and arrogance of the Turks.</p><p>In 1716, the pope of Rome himself addressed Cyril inviting him to union. He said, "It has reached us that Your Brotherliness has a strong inclination toward union and we rejoiced and saw fit to exhort you in our paternal voice not to ignore this good inspiration. May you realize that so long as you are separated from the Roman Church, you remain in great and certain peril. You must exhort your brother bishops and your people to do like you. When it has been confirmed to us that you intend to firmly accept the faith of the pope of Rome, we will then explain to you what you must do."</p><p>Cyril explained to the head of the Franciscans: "The Eastern Church has held fast to her canonical conditions and obligations since ancient times. After a time, when rituals and customs not found in the seven greater or seven lesser councils, such as azymes, the filioque, purgatory and the merits of the saints appeared, the Eastern Church saw these things and that it was His Holiness our brother the pope who innovated them-- though they are not recorded in the law, the canons of the fathers, or the seven councils-- the Church renounced the Western Church. From the seventh council until now, the Eastern Church has held fast to her conditions and what she has received from the holy fathers, as they retain their ancient rituals and canons. As for what you say about the inclination of our late grandfather the Patriarch Macarius, in that his handwritten letter is in the archive in Rome, it is not that he wrote seeking confirmation. Rather, we understand that he wrote to inform our dear brother His Holiness the pope about the consul Picot and to testify to the good he had done in the year of hardship that occurred in Aleppo, because he spent seventy sacks of dirhams for the poor and destitute. We ask the Creator, may He be exalted, to inspire him [i.e., the pope] to bring together his brothers and his spiritual children and make the devil ashamed of both groups."</p><p>Then, in August 1716 Cyril sent a long letter to Clement XI, which some Catholic historians have regarded as an explicit confession of the authority of the See of Rome and a clear acceptance of all its teachings. We only see in it a confession of Rome's primacy on the condition that it holds to the canons of the seven ecumenical councils. Perhaps Cyril went overboard in his expression and his words were taken in a wider sense than he intended. Here it is to be noted that his letter to the head of the Franciscans must be taken into account because it is very close in time to the letter to the pope. Here is the text of Cyril's letter to Clement:</p><p>"Glory to God, may He be exalted, always. Cyril, by the grace of God, may He be exalted, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East to His Holiness brother Pope Clement XI, overseer of the great and ancient Church of Rome, may God protect him for a long time.</p><p>To His Holiness, the Father of Fathers, the Master of Masters, receiver of grace and giver of blessing, head of righteous hierarchs, successor of the Apostle Peter, chosen vessel, unique in his age, whose renown spreads to the corners of the earth, model of pure ascetics, treasury of teaching, pole of the four climes, Abraham in his pardon, Isaac in his meekness, Jacob in his obedience, Joseph in his chastity, the Prophet Elijah in his zeal, Isaiah in his eloquence, Daniel in his purity, Solomon in his wisdom, Zacharias in his priesthood, John the Theologian in his words, John the Baptist in his preaching and Chrysostom in his exegesis and admonishment.</p><p>Moreover, what we submit to Your Holiness is that your letter to us arrived and we read it, praising God, may He be exalted, for your good health and that Your Holiness is well. It has reached you from the missionaries that we strongly admire you and mention of you is constant among us at every prayer and divine liturgy. We ask the Lord to realize spiritual love between the elites and the common people, since without love there is no peace, for God knows our purpose is love. For it has reached us from the disciples of Your Holiness that your aim is for there to be love and peace with the brothers and spiritual children to one, holy, universal and apostolic Church, but the hater of good things never ceases and never calms from causing confusion in the Church, to the point that among his deeds he created the name of the eastern and western church. But at the first ecumenical council, in the presence of Pope Sylvester of Rome, they established "we believe in one God", the second ecumenical council was in the presence of Pope Damian of Rome, the third ecumenical council was in the presence of Pope Celestine of Rome, the fourth ecumenical council was in the presence of Pope Leo of Rome, the fifth ecumenical council was in the presence of Pope Vigilius of Rome, the sixth ecumenical council was in the presence of Pope Agatho of Rome, and the seventh ecumenical council was in the presence of Peter and Peter, the legates of Pope Adrian of Rome... an ecumenical council did not occur without the assent of the pope of Rome.</p><p>From that time until now, the Eastern Church always petitions and says, 'for the universal, holy, apostolic Church, let us ask of the Lord.' And we do not say 'eastern' and 'western' church, but rather we always ask for peace for the entire world, even those who hate us and those who oppress us. All of this is printed in the priests' books you have. And we thank God, may He be exalted, that our Church is according to our faith, which we hold from the seven ecumenical councils. And we pray for mercy for Pope Eugene, who sought peace and love in the time of the late Emperor John Palaiologos and held the eighth council, by which he sought love, peace and calm. But the hater of good things stirred up strife and the Greeks, who by nature are stubborn, did not accept. Afterwards the grace of the Holy Spirit moved Pope Nicholas, everything in which Pope Eugene had toiled and labored having been destroyed by the Greeks, to sail himself toward Constantinople and to send his messengers to the emperor and clergy, but they did not accept his words and what had happened to us because of them happened to them.</p><p>We ask Christ God in every language and tongue that the Lord God may grant you to bring together the brothers and spiritual sons, whom our Master Jesus Christ purchased with His precious blood, into His true sheepfold. Then, our grandfather the late Patriarch Macarius, after having visited Moscow, his aim was to visit Rome to work love and peace. He kept saying "if brothers fight each other, than no one among them remains of sound mind. If we go to Rome, then the Greeks will say that the Patriarch Macarius has become a Frank. And previously, they treated the late Givalas[?], archbishop of Cyprus as a Frank for having visited Rome. May our Lord destroy all those who innovated these heresies and divided the brothers from their elder brother, since all people say that the larger container fits the smaller, but everyone who draws near to you openly is treated as an unbeliever by the western nations. Perhaps news has reached you of the Syriac patriarch [Syriac Catholic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_Gregory_Peter_VI_Shahbaddin">Patriarch Ignatius Gregory Peter IV Shahbaddin</a>, d. 1702], how his community of heretics did him harm and he died in exile, though he was doubtless one of the saints, and only a few of the bishops and priests were saved. We have always sent letters to our disciples who are there to treat them with charity while they are in prison and to serve them in order to honor the Roman Church, and if the French consul in Aleppo had given five hundred qurush, this would not have happened to them.<br /></p><p>But by the power of the Crucified, when the kapuji came to us in Damascus and the sultan's decree was read to us and he asked us about the followers of the pope among us, we replied for all and by the power of God we prevented him and did not let him abuse any monk, priest or Catholic, in so doing losing a large sum from our purse. God knows how much evil we kept away from them, fearing the bad treatment that occurs in other countries. But at this time their group is miserable. May God have mercy on consul Picot, in whose time <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_Andrew_Akijan">Andrew </a>became patriarch of the Syriacs, who stood by his campaign and in that year spent around seventy purses on the poor, because it was a year of great hardship. When they saw the great charity he [i.e., Picot] had done, my grandfather Patriarch Macarius, Patriarch Andrew of the Syriacs and the Armenian patriarch wrote to His Holiness the late pope, informing him of the good he had done. If the consul is well, may our Lord add to him blessings from your pure lips. And if he has reposed, may the Lord place his lot with the holy fathers. In this way, the consuls did good, people inclined toward them and their reputation was glorious.<br /></p><p>Moreover, when it came between the late king of France and the English and they said to him, "We follow the Eastern Church," he wrote requesting the creed of the Eastern Church, so our grandfather the Patriarch Macarius wrote twenty chapters about the belief of the Eastern Church, during which time he died and Our Modesty was elected in his place. The letters had not yet been sent, so they wrote to us, so we sent them, confirming his statement.<br /></p><p>God-willing, may the Eastern Church not deny the Church of Rome nor take her for being an innovator. This is recorded in our church books, and that the pope of Rome is the elder brother and there are commemorations of popes in their particular feats that exist in the Eastern Church.<br /></p><p>Nevertheless, these issues that exist today at this time did not exist in ancient times. For when there appeared astronomers, these ten days [i.e., the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars at that time] became a cause for great division, since one Christian fasts while another does not fast. Likewise, the Maronites submitted to you that they are few in number and the Rum do not marry them, nor do the nations [i.e., the Muslims]. Because you are blessed and do not know the lie, you believed them, so they say, "His Holiness the pope has given us permission to marry within the fourth degree [i.e., first-cousin marriage]." Moreover, if a layman's wife dies, he marries another and they can make him a priest. For these reasons and others, we have become naked before the nations and the heretics, since one Christian remains fasting while another breaks the fast and one Christian marries at the seventh degree while another at the third degree. They lie to you and, because you are blessed people, you believe what they say and carry out their suggestion. They say, "The pope has given us permission for that." But we do not believe that this is issued from you. All of this has become a cause for division and for referring to the Western and the Eastern church. <br /></p><p>However, we believe and affirm that the Church of Rome adheres to the seven great councils and the seven lesser councils and honor it for being the mother of the world's churches. We confess one Church and one baptism, and we bless what they [i.e., the councils] bless and anathematize what they anathematize. But when the nations see such unbelievable things-- and you have no report about them-- for this reason they flee from that and doubts occur, fulfilling the words of the Holy Gospel, 'Woe to the one through who doubts come!'</p><p>If a decree was issued by Your Holiness to eliminate these issues that exist and they were eliminated, then the Holy Spirit would truly be present with you, because we have become naked before the nations and the heretics. Even if the heretics are heretics, they have not changed their fasting, their ritual and their marriage rules, but rather they are according to the holy law. We ask Christ in every language and tongue that the Lord God may grant you to bring together the brothers and
spiritual sons, whom our Master Jesus Christ purchased with His precious
blood into His true sheepfold, and that the Lord God will grant to everyone who desires peace and love, as the Master said: "My peace I give to you, My peace I leave with you." He did not say strife, stubbornness and evil, and people say you have done this and people say that we are right and you are not right and so the words of the Holy Gospel are fulfilled in us: we leave the log that is in our eyes and tell our brother to remove the speck that is in his eye.</p><p>When we read the holy scriptures, we shy away from hearing them, as when the Evangelist John says, "<span class="ILfuVd" lang="en"><span class="hgKElc">If anyone loves God yet hates his brother, he is a liar, for how can you hate the one you see and love the one you do not see?" And our Lord, glory to Him, said, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you." And now all what we do is contrary to what He, may He be exalted, commanded us to do.<br /></span></span></p><p>We ask for His tender mercies, by the blessing of your prayers, to cause us to listen obediently to what pleases Him and gives you reason to rejoice at the coming together of brothers and spiritual children, that you may say, "Those are the children that God has given me. Enter into the joy of your Lord." May this be for you by the intercession of the Virgin, the Apostle Saint Peter and all the saints, amen. This was written and issued on the twentieth day of the blessed month of August in the year 1716 in the God-protected city of Damascus by your brother in Christ, Cyril, patriarch of Antioch and all the East.</p><p>Furthermore, the patriarch of Antioch calls down God's wrath upon all those who add or remove [from this letter]. Sent with the Padre Blasius and the priest Seraphim was a humble present: a shell cane. If you hold it during the divine liturgy, you will remember Our Modesty and two vessels in which is a <i>ratl</i> of pure balsam-oil."<br /></p><p>One should notice here that the patriarch of Antioch addresses the pope of Rome as a brother and indicates the patriarchs with the word "brothers" and that he confirms the adherence of the Orthodox church of which he is the head to the seven councils and its persistence in praying every day for the universal Church. He then alludes to the strife stirred up by the devil at the Council of Florence and the effect of that on the Greeks who are by nature stubborn. He thanks his brother the pope for his effort for union and points delicately and precisely to the position of his grandfather Macarius with regard to union, favoring the role he played as a reconciling mediator between the pope of Rome and the other primates. He then prays for "all" who desire love and peace and offers a cane made of shell as a gift to the pope. So where is the confession of Rome's authority and entrance into obedience to it? Especially if we read all of this in light of what is found in the letter of the very same patriarch to the head of the Franciscans. One should also notice that there is a very great difference between this patriarchal letter and the text that Athanasius prepared, which we have discussed above, as well as the one prepared by Gersasimus, bishop of Seidnaya in mid-July of 1716.</p><p>In our view, it cannot be said that Cyril entered into obedience to Rome merely because this story is stated in some of Euthymius' letters, since Euthymius had his own interests in what he recounted and so he cannot be regarded as a reliable witness. It can be deduced from Clement XI's letter to Cyril dated May 21, 1718 that was not satisfied with what was reported to him in Euthymius' accounts and Cyril's letters and he says, in Constantine Basha's translation: "We ask you to display openly to all in clear, continuous letters that you are united with this apostolic see with a sincere heart 'without hypocrisy' and that you have pledged submission to it and to the pope of Rome." Euthymius' statement that Cyril signed the confession of faith of Urban VIII, sealed it by his own hand, and sent it remains improbable until we come across this document in the archives of Rome. We must not forget that it is stated in the report sent by the priest Gabriel Finan to the secretary of the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide on July 11, 1719 that he contacted Cyril, presented him with the pope's gift and stayed with him, speaking with him repeatedly about "the holy Roman faith" and sometimes he would yield to it and sometimes he would "argue with it lightly." He complained about "the Roman Church not having fulfilled his request to print the Euchologion and raised the issue of the harm caused by [Livornese and Maltese Catholic] pirates and the return of those following the Roman See to the Eastern calendar in calculating Easter." Finan goes on to state that what Cyril sent to Rome was either out of avarice on his part for worldly things or out of fear of troublemaking by Catholics in his diocese and that the patriarch "consecrated a schismatic for the See of Bayas," conceding to the wishes of the Patriarch of Jerusalem.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-37391787763152316262024-01-03T18:37:00.002-05:002024-01-03T20:30:01.464-05:00Fr Georges Massouh: In Gaza, an Appointment with Christ (2012)<p><i>Originally published in 2012</i>. <i>May Abouna Georges' memory be eternal.</i></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>In Gaza, an Appointment with Christ</b></span><br />
<br />
Metropolitan Neophytos Edelby considered Gaza to be one of the ten
oldest cities in the world. He said, "It was inhabited by Caananites
from ancient times, and perhaps they were its first builders (Genesis
10:19). Then, around 1800 years before Christ it was settled by Arab
tribes. They added to it a particularly Arab character that still lasts
until today. It is mentioned in the Tel Amarna letters in the fourteenth
century before Christ. Then the tribe of Judah gained control over it
after the Hebrew exodus from Egypt, and then the Philistines did not
hesitate to regain it (Judges 4:6)..."<br />
<br />
Christian tradition recounts that as a child, Christ, His mother Mary,
and Joseph passed through Gaza shortly before their flight to Egypt from
the wrath of the bloodthirsty Herod, or on the way during their return
from Egypt to Palestine. Gaza is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles
when the deacon Phillip, "along the road which goes down from Jerusalem
to Gaza, which is desert" (Acts 8:26) met an Ethiopian man who was an
official of the queen Candace, he told him the good news of Christ and
baptized him. According to Christian tradition, the first bishop of
Gaza, Church tradition states that it was Philemon, after whom is named
one of the letters of the holy Apostle Paul.<br />
<br />
Christian history testifies to the many martyrs from Gaza who fell
defending the faith. Among them are Saint Silouan (d. 310) and the three
brothers Saints Eusebius, Zenon, and Zenas. Paganism did not go extinct
in Gaza until the time of the martyred bishop Porphyrius, who died in
the year 420. The First Ecumenical Council (325) mentions the presence
of bishop Asclepas of Gaza. <br />
<br />
At the end of the sixth Christian century an Italian pilgrim named
Antonius visited Gaza. He described it as being "a marvelous city, with
five beautiful churches. Its people are famous for their hospitality to
strangers." At that time there was a prestigious theological school
there. Among its famous alumni were Porphyrius of Gaza (d. 528), the
great historian and collector of the holy fathers' commentaries on
scripture. But the most shining image of Christ in Gaza then was the
great ascetic Saint Dorotheus.<br />
<br />
Over the generations, the number of Christians in Gaza diminished,
especially under the shadow of the Ottoman Empire which imposed a heavy <i>jizya </i>upon
them, to the point that they could not bear it... Today their number is
no more than two thousand. However, some Christian monuments remain
standing to this day in Gaza City, the most prominent of which is the
Church of Saint Porphyrius. <br />
<br />
The Christ-child did not leave Gaza. He remained living there. He did
not just pass through there coming and going between Palestine and
Egypt. He settled there. He came there as a child, He walked in her
streets as a youth, and He taught there as a man. He joked with her
children, had mercy on her widows, fed her hungry, healed her sick, and
raised her dead.<br />
<br />
He bore His cross in her alleys. He was crucified on her walls. He rose
there from the dead and has not departed from her for a day. He wakes up
with her people at every daybreak. He accompanies them along their
paths. He is the carpenter, son of the carpenter. He is the fisherman.
He is the poor. He is the generous. How can He not be a citizen of
beloved Gaza?<br />
<br />
Every day He is whipped and nailed and crucified. Every day He rises
from the tomb. Today is His turn to be in Gaza and He does not break the
appointment. He is there. Let those who want to see Christ today go to
Gaza.<i> <br /></i></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-92017592349505876622023-12-31T10:56:00.001-05:002023-12-31T10:56:20.334-05:00Ioana Feodorov: Sylvester of Antioch’s Arabic Books Printed in 1747 at Bucharest (Open Access)<h3 style="text-align: left;">Sylvester of Antioch’s Arabic Books Printed in 1747 at Bucharest: Recent Findings </h3><p><b>Abstract:</b></p><p>This article presents the new findings connected to several Arabic books that have been discovered by <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">TYPARABIC</span>
team members in libraries around the world, where they were catalogued
in insufficient or inaccurate detail, which has led to their being kept
hidden from scrutiny until now. Projects of reediting and translating
these Arabic books, to allow their study by a larger academic community,
are also presented herewith. One of these books is of utmost importance
for the discussions that will take place in 2024, when 300 years from
the split in the Church of Antioch will be commemorated through
conferences and volumes of collected works.</p><p><i>Read the entire article <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/scri/19/1/article-p5_3.xml">here</a>. </i><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-1514353794516713512023-12-29T15:48:00.006-05:002023-12-29T15:48:47.311-05:00Fr Rami Wakim: The Commentary in the Melkite Lectionary (Open Access)<h3 style="text-align: left;">The Commentary in the Melkite Lectionary
</h3>
<h3 class="typography-body subTitle mb-3 text-subheading font-content " style="text-align: left;">
The Case of Patriarch Athanasios <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">III</span> Dabbās’s Lectionary of 1706 </h3><section class="abstract"><h4 class="abstractTitle text-title my-1" id="d138270768e196" style="text-align: left;">Abstract:</h4><p>This
article investigates a little-known yet highly significant facet of the
Arabic liturgical Gospel books – the commentary that was introduced
into the Gospel readings from at least the 11th century to the 19th
century, notably during the time of Patriarch Athanasios <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">III</span>
Dabbās, the last publisher to include this commentary. This study aims
to shed light on the origin and evolution of this commentary, categorize
its contents, and evaluate its theological importance in the context of
the Arab Christian tradition. By offering fresh perspectives on the
composition of Lectionary commentaries, this research enriches our
comprehension of the history and theology of the Arab Christian
tradition.</p><p><i>Read the whole article <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/scri/19/1/article-p70_6.xml">here</a>.</i> <br /></p></section><h2 class="typography-body subTitle mb-3 text-subheading font-content "> </h2>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-50340599606752048662023-12-23T13:01:00.000-05:002023-12-23T13:01:08.458-05:00An Interview with Met Isaak (Barakat) about the New Antiochian Monastery in Germany<p><i>German original, with pictures, <a href="https://zocd.de/klostereinweihung-des-neuen-rum-orthodoxen-klosters-in-dollendorf-ein-interview-mit-eminenz-isaak-barakat">here</a>.</i></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">The Inauguration of the New Rum-Orthodox Monastery in Dollendorf: An Interview with His Eminence Isaak Barakat<br /></h2><p> </p><p>The first monastery of the Antiochian Archdiocese of Germany and Central Europe has recently been established in Dollendorf, a district of the municipality of Blankenheim. The building was inaugurated by the Metropolitan of the Antiochian Orthodox Church of Germany and Central Europe, Isaak Barakat, with a traditional ceremony in the monastery chapel.</p><p>Metropolitan Isaak Barakat was born in Damascus in 1966 with the name Abdallah Barakat. After being ordained in 1999 as a deacon and one year later as a priest by Patriarch Ignatius Hazim he took the name Isaak after Saint Isaac the Syrian. For the past ten years, he has been the metropolitan of Germany and Central Europe of the Antiochian Orthodox Church.</p><p>The origin of the Rum-Orthodox Church are in Antioch, the modern city of Antakya, where the disciples were first called Christians. Its foundation goes back to the Apostles Peter and Paul. When one part of the Antiochian Christians assented to the Council of Chalcedon, the cornerstone of the Rum-Orthodox community was laid. They professed "Jesus Christ as true God and true man in two natures." The term "Rum" in Arabic stands for "Rome", Constantinople at that time, and also for the Byzantines. The Rum-Orthodox Church is also called the Antiochian Church, the Antiochian Orthodox Church, or the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East.</p><p>In the late 19th century, some Rum Orthodox emigrated out of the Middle East for economic and political reasons. Many of them came to Europe from Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq and especially the Province of Hatay. In 1970 the Rum Orthodox finally founded their own parishes. Today the Antiochian Archdiocese of Germany and Central Europe counts around 24,000 members and has its seat in Cologne.</p><p>Since 2018, the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Germany and Central Europe consists of 30 communities and now a monastery in Dollendorf.<br /></p><p>Ferit Tekbas, the chairman of the Central Committee of Eastern Christians in Germany, spoke in an interview with His Eminence Isaak Barakat about the foundation of the monastery in Dollendorf.</p><p><b>Your Eminence, you recently celebrated the tenth anniversary as metropolitan of Germany and Central Europe, congratulations. What were your most difficult tasks during this time?</b></p><p>Thank you for the kind wishes. In the past ten years, I have dealt with various challenges. During this time, we have achieved many milestones, we have grown and become better known, but perhaps the most difficult task has been that of finding a balanced way to meet the spiritual needs of our diverse community. The balance between tradition and contemporary needs, the promotion of unity in diversity and dealing with social changes have always been challenging aspects of my tenure. Despite the challenges, I am thankful for the communities' support and I view every situation as an opportunity to grow and deepen our faith.</p><p><b>The Antiochian Orthodox Church has acquired its first monastery in Germany. Could you tell us a bit about the story of how the monastery was acquired and where exactly the monastery is located?</b></p><p>For a long time, we had the goal of acquiring a building that we could turn into both a monastery and a center for out communities and faithful. During our search, we came across the building in Dollendorf, Blankenheim. We particularly liked that the building had originally been used as a monastery. Dollendorf is a beautiful, quiet, harmonious place. The church across from it completes the picture.</p><p>Thanks be to God, through the support and love of our communities and faithful, we have been able to acquire the building and renovate it appropriately. The renovation is not yet complete, but so far the Monastery of Our Lady of Antioch and the chapel are finished.</p><p>We are now in the process of completing the Patriarch Ignatius IV Center, which is certainly a long road and here too we are depending on the love and support of our faithful.</p><p><b>A monastery on the whole is not a simple thing, but it is a necessity and I know that you have been primarily committed to a monastery. Could you tell us the reasons for this?</b></p><p>Yes. My desire for our church has always been to have an Antiochian Orthodox monastery. First and foremost, I wanted a place for spiritual community and deepening. A place accessible both to clergy and to our faithful. Moreover, our church has a rich history and great cultural significance. With the monastery and the Patriarch Ignatius IV Center, we want to maintain this cultural heritage, preserve it, and make it accessible both to our faithful and to the public.</p><p>Furthermore, the Patriarch Ignatius IV Center will be used for educational purposes, for theological studies, seminars, and much more.</p><p><b>What condition is the monastery in and does its structure require special restoration in order to better meet the criteria of Orthodoxy?</b></p><p>As already mentioned, the building that we were able to purchase was originally a monastery. Over the course of time, the building was repurposed and used for many other things. It took quite a bit of work to get it into its current condition. At the moment, the monastery and the chapel belonging to it are mostly ready, thanks be to God. They meet the criteria of Orthodoxy. Now, however, we still need to finish the Patriarch Ignatius IV Center. That will require a lot of time, patience, effort and support.</p><p><b>How is everything being financed? Is it being financed though donations or is the Rum-Orthodox Church of Antioch undertaking all the costs?</b></p><p>It is exclusively financed through donations. We were able to complete the acquisition thanks to the great support of our communities. The renovations also require the love and generous support of our faithful. We are still far from finished with the renovations and continue to rely on donations.</p><p><b>What is the significance of a monastery in the Orthodox Christian denomination?</b></p><p>In the Orthodox Christian tradition, monasteries have a special significance. They are places of intensive prayer, of contemplation and of spiritual life. Monasteries preserve the liturgical tradition and serve as spiritual communities where monks and nuns lead a life of devotion. These places are also outposts of prayer for the world, where prayers are made for the church, for people and for the world. Monasteries can moreover hold social activities and are often places of pilgrimage for believers from various regions.</p><p><b>Is there a plan for how the monastery will serve the Antiochian Orthodox community in Germany and Europe in the future and how many monks or nuns will be living there?</b></p><p>The monastery should become a place of transcendent love for God and complete devotion to Him. We hope that we will continue to grow and that our parishes and faithful will associate this monastery with its being a place of calm, relaxation, work, devotion, and above all else, love.</p><p>At the Patriarch Ignatius IV Center, we would like to organize conferences, events and similar gatherings for our parishes and faithful.</p><p>The monastery is currently a monastery for nuns and we have plans for more nuns to live in the monastery.</p><p><b>What significance has the Rum-Orthodox Church achieved now in Germany?</b></p><p>We are a small church here in Germany, but our origin goes back to more than 2000 years ago. Our church traces its foundation back to the Apostles Peter and Paul, to where the disciples were first called Christians, in Antioch.</p><p>Our brothers and sisters came to Germany in the late 60s and early 70s. They founded several parishes full of love, respect and devotion and thus brought our faith to Germany. We now have the status of a corporation under public law, our communities have grown, as have the number of believers and, thanks be to God, the number of clergy.</p><p>We are now better known and we hope that with God's grace we can go further.</p><p><b>How many communities are there now and where are their origins from?</b></p><p>In Germany, the Netherlands and Austria we have a total of 31 congregations and 7 missions, that is, believers who are on the way to becoming a congregation. Thanks be to God.</p><p>The origins of our faithful are in Syria, the Hatay Province in Southeastern Turkey whose capital is Antakya, historical Antioch, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq.</p><p><b>What liturgical approaches distinguish the Rum Orthodox?</b></p><p>There is a big difference between the Orthodox Church and other churches. For example, we have the Typikon for the liturgy for the entire ecclesiastical year which ends in August and begins again on September 1.</p><p>And in this this Typikon there are prayers for the liturgy for every day. We are the only church that says the Creed at every service. In the Catholic Church, for example, the Creed is not said at every service. But we say the Creed every Sunday, at every liturgy.</p><p>Our Byzantine music also distinguishes us. We celebrate the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, on special feasts the Liturgy of Saint Basil, and during Lent the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts of Saint Gregorius Dialogus. Another special feature is that in our services no instruments such as the organ are used.</p><p><b>Your Eminence, is there anything else that you would like to add to our interview or say to our members and readers?</b></p><p>I am thankful for the interest and love that has been shown to us. I would like to thank you very much for your time, your effort and your interest. I would like to thank your members and readers for their continued support and interest. It is an honor for me to serve my church. I encourage you to continue to be actively involved in our church because together we can continue to grow and inspire each one another. May our journey together be characterized by love, understanding and spiritual fulfillment. Thank you. <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-23914684612957563362023-12-22T12:22:00.003-05:002023-12-22T12:22:18.678-05:00Jad Ganem: When will We Smash the Idols?<p><i>Arabic original <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0rrWDZxAgb9ntqpeTuTqX8EJ8frcFrDinqMbTFnWyoFWf3J65gDRnuXyrL3QyuKSxl&id=100063554201441">here</a>.</i></p><h2 style="text-align: center;">When will We Smash the Idols?</h2><p>Everyone following developments in the Orthodox world today notices that the essence of the crisis afflicting the Orthodox ecclesiastical institution lies in the re-drawing of the map of the Orthodox world on the basis of non-ecclesiastical considerations following a dialectic of "fragmentation and expansion".</p><p>Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire last century and the accompanying diminishment of the role of the patriarch of Constantinople as head of the Orthodox <i>millet</i> in that empire, the emergence of local, national churches in Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Serbia and Albania, and Greece's loss in the war with Turkey and the consequent population exchange, Patriarch Meletius (Metaxakis) developed a policy of expansion, creating new dioceses dependent on his patriarchate in Europe and America on the basis of the theory of "barbarian lands" that he invented, in addition to seizing a number of dioceses that had belonged to the Patriarchate of Moscow and granting them autonomy after the fall of tsarist Russia.</p><p>In parallel, the Church of Russia practiced its own policy of expansion during the tsarist period, doing away with the independence of the Church of Georgia and incorporating it into its canonical jurisdiction, before turning around and granting it autocephaly at Stalin's request. This church likewise established dioceses in the countries of the diaspora and autonomous churches dependent on it in China and Japan.</p><p>Alongside the policy of expansion, Patriarch Meletius (Metaxakis) inaugurated a policy of fragmenting the Church of Moscow by granting autocephaly to the Church of Poland and incorporating the churches in Finland and Estonia into its own jurisdiction. This came as a delayed reaction to the role that the Russian Empire had played in supporting churches dependent on Constantinople in their efforts to obtain autocephaly.</p><p>The borders of the Orthodox churches stabilized during the Cold War, until Patriarch Bartholomew resumed the policy of fragmenting the Patriarchate of Moscow in 1996 by establishing an autonomous church dependent on him in Estonia. Since 2016, he has quickened the pace of this fragmentation by granting autocephaly to the schismatics in Ukraine and by creating a parallel church in Lithuania. Moscow responded by establishing an exarchate dependent on it in Africa.</p><p>It is clear that the changes to the borders of the local churches according to non-ecclesiastical considerations contradicts the apostolic principle upon which evangelism is based and is instead centered on the principle of expanding influence.<br /></p><p>Here we must wonder why the churches that had depended on Moscow must belong to Constantinople. Why should there not be, for example, an autocephalous church covering Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland and Sweden, on the model of the Church of Czechia and Slovakia, such that Constantinople's decisions don't just seem to be acts of revenge against the Patriarchate of Moscow? And why does the Church of Constantinople refuse to treat the Ukrainian issue through a common Orthodox decision that prevents the authorities from persecuting the legitimate church in the country?<br /></p><p>Perhaps the most important question for both Moscow and Constantinople is why do they have this attachment to a policy of expanding their influence instead of respecting the apostolic principle of establishing autocephalous local churches capable of managing their own affairs themselves? Would it not be wise to admit that the map of the Orthodox world needs to be re-drawn on new principles which do not focus on dependence on ancient centers that refuse to admit that bearing witness in today's world must be based on the principle of cooperation, mutual complimentarity and respect for the specificities and aspirations of nations? Just imagine if the Apostles had wanted to attach every place where they evangelized to the church in Jerusalem! Or if the Third Ecumenical Council had not taken account of the situation at the time and had refused to create a patriarchate for Constantinople, then the capital of the empire!</p><p>When will we smash the idols that we think are the essence of our faith?<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-23782101689316474902023-12-21T09:48:00.001-05:002023-12-21T10:16:02.644-05:00Jad Ganem: No Salvation outside Constantinople?<p><i>Arabic original <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02d6HYJxda2JWELUWW8Aapop8dEmToan3Gq9P8qsPgiUT9hLhAfXiHT1pBNJus4RKGl&id=100063554201441">here</a>.</i></p><h2 style="text-align: center;">No Salvation outside Constantinople?</h2><p>Patriarch Bartholomew celebrated the Feast of Saint Nicholas at the church-turned-museum bearing his name in the city of Demre, Turkey. During the liturgy, he gave a <a href="https://orthodoxtimes.com/ecumenical-patriarch-we-proclaim-in-every-direction-that-constantinople-is-the-genuine-the-one-and-only-mother-church/">sermon </a>that included the following:</p><p style="text-align: left;">"<i>The East is not just the birthplace of great saints but also the cradle
of the Church in its present form. Our theology and ecclesiology
originated in these sacred lands, within the canonical jurisdiction of
the Ecumenical Patriarchate. It was here that the Ecumenical Synods
convened, shaping the ecclesiastical conscience rooted in the ministry
of the Lord, transcending national or other distinctions. The wisdom of
the Holy Fathers established the pentarchy and its hierarchical order,
defining boundaries, principles, and values with profound insight,
considering the history and sanctity of each region.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Hence, from Asia Minor, we proclaim in every direction that the
genuine and only Mother Church is the Great Church of Constantinople. It
exclusively bears the legacy of Jesus’s sacrifice on the Cross for all
humanity, giving birth to numerous Churches from Bulgaria to Ukraine.
This declaration isn’t a modern invention in ecclesiology but an
experiential truth and legacy inherited from the Fathers of the
Ecumenical and Local Synods.</i></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><i>It is not just a theoretical assertion but a continuous, blessed act
of the Church that bestows upon Constantinople the privilege of the
Crucifixion’s sacrifice, the path of sacrifice, and the position as the
Head of all Churches. It consistently bears the crown of thorns
symbolizing the Despotic Passion.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>As the humble successors, by the grace of God, to these traditions,
we vow to safeguard this sacred trust. We refuse to relinquish the
sacred duty and responsibility entrusted to us.</i></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><i>We do not relinquish the mantle of the Mother of the Great Church, a
role passed down to us in blood, and we are committed to passing it on
unscathed and unaltered. For 32 years, and into the future, we embrace
this task joyously, in service to the Most Holy Theotokos.</i></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><i>We do not step down from the Cross to which the Church of
Constantinople has devoted itself. We remain dedicated to our calling,
honoring our history and the wisdom of the Fathers.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>
We’ve learned how to lead all peoples, races, and languages to the
Resurrection through the Cross. We are willing to endure crucifixion and
unite with Christ until the end of time, for the world’s sake.</i>"</p><p style="text-align: left;">Observers of Patriarch Bartholomew have become accustomed to his pronouncements lacking basis in the tradition of the Church, which he repeats at every occasion in order to bolster Constantinople's authority and to convince himself, before anyone else, that he has not deviated from tradition and that what he is doing is in accordance with the conscience of Orthodoxy. So there should be no reason to remind anyone that Constantinople has never been nor shall ever be the "mother of all the churches" and this is a settled historical question, right? And that what he calls the "rooted ecclesiastical conscience" that arose in Asia Minor developed for the most part before the existence of Constantinople. And that the system of the Pentarchy places Rome in the first rank and requires consultation between the churches which constitute the Pentarchy and not the imposition of Constantinople's opinion upon the others.</p><p style="text-align: left;">All the titles found in this sermon, however, turn into secondary issues once Patriarch Bartholomew outdoes himself and crosses every line, declaring that "the genuine and only Mother Church is the Great Church of
Constantinople. It exclusively bears the legacy of Jesus’s sacrifice on
the Cross for all humanity."</p><p style="text-align: left;">There is no doubt that this theory of exclusivity stems from the theory of Constantinople as "head of the churches" that Patriarch Bartholomew and his partisans have developed in recent years. It means in practice that there is no salvation outside of union with Constantinople.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Perhaps this is the sermon by Patriarch Bartholomew that is the furthest from the spirit of ecumenism, of which the patriarch claims to be one of the strongest supporters. It is also one of his sermons that is the farthest from the true faith. Will such words find anyone to defend them from among the court theologians? Do you think they will develop a theory that salvation takes place through confessing the primacy of Constantinople and the primacy of its head who is without equals?<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-59438772165327412482023-12-12T08:30:00.002-05:002023-12-12T08:30:24.983-05:00Future Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregorius III Laham on the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem (1992)<p> Translated from the French report in: <i>Service Orthodoxe de Presse </i>no. 166 (March 1992), pp. 12-13.</p><p><b>Fribourg: The Orthodox Church of Jerusalem should be recognized as the Mother Church by the other churches of the Holy Land</b></p><p>In one of its most recent issues, the Catholic press agency APIC, based in Fribourg, Switzerland published an interview with Archbishop Lutfi (Laham) vicar of the Melkite Greek-Catholic (Uniate) patriarch of Jerusalem, who held a series of lectures in Switzerland in February. 58 years old and of Syrian origin, Abp Laham evokes the dramatic division of the Christians of the Middle East and in particular calls on the different communities of the Holy Land to recognize that the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem is, from both a historical and an ecclesiological point of view, the Mother Church.</p><p>Today the Christian presence in the Holy Land is directly threatened with disappearance. In the 1940s, Abp Laham recalls, Jerusalem had almost 45,000 Christians belonging to 13 officially-recognized churches. Now, they are no more than 10,000. To stop this trend, the Christians of the Holy Land, who are overwhelmingly of Palestinian origin, should be given the confidence to not see emigration as the only solution to escape the harshness of the Israeli occupation and poverty. It is likewise necessary to act upon the cultural factors that cause Arab Christians to be marginalized in an Arab-Muslim society.</p><p>Addressing relations between the Christian communities, Abp Laham stresses that the divisions were worsened by the "Anglo-Prussian" missions in the 19th century, which carved up the local Christian community that until that point was made up of Orthodox and Uniates. The Anglican and Protestant confessions could only grow by recruiting believers from the traditional Eastern Churches, since it was impossible for them to convert Jews and Muslims. In this way these believers were estranged from their spiritual roots and cultural identity. The same policy of proselytism had been previously followed by the Latin-rite Catholic Church.</p><p>To mend these historic errors, today it must be recognized that the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem is the Mother Church, Abp Laham explains frankly, since all the other churches either came out of her or are churches of pilgrims that developed around holy places, monasteries or neighborhoods, as is the case of the Armenian, Coptic and Ethiopian churches. The Christians of the Western tradition established in the Middle East following crusades and colonization, whether Latin-rite Catholics, Protestant or Anglican, should themselves admit that they do not have the same legitimacy as the Mother Church.</p><p>The churches of the Western tradition have never recognized this historical reality, observes Abp Laham, but they need to do so. It is not a question of forcing them to become Orthodox, but they should become aware of this state of affairs. For their part, he continues, the Eastern-rite Catholics feel the pain of not being Orthodox: "We have always regretted, not our communion with Rome, but the fact that this communion led us to separate ourselves from Orthodoxy." "We will simply feel at home with the Orthodox when the Orthodox and the Latins come together and we will be ready to resign as patriarch and as bishops to give way to our Orthodox confreres," he affirms again.</p><p>Several initiatives have already been made in common by the main religious leaders of Jerusalem in recent years. For the moment, however, these declarations have limited themselves to one-off actions. The plan to create a Council of Christian Churches of Jerusalem, proposed by Abp Laham in 1974, never went forward. Relations with the Orthodox community, estimated at 46,000 believers, are nevertheless good because, unlike what it happening in Eastern Europe, the archbishop explains, "We form a single nation. We do not have any ethnic conflicts, since we are all Arabs, both the Greek Orthodox and the Greek Catholics."<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-47546461781390260172023-11-19T07:09:00.002-05:002023-11-19T07:09:20.217-05:00Met Ephrem (Kyriakos): Spiritual Fatherhood<p><i>Arabic original <a href="https://archtripoli.com/Karma/2023/%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A/19">here</a>.</i></p><h2 style="text-align: center;">Spiritual Fatherhood</h2><p>He is the one who begets children in Christ, begets by the Holy Spirit.</p><p>The Evangelist John says, "<span class="text John-3-3" id="en-NKJV-26124"><span class="woj">unless one is born</span> from above<span class="woj">, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-3-3" id="en-NKJV-26124"><span class="woj">As for the Apostle Paul, he says to the children of the Corinthians, "</span></span>For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel" (1 Corinthians 4:15).</p><p>He adds, "Therefore I urge you, imitate me" (1 Corinthians 4:16).</p><p>He begat them by the Holy Spirit. This is the difference between the a teacher and a father: "<span class="text 1Cor-11-1">Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1).</span></p><p><span class="text 1Cor-11-1">This requires humility and self-denial: "</span><span class="text Gal-4-19" id="en-NKJV-29151">My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you..." (Galatians 4:19.</span></p><p><span class="text Gal-4-19" id="en-NKJV-29151">The spiritual father is a mediator and intercessor: an intercessor for the salvation of the souls of his children, especially through prayer. He is also in need of his children's prayers.</span></p><p><span class="text Gal-4-19" id="en-NKJV-29151">By the grace of the Lord Jesus, the spiritual father is a mediator who reconciles his spiritual child with God in Christ Jesus.</span></p><p><span class="text Gal-4-19" id="en-NKJV-29151">He first of all acquires the grace of Christ God and then in turn he reconciles his spiritual child with God the Father in Christ Jesus.</span></p><p><span class="text Gal-4-19" id="en-NKJV-29151">The Apostle Paul says, "</span><span class="text 2Cor-5-19" id="en-NKJV-28897">God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them</span>..." (2 Corinthians 5:19).</p><p>Every priest should be a spiritual father, an icon of Christ.</p><p>He should be a spiritual physician. His work should not be limited to performing the sacraments of the Church such as the Divine Liturgy, baptism... </p><p>What causes him to avoid the monotony of routine in his service is personal prayer as well as reading the Holy Bible and the books of the holy fathers.</p><p>It must be pointed out here that there is a difference between a spiritual father and a psychologist.</p><p>A psychologist works to bring the patient back to his natural state.</p><p>A spiritual father, however, works to reconcile the patient, the sinner, with God. He tries to introduce the spirit of repentance, so that so that the patient, the sinner, will follow a divine, spiritual path (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:45-46).</p><p><b>+Ephrem</b></p><p><b>Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies</b><br /></p><p><span class="text 1Cor-11-1"><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-72790543034693155862023-11-07T10:49:00.002-05:002023-11-07T10:49:41.853-05:00Ovidiu Olar: The Travels of the Patriarch Macarius of Antioch and the Liturgical Traditions of the Christian East<p>Ovidiu Olar, "The Travels of the Patriarch Macarius of Antioch and the Liturgical Traditions of the Christian East." <span class="gs_ora_pubvenue gs_ora_elp"><i>Revue Des Études Sud-Est Européennes</i> 53.1-2 (2023), 275-287.</span></p><p><span class="gs_ora_pubvenue gs_ora_elp"><b>Abstract:</b></span></p><p><span class="gs_ora_pubvenue gs_ora_elp">This study proposes to demonstrate the importance of the account of the journey of the Patriarch Macarius of Antioch composed by his son, the Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo, as an eyewitness of the liturgical practices and traditions of the Christian East. The passages where Paul describes the multilingual liturgical celebrations are used to highlight the (principal) reason for the existence of two manuscripts held at the Library of the Romanian Academy: BAR Bucharest ms. roum. 1790 and BAR Cluj ms. roum. 1216. <br /></span></p><p><i><span class="gs_ora_pubvenue gs_ora_elp">Download and read it <a href="https://biblioteca-digitala.ro/reviste/resee/52-Revue-des-Etudes-Sud-Est-Europeennes-LII-2014_275.pdf">here</a>. </span><span></span></i></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-38898069207527271872023-10-19T11:11:00.001-04:002023-10-19T11:13:29.121-04:00Videos from the Conference "The Orthodox Church of Antioch from the 15th to the 18th Century"<p>The Saint John of Damascus Institute of Theology has just finished conducting a major conference entitled <span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h" dir="auto">"The Orthodox Church of Antioch from the 15th to the 18th Century: Towards a Proper Understanding of History". They have very graciously put up videos of all the sessions on YouTube. I especially encourage you to watch the presentations by Constantin Panchenko (at the end of the Opening Ceremony), Carsten Walbiner (Session One), Hasan </span><span>Çolak (Session Three), and Ioana Feodorov (Session Four).<br /></span></p><p><b>Opening Ceremony:</b></p><p><b>Opening remarks by Fr Jack Khalil and Prof Elias Warrak [in Arabic]<br /></b></p><p><b>His Beatitude John X: Opening Remarks [in Arabic]<br /></b></p><p><b>Constantin Panchenko: Unia of Florence and the Church of Antioch, A Retrospect [in English]</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/04Cd1xwSQ8o" width="320" youtube-src-id="04Cd1xwSQ8o"></iframe></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Session One: The Historical and Political Context</b></p><p><b>Tom Papademetriou: The Ottomans and the Orthodox Patriarchates (15th to 18th Centuries) [in English]</b></p><p><b>Christos Arambatzis: Méthodes d'instauration de l'union écclesiastique et réactions au Proche Orient pendant le XVe -XVIe siècle [in French]</b></p><p><b>Carsten Walbiner: The Impact of Greek Thinking and Greek Prelates on the Patriarchate of Antioch in the 17th and Early 18th Centuries</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pjWBFIm96NE" width="320" youtube-src-id="pjWBFIm96NE"></iframe></div><br /><p><b>Session Two: Relations with the Other Orthodox Churches</b></p><p><b>Giannis Bakas: The Historical Relations of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the Church of Antioch and their Collaboration, the Case of the Metropolis of Aleppo [in Greek]</b></p><p><b>Vera Tchentsova: The Relations of Athanasius III Dabbas, Patriarch of Antioch, with Moscow [in English]</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xk2i12vgUqo" width="320" youtube-src-id="xk2i12vgUqo"></iframe></div><br /><p><b>Session Three: Relations with other Peoples</b></p><p><b>Fr Chrysostom Nassis: A View from Without, The Church of Antioch through the Eyes of Seventeenth Century Anglican Divines [in English]</b></p><p><b>Hasan <span>Çolak: Orthodox Responses to Catholic Missions in the Patriarchate of Antioch, Institutionalization and Centralization [in English]</span></b></p><p><b><span>Andreas Müller: The Greek-Orthodox Church of Antiocheia in Modern Western Literature, An Overview [in English]</span></b></p><p><span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hCbFRPP8f8Y" width="320" youtube-src-id="hCbFRPP8f8Y"></iframe></div><p></p><p><b><span><br /></span></b></p><p><b><span>Session Four: Intellectual Activity and Culture</span></b></p><p><b><span>Martin Lüstraeten: Which Typikon? The Typikon of Malatiyus Karma as an Attempt to Unify a Liturgical Tradition [in English]</span></b></p><p><b><span>Ioana Feodorov: Printing for the Arab Christians in the 18th Century: Antim the Iberian, Athanasios Dabbas, and Sylvestros of Antioch [in English]</span></b></p><p><b><span>Elie Dannaoui: The Syriac-Arabic Liturgical Manuscripts in the Rum Orthodox Church of Antioch, A Survivor of an Extinct Tradition</span></b></p><p><span><br /> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KjSygUdj4Fw" width="320" youtube-src-id="KjSygUdj4Fw"></iframe></div><br /> <p></p><p><b>Session Five: Domestic Affairs</b></p><p><b>Fr Bassam Nassif: Pastoral Renaissance under Three Patriarchs of Antioch: Euthymius Karma, Macarius Zaim, and Athanasius Dabbas [in Arabic]</b></p><p><b>Fr Saba Nasr: Antiochian Manuscripts of a Historical and Theological Response to the Events and Results of Ferrara-Florence [in Arabic]</b></p><p><b>Fr Harith Ibrahim: "Cutting Sword": An Apologetic Manuscript by Hieromonk Maximos [in Arabic]</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QNOU4evCw98" width="320" youtube-src-id="QNOU4evCw98"></iframe></div><br /><p><b>Session Six: Patriarch Sylvestros: Life and Works</b></p><p><b>Symeon A. Paschalides: "A Living Saint of the Church." Patriarch Sylvestros of Antioch (1724-1766) and the Signs of Sanctity in his Church Ministry [in English]</b></p><p><b>Archimandrite Policarp (Chițulescu): Patriarch Sylvestros of Antioch as a Defender of Orthodoxy: A Survey of his Anti-Catholic Books Printed in Iași (Moldavia) in the mid-18th Century [in French]</b></p><p><b>Mihai Țipău: The Rediscovery of the Arabic Book of Psalms Published by the Patriarch Silvestros in 1747 in Bucharest [in English]</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GXSzxWjBKjc" width="320" youtube-src-id="GXSzxWjBKjc"></iframe></div><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Session Seven: Relations with Rome</b></p><p><b><span class="yt-core-attributed-string yt-core-attributed-string--white-space-pre-wrap" role="text"><span class="yt-core-attributed-string--link-inherit-color" style="color: #131313;">Fr Spiridon Fayad: </span></span><span class="yt-core-attributed-string yt-core-attributed-string--white-space-pre-wrap" role="text"><span class="yt-core-attributed-string--link-inherit-color" style="color: #131313;">Unknown Icons of the Iconographer, Patriarch Sylvestros of Antioch (+1766) [in Arabic]</span></span></b> </p><p><b>Fr Michel Najim: Uniatism in Contemporary Orthodox-Catholic Dialogue [in Arabic]</b></p><p><b>Souad Slim: <span class="yt-core-attributed-string yt-core-attributed-string--white-space-pre-wrap" role="text"><span class="yt-core-attributed-string--link-inherit-color" style="color: #131313;">Three Orthodox Manuscripts from Balamand in Reply to the Catholic Claims [in Arabic]</span></span></b></p><p><span class="yt-core-attributed-string yt-core-attributed-string--white-space-pre-wrap" role="text"><span class="yt-core-attributed-string--link-inherit-color" style="color: #131313;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KlSKh6_Rujo" width="320" youtube-src-id="KlSKh6_Rujo"></iframe></div><br /><b> Session Eight: Roundtable [multilingual]</b><p></p><p><span class="yt-core-attributed-string yt-core-attributed-string--white-space-pre-wrap" role="text"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6RAHxZvceJ4" width="320" youtube-src-id="6RAHxZvceJ4"></iframe></div><br /><span class="yt-core-attributed-string--link-inherit-color" style="color: #131313;"><br /></span><p></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-23032077923945161612023-10-17T03:26:00.005-04:002023-10-17T03:51:49.718-04:00Patriarch John X on the History of the Melkite Schism<p><i>From here in <a href="https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/1793">English </a>and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Antiochpatriarchate.org/posts/pfbid0319yPAMxtcjHBH6PkdHFjpZA88D8yYYG57t8RH6MZkUu5bySfU3DJmkkZ83ykwWCRl">here </a>in Arabic. The speech is quite important, among other reasons, for its clear statement of Antiochian Orthodox ecclesiology.</i></p><p><i> </i></p><div dir="auto"><div class="x1iorvi4 x1pi30zi x1l90r2v x1swvt13" data-ad-comet-preview="message" data-ad-preview="message" id=":rva:"><div class="x78zum5 xdt5ytf xz62fqu x16ldp7u"><div class="xu06os2 x1ok221b"><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h" dir="auto"><div class="xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs x126k92a" style="text-align: center;"><div><b>Opening Speech of </b></div><div><b>Patriarch John X</b></div><div><b>In the International Scientific Conference entitled: </b></div><div><b>“The Orthodox Church of Antioch from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century:</b></div><div><b>Towards a Proper Understanding of History”</b></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Balamand 16/10/2023</b></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">On this blessed evening, I am pleased to be among you and to inaugurate with you, from this blessed Hill of Balamand, the International Scientific Conference entitled, "The Orthodox Church of Antioch from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century: Towards a Proper Understanding of History."</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">As I welcome each and every one of you, beloved brothers and siters, I pray for God's blessings to shower you, and I entreat Our Lady, the Ever-Virgin Mary, patron saint of this place, to embrace you with her tenderness and intercede to her Son for all of us, so that we may live faithfully according to her commandment: "Whatever He says to you, do it."</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">A proper understanding of history, as mentioned in the conference title, requires adherence to scientific principles. The account of history is not a personal point of view, but a set of facts and events that we ought to study in order to understand what actually happened, and to draw conclusions. Since our topic deals specifically with ecclesiastical history, it is our quest to redeem it, to correct the course anew, to heal wounds, and to reconcile every rift. </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">However, what is evil is the changing of the reading of history according to immediate self-interests, so that things are turned upside down, and facts are taken as personal views! Yes, we deeply regret that some are comfortable with the "post-truth era" and consider this as a basis. For some, truth has become synonymous with what the masses believe, i.e., the product of sophistry and populism, while historical facts are left to oblivion. In this post-truth era and the blurriness associated with it, we need, now more than ever, for scientific research to reveal facts. Therefore, we want this scientific conference today to deal with a difficult period in the history of the Church of Antioch, the first church founded by the Apostle Peter, in which "the disciples were first called Christians" (Acts 11: 26). From this Church came Ignatius, the God-bearer (+107 AD), who, on his way to be grinded by the teeth of the lions in Rome, addressed the whole Church with his letters, which are still a universal ecclesiastical reference. Saint John Chrysostom, the teacher of the universe, who was led as a lamb and taken to exile. He yielded up his spirit on the way, as a result of the decisions of the Synod according to the emperor's policies at that time, that is, outside the nave of the church, in which Chrysostom refused to yield up his spirit to his Lord. Saint John of Damascus was the defender of the faith, and whose hand was restored by the Virgin after being cut off for speaking the truth of faith. Let us not forget Patriarch Peter III who sought with all wisdom and strength to prevent the schism between Constantinople and Rome and to keep the dispute between them within the confines of the Church. He wanted differences, especially small ones, not to turn into a reason for distance, division, fragmentation, hostility, and for an absence of love.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">In the context of preserving the spirit of Peter III, who saw himself as "a bone of Antioch’s bones and blood of its blood", and in the footsteps of the Apostle Peter, who bore his name and who also succeeded him in the care of the sheep of Christ in the Mother City, the Church of Antioch, the Apostolic Patriarchate and the first See of Peter continues to be the Church of communion, consultation, openness, and peace. She remains a Church with her place and authority among the Churches. It pains and saddens her with every division between other churches. Equally, She is pained by the dismemberment of a segment of her children who violated her authority as a church being the fullness of ecclesiastical entity, and as a church equal in dignity to the second church established by the head of the Apostles. She is a church that is aware that her role as an authority is no different from that of other ancient apostolic patriarchates. She is a church whose Patriarch, Peter III, realized that it was his responsibility to work on avoiding a schism between the two sister churches.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">From our predecessor, Patriarch Peter III, we understand the faith of our Church is that true communion can only be achieved through consultation and mutual respect between Churches, through the community's complete obedience to its Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, along with being in harmony and peace that descends from the Holy Spirit, and away from any worldly logic of domination, control, and subjugation of others. Is there anything more beautiful and truer than Patriarch Peter III's analogy of the five patriarchates to the five equal senses, working together in harmony within the body of the Church, whose only head is Jesus Christ, Who promised to be with us forever until the end of the age?</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Just as the Antiochian Patriarch Peter III was bold in this ecclesiastical theology, which was contained in his correspondence with Rome and the Latin world, he was equally bold and faithful to the authentic Orthodox ecclesiastical theology in his interaction with the Ecumenical Patriarch Michael Cerularius, when he reminded him that "the Apostolic See of Antioch is not under the See of Constantinople." </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">It would have been desirable for the contemporaries of the Patriarch of Antioch to hear his voice and realize that there is no place for lust, power, and domination in the Body of Christ! It would be desirable for our brothers today, who refuse to resort to conciliarity and claim primacy of Sees and their infallibility, hear the words of this Patriarch. Suppressing the conciliar sense is a sin. Conciliarity is the starting point for anyone who wants to maintain unity, and who does not want to isolate and marginalize others.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">However, history, even church history, is not always written by the wise and saints, and therefore the wisdom of the Patriarch of Antioch did not resonate with the disputants, and the schism between East and West was perpetuated and deepened with the passage of time, and tragedies succeeded. Antioch was not spared the repercussions of the great schism and the struggle for power, and this part of the Church turned into a land of conquest and capture.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">The schism deepened and took on existence and reality with the so-called Crusades that uprooted the Orthodox Antiochian patriarchs from their See and replaced them with Latin patriarchs.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Despite the severe hardships and persecutions that befell us in the Mamluk era and other eras, the leaders of the Church of Antioch never lost sight of the fact that the only response to attempts at unity, through coercion and material/worldly temptations, was total and complete devotion to the spirit of Orthodox conciliarity. Hence Antioch's rejection of the Council of Ferrara Florence in 1439, which was held on the verge of the fall of the Roman Empire. </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">The years continued with their cruelty to Christians living in this tormented region of Antioch. With the advent of the Ottomans and the first attempts at Western colonization in the East, Rome sent missionaries to us, not to help persecuted Christians, but to entice them to join it, accompanied by promises of commercial and economic opportunities and political protections by the European powers, so those who became weak under such pressure joined it.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">This situation was not because of the accusations that some attach against the Antiochian clergy about the alleged neglect of the parish and the so-called lack of spiritual care for the faithful. The patriarchs of Antioch since the seventeenth century, such as Meletius Karma (1634-1635), Makarios III Ibn Zaim (1648-1672), and Athanasius III Dabbas (1686-1724), spared no effort to educate the parish, secure its needs and preserve the Orthodox faith. Their efforts yielded a pastoral renaissance and cultural and spiritual renewal in the Patriarchate of Antioch. </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">The themes of this conference will allow you to appreciate the renaissance vision that the Church of Antioch worked to achieve despite the harsh social situation and the challenges of the living conditions in the Middle East at that time. No matter how much some try to obscure or distort the facts, they are not able to hide what has been achieved in many areas, including: reviewing books, scientific and critical editing of texts, printing them in Arabic in printing presses, criteria for priest selection and for the election of bishops, educating priests in seminaries and theological schools, restoring many church buildings and icons, providing relief funds to needy families, opening schools for children's education, organizing spiritual courts and supervising their work, regulating marriage and personal status laws, and revitalizing monastic life in monasteries. Their labors were mixed with the sweat of perseverance, the tears of prayers, and the blood of martyrdom. They had a clear and correct vision of the ecclesiastical renaissance, and of how to establish the flock in the authentic Orthodox faith, despite the enormous pressure from inside and outside to destabilize Church life and the confidence of the faithful in the Church.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">You will have the opportunity to see this renaissance movement carried out by the Antiochian patriarchs and bishops despite all the challenges and attempts to break in and sow dissension, and to carefully research all these subjects and events during the next two days, in order to draw lessons and prevent the recurrence of the same tragedies, especially in these difficult days in our countries, in which many at home seek alleged protections, and many abroad seek to buy consciences and loyalties and win over the needy people or weak souls.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Fraternally, I leave it to those who departed from us and joined the West, in accordance with an agreement that allowed them to preserve their rituals and maintain their patriarchal system, to evaluate the results of their choice, especially since this Balamand hill witnessed, not long ago, an Orthodox-Catholic dialogue and church meeting (1993), which examined the feasibility of this Uniatism as a way to achieve the desired unity between churches and dropped it from consideration as a feasible way in the efforts for unity. Pope John Paul II, with his usual boldness, apologized in 2000 to the Eastern Orthodox Church for the mistakes made by the Church of Rome, in the Middle Ages, towards the Christians of the East that led to Christian fragmentation.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">From a paternal outlook, I say that our Antiochian See suffered because of the absence of fraternity and fell under a tutelage that had its own implications, but it was able at the beginning of the twentieth century to enter a new phase inaugurated by the election of Patriarch Meletius Al-Doumani.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">In addition, I must thank God, because He has given us, Christians, the ability to be present in this Antiochian scope, to overcome difficulties, despite the twists and ruggedness of history, to bring us closer together, to remove the effects of division from our souls, to make us feel that we are one family of the Father. Our common life in this regard has increased our sense of the importance of our unity. It has made our relationships based on the encounter in Christ Jesus and not on formal courtesies. That is why we will continue to work together, to strengthen the bonds of fraternity and love among our Churches, and for achieving the united witness of Christ Jesus.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">In this atmosphere of love, we must, at the Antiochian level, break through the barriers of history, tear down the remaining walls of enmity, abandon emotional courtesies and superficial closeness, translate our love for one another into a sincere revelation, activate local theological dialogue and deepen common historical research, so that we can strengthen our true Antiochian identity through joint scientific works that contribute to the healing of our historical memory. This healing process, as noted above, began on this Balamand hill thirty years ago, when Uniatism as a method to unite with Rome was rejected. Therefore, we hope that this conference, in which we desire to have a proper understanding of our history, be the first pillar, which establishes joint action with our brothers that will allow the history of that era to be read accurately and to dispel all ambiguities that marred it on the way to be fully healed from wounds and be in the service of the desired unity.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">We have made great strides in our joint pastoral work, through the agreement between us and the Syriac Orthodox, and we were close to achieving a project of unity between us and the Rum Catholics, but the difference in the understanding of partnership, conciliarity and the relationship with the churches outside the Antiochian scope prevented the realization of this project. Should we give up and abandon the dream of Antiochian unity? Would it not be better for us to have the courage to insist on continuing to work in order to get as close as possible to this unity? Is not the vivid feeling of our children regarding unity of destiny and unity in witness and holiness an incentive to strive for the unity to which we all aspire and whom the glorious Lord Jesus has commanded us to follow? </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">As I speak to you about Antioch, I remember the last Feast of Pascha that I held above the rubbles of the Antiochian historic cathedral recently destroyed by the earthquake, inflicting indescribable suffering on the people. Here, I take it as an opportunity to send my peace, love and blessing to our children in this city, and in Alexandretta and Mersin, and with them and through them I assure the world that we are children of hope, that we will rebuild what was destroyed, and we will remain witnesses in this land on which the Apostles walked. This land was sanctified by the blood of the martyrs, including the two hieromartyrs, Nicolas Khashe and his son Habib. Those two were martyred in the last century and their glorification will be studied by the Holy Synod in its upcoming meeting, and whose intercession we already ask for all of us and for this See which is preserved by the holiness of its believers throughout generations.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">From this blessed Balamand hill, which is one of the places that has a vibrant presence for our Orthodox Church in our beloved Lebanon, I address all our fellow citizens to work together to formulate a vision that respects the pluralism that abounds in this country and its distinct communities, and to preserve the unity of Lebanon, a unity that highlights our values, and does not turn sectarianism into a tool for corruption and vitiation, to disrupt governance, to hinder the work of the state, and to oppress citizens. Hence, I address the consciences of all officials in this country, and in particular to the members of parliament, calling for the election of a President of the Lebanese Republic who will ensure the regularity of the work of institutions. I ask for divine mercy for the souls of those who died in the Beirut Port explosion, stressing that justice that ought not to be hindered by self-interests finds its way and prevail.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">To the civilized world, to people of conscience wherever they are, I ask: Why making the Syrian people starve? What is the guilt of these people which makes you punish them by blocking food and medicine? Is it humane to deprive a human being of electricity, water, heating, and medicine? Is it humane for fathers to be unable to feed their children and mothers to live anxiously in order to secure a morsel of bread? Has politics become so criminal that it watches people die of hunger and oppression and remain indifferent? Isn't it time to lift the blockade on the Syrian people and lift the sanctions on them?</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">How can I not express the pain in our hearts over the case of the Archbishops of Aleppo, Youhanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yazigi, who have been kidnapped since April 2013? This bleeding wound in the body of the Antiochian Church will not heal until their fate is known, and their kidnapping will remain in our history as a painful picture of the oppression suffered by human beings living in this East.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">As we stand here in the vicinity of the eternal Cedars, we must say a word of truth about what is happening in occupied Palestine. Palestine is crucified because of the self-interests of nations. Palestine is bleeding with the Nazarene on the calvary of tyranny. We support the Palestinian right to its land and to the effective establishment of its state. We stand by the side of these displaced people who are suffering from bitterness and siege, imprisonment, murder, and displacement. Peace cannot be formed on the bodies of children and slaughtered men, nor is it imported by shedding innocent blood. What is happening in Palestine is the result of the violation of human dignity, the contempt towards international law and all resolutions, racial discrimination policy, and the persistent imposition of the logic of oppression. Hence, our call is for the immediate cessation of the war on Gaza. The people of Gaza are paying the price of the suffocating siege with much blood. Our call also for us, Muslims and Christians, to see in Jerusalem a way up to the mercies of the Father of Lights. We ask the Holy Lord to send down His divine justice and mercy, and His peace which surpasses all human peace, a peace that cannot be established by blood and fire.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Beloved, </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">History has been harsh on us in this region, and it continues to be harsh, but we are loyal to this land, because it has been mixed with the soil of our fathers and with the blood of our saints. We are committed to bear love for all the inhabitants of this area with whom we were, and still are, partners in life and death and mistreated like them by external forces. We are the children of this land, and we do not seek foreign protections in it, but we seek to translate the teachings of the Gospel in this land. Let us convey the kindness and peace of Christ wherever we go. We are here to build this country on the values of love and decent morals with all good and sincere people. We are a loving bloc, not a sectarian bloc. We only aspire for the earth to be heaven and for history to be a history of God's lovingkindness, compassion, and love for mankind, not the history of sin.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">In conclusion, three hundred years have passed, my dearly beloved, since the unfortunate schism of 1724 AD, which led to a rift in our Antiochian Orthodox Church, resulting in unfortunate and sad social, economic, and political repercussions, which reflected negatively on our parishes. It is our hope that this conference will add to the foundations we have put in place in order to restore unity and harmony between our church and the Rum Catholic church, and that it will also promote the strengthening of fraternal ties between the five patriarchates (which bear the name of Antioch), and stir the spirit of kinship among them so that our witness to the Lord of glory may be one.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">May the Lord God bless you and bless this conference for the God’s glory, and for the good estate of the Church and Her unity, and for the prosperity of the country and the people.</div></div></span></div></div></div></div><div class="x1n2onr6" id=":rvb:"><div class="x1n2onr6"></div></div><div><div class="x1n2onr6" id=":rvb:"><div class="x6ikm8r x10wlt62"></div></div></div><div><div class="x168nmei x13lgxp2 x30kzoy x9jhf4c x6ikm8r x10wlt62" data-visualcompletion="ignore-dynamic"><div><div><div><div class="x1n2onr6"><div class="x6s0dn4 xi81zsa x78zum5 x6prxxf x13a6bvl xvq8zen xdj266r xktsk01 xat24cr x1d52u69 x889kno x4uap5 x1a8lsjc xkhd6sd xdppsyt"><div class="x6s0dn4 x78zum5 x1iyjqo2 x6ikm8r x10wlt62"><span aria-label="See who reacted to this" class="x1ja2u2z" role="toolbar"><span class="x6s0dn4 x78zum5 x1e558r4" id=":rvd:"><span class="x6zyg47 x1xm1mqw xpn8fn3 xtct9fg x13zp6kq x1mcfq15 xrosliz x1wb7cse x13fuv20 xu3j5b3 x1q0q8m5 x26u7qi xamhcws xol2nv xlxy82 x19p7ews xmix8c7 x139jcc6 x1n2onr6 x1xp8n7a xhtitgo"><span class="x12myldv x1udsgas xrc8dwe xxxhv2y x1rg5ohu xmix8c7 x1xp8n7a"><span class="x4k7w5x x1h91t0o x1h9r5lt x1jfb8zj xv2umb2 x1beo9mf xaigb6o x12ejxvf x3igimt xarpa2k xedcshv x1lytzrv x1t2pt76 x7ja8zs x1qrby5j"></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><span aria-label="See who reacted to this" class="x1ja2u2z" role="toolbar"><span class="x6s0dn4 x78zum5 x1e558r4" id=":rvd:"><span class="x6zyg47 x1xm1mqw xpn8fn3 xtct9fg x13zp6kq x1mcfq15 xrosliz x1wb7cse x13fuv20 xu3j5b3 x1q0q8m5 x26u7qi xamhcws xol2nv xlxy82 x19p7ews xmix8c7 x139jcc6 x1n2onr6 x1xp8n7a x1vjfegm"><span class="x12myldv x1udsgas xrc8dwe xxxhv2y x1rg5ohu xmix8c7 x1xp8n7a"><span class="x4k7w5x x1h91t0o x1h9r5lt x1jfb8zj xv2umb2 x1beo9mf xaigb6o x12ejxvf x3igimt xarpa2k xedcshv x1lytzrv x1t2pt76 x7ja8zs x1qrby5j"></span></span></span></span></span><div><span class="x4k7w5x x1h91t0o x1h9r5lt x1jfb8zj xv2umb2 x1beo9mf xaigb6o x12ejxvf x3igimt xarpa2k xedcshv x1lytzrv x1t2pt76 x7ja8zs x1qrby5j"></span></div><div class="x9f619 x1n2onr6 x1ja2u2z x78zum5 xdt5ytf x2lah0s x193iq5w xeuugli xsyo7zv x16hj40l x10b6aqq x1yrsyyn"></div><div class="x9f619 x1n2onr6 x1ja2u2z x78zum5 xdt5ytf x2lah0s x193iq5w xeuugli xsyo7zv x16hj40l x10b6aqq x1yrsyyn"><span class="x4k7w5x x1h91t0o x1h9r5lt x1jfb8zj xv2umb2 x1beo9mf xaigb6o x12ejxvf x3igimt xarpa2k xedcshv x1lytzrv x1t2pt76 x7ja8zs x1qrby5j"></span></div><div class="x9f619 x1n2onr6 x1ja2u2z x78zum5 xdt5ytf x2lah0s x193iq5w xeuugli xsyo7zv x16hj40l x10b6aqq x1yrsyyn"><span class="x4k7w5x x1h91t0o x1h9r5lt x1jfb8zj xv2umb2 x1beo9mf xaigb6o x12ejxvf x3igimt xarpa2k xedcshv x1lytzrv x1t2pt76 x7ja8zs x1qrby5j"></span></div><div class="x9f619 x1n2onr6 x1ja2u2z x78zum5 x2lah0s x1qughib x1qjc9v5 xozqiw3 x1q0g3np x150jy0e x1e558r4 xjkvuk6 x1iorvi4 xwrv7xz x8182xy x4cne27 xifccgj"><div class="x9f619 x1n2onr6 x1ja2u2z x78zum5 xdt5ytf x193iq5w xeuugli x1r8uery x1iyjqo2 xs83m0k xg83lxy x1h0ha7o x10b6aqq x1yrsyyn"></div></div><div class="x9f619 x1n2onr6 x1ja2u2z x78zum5 xdt5ytf x193iq5w xeuugli x1r8uery x1iyjqo2 xs83m0k xg83lxy x1h0ha7o x10b6aqq x1yrsyyn"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-27543034997486624902023-09-26T15:52:00.003-04:002023-09-26T15:52:23.627-04:00Ioana Feodorov: Arabic Printing for the Christians in Ottoman Lands (Open-access Book)<h2 style="text-align: left;">Arabic Printing for the Christians in Ottoman Lands:</h2>
<h2 class="subtitle productSubtitleMainContent">The East-European Connection</h2><p class="subtitle productSubtitleMainContent" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Arabic printing began in Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Levant through
the association of the scholar and printer Antim the Iberian, later a
metropolitan of Wallachia, and Athanasios III Dabbās, twice patriarch of
Antioch, when the latter, as metropolitan of Aleppo, was sojourning in
Bucharest. This partnership resulted in the first Greek and Arabic
editions of the <em>Book of the Divine Liturgies</em> (Snagov, 1701) and the <em>Horologion</em>
(Bucharest, 1702). With the tools and expertise that he acquired in
Wallachia, Dabbās established in Aleppo in 1705 the first Arabic-type
press in the Ottoman Empire. After the Church of Antioch divided into
separate Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic Patriarchates in 1724, a new
press was opened for Arabic-speaking Greek Catholics by ʻAbdallāh Zāḫir
in Ḫinšāra (Ḍūr al-Šuwayr), Lebanon. Likewise, in 1752-1753, a press
active at the Church of Saint George in Beirut printed Orthodox books
that preserved elements of the Aleppo editions and were reprinted for
decades. This book tells the story of the first Arabic-type presses in
the Ottoman Empire which provided church books to the Arabic-speaking
Christians, irrespective of their confession, through the efforts of
ecclesiastical leaders such as the patriarchs Silvester of Antioch and
Sofronios II of Constantinople and financial support from East European
rulers like prince Constantin Brâncoveanu and hetman Ivan Mazepa.</span></p><p class="subtitle productSubtitleMainContent" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Download the entire book <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110786996/html">here</a>.</i> </span> <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-12885225171236768742023-09-17T09:52:00.004-04:002023-09-17T09:52:53.037-04:00Met Ephrem (Kyriakos) on the Jesus Prayer<p><i>Arabic original <a href="https://archtripoli.com/Karma/2023/SEPTEMBER/17">here</a>.</i></p><h2 style="text-align: center;">The Jesus Prayer</h2><p>"<span class="text John-16-23" id="en-NKJV-26750"><span class="woj">Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.</span> </span><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive,</span> <span class="woj">that your joy may be</span> <span class="woj">full" (John 16:23-24).</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">In the Bible, the name is seen and experienced as the presence of God Himself. The name holds a twofold power: on the one hand, feeling the living God , and on the other, knowing Him.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">Jesus' name indicates the incarnation:</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">Before all else, the name 'Jesus' indicates the reason for God's coming in the flesh for our salvation. By taking on our nature, God shows that it is possible for us to also become sons of God. The name 'Jesus' means 'God is the Savior'.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">God said to Moses that His name is 'I Am': great is the name of the Holy Trinity.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">Jesus is the God-Man. He brings both together in His person and through Him it became possible for us to reach the Father.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">Can man ask for anything more than that?</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">When the personal God, I Am, is revealed to us, the fundamental difference between Him and various deviations like yoga, Buddhism and even Transcendental Meditation, is revealed.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">Of course, when our minds are turned away from every image, it is possible for meditation to grant us a sense of rest, peace and liberation from time and place.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">But there is no sense of standing before a personal god.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">This can lead to a state where the person who practices meditation comes to be content with the psychological results of such experiences.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">In this way it turns one away from the living God in order to focus on that "nothingness".</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">The hesychastic technical method:</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">The one praying tries, by repeating Jesus' name, to connect the intellect to the heart.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">This is after he has already focused on conforming his daily life to Christ's commandments.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">The one praying takes an appropriate bodily posture, reciting the prayer while his head is bent towards his chest, taking a breath at the words "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God," and exhaling at the words "have mercy on me a sinner."</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">In this way, he can keep his focus from wandering.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">This method makes it possible for the one praying to keep his attention focused on the heart without resorting to psychosomatic methods.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">Nevertheless, it is not possible to acquire true prayer through this technique because this only comes through faith and repentance.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">The important thing is that we focus our attention on the name of Jesus Christ and on the words of the prayer.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">When you feel the pain of sin crying out, the intellect naturally turns to the heart.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">The full form of the Jesus Prayer is, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner."</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">Finally, when prayer becomes an automatic movement, it becomes fixed in the heart without any effort.</span></span></p><p><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">After the mind has become focused and at rest, prayer brings blessings. It comes like a delicate flame within us, like inspiration from the Most High, like joy in the heart with a feeling of divine love, delighting the intellect with spiritual contemplation.</span></span></p><p><b><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">+Ephrem</span></span></b></p><p><b><span class="text John-16-24" id="en-NKJV-26751"><span class="woj">Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies <br /></span></span></b></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-454029785743781152023-09-15T03:45:00.004-04:002023-09-15T03:45:50.683-04:00Maria Mavroudi: Byzantine Translations from Arabic into Greek (Open Access)<p>Maria Mavroudi, "<span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Byzantine Translations from Arabic into Greek: </span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Old and New Historiography in Confluence and in Conflict," </span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"><i>Journal of Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies</i> 2.1-2 (2023): 215-288.</span></p><p><b><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"> Abstract: </span></b></p><p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">Scholarly demand to re-evaluate underappreciated cultures has grown since the 1980s. This generated a call to re-write the nineteenth-century narrative on the transmission of knowledge from the ancient Near East to the Graeco-Roman, Islamic, Western medieval, and early modern European world. The paper surveys the modern study of Byzantine translations from Arabic into Greek in order to propose a new narrative frame, no longer linear but attentive to continuous and bi-directional contact between medieval civilisations. The paper offers the contact between Byzantium and various parts of the Islamic world as an example. It discusses the presumed insularity of Byzantine literary culture and its relationship with ancient Greek literary heritage. Problems of dating, localising, and socially contextualising the translations (through information on their authors and patrons) are also examined.</span></p><p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"><br /></span></p><p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"><i>The entire article can be read and downloaded in open access <a href="https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/epdf/10.3366/jlaibs.2023.0021">here</a>.<br /></i></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-43508524553873140622023-09-13T04:05:00.001-04:002023-09-13T04:05:06.480-04:00Jad Ganem: Two New Saints<p><i> Arabic original <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02YKAU8z59mbbHmHtXb4i2aWYAWeqGjZaqiWxDLY2cJrTtFn8MVSGk67bDMkXUEp2tl&id=100063554201441">here</a>.</i></p><h1 style="text-align: center;">Two New Saints</h1><p style="text-align: left;">During the divine liturgy that he celebrated for the Feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God at the Monastery of Saydnaya, His Beatitude Patriarch John X announced that the Holy Synod of Antioch will discuss at its next regular session declaring the sainthood of the hieromartyr Fr Nicholas Khashsha and his son, the hieromartyr Habib Khashsha, two Damascene priests who were martyred for the faith in the last century.<br /><br />As a layman, Fr Nicholas was an activist for returning the Patriarchate of Antioch, which had been under Greek domination since the Melkite Catholic schism, to Arab control and was active in establishing and developing schools for the community. He was then ordained to the priesthood, where he served the Archdiocese of Damascus. Patriarch Meletios (al-Doumani) then delegated him as his vicar for the Diocese of Mersin, whose bishop, Alexander (Tahhan) had abandoned it because of its poverty and the disturbances it was experiencing. In Mersin, Fr Nicholas succeeded in reuniting its dispersed flock and caring for and strengthening the faithful, who were subjected to various forms of persecution and ethnic cleansing. The Turkish authorities grew frustrated with Fr Nicholas and arrested him on the basis of slander against him, then tortured him until he was martyred.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Habib, the eldest son of Fr Nicholas, followed in his father's footsteps. Despite his success in business, he decided to be ordained to the priesthood and served as a priest in Damascus and Cairo. His service was distinguished by a life of prayer, devotion to shepherding the faithful with love and self-sacrifice, and his closeness to the poor, who he cared for like he cared for his own family, feeding them with their food and the money that his brothers sent to help them because of his poverty. His life was crowned with a martyric death on Mount Hermon, where smugglers beat him to death because he was a Christian priest, fulfilling his desire to imitate his father.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The faithful have passed down the stories of these two priests and they remain alive in the memory of Antioch because "their blood has attested that the Holy Spirit is in them and because though love they have transcended the barrier of the earthly body and become figures of light." Today, if the Holy Synod decides to declare their sainthood, it is "in obedience to the One of whom they have become worthy."</p><p style="text-align: left;">By declaring their sainthood, the Holy Synod places before the flock and the faithful, at this difficult time, the image of a married priest to whom the Church entrusted the task of shepherding a diocese whose bishop had refused to shepherd it and fled it when its resources became scarce and it started to face difficulties. He shepherded it as though it were his little family. He and his sons lived in it and among its people and he died for it. The Holy Synod also puts forward the image of the son who abandoned worldly success in order to imitate his father and become a shepherd of souls, serving the poor as though they were a little family and dividing his sustenance and that of his family with them. He served them as though they were his masters, not caring about money or worrying about the future, but relying on the mercy and generosity of God, who crowned his life with the crown of martyrdom.<br /><br />Perhaps, by its effort to declare the sainthood of the hieromartyrs Fathers Nicholas and Habib, following the declaration of the sainthood of the hieromartyr Joseph of Damascus, the Holy Synod desires to emphasize that sanctity is not limited to monks, but rather also exists outside of monasteries, and that the family which is sincerely committed to Christ is also just as much a locus of sancity as anywhere else.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-42662527205381679322023-09-11T09:50:00.001-04:002023-09-11T09:50:57.299-04:00Asad Rustom on the Era of Patriarch Cyril al-Za'im (III): Euthymius al-Sayfi<p><i>Translated from</i>: Asad Rustum, <i>Kanisat Madinat Allah Antakya al-'Uzma</i> [The Church of the Great City of God Antioch], Jounieh: Editions St. Paul (1988), vol. 3, pp. 111-119.</p><p><a href="https://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2023/06/asad-rustom-on-era-of-patriarch-cyril.html"><i>Part I here.</i></a></p><p><i><a href="https://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2023/07/asad-rustom-on-era-of-patriarch-cyril.html">Part II here.</a></i></p><p><b>Rome completes its mission: </b>Athanasius kept to the truce and was unable to return to the patriarchal see, so Rome undertook to complete its plan and in 1697 the attention of the Jesuit priest Verseau was drawn to Balamand Monastery because he was familiar with the monks and "the schism has a great affair there because they all belong to the Rum <i>millet</i>." Fr Verseau repeatedly attempted to enter Balamand in order to expound on the Catholic faith, but he failed. Then two disciples of the Jesuit fathers felt the monastic calling and chose Balamand as their place to serve God, "and Fr Verseau started to visit them and guide them, warning about the danger in that monastery." It was then confirmed that they were firm in their Catholicism and so he took them on as a tool for Roman propaganda among the monks. He increased his visits to the monastery and became acquainted with all the monks, taking part in the monastery's gatherings without any impediment. "In order to please them all," he praised Saint Basil the Great and read accounts of him to them. He then put into the hands of his two friends books by Fr Clisson and Fr Nau. In 1704, five of the monks of Balamand sent a petition to the Congregation de Propaganda Fide that included the following:</p><p>"We present to Your Resplendent Majesty that we are your servants, numbering five people from the <i>millet</i> of the Arab <i>Rum</i>, monks of the path of Saint Basil the Great, who were reared from our childhood in the Catholic religion, always submitting to the Supreme Pontiff, His All-Holiness. Nevertheless, in these lands we have not found the freedom to perfect the way of life for salvation of the soul as is necessary in monasticism due to the country's lack of stability and the rule of the nations over it and the disorder of the monasteries and monks. We have presented our situation to Your Resplendent Majesty so that if you decree and command us, we will come before you about this matter. We ask that you grant us, out of the charity of the Holy Church, a humble place where we may take refuge alone, either in Rome or outside it and for you to grant us there the necessary food and ascetic drink sufficient for the body and nothing else, so that we may serve God in our place as much as possible and pray for Your Resplendent Majesty.</p><p>Balamand, in the region of Tripoli of Syria on November 1, 1704. Your servant, the hieromonk Macarius. Your servant, the hieromonk Gerasimus. Your pitiful servant, the hieromonk Hanania. Your pitiful servant the hieromonk Nasrallah. Your servant the hierodeacon George."<br /></p><p><b>The Monastery of Saint John, Choueir:</b> At this very moment, two young men from Aleppo arrived at Balamand, desiring to practice chastity and asceticism. Father Nasrallah from Aleppo advised them "to go to Mount Lebanon and search for an empty place. Afterwards, we will come to you and make a canonical monastic order, because in this monastery one cannot live in freedom of faith because in it there are recalcitrant people and associating with them is not beneficial." They heeded his advice and went and found a monastery called Mar Yuhanna al-Choueir, and sent them news about it.</p><p>This monastery was humble in the beginning, only containing a small church named after John the Baptist and a humble room that was home to an ascetic from the Sawaya family of Choueir. Choueir was suffering from a feud between its two big families, the Maja'is and the Sawaya. When the dispute arose between the two patriarchs, Athanasius and Cyril, one group sided with the former and the other with the latter. The Maja'is supported Cyril, so the Sawaya decided to support Athanasius. The Maja'is won over the majority of the families of Choueir and the Sawaya were prevented from praying in the Church of Our Lady, the village church, so they began to pray in the Church of Saint John mentioned above. In this way, the Monastery of Saint John is not named merely after its being found in the area of Choueir, but also after the Choueirite ascetic who founded it and his Choueirite family members who made its church their place of worship, defending those monks claiming obedience to Rome who took refuge there.<br /></p><p><b>Rome's Only Man: </b>One of the individuals in obedience to Rome, submitting to its bishop, was Euthymius al-Sayfi, metropolitan of Tyre and Sidon (1682-1723). He was born in Damascus around the year 1643 with the name Mikhail ibn Musa al-Sayfi, growing up there. He studied in the community's school at the patriarchal residence and received special attention from the priest Jirjis Bariq, imbibing Catholicism from his youth. This priest Jirjis had traveled to Rome and adopted Catholicism there. When Mikhail was young, he frequented the monastery of the Jesuit and Capuchin fathers and they attracted him to themselves, increasing his obedience and submission. He became close with the patriarchal vicar Neophytus al-Saqizi, learning Greek and the art of Byzantine chant from him. Perhaps Neophytus himself ordained Mikhail as a deacon and then priest in 1666.</p><p>Jeremiah, the metropolitan of Tyre and Sidon died around 1680 and the Latin missionaries encouraged the Rum notables in Sidon to elect the priest Mikhail al-Sayfi. Patriarch Cyril III agreed and consecrated him as metropolitan of Tyre and Sidon in 1682, giving him the name Euthymius. The first activity that this new bishop undertook was that he hurried to send a copy of his confession of the Catholic faith to Pope Innocent XII, with the Capucin father Accursio. This father Accursio was the teacher of the new bishop's confession in Damascus. Part of what is contained in the confession is as follows:</p><p>"I have rejected the error and schism of the Rum for some time and I have confessed the Catholic faith at the hands of the missionary monks in Syria. Now, by the grace of God, I have become bishop over the See of Tyre and Sidon and I must offer the necessary obedience to you and reference to your holy see, imitating the holy fathers Athanasius the Great, John Chrystostom and all the holy fathers whom the Roman Church has received in the time of their struggle and persecution. I do not need to mention the rejection, imprisonment, humiliation, loss of money I have endured and the enmity from the Muslims, along with some of the <i>Rum</i> and their clergy, especially their patriarch called Cyril, on account of my confession of the Catholic faith."</p><p>The archdiocese of Tyre and Sidon was large but not very populated, so the new bishop worked to populate it by encouraging migration there. He agreed in May of 1686 with the Rum notables in Sidon to write to those Christians who were willing, to invite them to reside in Sidon. The <i>qadi</i> of Sidon issued a deed for this that still exists to this day. He then rebuilt the Church in Sidon with his own money and formally issued a deed for this on April 11, 1690. It is no surprise that such a deed was necessary because Islamic law forbids the construction of churches and monks' cells but permits the renovation and preservation of old ones.</p><p>The most important thing that Euthymius undertook during this initial period of his episcopacy was that he established the Salvatorian monastic order to spread the principles of union with Rome and submission to its bishop. This work started in Sidon where, before 1700, he gathered together a number of monks to live a common, canonically-ordered life with him at the Machmoucha farm near Joun. The Salvatorian priest Constantine Bacha believes that the metropolitan's disciples numbered, at the end of the 17th century, no less than ten and that they were unable to live in Sidon and its surroundings without being subject to every accusation and every hardship from the army and others, so they rented the Machmoucha farm from its owner, the <i>qadi</i> Sheikh Qablan, to live and work there. They did not do this for long before, by the care of the Savior, their monastery in His name was established in 1711. Euthymius composed a special rule for its monks, news of which spread among people until it reached Aleppo. His letter to a friend in Aleppo preserves some of what the Salvatorian monks practiced in the beginning and some of the principles that Euthymius had in mind. His friend, a bishop, wrote in objection to Euthymius' permitting his monks to eat oil and fish during fasts. The latter responded:</p><p>"It does not escape your knowledge, if you ponder and see the weakness and decline of the <i>millet</i> and its lack of the necessary knowledge and spiritual sciences. We have seen many with weak temperaments and good zeal, who had a little knowledge and wanted to have a pure life, ordered by keeping the three vows that are the foundation of all monastic orders, so that they might benefit their <i>millet</i> by their activity and knowledge. But they forsook entering monasticism on account of its harshness of living now among us and so fell short of completing their good intention. When I realized that this particular reason was preventing the universal good, I used the authority of binding and loosening given to me by God and His Church to issue an order, indeed to issue a compulsion, known to all on account of its being issued and entering into force. This was so that worship in this manner would be something by choice rather than compulsion. It is not as it is now, practiced by others openly and rejected by the majority in secret. Moreover, so that we would not imitate the harshness of some previous shepherds who used their authority to bind and not to loosen, nor even less should I curse rather than bless those in whom God's words through the Prophet Micah are fulfilled: 'Eat the meat of my people and break their bones.'For this reason, we see their state as they have caused great losses for this pure path and for the excellent Christian faith. My intention as well, if it so happens, is for such as these to be separated from the other monks only in their abode and means of living, and to agree with them in keeping the three vows and the rest of the other rules, since they are under the obedience of one leader. If our intention is not achieved with them, then God has proof against the stubborn."<br /></p><p><b>Euthymius, Bishop of those Submitting to Rome (1702):</b> Some of the bishops rejected the harm that had come to the Church on account of the schism and arrogance stormed in their minds, so they wrote to Euthymius around 1694 so that he would be their leader and the flock would have one shepherd. Then an understanding was reached between Athanasius and Cyril and Cyril became the sole patriarch. His heart was set on hindering the activities of the missionaries and not facilitating their interests. He refrained from sending to the sultan recognition of the priests who befriended the missionaries and worked under their guidance. Athanasius went back on what he had promised Rome at the beginning of the affair. In 1700, Clement XI (1700-1720) took charge of the See of Rome. Euthymius wrote to congratulate the new pope and renew his submission. On February 24, 1701 he composed a new letter in which he explained the situation in the Patriarchate of Antioch and requested to be the "vicar of the pope in the East" in order to give him the authority to recognize Catholic bishops outside his diocese. He mentioned the desire of the metropolitans to install him as patriarch of Antioch and he attached the document that they had signed, but he said that he had little reach and could not accept their request because he was subject to "the authority of the Muslims." Therefore he only sought "the authority of the <i>dhimmis</i>."</p><p>The Propaganda Fide studied Euthymius' request in a session held for this purpose on December 6, 1701 and accepted the metropolitan of Tyre and Sidon's request for a period of seven years by a decision brought before the pope. Clement XI accepted the congregation's decision and ordered that it be acted upon and the following message was sent to Euthymius:</p><p>"To <i>sayyid</i> Euthymius, metropolitan of Sidon and the <i>Rum</i> in all the Patriarchate of Antioch where there are no Catholic bishops: On Wednesday, July 19, 1702 in the regular audience of the revered father assistant, the Most Holy Father granted, according to what was presented to him, to the aforementioned petitioner these rights for a period of seven years, such that he may in no way exercise them outside the boundaries of the aforementioned patriarchate or in dioceses in which there are Catholic bishops."<br /></p><p><b>The Book <i>al-Dalala al-Lami'a</i> (<i>The Shining Proof</i>, 1710): </b>The Jesuit father Michel Nau resorted to writing in order to convince the Rum to obey and submit to Rome<b> </b>and during the time of the Patriarch Macarius he composed a book entitled <i>The Argument of the Holy Roman Church for its Orthodoxy and Right Worship</i>. The Orthodox fathers were not convinced by this, particularly the monks of the Holy Sepulcher. At the beginning of the 18th century, they translated into Arabic a letter by Zacharias, bishop of Adana, in defense of the holy traditions, explaining Rome's program and revealing the secret falsehoods of its manner of action. They then distributed it in the territory of Antioch and it was on everyone's tongues and was circulated about. On June 10, 1704, Euthymius wrote to the Propaganda Fide saying, "The schismatic members of the eparchy of Jerusalem have prepared the book of Zacharias, the bishop of Adana, which is filled with blasphemies against the opinion of the Church of Rome. They have translated it into Arabic and published it in our country, in the jurisdiction of the See of Antioch, to spread the poison that is found within it." Euthymius adds that he undertook to write a book that "elevates the honor of the Holy Roman Church and puts her opponents to shame." He asked to be supplied with the writings of John Cariafili [<i>?</i>] refuting Zacharias, the refutation of Neilos [<i>Kabasilas</i>] of Thessaloniki, books by (Cardinal) Bessarion, the metropolitan of Nicaea, the books of Demetrius Kydones, and the book of Pierre Courfois [<i>?</i>] about the service of the mysteries and purgatory because they were necessary for him. Euthymius sent his manuscript to Rome and it was approved by Cardinal Barberini and so "The Shining Proof between the two poles of the Universal Church, containing the agreement of the Eastern <i>Rum</i> Orthodox Church with the Universal, Western Church of Rome and their unity in one opinion and one Christian faith" appeared in Rome in 1710 with a subvention from the Propaganda Fide.</p><p>It was distributed and so in 1712 the oikonomos of the Church of Aleppo refuted it in a letter which, as it appears, remains in manuscript. This oikonomos was known to Euthymius as "someone with knowledge, keeping the rites of the <i>Rum</i> perfectly, supporting and defending them." The book <i>al-Dalala al-Lami'a </i>attracted the attention of the Orthodox patriarchs and metropolitans and they mention it in the excommunication that was issued in 1718 against Euthymius and those who strayed with him, because he "composed books on his own and drew on testimonies as he saw fit and attributed them to the Holy Eastern Church."</p><p><b>Euthymius Gets Ready: </b>Euthymius issued commands according to whim and in September 1713 observed that "the eparchy of Antioch is good soil in need of workers" and that its patriarch, Cyril, was "a man lacking knowledge who hates the Roman Church" but he did he did not dare to offer offer obedience before the patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria. He believed that the bishop of Saydnaya, Gerasimus al-Shami, was "a man at God's gate, his holiness is a measure of wine and the wine remains in his cell, Christ be pleased with him;" that the bishop of Maaloula and Qara was "a recalcitrant, heretical Cypriot;" that the bishop of of Baalbek was "a Cypriot with good intentions, if God blesses him with a teacher he might agree with everything we want;" that the bishop of Homs was "hapless in religion and this world;" that the bishop of Hamat was "a Cypriot strong in unbelief and in insulting the religion of the Church and of us. For two years, he has been present with us in activities of his. We honored him and gave him abundant charity and advised him as much as possible. From that day, he ceased the insults but he remains in his unbelief;" that the metropolitan of Beirut "previously believed in the Church and honored and glorified the Church of Rome. For this reason, we conferred upon him some charitable support and invited him to Sidon. We explained to him the shortcomings and the error that has befallen the Church of the Rum after the schism;" that regarding the bishop of Tripoli "some of the missionary monks have testified that he is Catholic, but I have not discerned any signs of Catholicism in him. Perhaps he had confessed the truth under the influence of a certain hope and when the hope was lost, he returned like a dog to his vomit;" that the metropolitan of Lattakia was a "heretical Chiot, ignorant of religion. He barks and snaps with heresy without being aware of it;" that regarding the Patriarch of Aleppo [<i>i.e., Athanasius Dabbas</i>] "he is known in Rome as a Catholic and is known to me as a climber [<i>? مساقل </i>];" that the metropolitan of Adana was "an insolent Cypriot, an enemy of God and His Church;" that the metropolitan of Diyarbakir was likewise a Cypriot, that the metropolitan of Erzerum was from its <i>eyalet</i> and the metropolitan of Cyprus was from the <i>eyalet</i> of Erzerum. It is well-known that this traffic was widespread at that time and existed on both sides.</p><p>In this way, Euthymius, Rome's only bishop in the dioceses of Antioch, attempted to attract bishops to Catholicism with methods that might not all be legitimate. As for the Jacobites, attracting them was far-off in his view "and would be more attainable through force." Here it should be remarked that true unity is not achieved through money and force, but through the Holy Spirit and love, which does not seek for itself and does not think ill, but takes its time, accompanies, trusts and is patient.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-53231009908570642902023-09-11T05:23:00.002-04:002023-09-11T05:23:17.685-04:00Bp Constantine Kayyal: The Rich Young Man<p><i>Arabic original <a href="https://archtripoli.com/Karma/2023/August/27">here</a>.</i></p><h2 style="text-align: center;">The Rich Young Man</h2><p>"What should I do to inherit eternal life?" This is the question that every person who aspires to a good life asks, in order to attain the crown of holiness.</p><p>The young man in today's Gospel reading is no different from other young men who wish to live a good life, and this desire and longing for a good life is planted in us because we were created in the image and likeness of God.</p><p>This is because Jesus waits for all of us. No matter what questions, cares and worries we bear, He wants to hear them with love. He is neither a psychiatrist nor an ethics professor, but rather Lord and Savior, because He is all love and only gives love.</p><p>Since doing good deeds and works of mercy does not in itself mean avoiding sin, you must go beyond all these things and follow Jesus, who waits for you. You must become free of your concern for yourself, of your selfishness, of every earthly thing, follow your Teacher and be a living bridge that connects God and people.</p><p>Here Jesus focuses on the commandments that order our relationship to our neighbor, among them worship, which requires two things: the first is with regard to God and the second with regard to the neighbor.</p><p>In order to proceed towards the kingdom, you must be free of fornication and preserve your life and the life of your neighbor. Otherwise, you are infringing on another's possession. You must be committed to the orphan and honor your parents and support them. The young man responded:</p><p>"I have done all this since my childhood. What do I still lack?"</p><p>So Jesus said to him, "Sell everything you have and come follow me."</p><p>That means, get rid of everything and follow the Lord. Join Him and commit to the path of perfection. But on account of his heart's attachment to what his hands possessed, the young man went away sad.<br /></p><p>Therefore, live a life of giving, so that you may feel true happiness. Do not be like this young man who was attached to his wealth. Trust that everything is possible with God and He alone is able to help you, support you and lift you up to Himself.<br /></p><p>Yes! The young man went away sad like any person living on earth, while the Christian is a person created for heaven. It is true that the Christian lives on earth, but he is not of the people of the earth. He is a heavenly person born from above, born in water and the Spirit. His concern is heaven and his mind is on heaven.<br /></p><p>His faith is translated into good deeds that benefit others so that he may inherit eternal life. But here we must be aware that we do not inherit eternal life while we are sitting in our places, but rather when we are active and act in love, because the kingdom of heaven does not come to us ready-made. The kingdom is taken by force and we must rightly deserve it.<br /></p><p>This is eternal life. It is not in obeying the laws and rules and keeping the divine commandments, for the Ten Commandments have no value if word is not attached to deed and if man is not the purpose for which these commandments exit.<br /></p><p>Dear reader, always remember the Lord's words in his famous Sermon on the Mount, "<span class="text Matt-6-20" id="en-NKJV-23303"><span class="woj">Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.</span> </span><span class="text Matt-6-21" id="en-NKJV-23304"><span class="woj">For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."</span></span></p><p>Our only treasure is not in banks, in income or in possessions, but rather in heaven. This treasure is good works, mercy and love for one's neighbor. It is faith in God and acting according to His will so that we may inherit the desired kingdom.</p><p><b>Bishop Constantine Kayyal</b></p><p><b>Abbot of the Patriarchal Monastery of Saint Elias, Shwayya</b><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7687886961771238263.post-69298788942069792132023-09-07T07:20:00.000-04:002023-09-07T07:20:01.264-04:00Fr Jack (Khalil): The Transfiguration in the Teaching of the Apostle Peter<p><i> Arabic original <a href="https://archtripoli.com/Karma/2023/August/13">here</a>.</i></p><h3 style="text-align: center;">The Event of the Transfiguration in the Teaching of the Apostle Peter</h3><p>We read in the first chapter of the Second Epistle of the Apostle Peter a passage that summarizes our steadfast faith in the Lord Jesus as God and Savior and how we act according to His calling us and choosing us to be a chosen people and holy nation for Him.</p><p>God has promised us that in His kingdom we will be partakers of the divine nature and He has given us everything for life in knowledge of Christ.</p><p>On the basis of this profound knowledge and deeply-rooted faith, we flee the corruption of lust which is in this world, we expend every effort and offer in our faith virtue (2 Peter 4-5) so that we may bear fruit for the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.</p><p>The Apostle Peter does not stop reminding the faithful of the necessity of remaining steadfast in virtue and truth.</p><p>Truth, in the language of the Bible, is God's will, which we do not disappoint if we rely on it as the path for our life.</p><p>The Apostle is eager to remind because he feels the approach of his departure from this world and the end of his mission of sharing the good news of what he witnessed with his own eyes and heard himself from Christ.</p><p>The Apostle had already informed them verbally of his having beheld the greatness and glory of Christ-- that is, His divinity-- but he repeats the account of the transfiguration that he witnessed on the holy mountain in the company of James and John, because of the importance he attaches to this event on a personal level.</p><p>We thank God that we have in this passage an additional narrative of the Transfiguration alongside the narrative of the Gospels, which makes for multiple testimonies, confirming the historicity of this event according to the standards of historians.</p><p>Nevertheless, believers do not need every letter written about Jesus to be confirmed, "for prophecy never came by the will of man," as the Apostle Peter says.</p><p>The event of Christ's divinity showing forth before the eyes of His apostles is a sign of power and proof of the never-ending life in Him.</p><p>The Apostle Peter looks at this event as a lamp shining forth in a dark place. That is, he walks in life following the light of this event, until daybreak.</p><p>Followers of Christ in every time and place must remember these things in order to struggle in virtue and persevere in truth.</p><p>The showing forth of Christ's divinity, His cross and His resurrection from the dead, unlike Greek mythology and the mythologies of ancient peoples, are not "fabricated myths" where we do not know who saw them or who reported them. Rather, they are established events that were witnessed and reported by servants of the word and eyewitnesses to them.</p><p>We believe that "holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" and they reported the glory that they saw and the voice of the Father which they heard, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased."</p><p>This beloved Son is the truth in which we abide by faith, love and virtue.</p><p><b>Archimandrite Jack (Khalil)</b></p><p><b>Saint John of Damascus Institute of Theology-- Balamand</b><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0