Fr Touma (Bitar): Holiness and Sainthood: Fr Elias Morcos

 Arabic original here.

Holiness and Sainthood: Fr Elias Morcos

A saint isn't someone without sin. So he is not a "good person". The Teacher already affirmed that no one is good except for God! A saint is a repentant sinner. In repentance, there are two fundamental things:

A repentant person is someone who is aware of and knows his sin, not only those that he previously committed, but also those that he is committing now. This means that sin is not limited to a certain act, a certain idea, or even disobedience to a certain commandment. Sin is a continuous existential state. Man lives in sin so long as he does not live in love! Of course, sins can appear in deviant behavior, a stray thought, a distorted sense or things like this.

But what does it mean for sin to be a continuous existential state? The inner being is the heart. It is man's central point. It is what makes a person himself. It is you. It is yourself. Your identity is present in it. It is your spirit. It is the deepest thing in you, out of which your intention and all your purposes come, what defines your goals, to which everything returns, as though it squeezes out the sap of everything that comes to you, with or without your awareness. Thus the focus of the light within you is the existential state that you are in.

Sin, as a constant existential state, exposes that God's love is not within you. Perhaps it does not expose you in front of people, but it exposes you in front of your Lord, first and last. Despite this, if I ask, existentially, "What is my sin?," you have the only true answer: there is no love in me! I do not mean by this that I do not love, but that God's love "is not in me" so that I may love with God's love. And if I do not love with God's love, then my love-- if I claim it-- is for myself and from myself and thus is a shortcoming.

But how can I discern whether my love is from God or from myself?

So long as my love is from myself, I feel as though I have achieved my goal and come to be without sin. But if my love is from God, I experience in the deepest and most painful way what sin is. Sin appears to me as harm to the beloved! My sin, whether yesterday or now, is set up before me, at every time and in every situation. Or, in the words of the Prophet David, "My sin is always before me." It is only within this framework that the reality of the Chosen Apostle Paul's words may be understood: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first" (1 Timothy 1:15).

It is worth pointing out that the recollection of sin does not stop with forgiveness, but becomes more painful the more one grows in the love of God. Nothing is more painful than to wound the beloved! This, by your Lord's dispensation, is so that one will not forget his sin, so he will not return to it. God forgives, of course, but He does not forget and He does not want us to forget... for our own good!

The second fundamental thing with regard repentance is that repentance is more than return from sin, whatever that sin may be. Repentance is a constant path in which one seeks God's love in obedience. One does not seek only to repent, but all the more so, one seeks to be repentant. If one sins, one returns from his sin. But if one is repentant, then he constantly seeks love as his own breath.

How can obedience in the relationship with God make love grow? Obedience is the path of effacement for the sake of the beloved, so that he may appear within us. Not my will, but thy will! This is the mystery of perfect existence in perfect self-concealment. Your face, O Lord, I seek! My existence comes to be in you, not in myself. You become the object of my desire. It is you that I seek. This is the mystery of God! The mystery of love! The mystery of His being love! The mystery of the Holy Trinity! Man was created to be an icon of this mystery. Therefore, obedience is greater, in a certain sense, than love. Not love as existence that creates, but love as an unseen existence, completely hidden, in which you seek not yourself, but Him, your Lord. If this were not the case, then "Life for me is Christ" would not mean that obedience is the desire for unity in the Spirit. Not for Christ or in Christ, but Christ Himself! "I in them and You in Me... just as You, O Father, are in Me and I in You."

Obedience in sin is subservience, estrangement, dominance, oppression, something repulsive! While obedience in love is something else entirely: trust, certainty, surrender, and then peace, joy, the realization of existence and eternal life.

So a saint is a model of repentance!

Is Fr Elias (Morcos) a saint in this sense?

Canonically, this is in principle declared by the Holy Synod of Antioch. And this is the tradition as it has come down to us.

Nevertheless, in the deep sense of holiness, without the slightest doubt Fr Elias is a saint.

Four things bear witness to his repentance: his tears, his prayer, his poverty and his love. Assuredly, his tears permeated everything. He acquired them through struggle and toil, through putting his sin and shortcoming before himself at all times, through putting himself below others, forcefully, and then, through his persistence! It does not escape me that he acquired him first of all by God's grace. It is no exaggeration to say that no one crosses the threshold of the kingdom without tears. These are not the tears of emotions or what belongs to the soul and body. These are existential tears. The deep inner heart is in pain: for oneself, for others, for God Himself because we do not love Him enough! For His love, for His kindness, for His gentleness. One who does not cry for God does not know Him!

Among the sayings of St Isaac the Syrian: "He who is able to weep for himself for an hour is greater than one who teaches the entire universe. And he who discerns the depth of his infirmities is greater than one who beholds the angels."

Fr Elias wept as he breathed. He stood at prayer and tears welled up. They flowed quietly. He heard of someone's pain and wept. Like this, automatically. Spontaneously. Without effort. With ease, his heart ached.

He would laugh, joke, chat and play like children then, after a few moments, if he stood to pray or if someone asked him to pray for them, he would find himself in a different existential state and would weep. Strange! His tears were always present. Like something normal in his daily habits. He would appear like everyone and at the same time it was as though, in his being, he was easily moved on another level, steadily, like someone who had no connection to what was around him.

And what should I say about his prayer? His tears revealed the identity of his prayer. He prayed like someone going out from the world into the world. Prayer was always his desired dwelling-place. He was aware that a son of Adam is called to become an instrument of prayer. His concern was not with the form of the prayer, but with standing, in the heart, before the Most High. For him, being a monk is for praying. Prayer was the groundwater of all reading, writing, working, thinking, sowing, building and relationship that he undertook. He wept to pray and prayed to weep. The value of everything that came or was brought to him was for it to be a source of prayer and a scope for prayer. Therefore, his eye was not on anything but to abide in God's eye.

If I had to talk about his poverty, I would say one thing about it: According to him, wherever there was a trace of a possession, there was no place for a monk or for God in his heart. His ragged sock stayed ragged for years. As for the broken chair and the shaky table, he did not think to repair them and was not even feel that there was anything strange about them being in the condition they were in. Nothing here was what he was seeking. "Your face, O Lord, I seek." He accepted everything with its faults and didn't pay attention. According to the image of his Teacher, he wanted to be: "You are of this world but I am not of this world." He accepted. He didn't seek anything. He was content with everything. When he was given, he took. If he was not given, he did not seek. He gave. Things were asked of him or were not asked of him. A little or a lot had the same value for him. Poverty, with him, is concealed by silence. It is not an object of study, but an ordinary part of life with God.

And his love? His heart broke over people's pain, suffering and hardship. In contrast to the monastic way of life, he sought to visit and console people. He would go from house to house. Friendship for him was a holy obligation. He did not avoid what other people considered to be an annoyance. His prayer motivated him to be with people, not to avoid people. The time, for him, was a time of suffering and people need consolation.

Fr Elias was a monk, but not necessarily like other monks in his style. He combined strictness in how he treated himself with compassion for people and animals. He was free in his conscience, easy in his affections. He was not harsh with anyone. He was very merciful. He did not burden anyone by causing him to feel sin. His purpose was to lighten people's loads.

Most of what Fr Elias taught me is that the Lord is near and that it is always possible for you to start anew. But let know one injure the beloved! The pain of sin is in its seed. Your Lord weeps for you! The important thing, O servant, is not to hurt yourself.

Fr Elias was an outstanding teacher, a school of the heart. Therefore, he appeared in my eyes as the image of Antioch, formed by the convolutions of these lands.

Do not forget us, Abouna Elias, even if we have forgotten you! Your prayer is our provision.

Archimandrite Touma (Bitar)

Abbot of the Monastery of St Silouan the Athonite-- Douma, Lebanon

Sunday, July 30, 2023

Fr Elias (Morcos): Come and Abide in Us

 Arabic original here.

Come and Abide in Us

The purpose of Pentecost is in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, as is known. It is the desired end, perfection, the purpose of everything... It is the importance of God's "presence" for us in every sense of the word, in that personal, existential bond between Him and us, in Him and in us, in love and unity, we strive for Him and we await Him as a gift... without which, our life truly has no final, eternal meaning.

"Eternal life is for them to know You, who alone are the true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

The knowledge that is meant here is complete, perfect knowledge in the scriptural sense. That is, intimate knowledge, union and marriage. It is a mystery whose occurrence we await and which, at the same time, we venerate. Consequently, it is something extremely simple: it is the presence of the Beloved and knowledge of him, knowledge that moves from the dry, outward, social level to the personal level, to the level of being and the heart... the openness of perfect love...

"Come and abide in us"

The beginning of everything is prayer... but it is the neglected aspect in our life. Our religion is a religion of the inner heart, a religion of the Spirit, a religion of life in God: "You are in Me and I in you."

"Come and abide in us"

"It is not I who live, but Christ lives in me."

"If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."

"If anyone keeps my words, We will come to him and make Our abode with him."

Hence the Jesus Prayer, which is like breathing, which is like partaking, partaking in the name of Jesus. If not, do we live with God? With whom do we live?

 Our God, love, is the Trinity... That is, He is completely mutually-exchanged love. Each of the three hypostases exists completely in the others as existential love and therefore God the Trinity is one God.

We say at the Divine Liturgy: "Let us love one another that with one mind and one heart we may confess: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity consubstantial and undivided." That is, the only way to confess the one God, the Trinity, is for us to love one another. We confess Him so that we may be in harmony with Him and love each other, and so that we may be in the image according to which He created us. When we truly love with all our being, we experience the life of the Holy Trinity, if one can say so. When a young man loves a young woman with all his being, he loves God, all humankind and the entire universe.

The commandments all flow, in their result, into the channel of love. The purpose of "judge not" is for you not to be negative, not to distance yourselves from each other, thus distancing yourselves from love. So too with "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not lie" and "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

Sins are sins and passions are passions because they annihilate love and so distance us from God. Keeping the commandments without love is dull, insipid, meaningless. It is in vain. Therefore existential love is connected to purity and limpidity: "He who loves his brother abides in the light" (1 John 2:10). Turbid love is not true love.

The whole of the Christian life takes place, or should take place, under the banner of renewal: for you are "those who have followed me, at the renewal of all things." The new man is one who is constantly renewed in his striving in the Lord and toward the Lord, whose life has no end. Let everything have a new face, for the Lord is in it.

Love is unceasing motion... love must be renewed at every moment.

Laughter... a Parable

So, I'm not sure how I didn't know about the blog Fara7 al-Kiameh until just now, but it's a wonderful resource for (Arabic-language) info about MJO activities and general Orthodox life in Lebanon. Lots of pictures! 


Arabic original, here.



One day, the monks Elias Morcos and Touma Bitar met, and it is a rare thing for two such spiritual peaks to meet. One of the young people wanted to take a picture of this distinguished meeting. He set the picture up with everyone smiling, but Father Elias was grumbling to himself. The photographer asked them not to move in order to get the picture right. He noticed that Father Elias was complaining, so he asked him what the reason was. Father Elias replied, "How can you frame the picture right when you're standing in front of two people with completely opposite heights? The first one is rising up and the second is going down." The two fathers laughed, and Father Touma bent down a little bit so that their heights would even out. Everyone was cracking up, and if the photo could talk, it would tell the story of a funny stance and two monks who are not bothered by shortness or height because they are great in the presence of God...  but through contrition and humility.

Fr. Boulos Wehbe Remembers Fr. Elias Morcos

Continuing translations of reflections on the life of Fr. Elias Morcos published in Majallat al-Nur. This one is by Fr. Boulos Wehbe, priest of Sts. Michael and Gabriel Church in Mazra'a, Beirut and a professor at Notre Dame de Louaize University. My apologies for the roughness of the translation of this very personal, heartfelt reflection. The rather more eloquent Arabic original can be found here.


Abouna Elias as He Is, Abouna Elias as I Knew Him

“I had not seen God with joy like I did on the day that He brought Abouna Elias back to Himself…”

I felt this at the moment that I learned that Abouna Elias had reposed in the body and this expression hasn’t stopped repeating itself in my consciousness until I started writing these paragraphs, two months after that moment. To return to that moment, I felt then that God was speaking to me, opening His arms to embrace me: ‘I joined with people during your stay with them, and now that you are with Me in My house, I pour out upon you all the compassion and love that I have while you sit on the throne of sonship that many have not deserved.’

However, I also felt at that moment a sensation that brought much relief, which at first seemed strange: I only wept a certain number of tears for him and a feeling more resembling numbness crept in, a feeling of happiness in the certainty that Abouna Elias is still present, that indeed he is still strongly present in my life, in the life of the faithful and of the Church. This feeling was confirmed when I was near his pure body, during the funeral prayers and afterwards when he was carried to his body’s final resting place. During the prayers, I looked at him and he appeared to be sleeping (the expression used by Jesus to describe Lazarus’ repose), just a nap nothing more. When he was brought out of the church, I did not say goodbye to him because I did not feel that he was leaving me, leaving us. He left, but he is still present…

And what do I feel now? Exactly the same feelings. Abouna Elias is still present with an intensity that does not diminish, a presence that did not fade while his body had a pulse (that is, in a more usual expression: when he was still alive. And he is still alive). I did not always manage to see him in the manner that I hoped to, but I was always close to him, asking for his prayers from afar (without necessarily talking to him on the telephone, only by means of prayer), calling out in prayer: “Abouna Elias”, Lord Jesus have mercy on me (forgive me). And now I will continue to repeat the same prayer because his intercession, which sheltered me during his life, will continue to shelter me during his bodily absence. I feel precisely that Abouna Elias is still present in my life, full stop.

I can declare in all simplicity that Abouna Elias had a presence, a savor, an impact in my life more than any other person. He had and still has the greatest impact in a great deal of what he said and in a great deal of what I took from him without his speaking. His example was my greatest teacher. I stored away his words and movements, his tenderness and mirth and blessings within my consciousness, my heart, my intellect, my being, since I had the greatest teacher and the sweetest balm. I cannot describe this in words. He taught me that love has no horizon and no limits, that love does not know judgment, that love is the password. He loved me as I am, and did not “philosophize” about me or judge me once! One time, after a bitter confession, I waited for what he would say to me. When he opened his mouth, he said, ‘We are all sinners. I ask you to remember me in your prayers,’ and that was it. I felt that I had been forgiven and that my sins had fallen away from me. He accepted me as I am even in my darkest days and would often tell me, ‘you are my comfort.’ When I saw him for the last time, carried on a bed from the hospital to the monastery, he said to me in French, ‘Thank you for everything.’ He was thanking me? What should I say?

He hid his humility with mirth, and it increased because he hid it. Can I speak of his presence? Yes, I have spoken of his presence, but it is not from my own words, but rather from what is stored away within me from God’s presence, His knowledge, His compassion, His love, and ardent love for everything connected to Him. He taught me command of the liturgy and God’s companionship in others. He taught me to be on intimate terms with the Bible through his discussing it in preaching, meditation, and wonder. Despite all this, he always acted according to the Lord’s teaching that the Sabbath was made for the service of man, not man for the service of the Sabbath, and so I often saw him go against convention or go outside the texts or what is customary and is usually done for the sake of others’ joy. I have many examples of this sort.

Joy was his basic characteristic, joy coming from daily surprise at God and His children, at being, at everything that God created. Once he told me a joke about a person who was always felt surprise when he got up from sleep. One day he didn’t feel this… and he was surprised! Is it possible to imagine what Abouna Elias experienced from the moment he entered the monastery, all the difficulties and disappointment, exile and bitterness? And is it possible for one to measure what this giant was able to accomplish? A single person the size of a church. He spread revival in the See of Antioch and in Antiochian Orthodox monasticism. He wrote, lectured, and represented the See in forums and conferences. He traveled and toured, sought sons and daughters, kept vigil and labored. He toiled and was not exhausted. Thousands were spiritually reborn at his hands. He consecrated hundreds and guided hundreds. His light shined beyond the boundaries of his Church. He became a father to those who came from east and west to the bosom of Abraham.

And so, what he accomplished was a heritage in a single person and what he established remains as long as his spirit remains alive in the consciousness of those who became disciples at his hands, who drank from his provisions, who walked in his footsteps. He is a saint from Antioch, an icon engraved in our hearts and in the depth of the Church’s being, a pillar of the fire of compassion and a bridge to Jesus’ love.

You will remain, father, a beacon for me by which I will be guided through the darkness of days, and in which I will rejoice through life’s journey. You reside in me like perfume resides in a rose and I will continue to savor you despite the thorns’ pricks and the roughness of the path because you are engraved on my heart, my mind, my memories, my present, my tomorrow, constant and active. This happened since I met you as a student preparing to enter university and it will continue by your supplication, God willing, until I meet you in the bosom of the Lord Jesus, whom you loved to your last breath.

Fr. Pandeleimon Farah Remembers Fr. Elias Morcos

The newest issue of the Orthodox Youth Movement's magazine is dedicated to recollections of the recently departed abbot of Deir el-Harf, Fr. Elias Morcos. I will translate a few of them, I think, as together they provide substantial testimony to the profound impact of Fr. Elias and the monastic renewal which he was a part on the contemporary life of the Church of Antioch. Fr. Pandeleimon Farah is abbot of the Monastery of Hamatoura. The Arabic original can be found here.




Blessed is the one You have chosen and accepted, O Lord, his memory is unto generations (Psalm 64:4)


After the repose of the esteemed Father Elias (Morcos), doyen of monks in all of Antioch, I wanted to recall some of his qualities that deserve attention that attracting souls to him so he in turn could draw them to God, like the expert fisherman who understands that his role is to work with God for our salvation.

Thus I will not write about what I heard from people, who are truthful in how they describe him, but rather about what I myself saw and experienced of him, leaving others open to talk about their own experiences. The first thing that attracted me to him was his apostolic simplicity that caused him to flee worldly glories, even though he was of a high station in his society, and to live in simplicity of heart and way of life, with humble clothing, food, and speech, such that he taught with his silence as much as with his words, without affectation or platitudes. He was precise in his analysis. He did not harm the listener, even if he chastised him. He did not exaggerate or use hyperbole, because he spoke in order to comfort and not to dispel hope. His hope was continuous, tied to faith and love.

In his meditations, he was precise, with an enthusiasm that did not allow for boredom. He encouraged his listeners and readers, spreading hope, because the people are our people, children of our Church that we must teach with love, patience, and faith.

He loved all, even at the cost of his rest and his schedule, despite the fact that he was precise and orderly. He loved them and them with patience and joy. This shows his humility and self-renunciation.

His clinging to the lord in deep and ardent prayer manifested itself the most at times of hardship and bitter crises, whether in the Church or the nation. At those times, you would find him calm, inviting you to prayer and reliance on God. He was not proud and made no account of himself, but he bore all in his heart, in imitation of his teacher Jesus, lifting them up in prayer with submission and contentment.

Work for him was first, with prayer and service, then the teaching came to you, "blessed is he who works and teaches" (Matthew 5:19).

He would surprise us with his reaction and response, as though he anticipated what was going through your mind. He always insisted on the connection to Christ, because he was sure in his experience of this two-way motion (as you strive to draw near to Christ, you find yourself being drawn to him. The more you draw near to the other, the more rooted you become in Christ.)

If one day I went to him to complain about some injustice, he would return me to myself to complain about myself instead, and so I was freed and could rest. He very often made us laugh with his habitual wit (a sign of his lively intelligence), replacing of our destructive grumbling with self-examination. Because he relied upon God, he spread within us this hope that is not afflicted with disappointment.

Finally, I will write about his pushing those with talents to work and to employ them in service of the Church. He helped every person to find himself within the Church through work that serves all.

To put it simply, he bore the heritage of the first monks and he honestly epitomized in himself philocalic experiences. I remember an article of our beloved Metropolitan Georges (Khodr) in an issue of our magazine "al-Nour" with the title "What We Need is a New St. Anthony" and there we had this obvious trailblazer answering the call in silence and humility.

I also must extol his graciousness in supporting Antiochian monasticism with prayer and work, and likewise his attracting the youth and children to the Church through his honorable behavior, his writings, his translations, his listening, and especially his simple and cogent solutions.

I call out to the Lord who granted him this qualities and virtues to make his memory to be eternal, joining with the joyous in heaven with abundant truth, and that He will grace us in the Church of Antioch with more like him so that the gift will continue to abound and the harvest will continue to be blessed, amen.

Fr. Elias Morcos on Revival in Antioch, 1964

This is a talk given by Archimandrite Elias Morcos in 1964. The Arabic original, from Majallat al-Nour, the magazine of the Orthodox Youth Movement, can be found here.

The Revival as a Return to God

The Church in her human reality is always something less than her perfect true reality. We must always surpass our human weakness within her in order to arrive at her prefect true reality. This is the revival: this constant effort, this continuous movement from the way we are to the way we should be.

The Church is the salt of the earth and completes the work of Christ in the world. The Church works, she is present, for the sake of the salvation of the world. We can say that she is the center of being, in her its destiny is achieved. The world corrupts and ages, but the Church is continuously renewed for the sake of the salvation of the world. But if the salt is corrupted, then how can it be salty?

The Church is the group of those who believe in the Lord Jesus and who have united around him to live the life of the Gospel, the life of God. They have no concern except to follow the Lord’s teaching and to follow in his footsteps. The group is in the world and for the world, but at the same time it is not of the world. From the beginning, from the ascension of the Lord to heaven, it is oriented toward the age to come, awaiting the return of the heavenly bridegroom and hastening him on. From now on, it lives in the last days, in the fullness of time, “it uses this world as though it doesn’t use it, and buys as though it doesn’t own.”

However, the coarseness and weakness of human nature weigh upon the Church, since she is made up of humans. Sins and failings and imperfections remain, and doubles will continue to remain as long as human beings are human. But the Lord has born all things and taken them all upon himself, and as a result there is no barrier.

The Lord Jesus has passed over our life and has cleansed us and taken us from weakness to strength and from corruption to life. In order for the Church to continue to be the Church, she must follow the Lord and cleave to a continuous Pascha, surpassing the self and constantly passing from the weight of the world and its many varied temptations to the victory of the Lord and the purity of the divine life.

Everything that exists is in a state of motion and progress. Vegetable, biological, and social life, the sciences… everything grows and is perfected. And how much more so the spiritual life. It is progress and growth, an infinite reaching toward God’s life. For that reason it is said that, “one who looks back is not suitable for the Kingdom of Heaven.”

The temptations of this world are many and varied. They take an evil appearance just as they take a good appearance. All of them are clear in their result, in that they are a stopping in the world, a stopping along the way, a stopping in the exodus, the passing over, Pascha. They are an obstruction to God’s eternal Pascha. The journey to God is a journey without end. Every stopping along it leads us to the corruption of the world.

We acquire upright faith. We build churches. We hold services and prayers. We celebrate the feasts. We have all the richness of Orthodoxy, its liturgical and spiritual and ascetic treasures… But naturally, if all this remains external it is not enough. There is no doubt that the journey towards God is at its base an inner striving of the heart, in God’s being a God to us, living, personal, inner. It is said, “If you want to kill God, then kill man’s inner life.”

No, the Church is not in the externals, it is in the heart. As the Bible says, “One who does not meditate in his heart has no knowledge and no understanding” (Isaiah 44:19). We know this, but in our habitual action we very often forget it. We know that the Church is not in the stone and not in the chants and not in the institutions and what is visible, but all its beauty is from within. If we are satisfied with the externals and we do not understand them and do not enter into their deep, living meaning, then the externals become something dead and superficial that comes between us and God rather than leading us to Him. It turns into an absolute value or an obsession or a reason to be distracted from God. Then we confuse the externals and the true, unseen glory, forgetting the words of the Bible, “On that day the glory of Jacob will grow lean” (Isaiah 17:4).

But if we transcend appearances and desire to live and inter into the essence, there is a Gospel that we must follow. There are teachings and divine commandments that we have abandoned for the sake of the commandments of men. Unfortunately, not only have we abandoned them, but often we have mocked them and we have mocked those who keep them. The logic of the world here is the logic of wealth and lust and it glorifies a lifestyle that dominates our entire life. No, the Church is not in hearing the Gospel but in applying it. If we do not maintain our chastity, our poverty, our humility, our mercy, then where is the Church? If we do not desire righteousness and purify our hearts and we do not do good works, but rather tear each other apart, then where is the Church? It is something difficult and ineffective? But have we tried? Have we experienced the Lord’s commandments to the very end in order to taste their sweetness and effectiveness? Or have we preferred the bitterness and emptiness of the pleasures of the world to the very end? The Lord put a great deal of emphasis on keeping his commandments and he strongly urged this in his final sermon since he knew that “the prince of this world” will prevail over hearts. But if we are of the Lord and not of the prince of this world, should our faith not start from this? Does our Lord not deserve that we trust in his word and try to act according to his commandments so that we will be blessed? “If one loves me, he will keep my word. If you keep my commandments, then you shall be established in my love.”

But the Church herself is not commandments and ordinances so much as Love of the Lord and striving for his face. For this reason we do not understand the commandments if we see them as dry ideas, devoid of their marrow and their taste. Virtue is not in actions but in the movement of the heart within the actions. It is through actions oriented toward the Lord, cleaving to him and longing for him. How can the Church be commandments when the Lord said through the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept. Line upon line, line upon line. Here a little, there a little. For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, to whom He said, ‘This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest,’ and, ‘This is the refreshing’; yet they would not hear. But the word of the Lord was to them, ‘Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,’ that they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught” (Isaiah 28:10-13). And to the youth who had kept the commandments from his infancy, the Lord said, “You lack one thing.” That one thing remaining is love: to long for the Lord in our heart and to desire him alone.

This is not for some people and not for others. It is a call, it is an invitation, to all. All of us are called to love the Lord with the love of life. All the life of the Church is the life of invitation: “’I have redeemed you and I have called you by your name. You are mine,’ says the Lord to his people” (Isaiah 43:1). Likewise the Apostle Paul says, “We also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power” (2 Thessalonians 1:11). The people without a calling and love is “a people ravaged and plundered,” the Bible says. The Church does not exist without the visible Church, the Christian people. Our religion is a religion of incarnation. If we do not embody it, if we do not follow the Lord, then where is the Church? “Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power” (1 Thessalonians 1:5), says the Apostle, but out of habit and the passing of time, we often take the words without their true meanings, the shadow instead of the person and thus we mock the Lord. We might hear the call and do something. We might go for a part of the way. We might be given the grace of prayer if we ask for it, the fathers say. But if we do not do all the Lord’s will, there will come a day when we discover that we have no faith and no forgiveness. “Woe to the person whose reputation surpasses his reality,” says Fr. Silouan. But the Lord says, “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God” (Revelation 3:1-3).

In order for us to truly follow the Lord, we must have force and self-emptying. Jesus came to be crucified, not to talk. If talking was enough, then Jesus would not have been crucified. He said, “He who wants to follow me, let him take up his cross and follow me.” This total commitment, the commitment of the cross is doubtless painful and scandalous. But it is the only way in the Church. Pain here is a birth pang, and a birth pang is the beginning of any existence. We have no existence in the Church and the Church has no existence in us without the cross of commitment and its pains. But those who abide will be wiped out: “They slept a heavy sleep,” says the Psalmist, “and they found their hands empty” (Psalm 72:18). The issue is the issue of true commitment that we plunge ourselves into. We do not love our life to the point of death, a commitment in which we break the barriers of our freedom like breaking the sound barrier: in our freedom, we empty ourselves of our freedom in order to follow the Lord, and only then does he open before us the way into space.

This ultimate commitment is what makes the Church the Church. Everyone can contribute in this commitment to the Church of Antioch, each one in his field and surroundings and profession, fathers and sons according to the gift of the Lord. It is within the ability of fathers to offer the best and most precious gift, if the Lord wills. I would like to repeat to you what a Coptic monk, a friend of mine, wrote, “O people of Antioch, the voice of the Lord to you, as from the voice of the great prophet Samuel: offer, offer the good vessels that you have, which through all these years have become empty. Offer them so that they can be filled with God’s oil. Do not be stingy with your sons and daughters, so that they can become your vessels of salvation on your day of hardship and so that they can become oil of joy and gladness in the time of war. The Lord will be pleased with you and your times of relief will come from him. Do not say enough, enough. The world looks upon you. Yes, enlighten once more, O Lord, Antioch so that the world will be enlightened by its light as in the first days.”

As for those who have truly committed to the Lord and have gone into the great depths—and among you are many of them—they do not stop along the way. If we have done something, we are not satisfied with it, as every stopping is a fall. No one is better than another. “All the Church is a Church of penitents. All the Church is a Church of mortals,” says Ephrem the Syrian. We have not yet begun to repent. We have not struggled against sin to the point of blood. If we stop and we haven’t bled, then we have not brought it to the end and commitment, the revival, and the Church become mere expressions and empty clichés that we repeat in order to quiet our conscience. Our giving must increase in order to remain. May the spirit’s be to vigorously move forward and not stop short like Lot who remained alive while his wife looked back and died. We must renew our will like the stroke of a hammer in the soul so that it arrives at the profundities of existence. “So the craftsman encouraged the goldsmith; He who smooths with the hammer inspired him who strikes the anvil, saying, “It is ready for the soldering”; then he fastened it with pegs, that it might not totter” (Isaiah 41:7). The danger of lethargy confronts us at every moment, “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:30-31).

 

Brothers, if we understand the revival on this basis, and we walk in it with faith, steadfastness, and alertness, by His grace, He, for the sake of His glory, for the sake of His love and the Love of His holy Church which is above all and for all, He will allow the revival to be. At that point the revival will be at its true extent, proceeding after the Lord risen from the dead. Then each one of us will rise from his death. In an eternal exodus we shall follow him in his Pascha, he whose life has no end, amen.

Met. Georges' Eulogy for Fr. Elias Morcos

The Arabic original can be found here. A photo gallery of Archimandrite Elias' funeral service can be seen here.

Living is the God before Whom I Stand

When the patron of our brother Archimandrite Elias, the Prophet Elijah, was resisting the world for the sake of God, the world rejected God and was worshiping idols. That poor, hungry prophet stood before the king and queen of his land in order to say to creation, “God is alive.” No one comes before God, not kings and not great men. There is one being and He is God and I am His servant and His messenger before this people that entrusted me with prophethood.

The young Elias Morcos, living in Lattakia, saw that laxity was afflicting our people who are called to be Orthodox, and so he wrote to a friend of his and said, “We are called to aright this people who consider themselves Orthodox.”

And so, from the very beginning of his spiritual awareness, he struggled for the sake of Christ without any visible sign of vocation, without a robe, because he was unable to bear this holy people decaying in their sins and ignorance. He wrote to his friend who was on summer vacation, “We want to aright the Orthodox people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with His love and His obedience, because we want our people to be a church. Because we want the people to shine with the Spirit, to burn with divine love, yearning for the One who announced His longing for them, who was nailed to the wood.”

Elias Morcos understood two things about this topic discussed in the letter. He understood that he was called to adorn himself with the virtues and that all our brethren are called to this, because in the past we grumbled and gossiped and criticized the spiritual leadership and we thought that through this chatter we would revive our people. That was before this young man realized that the issue is for you to put the passions to death in order for it to be right for you to speak. It was not enough for him to purify himself. That on its own would be closing himself off. He had to purify others through the love of Christ. And so he reached out to others in order to be able to reach the Lord. After this, he saw that we have a model for purification and this is monasticism. It is not that this is the sole means of purifying oneself, but it is the means that the Church considers to be the model. And so he came to this place and he prepared for the arrival of some of his comrades from Syria and Lebanon. It became clear that the monastic community is not by itself the model, but rather the individual person who trusts Christ is the model. He read—and I hope that we all become readers of the divine Word, because our Church is the Church of the Word that comes down to you from God as the second hypostasis of the Holy Trinity: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

It occurs to my mind that when an institution is founded that it needs organization, cultivation, management, writing. However, the Christian who lies before us in the presence of his Lord understood that there is no institution- there are people who love God, who desire to be purified, who struggle as they go up the ladder or virtues. Because if you see that God is everything, as the Prophet Elijah saw, then you aspire to be like God. It is not enough for us to be human beings. We want to be gods. This is in the books of our Fathers.

This person who was immersed in humility wanted to be beloved of God, to be a witness to the Word, to extend it to his brothers, to not be credited with any virtue he may have, to be broken to the very end, because humility is for a person to become effaced in the presence of God. Because, as the Apostle says, someone who thinks he is something is nothing. Elias Morcos thought he was nothing and this is why he was able, through great difficulties, to gather this small flock in this high place. He was able by the grace of God, hidden by his humility. He did not read his humility. People read him. We read him ourselves. This is why he wanted to be the model of a saint. This is the only thing that is worth striving for.

This did not happen without his constant joy. He felt Christianity to be joy. The joy, however, requires continuous struggle. You cannot go up to the divine presence unless you are convinced that you are nothing. He disciplined as he needed to and he reminded them that they have no partner except the Lord Jesus. He continued to struggle until the very end against the spirit of laxity, but always without judging anyone… If you are beloved of God, He always exempts you from judging before you yourself are judged. The leader of this house, Father Elias, was exempted from judging. And so it is right for us to ask his intercession in the hope of his resurrection and our resurrection and eternal life.

This place renewed men’s monasticism. He and his comrades, those who have departed and those who remain, they wondered, “What is monasticism in its profundity, in its truest theological definition?” It is for a person to cleave to eternal life, as though this world with its delights and pleasures did not exist. From now on we will fight, relying on God, we will fight so that from now on God will take our eyes up to the Kingdom…

He tried to think this and to practice this with humility, with dedication, with brokenness, with indescribable love for his brothers and for all of us, constantly bowing before the face of God. So we would come to this monastery to learn humility, to learn that there is no one besides God, and to proclaim this to the mighty ones of this age and to become simple and content with God’s grace and God’s Word.

God will say to him without judgment: You have made yourself faithful over a small group of men, a small group of monks, and I will put you over many. Enter into the joy of your Lord so that the people will believe that there is nothing other than the face of God and that if we cleave to that face, then we are imitating Archimandrite Elias, even if it is only to a certain degree. We long for that great vision, so that we might die for right belief and for giving right glory, preparing here to enter into the heavenly Jerusalem. May God be with you all and strengthen your hearts.

Reviving Antiochian Orthodoxy in 1945

The Arabic original, which appeared in a 1945 issue of Majallat al-Nour can be found here.


Who We Are



The Orthodox Youth Movement believe that a certain decadence exists in the Eastern Orthodox Church and our belief in this decadence is the primary reason for our founding the Movement. The Movement does not mean by "decadence" only the weakness that we observe among the Orthodox groups with regard to numbers, money, and administration and the divisions that cause them. Rather, in our eyes the first true decadence is a distance from the Christian life, the tendency to regard religion as old formal customs, and the tendency to treat all problems of the community as administrative or personal problems and not as problems of the Church. The true decadence is that one that sinks down to the foundations of the Church and shakes her structure. We only see the obvious cracks on the walls, while the illness is hidden. When we came to realize the existence of this decadence and made our intention to deal with it, we found ourselves standing before two paths: one path is the path of intense external work, with public and charitable manifestations that would lead to fame and glory. The other path is the path of silent internal work, with no manifestation other than that of modesty and isolation, which leads to nothing... except unending life. One path is the path of material prosperity for the community with sophisticated schools, luxurious churches, and the community having a powerful political bloc. The other path is the path of personal spiritual prosperity that is not concerned with schools or churches except to breathe into them its living spirit. It does not consider the community to be a 'bloc' but instead a vineyard planted by the right hand of that Lord that must grow in every direction through the watering of the Spirit of the Lord. One path is the path of matter and the other path is the path of the Spirit.

So we took the path of the Spirit and from that time our Movement has taken on the coloring that distinguishes it. It believes that internal reform must precede external reform and that personal, individual, revival must precede the social revival of the community. They tell us, "organize the community so we can work." And we respond, "work first so that the organization can happen." A small example: imagine our mother Orthodoxy as a sick woman, laying on a bed, pale and without strength. How do we cure her? Do you put powder on her face to hide her pallor and then get her up out of bed and put her in a carriage to take around town, to fool people, to fool yourselves that her health and her strength has come back? Or do you cure her with rest and tranquility and with healthy, nutritious food so that she will slowly return to her natural color and her true powers?

As for rest and tranquility, it is so that we may contemplate Orthodoxy and sense its beauty. As for healthy and nutritious food, it is examining the Holy Gospel. By this cure alone will life creep into the body of the community and it will live by Orthodoxy. Our entire goal is defined by this expression: "that Orthodoxy may live." We want to live Orthodoxy. That is, for us to tremble in our very core at its mention and contemplation and that this Orthodoxy is our entire life and we will no longer think or feel or work except through its spirit. This is our basic principle and our primary goal that if it is achieved, everything after it is achieved.

However, we do not want to treat the illness alone and we do not believe that we can treat the illness alone. If the community is sleeping, then the entire community must arise. If the sick man does not himself want to be healed then no one can heal him. We do not want to work outside the community, but within it and for its sake. The entire community must feel what we feel and think what we think. The entire community must drink up the Spirit of the Church and enter into the stream of renewal. This is why we have not hesitated since the foundation of the Movement to invite everyone to participate in it. Our conscience will only be at rest once the Movement spreads throughout the community and the community becomes the Movement and the Movement the community. Or rather, there will not be a community nor a movement, but only the universal Orthodox Church.

Our march together towards the desired goal can only take place under spiritual authority and its fatherly guidance. We do not work apart from the clergy and the Church but rather we work within the Church and according to the Spirit of the Church. Our Movement is not a church within the Church: it is a full part of the Church. Our Movement has strong sympathy and esteem that it has attained since the very beginning with the leaders of the Holy Church of Antioch and each center works under the guidance of the bishop of each diocese.

We also want to cooperate with all the clergy who understand us and wants to cooperate with us. We attach great importance to this cooperation.

Our movement has walked until today on this path and in this spirit, relying on God and doing His service and the service of His Church a selfless and sincere service with all the means available to us.

It has now become a strong institution whose influence in the life of the community is recognized and whose word seeks to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. This sound of this word has been answered in valleys and on mountaintops, from center to center and in all areas of the country.
It creates a new atmosphere that connects hearts to it and ties them together in one life.

And so a great song is heard in all the Orthodox countries, a song of hope, a song of awakening and work, a song for the Orthodox youth to seize their life in order to arise with it to the height of glory and perfection. Then this frown will leave Christ's face, when He looks upon sluggish, dilapidated Orthodoxy and sees it strong and prevailing. This frown will cease and the smile of being well-pleased will take its place. So let us work for that smile. We must give our life for its sake.

Marcel Morcos,

Head of the Lattakia Center

The Orthodox Youth Movement in 1944

This article was originally published in the magazine Lumière in 1944. The French original can be found here.



Taking Stock

by Marcel Morcos [the future Archimandrite Elias]

It is good, from time to time, to take stock of things, to stop for a moment, in the shade and in solitude... and to look backwards towards the fog of our yesterdays, this past that we have made with our own hands, and then to turn back forward towards that mysterious horizon where our tomorrows are hidden, our future that we will also make with our own hands.

The Orthodox Youth Movement includes several hundred members grouped together in all corners of Syria and Lebanon. Sections have been meeting for two years and this tireless regularity is not a small thing.... An office and study groups, conferences and bulletins, general and public meetings, church music and choral meetings, sponsorship and family assistance.... sermons and scholarly work...

The gear seems to be well-organized, well-oiled... And we are not always unknown. Our existence is necessary for all-- this is a blinding reality. We could justly be proud of this!
However this does not work adequately! ... This does not work because we have not yet understood the true meaning of the Movement because we are only attached to the bark, to what is outward, to what is vain. Because number has never been quality, because these meetings are not progress, because regularity is not life, because resolutions are not acts, because to be known is not to exist.....

What is needed is a spirit for this machine, that is that the Movement works in us, within each one of us, in that secret abyss where no eye is expected an no vanity is useful. What is needed is for us all to embark upon a new life, a life that is everywhere radiant and always present: a life in Christ. The first Christians, the true Christians, they neither looked at numbers nor success. They lived unknown, hidden by the anonymity of a life of slavery or in the catacombs. They did not proclaim their king in the street- they lived it. They did not show off their charity- they practiced it. They did not call themselves Christians- they were Christians!

And this is the Orthodox Youth Movement, to revive early Christianity, this integral Christianity, repressed in the night of time by so many miseries and shames, from decadence to decadence, from hostility to indifference!... What is needed is to break through this indifference and to fully fall in love.

I would like to say again that "we are pursuing a religious renaissance on the level of the community and beyond. We do not want to awaken the vain and proud feelings of a wealthy and respected community, but rather the vocations and the reality of a felt and lived religion. We would not applaud a successful and sensational public meeting as much as a profound and collected Lenten retreat." The day when we can each call ourselves disciples of Christ, on that day the Orthodox Youth Movement will have succeeded. The day when we all have the life of a Christian, and not the life of the Orthodox Youth Movement, on that day the Orthodox Youth Movement will indeed have worked. Time should work for us and not against us. Monotony and banality do not exist for a deep faith and a sincere love. We shall persevere despite and against everything. Now that vacations have started... dispersed, we will regroup. In calm and rest we will regain our energy and we will prepare ourselves to again take up the struggle, the struggle against ourselves, so that the year that is coming will be for the Movement more active and younger than ever, and for us, more Orthodox than ever....

An Interview with Fr. Elias (Morcos) from 2010

The Arabic original, from issue no. 4, 2010 of Majallat al-Nour, the magazine of the Orthodox Youth Movement, can be found here.


A Walk in the Spiritual Garden of Fr. Elias (Morcos)




Who is Fr. Elias (Morcos)?
Archimandrite Elias (Morcos) is the former abbot of the Monastery of St. George, Deir el-Harf. Prior to tonsure his name was Marcel Morcos. Before becoming a monk he worked in the Syrian Department of the Interior first as chief of service in the province and then as qaimaqam of Safita. He was a trustworthy and conscientious civil servant who combined his duties with Christian piety.

How was the situation in the Church in Lattakia prior to the founding of the Movement?

The general situation was good. Most people prayed and went to the liturgy, however education was weak prior to the founding of the Movement.

With personal piety and serious commitment to the Church, we came to be concerned with the general situation of the Church and we saw that a revival was necessary. So the revival movement began, and we started to gather young people together and to teach and to follow the practices of the Church.

How were your connections to Jibrail Saadeh and Georges Khodr?

We had a strong connection with Jibrail Saadeh and Georges Khodr (the current metropolitan of Mount Lebanon), however it was circumstances of studying that led to a single knowledge and effort. Studying law in Beirut led to the cooperation and common effort led to the particular work of revival.

Does monasticism in Antioch have any particular characteristic? How was the Monastery of St. George, Deir el-Harf founded?

Monasticism in Antioch did not have any particular characteristic other than true zeal and sacrifice for the sake of realizing it. Thus the Monastery of St. George was founded in Deir el-Harf. Met. Elia (Karam) adopted us and offered for us to go to the Monastery of St. George which was empty. We remained there with strong enthousiasm by the grace of the Lord. Monasticism was not very difficult in Deir el-Harf, but it did not attract a large number, perhaps because of our lack of expertise in the work, but the experience was original and profound.

How do you rate the Movement today?

Naturally, things have changed and the Movement does not keep the first spirit. This is something natural. We have been freed from various passions as much as possible, while lust of power has not taken us captive. Perhaps this is because it was a covenant blessed by the will of God. The abbot of the monastery did not act according to passion, by the grace of God, naturally.

How do you see spiritual fatherhood?

As for spiritual fatherhood, I see that it was weak on account of a lack of previous experience. But God provides help.

Is the angelic life really realized in the monastery?

The angelic life must be lived in the monastery, but everything remains a holy effort according to the measure of human ability. The conditions for acceptance into the monastery are first of all a profound desire for life and for liberation from everything, and this is a rare grace.

What is your message to members of the Movement?

My message to members of the Movement is the necessity for constant renewal in continuous practical endeavor and in the life of the heart that is conscious and open to the work of God. The current dispute between the hierarchs and the members of the movement is real to a great extent. However, new heirarchs have started to change this, by God's grace and blessing, and we pray that this change will continue.

What are the monastery's resources?

The monastery's resources come from selling books, icons, honey, and pine nuts, as well donations.

What are the monastery's publications?

Our publications are well-known and they deal with the personal spiritual life, liturgical life, spiritual guidance, and the lives of saints.

Fr. Elias (Morcos) Falls Asleep in the Lord

Arabic original here. For more information about Deir el-Harf and its role in reviving Antiochian monasticism, see here.




Carol Saba commented on Fr. Elias' repose saying, "I do not know if we should pray for him or if it's better to continue to ask him to pray for us! Perhaps both at the same time for one who is voyaging towards the contemplation of the Face of faces, Christ risen from the dead!"





The former abbot and spiritual father of the Monastery of St. George, Deir el-Harf, Archimandrite Elias (Morcos) fell asleep in the Lord the morning of Wednesday, February 23. Prayers for the repose of his soul will take place on Thursday, February 24 at 3pm in the monastery.

Fr. Elias Morcos' name in the world was Marcel. He was born in Lattakia on May 5, 1921. He completed his studies in law at the Beirut School of Law in 1942. He worked as a lawyer for a short time, then became an employee for the region of Lattakia. Marcel had various positions until he wound up at the Ministry of the Interior. After a while, he resigned and went to the Monastery of St. George in the village of Deir el-Harf in Mount Lebanon. He established the monastic brotherhood of Deir el-Harf and became its spiritual father and abbot. He translated well-known books, including The Ladder, The Triads of St. Gregory Palamas, and The Fundamentals of the Spiritual Life. He also wrote works such as Christian Worship, In Order to Understand the Liturgy and to Live It, and Thoughts on the Bible, among others.