وجبـــــــة روحيـــــ(†)ــــــــــة يوميـــــــــة

[Mary Naeem]

إِنَّنَا عَبِيدٌ لا نَفْعَ مِنَّا، فَقَد فَعَلْنا مَا كانَ يَجِبُ عَلَينا أَنْ نَفْعَل

إنجيل القدّيس لوقا ٧ / ١٠ – ١٧

قَالَ الرَبُّ يَسُوعُ: «مَنْ مِنْكُم لَهُ عَبْدٌ يَفْلَحُ الأَرْضَ أَوْ يَرْعَى القَطِيع، إِذا عَادَ مِنَ الحَقْل، يَقُولُ لَهُ: أَسْرِعْ وٱجْلِسْ لِلطَّعَام؟
أَلا يَقُولُ لَهُ بِالأَحْرَى: أَعِدَّ لي شَيْئًا لأَتَعَشَّى، وَشُدَّ وَسْطَكَ وٱخْدُمْني حَتَّى آكُلَ وَأَشْرَب،
وَبَعْدَ ذلِكَ تَأْكُلُ أَنْتَ وَتَشْرَب. هَلْ عَلَيهِ أَنْ يَشْكُرَ العَبْدَ لأَنَّهُ فَعَلَ ما أُمِرَ بِهِ؟
وَهكذَا أَنْتُم إِذَا فَعَلْتُم كُلَّ ما أُمِرْتُمْ بِهِ فَقُولُوا: إِنَّنَا عَبِيدٌ لا نَفْعَ مِنَّا، فَقَد فَعَلْنا مَا كانَ يَجِبُ عَلَينا أَنْ نَفْعَل».

التأمل: “إِنَّنَا عَبِيدٌ لا نَفْعَ مِنَّا، فَقَد فَعَلْنا مَا كانَ يَجِبُ عَلَينا أَنْ نَفْعَل”

لو كانت السلع مثل الخيرات الطبيعية جاهزة للاستخدام النهائي، كأن الأشجار تنبت فرش المنازل..الثياب..الأطعمة..المنازل..السيارات..لعاش الانسان حياته وحيداً..
لكن لو استفاق أحدنا من نومه وأراد أن يحضر فطوره بنفسه، مضطراً أن يذهب الى الحقل لإحضار القمح استعداداً لتصنيع الخبز “من الطحن الى العجن فالخبر..”، وجلب الحليب من المزرعة بغية تحضير الجبنة، وقطف حبيبات القهوة من أشجارها واستكمال كل مراحل اعدادها… طبعا سيجد نفسه مضطراً أن يقول: وداعاً يا فطوري!!!
أي أنه سيبقى جائعا”..
الشكر للرب أن الناس يتعاونون في انتاج السلع الجاهزة للاستخدام النهائي، لكن الجوع لا زال موجوداً…
العالم جائع الى روح الخدمة، الى خدمة تخرج من القلب بفرح ورضى وامتنان..
العالم جائع الى أمهات يَخدُمن .. ليس الى أمهات جائعات الى كل شيء سوى القناعة..
العالم جائع الى آباء “رجال” في الخدمة.. ليس الى رجال يدّعون الخدمة..
العالم جائع الى البسمة.. الى الكلمة الطيبة..الى الاعتذار..الى الشكر.. الى التقوى..
العالم جائع الى خدام مذبح يكسرون أنفسهم لإشباع جوع الكثيرين..
العالم جائع الى شبيبة أحلامها نظيفة..خلّاقة..مبدعة.. تعيش الحب..
العالم جائع الى طفولة تعيد الكبار الى أحشاء الحياة ليتعلموا ثانية كيف يكونون الكبار!!!

[Mary Naeem]

هل تشعر بالوحدة والكآبة؟

إليك هذه الصلاة الشافية لشفيع الحالات اليائسة التي لا أمل فيها

يصاب الجميع بالاكتئاب خلال مراحل حياتهم المختلفة. سواء كان الاكتئاب شديدًا أم لا نعلم جميعا مدى قساوة الشعور بالوحدة والعزلة. شعور قد يجرّنا إلى نفق من الظلام ولكن لا بد من التّذكر دائمًا وجود ولو خيط رفيع من الأمل في آخر كل نفق.

الخبر السار هو أن الله يريد أن يخرجنا دائمًا من حجرتنا المظلمة كي نتمتّع بنوره المجيد.

وفيما يلي صلاة قوية للقديس يهوذا تداوس وهو قديس الذي غالبا ما ينسى على مر التاريخ بسبب اسمه (باللاتينية اسمه “يهوذا” لكنه ليس يهوذا الإسخريوطي). القديس يهوذا تداوس هو شفيع الحالات اليائسة التي لا أمل فيها.


“يا أيها القديس يهوذا تداوس صديق المحتاجين أنا غارق في الحزن. أفتقر للسعادة والأمل وأكافح لإيجاد النور الذي في روحي.

ألتفت إليك يا شفيعي الذي أثق به. خذ بعيدًا هذا الفراغ وألم قلبي المكسور. برحمتك ساعدني كي تقودني دموعي إلى مكان أجد فيه السلام في قلبي.

لقد نسيت منذ فترة طويلة خير عالم الله. إشفني… أتوق لرؤية النور وللشعور بالفرح. أغمرني بالنور ولا تتخلّى عني.

ما إن أتلقى هذه النّعم أعدك بأنّي سأشاركها باسمك. آمين. ”

[Mary Naeem]

ماذا في داخل تمثال القديس شربل في فاريا؟

تمثال القديس شربل الأكبر في العالم، الذي ملأ الدنيا وشغل الناس، منذ ارتفاعه على أحد جبال فاريا الشاهقة، والذي احتفل بتبريكه في 14 أيلول 2017، ليس مجرّد تمثال شاهق ، فهو وبحسب ما ذكر موقع أمّ الله يحتوي على ذخائر ثمينة من جسد القديس شربل تمّ وضعها عند أقدامه.

[Mary Naeem]

لِيَكُنِ الأَعْظَمُ فِيكُم كَالأَصْغَر

إنجيل القدّيس لوقا ٢٢ / ٢٤ – ٣٠
قَامَ بَيْنَ الرُّسُلِ جِدَال: «مَنْ مِنْهُم يُعَدُّ أَعْظَمَهُم؟».
فقَالَ لَهُم يَسُوع: «إِنَّ مُلُوكَ الأُمَمِ يَسُودُونَهُم، وَالمُتَسَلِّطُونَ عَلَيْهِم يُدْعَونَ مُحْسِنِين.
أَمَّا أَنْتُم فَلَسْتُم هكذَا. بَلْ لِيَكُنِ الأَعْظَمُ فِيكُم كَالأَصْغَر، وَالرَّئِيسُ كَالخَادِم.
فَمَنْ هُوَ أَعْظَم؟ أَهُوَ المُتَّكِئُ أَمِ الخَادِم؟ أَلَيْسَ المُتَّكِئ؟ ولكِنِّي أَنَا في وَسَطِكُم كَالخَادِم!
وَأَنْتُمُ الَّذينَ ثَبَتُّم مَعِي في تَجَارِبي،
فَإِنِّي أُعِدُّ لَكُمُ المَلَكُوتَ كَمَا أَعَدَّهُ لي أَبِي،
لِتَأْكُلُوا وَتَشْرَبُوا عَلَى مَائِدَتي، في مَلَكُوتِي. وسَتَجْلِسُونَ عَلَى عُرُوش، لِتَدِينُوا أَسْبَاطَ إِسْرَائِيلَ الٱثْنَي عَشَر.
التأمل: “لِيَكُنِ الأَعْظَمُ فِيكُم كَالأَصْغَر..”
تقول الطوباوية الأم تريزا: في إحدى الأمسيات، عندما كنتُ طفلة صفيرة، جاء أحدهم إلى بيتنا و أخبرنا عن عائلة هندوسية فقيرة عندها ثمانية أولاد لم يأكلوا شيئاً منذ أيام.
أخذت صحناً من الطعام وذهبت إلى تلك العائلة فرأيت الجوع في عيون الأطفال. إلا أنَّ الأم أخذت الصحن شاكرة فوضعت نصف ما فيه من طعام في صحن آخر وخرجت لتعود بعد قليل والصحن فارغ. فسألتها ما فعلت بالطعام فقالت وهي تُشير إلى باب جيرانهم : “وهم أيضاً لم يأكلوا مثلنا منذ أيام”. فرجعت إلى بيتي وقد تعلمت الكثير.
وتُضيف الأم الطوباوية: “تسألوني متى ينتهي الجوع في العالم؛ وأنا أجيبكم: عندما نبدأ، أنت وأنا، بتقاسم ماهو موجود”.
أعتقد ان الام تريزا قرأت جيدا هذا الانجيل عدة مرات في حياتها وعاشته الى آخر لحظة، بعد أن شبعت هي من إشباع الجياع لا زال الجياع ينتظرون من يريد أن يكون كبيراً..

[Mary Naeem]

Epiphany

Today the Sun of Righteousness Sheds His Rays Upon the Whole Inhabited World

Upon Galilee of the Gentiles, upon the land of Zebulon and the land of Nepthali, as the prophet said, a great light hath shone, even Christ. To Those that sat in darkness a bright dawn hath appeared as lighting from Bethlehem. The Lord born from Mary, Sun of Righteousness, sheds His rays upon the whole inhabited earth. Come then, unclothed children of Abraham, and let us clothe ourselves our Him, that we may warm ourselves. Thou Who art a protection and veil to the unclothed, a light to those in darkness, Thou has come, Thou art made manifest, O Thou Light unapproachable.

[Mary Naeem]

Synaxis of the John the Baptist

(John 1:29-34)

From what we have heard in today’s Gospel, we see how simply and humbly John the Baptist tells the people that Jesus is the Son of God, the one that humanity has waited countless centuries for as its Savior.

“I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Holy Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is He’…And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” (Verses 33-34).

Clearly, John the Baptist does not present himself as a great person, but in humility speaks to others about what he has heard and seen. And in truth, he was no ordinary person. The angel of the Lord had announced to his father Zacharias that his child to be born: “he will be great in the sight of the Lord….He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:15). Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself will later say, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11). And in the Jordan River, as we saw yesterday on the Feast of the Epiphany, Jesus particularly honored John and gave Himself to be baptized by him.

So while John was so honored and exalted by God, he remained a humble servant of God and was not influenced by the importance of these events. The world was all about his way of life and focused on the wonderful things he did. Some even thought he was the Christ, the Messiah! But John answered them all and said, “One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose” (Luke 3:16).

And so John the Baptist stands before us, from the first Sunday of the New Year, as a wonderful example to be imitated.

First, in how we should talk to others about the Savior Christ. We can share from our personal experience our relationship with Christ, revealing what has moved us to believe Him, and love Him like no other in the world. We can also show what it is that draws us every Sunday to want to rush to His Home, His Temple, to meet Him, and worship Him. Let us open our hearts; trust Him in our lives.

And secondly, to have John the Baptist be a model in our behavior towards our brothers and sisters. We do not want to dominate or claim ourselves superior. We should seek to act humbly towards others and give them the proper honor, as John the Baptist did. This is what the Apostle Paul recommends: “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself” (Philippians 2:3). “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (verse 5) “who, being in the form of God” (verse 6) “took the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men” (verse 7). As we know, Jesus greatly humbled himself and washed His disciples’ feet too!

My brothers and sisters, if we behave in humility with others, our testimony of the true God will touch their souls; we will have peaceful relations with people and will be honored by our Lord. Christ Himself assured us: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12) to the heavenly Kingdom of God. Amen.

[Mary Naeem]

Holy sayings

THE BIBLE

It is a necessity to read the Bible every day. Then our spirit and mind is formed according the word of God. Our mind becomes accustomed to live according to the word of God, and when we live several years in this way, then slowly we start thinking within the Spirit of God’s commandments. It is truly amazing that even as small as we are, we can think similarly with the Creator of this world.

Elder Sophrony of Essex

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

The person who doesn’t have God in him, cannot love his enemies. This person acts with violence, the Christian does not.

Elder Sophrony of Essex

[Mary Naeem]

Sunday after Theophany

Sunday after Theophany

(Matt.4:12-17)

All the preaching of Christ and His Church can be summed up in only one word: repentance. As we heard in today’s Gospel reading, Christ began his preaching with repentance and he ended it up also with repentance. After His Resurrection, He commanded the Apostles to proclaim repentance in His name to all the nations. Jesus began His preaching in Capernaum of Galilee, and said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat. 4:17). Of course, in the beginning, repentance was preached to the peoples who did not know the true God and worshiped the creation, such as idols, the sun, the moon, the stars, the fire and demonic spirits. However, the Church οf Christ continues to this day to call upon its baptized members to repent. And this is because “we all stumble in many things”(James 3:2). “For who shall be pure from uncleanness? No one. Even if his life is but one day upon the earth” (Job 14:4). And “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Even the Great Apostle of Christ, St. Paul, comes to the point of saying that he is the first among the sinners, whom Christ has come to save (I Tim.1:15). My brothers, if the Apostle Paul had this opinion of himself, despite the fact that he succeeded in going up to the third heaven while he was alive on earth, then we can easily understand how much more we ought to feel our sinfulness!

There are many types of sins. We should know, however, that all sins, regardless of how serious they may be, they are forgiven by God. There is only one type of sin that is not forgiven: that is , unrepentance. Christ described this type of sin as a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (see Matthew 12:31). This is because unrepentance hinders the Grace of the Holy Spirit to act. Let us, therefore, make sure that we will never fall into this sin. Unrepentance is death and loss. He who does not repent, he does not understand neither his fault nor his sin, therefore he does not ask for God’s grace and he is not forgiven. Because God forgives those who feel their mistakes, and ask for divine grace. In other words, these are the persons, who repent.

Repentance is precisely this: to regret and be sad about all that you have done against God’ s will, in deeds, in words and with your feelings, and ask for forgiveness for your faults, trying with all your strength not to repeat them. Thus, by the grace of God and your spiritual struggle you will become a new man, you will rejuvenate spiritually and you will find salvation.

Unrepentance reveals a reckless person, while repentance characterizes a man who is really smart and sensible, who knows what his own eternal interest is.

My dear Brothers and Sisters,

Jesus Christ came down to earth in order to make us new men. Free of the devil’s passions and bonds. To be liberated from “miserable sin” and to be “fragrance of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:15). That is why He calls us to repentance. Let us therefore, repent, in order to approach Him more and more closely, so that we may become spiritually renewed and “put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4: 23- 24).

[Mary Naeem]

Holy sayings

THEY ARE IN PUZZLEMENT

The foolish people are angry because God doesn’t govern the world based on their logic, and the logical people are working continuously to get into the logic of God. It is very difficult even for the most logical person to understand why for one person things happen one way and for another person things happen differently; why the young person who desires to live dies, and the older person who desires death lives; why the pious person is tortured, and the one who doesn’t believe in God has a good time. Even the most holy of souls sometimes are in puzzlement in front of the enigmas of such facts.

St. Nicholas Velimirovic

YOU SHOULD SCORN THEM

The demons attack you with bad thoughts. Sometimes you even feel fear at the time of prayer. You should not be fearful of them but you should scorn them, and you should not stop saying the Jesus Prayer, don’t ever leave the Jesus Prayer. God will give you a lot of His Grace when you fight like that.

Elder Charalampos Dionysiatis (disciple of St. Joseph the Hesychast)

[Mary Naeem]

Sunday of Zacchaeus

(Luke 19: 1-10)

“And he sought to see Jesus” (verse 3).

Zachaeus, the chief tax collector, who was presented to us in today’s Gospel reading, was empowered by the Government authorities to determine and collect state taxes. This provided him with wealth and power. But his soul was empty. How can material goods satisfy his spirit? He had heard of Jesus and that He was interested in the good of all people. Even for the unjust tax collectors, like him. And Zacchaeus felt within him the strong desire to meet Jesus, to see Him in person, so that his soul might be relieved from feelings of remorse, because of the so many injustices he had committed! And one day he hears that Jesus is coming to Jericho, his city. Many others were also rushing to meet Jesus. However, many people had encircled Jesus, and as Zacchaeus was short in stature he could not see Him. But what does he do? Defying the ironic comments of the people when they would see him climb on the tree as a child, he calculates the point where Jesus would pass by and climbs on a fig tree to see Jesus as close as possible with his own eyes and so to meet Him, how He is!
By the way, do we contemporary Christian, have the desire of the tax collector Zacchaeus to get to know deeply who Jesus Christ truly is?
Have we shown an interest in studying the sacred Gospels carefully, in order to get to know Jesus exactly who He is? Do we really know how Jesus lived here on earth? Have we been interested in learning what Christ expects from us? Unfortunately, there are many people, who have the wrong impression of Jesus. They think that He is strict! That He asks for things which cannot be applied today by people. This shows a total ignorance of His words:

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”. (Matt. 11:28-29)

One may wonder how many people have understood that Christ, through His teaching, seeks to make people eternally happy. Christ Himself emphasized it during the Last Supper: “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 16:11). Just as the joy of Zaccheus that was full when he welcomed Jesus to his home and his life changed forever since!
My dear brothers and sisters, let us try, starting today, to get to know better our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let us not lose any opportunity that our Church offers in order to reveal to us His immense love, His protection, His help, His support and His guidance, which He willingly offers to us, as long as we ask Him for it. And He will also give us the joy, the true joy, that our Lord Jesus Christ secures us both in this temporary life and in heaven, where we will be deemed worthy to see Him “face to face” (1 Corinthians 13: 12), and indeed within His Divine Glory! Amen!

Pissidias Sotirios