We offer apostolic benediction, and benevolent prayers, to our brethren, His Beatitude Mor Baselius Thomas I, Catholicos of India, and their Eminence the Metropolitans, our spiritual children the venerable priests, monks, nuns, deacons and deaconess, and our venerated Syriac Orthodox people all over the world. May the divine providence embrace them through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, and St. Peter, the Head of the Apostles, and the rest of the Martyrs and Saints. Amen.

“Mar’an – a’tha. The Lord had come (and will come)” 1 Cor 6:22
“And those who were ready went in with him to the wedding” Mathew 25:10

It is a heavenly wedding when the victorious holy church is wedded to her groom and her redeemer our Lord Jesus Christ, at the end of ages.

How happy would be those who would share in this heavenly wedding. Yes indeed, in His first coming, the Lord did establish His kingdom on earth and called her, His church. And He delegated His apostles and disciples to shepherd her on His behalf He gave them authority to teach and preach so that the sons of perdition will become the children of His kingdom and active members in His holy church that He founded on the rock of faith in Him as “the Son of the Living God” (Mathew 16: 16), the hope of all generations, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, who descended from heaven and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and saved us from our three enemies: Death, Sin and Satan. He started His holy mission calling openly on all mankind to “Repent, for the kingdom of heave is at hand” (Mathew 4: 17), and He invited everyone to His kingdom.

The Lord gave us many parables in this regard. The kingdom of God is a fish net that caught many fishes, large and small, good and bad. The kingdom of God includes the righteous and the bad people on this earth. The Lord likened that to a man who sowed good seeds but with it tares appeared. To us, my beloved, it represents that in the holy church there are people who are true believers who stick firmly to the church constitution of faith and its doctrines and translates intogood deeds that a believer lives by. And there is also those who do not deserve to be called “Christians” and are not considered as Christ followers. They are tares planted among the seeds by an enemy who is against the owner of the field. When the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. Then the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares’? He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this’. The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?  ‘But he said, ‘No. lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest’ (Mathew 13: 24-30). In the church there are good and bad people. They both belong to and are members in the church until the day when the Lord Jesus comes again, a second time, in His father’s glory and His angels with Him to judge the world. He shall send His angels to separate the good from the bad.

The good shall inherit His heavenly kingdom and the bad shall be thrown to the outside darkness to inherit hell and worst destiny. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. We also notice in the parable of the ten wise and foolish virgins that the foolish ones, even though they were believers in the Lord Jesus as the Savior of the world and were awaiting His second coming, same as the wise ones, but they did not keep the oil of mercy, love and good deeds in their lamps. And when their lamps ran out of oil and were going out because they had no extra oil and couldn’t buy oil because the market were closed for it was late, the wise and ready virgins went in to the wedding and the foolish ones stood outside the door knocking with pain and sorrow but the door didn’t open but they rather heard the bridegroom’s voice saying, “I do not know you”. The door is closed and no more time for anybody’s repentance after the departure from this life because the bridegroom has already entered the wedding and those who were ready entered also with him. How miserable are those who even though are believers in the kingdom of God on earth, the holy church, and even though their lamps are lit with apparent faith, but they did not translate their faith into good works, the works of mercy that is described by St. James: “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27)

The Lord said, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (Mathew 12:7). And St. James the apostle said. “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? . . . Faith by itself, if it doesn’t have works, is dead” (James 2: 14 & 20). The Lord gave us the parable of the Good Samaritan in order to teach us to have mercy on those who need it. The Good Samaritan who heard the moaning of the victim of thieves while no one came to his help, he, the Good Samaritan took the risk and bandaged his wounds and poured the wine of his heart and the oil of his inner self, set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn. He paid two denarii on his behalf and said to the innkeeper, “Take care of him and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you” (Luke 10:35). The Good Samaritan was praised by the Lord who taught us that mercy is better than sacrifice. According to the parable, the Lord Jesus condemned the priest who passed by the wounded man and did not rescue him. He also condemned the Levite, or the deacon, who was supposedly serving the altar of God because he also heard the groaning, looked and passed by. The Lord praised the Good Samaritan although he was a stranger because he took care of the wounded man, proving that mercy deeds accompanied by faith find favor in the eyes of God. We should have mercy in our hearts that is proven by help and service to the needy, regardless of their religion, denomination or race.

Yes, indeed, the Lord Jesus gave us a great opportunity in His kingdom on earth to believe in Him and keep His commandments in order to inherit His heavenly kingdom. His wedding, for which He invited the whole mankind, that holy wedding starts by believing that He is the Only-Begotten Son of God, and showing this faith by keeping all His commandments, trusting that our life on earth, no matter how long it is, it is short indeed, and we shall depart when death comes, or it will end upon the second coming of Christ, in an hour we do not know as He said, “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into, Therefore, you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Mathew 24: 42-44). This readiness is the same readiness of the five wise virgins, by having good works and good faith we become His witnesses on earth because He is our Good Samaritan who descended from heaven and saved us from the thieves or Satan who try to lead us into temptations. If we believe him (Satan) as our first parents did, we shall lose the grace of God and shall be left half dead like the wounded man who fell among thieves and we shall be in need of the Lord Jesus, the Good Samaritan to save us, heal our wounds and take us into His holy church.

My beloved, when Jesus left our world, in flesh, after completing His redemption and went back to His heavenly Father and sat on His right hand side, He bed farewell to His disciples by lifting His hands and blessing them on the Mount of Olives. He ascended in heaven in His glorified body and the disciples were watching. A cloud received Him out of their sight. St. Luke who described the scene said that two angels appeared as two men in white apparel and said to the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). The disciples not only rejoiced for hearing about the second coming of Christ but they also worshipped Him and thus confessed that He was the “God who appeared in flesh”. They returned happily to Jerusalem and since that time the church represented by her disciples and fathers and the whole group of believers standing alert, looking upward toward heaven and awaiting the second coming of Jesus. In His first coming He redeemed us and defeated our enemies: Death, Satan and sin. He also blessed us by bestowing upon us the grace of adoption, the sons of heaven. But in His second coming, as we believe and confess in the Nicene Creed that we recite at the beginning and the end of the holy Eucharist, “the Lord shall come to judge the world”. St. Paul definitely believes in this truth and he preached it to the faithful as was received by the other apostles by the Lord. They taught us every time we celebrate the holy Eucharist, to say in deacon’s voice, ‘O Lord Jesus, we remember your death and we believe in your resurrection and we wait Your second coming. Have mercy upon us’. The early Christians and their followers used to greet one another by saying in Syriac-Aramaic, ‘Mar’an – A’tha – ‘Our Lord has come and shall com again. Yes we are awaiting with faith His second coming. St Paul says that if we are alive in flesh when He comes again, we shall be caught up with Him in the air after having our bodies glorified. If we had already slept in the Lord, our souls shall remain alive and we shall hear His voice and shall be resurrected and united with our bodies to inherit His heavenly kingdom.

How happy we shall be if we behave like the five wise virgins who were ready. We shall watch with them and await His second coming while our lamps are lit with good works. We shall be worthy to welcome Him with joy and shall enter with Him to His kingdom where we shall share in His wedding and shall celebrate. How happy we shall be if we are among that blessed group of people.

My beloved, Christ will definitely come again to judge the worlds. If we believe in His second coming and ready as the five wise virgins, then our lamps shall stay lit and we shall enter into His heavenly wedding and inherit His kingdom on the day when the Lord shall call upon the righteous on His right hand side by saying, “Come you blessed of My Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”. . . and He also says to the ones on His left hand side, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. . . .And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Mathew 25:34&41&46).

Dearly beloved, let us be like the five wise virgins and let us hold dear to our doctrine of faith and walk in the light of Jesus, in order to be filled with the flame of faith. Real faith is the one accompanied by good works otherwise it is a dead faith. And whenever He comes, He will find us ready, alert and awaiting Him with lamps full with oil. He shall invite us to go into His wedding with the five wise virgins and we shall enjoy His heavenly table forever.

May God accept your fasting, prayers and charity deeds. May He have mercy upon the souls of your beloved departed, and may He make you worthy to celebrate His glorious resurrection with spiritual joy, good health and prosperity. May His grace embrace you all, Amen. ܐܒܘܢ ܕܒܫܡܝܐ ܘܫܪܟܐ   Aboun d’ Bashmayo w’sharko (Our Father Who art in Heaven…), Amen.

Issued at our Patriarchal residence in Damascus, Syria
on the 21st day of January, in the year two thousand six of our Lord
which is the 26h year of our Patriarchal reign

We offer apostolic benediction, and benevolent prayers, to our brethren, His Beatitude Mor Baselius Thomas I, Catholicos of India, and their Eminences the Metropolitans, our spiritual children the venerable priests, monks, nuns, deacons and deaconess, and our blessed Syriac Orthodox people all over the world. May the divine providence embrace them through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, and St. Peter, the head of the apostles, and the rest of the Martyrs and Saints. Amen.

 The Lord Jesus said,

                 “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep” (John 10:10,11).

In chapter ten of the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus Christ summarized the ultimate goal for His Divine Incarnation through which He revealed the truth about His heavenly mission. The mission that He first declared when He entered the synagogue in Nazareth, “And stood up to read, and He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me, to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD. Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them: Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16-21). With this the Lord declared that the prophecy of Isaiah as was mentioned in the eighth century B.C. now has been fulfilled through Him. He was the only One sent to the world by God, the Father, to save mankind from the bondage of sin, death and Satan. He also explained later to Nicodemus by saying, “For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have ever lasting life” (John 3:16). But the false prophets who came before Him and proclaimed themselves as “Messiah”, were really those mentioned in the book of Jeremiah in the seventh century B.C. as spoken by God, saying: “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings” (Jeremiah 23:21, 22). Those words apply on the false prophets and fake Messiahs who appeared just before the start of the Lord’s holy mission on earth through His Divine Incarnation, and soon after, they led bloody rebellions that caused many people to perish, those people who were patiently awaiting the coming of the true Messiah. They were tricked by those fake Messiahs who, according to some Jewish elders, believed that the long awaited Messiah would come as a political savior. They were deceivers and thus were called by the Lord, “thieves” and “robbers”. The prophecy of Ezekiel, “Thus says The Lord God to the shepherds: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings but you do not feed the flock” (Ezekiel 34:2,3) applies to them. Those so-called Messiahs and wicked shepherds had caused the sheep of the Lord to perish, both spiritually and physically. But the Lord Jesus the True Messiah and the Good Shepherd truthfully proclaimed Himself by saying: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep” (John 10:10,11).

Yes indeed, He is the Word of the Eternal God as described by John the apostle in the beginning of his holy Gospel, by saying: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-14). He is the wish of all generations, the hope of all nations and the center of the Holy Bible from A to Z, from Genesis to Revelation, and the core around which all prophesies, symbols and signs proclaimed by true prophets sent by God and written in the books of the Old Testament rotates. All were fulfilled verbatim in the Lord Jesus Christ upon the fullness of time that God had set from the beginning for the Holy Incarnation of His Beloved Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. The timing was called by St. Paul: “the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4), and was declared by Archangel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel about five hundred years B.C, by saying: “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation of iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most  Holy” (Daniel 9:24). Also was proclaimed by the angel when he gave the message of incarnation to Virgin Mary, that He is Holy and shall be called the Son of the Most High. And He was described by St. Paul: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory” (1Timothy 3:16).

The goal for His Holy Incarnation was to save mankind from the most serious original sin and bring back the eternal spiritual life that was lost in paradise when Satan deceived Adam, the first man. In this regard, St. Paul said: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12), and he continued saying: “For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many…. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:15-17).

The Lord of glory summed up His holy earthly mission by saying: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10), and also saying: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16,17).

So, Jesus is the only true savior who descended from His Holy abodes and took flesh. He reconciled heaven and earth because He represents heaven and earth all together. He represents God against Whom Adam’s offense was directed, and He represents all sinners who inherited the most serious sin, and He became a sacrifice for us, “He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26). In this regard St. Paul said about God the Father: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). And thus, He became, by His own will, a sacrifice on behalf of Adam’s descendants, and He made us holy, righteous and gave us the gift of adoption, the grace by which we became worthy to inherit His heavenly kingdom. Those faithful believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, who accepted Him as their only savior, are: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:11-13).

Yes truly, the Lord showed the way to heaven and proclaimed Himself, the way, the truth and life. He proved the truthfulness of His mission through His heavenly commandments and by His miracles and wonders. He proved His authority on people and nature, and declared to the multitude that followed Him to the tomb of Lazarus that He is the resurrection and life, and that “whoever believes in Him, though he may die, he shall live, and whoever lives and believes in Him shall never die” (John 11:26). He declared His authority over all kinds of death: a) Death of sin, which is the separation from God, and that was abolished as Jesus accepted the true repentance of many. b) The natural death which is the separation of the soul from the body, and the Lord raised the dead and brought their souls back to their bodies. c) The eternal death which is the everlasting suffering in hell, and the Lord can give eternal life to whoever He wills.

That was clear when He described Himself as “the bread of life that came down from heaven”, and that bread is His Holy Body, and, “Whoever eats My Body and drinks My Blood, has everlasting life, and I will raise him on the last day” (John 6:54), that means: I shall save him from eternal death and give him eternal life.

Yes in reality, Jesus died for us on the cross and was buried in a new tomb. He rose from the dead on the third day with glory by His own power. He gave us victory over Satan, death and sin. In this regard, St. Paul wrote saying: “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). All we need to be worthy of living through Christ is to die with Him on the cross. St. Paul made himself an example for us by saying: “I have been crucified; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). The will of the Lord is to have His life being lived through all believers. His life in us should be manifested in our daily life as mentioned by St. Paul: “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27). This conduct requires the complete knowledge of the teachings of the gospel, knowing His holy will, keeping His commandments such as fasting, prayers and charity. And when we plan to do any work or take any decision regarding our spiritual or physical life, we must ask ourselves: what would Jesus do in that case? And we must act accordingly. This is when we feel that Jesus is really living in us. We abide by Him as He abides in us. We love Him from all our hearts, all our souls and thoughts, and love our neighbor as ourselves (Mathew 22:37-39), and stick to the golden rule set by the Lord, “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them” (Mathew 7:12).

The Lord came down from heaven to our world to give us abundant life, and He declared to us that He is the way, the truth and the life. We must walk the way He provided us with. We should believe the facts of faith that He gave even though our minds sometimes are unable to realize. He declared Himself as the good shepherd Who gives Himself or His flock (John 10:11), and He gave Himself indeed for us and redeemed us by His divine blood. How joyful we must feel to have our Lord Jesus Christ as our shepherd Who cares for us, Who makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us to the living waters, Who mightily guards us against the vicious wolves of Satan and his legions. Let everyone of us cry out in great faith saying with David, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. . . Yea, through I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” (psalm 23; 1-4). He is Emanuel and it translates: God is with us.

My dearly beloved: The great Lent is the best occasion for us to repent and come back to God with regret for our sins and transgressions which separated us from our God, and turned His mercy from us. Let us repent and continue praying and giving charity to the poor and needy so that God will have mercy upon us and absolve our sins, and put the best robe on us, and a ring of covenant on our hand, just as the merciful father did to his lost son when he came back to him repentant (Luke 15: 11-32).  And when we do really repent, God will give us back the robe of righteousness and holiness and we shall be counted among His flock, the flock that knows His voice and follows Him because He is the good shepherd who knows His flock by name and protects it. He looks after the sheep that has gone astray and finds it, He carries it on His shoulders and brings it back to His yard, and there, “is a joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).

May God accept your fasting, prayers, alms, and true repentance, and make you worthy to celebrate His resurrection with purity, holiness, and joy, and may the grace of our Lord be with you. Amen. ܐܒܘܢ ܕܒܫܡܝܐ ܘܫܪܟܐ Aboun d’ Bashmayo w’sharko (Our Father Who art in Heaven…), Amen.

Issued at our Patriarchal residence in Damascus, Syria
on the 25^th day of February, in the year two thousand five of our Lord
which is the 25th year of our Patriarchal reign

And it is, by His Grace of God, the year of our Patriarchal Silver Jubilee

We offer apostolic benediction, benevolent prayers, and greetings to our brethren, His Eminence Mor Baselius Thomas I, Metropolitan of India, and their Eminences the Metropolitans, our spiritual children the venerable priest, monks, nuns, deacons and deaconess, and our blessed Syrian Orthodox people all over the world. May the divine providence embrace them through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and St. Peter, the head of the apostles, and the rest of the Martyrs and Saints. Amen.

 The Holy Bible

Our beloved: In response to the call by the Holy Bible institutions of the world, our Holy Antiochian Syrian Orthodox Holy Synod presided over by us and held 9-12 September 2003, had decided that this year, 2004, to be considered the year of the Holy Bible. The reason is to urge the faithful to have faith that the Holy Bible in our hands in its original languages, is the exact same written by the prophets and apostles, and delivered to our ancestors who delivered it to us without any addition or omission.  All Christians, regardless of their denominations, language, or civilization, have agreed that God inspires the Holy Bible, that is, it is the living word of God. In that regard, the apostle Paul says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The meaning of “by inspiration of God”, is that the Almighty guided the minds of true prophets and Jesus apostles in a special way, and gave them His Holy instructions, and religious doctrines they should believe in. And they relayed His will to all mankind. He also commanded them to write down these facts in a book to be a beacon, not only to their generation, but also to all generations, and forever. No one disputes what all churches agreed upon, that the center of gravity in the Holy Bible is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. And the ultimate goal for writing down the Holy inspiration is to inform the world about true faith that should be believed in, commandments that should be followed and practiced, and Christian virtues that should be adopted in order to obtain salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle John explained in his Gospel, saying, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name”  (John 20:31).

The Holy Bible has indeed a special high rank in our Syriac church because it is the word of the Living God and the first and most important source to our doctrine of faith and heavenly laws. The Holy Bible testifies to that in some of its verses. Jeremiah said, “The Lord saying: Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you” (Jeremiah 30:2). St. Paul the apostle said, “But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12). St. Peter the apostle said, “For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). By his words, St. Peter aimed to say that God Almighty has chosen pious men and relayed through them what He wanted people to know about His Holy Self and His heavenly laws. Through those pious men, God declared His promise to send His Only Begotten Son to the world. They announced it and wrote down their true prophecies in the books of the Holy Bible. That promise was completely fulfilled, verbatim, through Christ in all steps of His mission of salvation. In this regard, St. Paul said, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power. When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrew 1:1-3).

The Holy Bible being the source of all facts of faith has total authority in faith matters. Faithful should submit themselves to its Holy teachings and keep the commandments of faith and good conduct in tact.

Yes indeed, our sainted fathers, through all their teachings did rely on the holy inspiration written in the Holy Bible. They dipped down in the depths of the Holy Bible and picked precious jewels that prove the rightness of our doctrine of faith. From its words they also obtained innumerable number of books they authored. For example, it was said that, “If we assume an impossible assumption that the Holy Bible written in Syriac, somehow was to be lost or missing, we could find it in the writings of St. Ephraim the Syriac, compiled and collected from the Holy Bible in the forth century”.

The church history testifies that our fathers were the first to study, explain and translate the Holy Bible to many languages. Our monasteries and churches were filled with copies written by monks, priests, and others in our holy Syriac language. The oldest and most important copy found today in the museums of the world is in this language. Not only that, but our fathers also carried the torch of the Holy Gospel to many areas of the world. They depicted special chapters from the books of the Holy Bible to be recited during Sundays and church feasts at the beginning of the Holy Mass Service. They also authored special prayers to be read before reading from the Gospel and during their spiritual mediations. These are all supplications to God to enlighten their minds to understand the meanings of the words of life, because, as we mentioned earlier, they Holy Bible has the high rank in our holy church. According to our Syriac tradition and in every church, a small wooden podium is set in the center of the middle alter on which the Holy Gospel is laid. The outside cover of the gospel is gold or silver-plated, and a drawing of the four apostles and a cross are carved on it. It is for the faithful to kiss and be blessed when they enter the church at the beginning of the service, and when they leave at the end of the service. Thus honoring the word of God – the Holy Bible – and get the blessings and grace of Jesus Christ who is the Word of God, who was in the beginning, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The church also singled out a special prayer to be recited by a deacon in whom he calls on the faithful to stand up and listen with fear and wisdom to the word of salvation while the fragrance of incense fills up the air. According to our Syriac tradition, the reader of the holy gospel is the one performing the Holy Eucharist, whether he is a Patriarch or a Bishop, or a Priest.

Yes, indeed, our Holy Church urges the clergy and the faithful in general to study the Holy Bible and read it during individual and collective prayers. They should learn a lesson from Psalm 1 in which the author gives the beatitude to the righteous man who walks in God’s law and utters continually its words day and night (Psalm 1-2). And in Psalm 119, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgments” (Psalm 119: 105-106).

My beloved;

It is a golden opportunity that we now have in the upcoming great Lent, and we shouldn’t waste it. We should come closer to Jesus Christ, in strong faith and good works, setting His life and mission on earth in flesh, as an example, carrying His Holy Cross and following Him. Let us learn from Him about fasting and prayers, for He fasted forty days and forty nights on our behalf and allowed Himself to be tempted by Satan. He repeated the words of the Holy Bible and defeated the devil. And He revealed to us the secret of how to defeat Satan by saying, “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). Therefore we should keep praying and abide by the law of fasting, and give charity to the needy especially during days of the Holy Great Lent. The church teaches and commands us to keep ourselves in the company of the books of the Holy Bible, making it the subject of our meditations especially during the quietness of the night. If we, through prayer, beseech and thank God for all His gifts, we should also participate with angels in glorifying and worshiping Him. We should listen intently, with faith, hope and love, to His holy words written by prophets, apostles, and sainted fathers. The Almighty, after speaking to the fathers through prophets, spoke to us through His Only Begotten Son who is His Holy Word…. “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1: 1&14). We should have faith in Him and obey Him as instructed by the Heavenly Father through His voice from heaven during the transfiguration of the Lord on the Mount, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him” (Matthew 17:5).

So let us listen to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God who commanded us to fast, pray, and have mercy on our fellow needy man in order to be worthy to inherit the heavenly kingdom with him.

God bless you, my beloved, and may He make you worthy to renew your spiritual relation with Him. Continue to listen to His holy voice, and know His will through the study of the Holy Bible, in which the Lord addresses and enlightens us. He is the lamp to our feet, which prevents us from falling. May God accept your fasting and prayers, and make you worthy to celebrate His resurrection with purity, holiness, and joy, and may the grace of our Lord be with you. Amen. ܐܒܘܢ ܕܒܫܡܝܐ ܘܫܪܟܐ   Aboun d’ Bashmayo w’sharko (Our Father Who are in Heaven…), Amen.

Issued at our Patriarchate in Damascus, Syria
on the 30^th day of January, in the year two thousand and four
which is the 24th year of our Patriarchal reign.