The tragedy of thirty-five Assyrian villages

• Patriarch Gregorios III telephoned Mor Yacub Behnan Hendo of the Syrian Catholic Church to ascertain about the situation in Hasakah.
• His Beatitude also called Mar Afram Nathaniel of the Assyrian Church on 25/02/2015 to express his condolences, solidarity and prayers for the safety of the people there. Mar Afram told His Beatitude about the situation there, as follows:
  • The attack took place on 23/02/2015 at 3:30 a.m. and about nine hundred (900) families were displaced from thirty-five (35) villages around Al Khabur River.
  • About three hundred (300) persons were captured
  • Formerly, the number of habitants there was five thousand (5,000) families, but many had emigrated, the majority to Europe and Lebanon
  • Fifteen hundred (1,500) families still remained there, some of whom had been allocated houses abandoned by their owners when they themselves had been displaced to Hasakah and Qamishli
• On 26/02/2015 Patriarch Gregorios heard that one hundred and twenty (120) Assyrian persons (including men and women, the elderly and children) had been kidnapped and killed

Rabweh, 20/02/2015

• As an Arab, I cannot help thinking in a joint Islamic and Christian way. With this in mind, these reflections are my spiritual meditations, for our Arab heads of State and national leaders to tackle evil and corruption in the twenty-first century in the face of the tragedies caused by human godlessness.
• Arab unity is the strongest shield of Arabs and Muslims. Division is the greatest enemy of Arabs and Muslims.
• Arab unity is the real answer to jihadist groups and takfiri ideas and terrorism.
• Arab unity is the main guarantee of coexistence and democracy, human rights and the secular State, and harmony between religion and the State in the Islamic world.

From Gregorios, servant of God

By the mercy of God Patriarch of Antioch and All the East

Of Alexandria and of Jerusalem

To my brother bishops, members of the Holy Synod,

To the rest of our sons and daughters in Jesus Christ,

The clergy and people,

“Beloved of God, called to be saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1: 7)

“God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18: 13)

This expression is a cry from the soul, body and spirit: feelings that we express hundreds of times in our liturgical prayers, especially during the period of Lent, that great, holy gift of Lent. In this cry, there is a great deal of spontaneity and depth of feeling, but perhaps also some superficiality, hypocrisy, lukewarmness of heart and outward show. According to the customary requirements of our rite, this very succinct cry is linked with physical movement, so that the whole body participates in it: the hands, knees, bowing from the waist or prostrating so that the person praying touches the ground with his hands, forehead, mouth or lips or perhaps striking his breast as a sign of repentance, and lifting his eyes to heaven in supplication to ask forgiveness, dialogue, repentance, sighing, great longing and even suffering. All that is summed up in this spiritual expression, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner and have pity on me.” This expression isan introduction to penitencein the period of Great Lent, as we sing at the beginning of the Lenten period, the Triodion, in the troparion of Matins, “The doors of repentance do Thou open unto me, O Giver of life, for my spirit waketh at dawn toward Thy holy temple, bearing a temple of the body all defiled.” With these expressions we find an inner spiritual progression, and also a corporal movement towards the temple and the Holy of Holies, the Church, a movement of body and spirit together.

CWN - St. Gregory of Narek, an Armenian Catholic monk who lived in what is now Turkey and died in 1005, has been named by Pope Francis a Doctor of the Church.

Born in Narek in 950, St. Gregory spent most of his life in a monastery in his native town. Identified early in life as a promising scholar, he taught at the monastery school and produced many letters, prayers, and commentaries. His most renowned work is the Book of Lamentations, a series of 95 prayers meditating on the quest for union with God.

CWN - Militants of the Islamic State have abducted at least 100 Christians from Syrian villages.

The Reuters news service reported that Kurdish forces, assisted by US airstrikes, are battling with ISIS for control of northeastern Syria. As Kurdish forces massed on one front, the Islamic State struck on another front, capturing several Christian Assyrian villages.

CWN - Coptic Catholic Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak of Alexandria has described the 21 Copts slaughtered by the Islamic State as “martyrs who gave their lives for the faith.”

The Coptic prelate's words echo a public statement by Pope Francis. “Their only words were: ‘Jesus, help me!’ the Pontiff said. “They were killed simply for the fact that they were Christians.”

ugcc.ua - Appeal of His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Head of the UGCC, to the priests of pastoral care in the condition of war

Dear brothers in the priesthood of Christ!

During the last year pastoral practice we often face challenges and questions that we have not dealt with: mass deaths of activists at Maydan, the war in eastern Ukraine, the atmosphere of anxiety, uncertainty and fear, and therefore - the symptoms of depression and despondency in society. But at the same time we can trace in Ukrainian nations the authentic awakening of the human spirit and solidarity, the desire to work for the common good, the demonstration of worth wondering self-organization and self-sacrifice.

CWN - The bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic eparchies in the United States have asked the priests, religious, and laity entrusted to their care to pray and fast for peace.

The bishops requested prayer for “the president and elected officials of Ukraine, for the conversion of the aggressors, for the Ukrainian army, for those who protect citizens, for the souls of the deceased, and for [the] unity and independence of Ukraine.”

(30 November 2014 - 2 February 2016)
in Damascus

On 29 November 2014, Patriarch Gregorios III of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem, opened the Year of Consecrated Life in Damascus with a prayer service shared by all the capital’s Catholic Churches and religious communities, in the presence of the city’s  clergy, monks and nuns. The patriarch delivered a talk on this occasion.

For the Feast of the Meeting of Our Lord God and Saviour in the Temple, called Hypapante in Churches of the Byzantine Greek tradition, on Monday 2 February 2015, His Beatitude presided at a Divine Liturgy in the parish church of St. Cyril in the Qasaa’ district of Damascus. 

CWN - Leaders of the Eastern Christian community met in Bkerke, Lebanon on January 27, and released a joint statement urging international support for the Christian refugees in the Middle East.

The Christian leaders, representing Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant denominations, issued their appeal to “two communities: Arab and international.”

In the portion of their appeal aimed primarily to Arabic world, the prelates said that to stop the fighting in Syria and Iraq, and enable refugees to return home, governments must “cease to support the terrorists,” cutting off financial aid and closing borders where necessary.