Au Liban, nous sommes crucifiés!.Archimandrite Touma Bitar.

     Réunis au monastère Saint Jean-Baptiste Essex, Maldon, en Angleterre, avec Saint Sophrony et sa communauté monastique, Père Touma(Bitar) et Mère Mariam(Zacca) se préparaient pour leur profession monastique “pour retourner au Liban et commencer le renouveau du monachisme au Liban”. Nous présentons ci-dessus le discours présenté par Père Touma le Lundi 30 Juillet 1990; qui semble décrire la situation actuelle au Liban “toujours crucifié”.

 

Vous vous souvenez tous, sans doute de certains détails de la Transfiguration de notre Seigneur ...

Lorsque notre Seigneur fut transfiguré sur le Thabor, les trois disciples qui étaient montés avec Lui, Lui dirent, à leur façon, bien entendu, car ils ne comprenaient pas ce qui allait se passer- ils étaient comme des enfants, et dans une certaine mesure un peu stupides - ils Lui dirent: « Il est bon d'être ici Seigneur. Nous allons construire une tente pour Toi, et une pour Moïse, et une pour Elie. » Ils ne savaient pas vraiment ce qu'ils disaient. Mais Lui savait très bien, car notre Seigneur savait dès le début d'où Il était venu et où Il était en train d'aller. Ayant vu Sa Lumière, et plus tard, quand ils L'ont vu ressuscité d'entre les morts, ils s'aperçurent que, oui, « il est vraiment bon d'être ici», il est bon d'être dans la Jérusalem céleste. Il n'en est pas moins vrai que Pierre et la plupart des Apôtres seront crucifiés par la suite.

Mais il me semble que la croix nous est donnée non pas en tant qu'adultes, mais en tant qu'enfants. Et si nous réfléchissons trop, si notre comportement est trop adulte, nous n'assumerons jamais cette croix, et par conséquent, nous n'atteindrons jamais à la résurrection afin d'y participer. Et c'est pour cela que nous sommes ici en tant qu'enfants. Nous ne comprenons pas exactement ce qui se passe, ni ce qui se passera. Mais nous ressentons qu'il est bon d'être ici, et il sera bon d'être là où nous serons.

« Vous ne pouvez descendre de la croix vous-mêmes. 

L'explosion du port de Beirut. 4 Août 2020.

“L'enfer est grand ouvert devant ce monde, notre monde”

        Nous ne pensons pas spécialement à la croix. [Au Liban], nous y avons été crucifiés pendant une quinzaine d'années. Je disais à certains d'entre nos amis ici combien il est facile de parler de ce qui se passe au Liban, mais à vrai dire cela va au- delà de la tragédie. Je dirai même que c'est l'enfer. L'enfer est grand ouvert devant ce monde, notre monde, et il essaie d'avaler très rapidement et d'une façon anormale tous ceux qui appartiennent au Christ, qui appartiennent à la Vérité, toutes ces brebis que l'on traîne chaque jour à l'abattoir. Oui; nous sommes habitués à une sorte de croix, à la Croix, à notre croix. Nous mourons chaque jour et nous acceptons chaque jour de mourir. Nous voyons chaque jour la mort de nos propres yeux. Et il n'y a pour cela, aucune raison du tout. En effet, personne ne sait vraiment ce qui se passe au Liban. Personne ne saurait expliquer ce qui s'y passe. Et à moins que nous voyions cette affaire à la lumière de l'Évangile, à la Lumière de notre Seigneur, nous ne comprendrons jamais rien. Et à tous ceux qui viennent nous demander une explication ou qui voudraient savoir s'ils feraient mieux de rester sur place ou de partir, notre réponse est la suivante. «Si vous êtes pour le Christ, il faut rester. Vous ne pouvez descendre de la croix vous-mêmes. Il vous sera donné de descendre. Mais si la Croix du Christ ne vous dit pas grand-chose, partez. Allez, partez du pays. Vous n'êtes pas obligés de souffrir sans raison.»

« La sainteté, c'est la seule chose qui nous reste. »

Ce qui nous préoccupe, et c'est pour cela que nous sommes venus ici, mon Père, c'est tout simplement la sainteté. Notre désir est de devenir saints. Et la sainteté n'est pas si éloignée que ça. Elle a été donnée à tout le monde. Nous nous en approchons peut-être comme des imbéciles, ou peut­ être comme des idiots, ou peut-être comme des enfants. Mais nous voulons nous en emparer de force, puisque c'est la seule chose qui nous reste au monde. Nous n'avons plus rien. On parle du désert et de la vie monastique. Le Liban tout entier est un désert. Et tous ceux qui y restent sont passés comme par une sorte d'«ascétisation »forcée par la main de Dieu, car le désir de Dieu pour ce monde est qu'il devienne un monde de saints. S'il est probable que beaucoup risquent d'être brûlés par le feu, il y en a également qui y seront purifiés. Et c'est précisément pour cela que nous sommes ici, et c'est pour cela que nous retournons au Liban.

 

 

Référence :

Parole à la communauté. Archimandrite Sophrony. Pâques2004. N*51 .

 

When God is Silent.

Dr.Daniel and Dr.Jane Hinshaw.*

"Do not lament me, O Mother".
20th century.

Dr. Daniel: Many people who are very sick, suffering, who are near the end of life, feel an increasing sense of isolation. If they are believers, sometimes they experience this as a sense of being abandoned by God; and we can even see this recorded in the Gospel, when our Lord on the cross cried out: “My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me.” That psalm, however, ends up with hope. I think some scholars believe that Christ probably recited the entire psalm. 

There are many different ways of thinking about silence, especially when one considers silence in the relationship between creature and creator. There is a thread within the early fathers, in the writings of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, that speaks about the Holy Trinity in a very interesting way. It says that the incarnation of Christ, God the Father spoke the Word from silence.  God in some very deep way, in the Apophatic tradition of the church, is beyond our understanding, and beyond our comprehension, therefore we encounter God in Silence. For example, in the Anaphora prayers where we speak of Christ, or God, being incomprehensible, inconceivable, beyond our knowing and that God is so utterly other from us, hence we are unable to know directly, the Father the very essence of the Divinity. But God breaks His silence, and speaks His Word, the incarnate Son of God Jesus Christ, a bridge to bring us back to God. 

From the Manger to Holiness.Archimandrite Touma Bitar.

Archimandrite Touma Bitar.

Brothers, who is a poor person? A poor person, for us, is someone who hardly possesses anything. And who is a rich person? He is the one who possesses much. This is according to people, but according to God, poverty and wealth have a different meaning. According to the Lord God, the rich person is someone who only loves himself and the poor person is prepared to give everything he has, whether he possesses a little or a lot. The rich person is someone who loves himself and so whether he possesses a little or a lot, he is rich in what he possesses. But the poor person, who is prepared to give everything, is the one to whom the Lord God gives the kingdom of heaven.

La visite du groupe “Nepsis”*.

Entre le 20-21 Novembre 2018, à l’occasion de la fête de “l’Entrée au temple de la Très Sainte Mère de Dieu”, la communauté de la famille de la Sainte Trinité, Douma, Liban, eu la bénédiction de recevoir un groupe de jeunes de l’association “Nepsis”, de l’archidiocèse Roumaine en France, accompagné par son Éminence Monseigneur Joseph (Pop),  son Excellence Monseigneur Marc (Alric), et Père Julian (Nistia), au cadre de leur pèlerinage au Liban.

Avec grande joie nous désirons partager avec nos lecteurs les paroles bénies qui ont été prononcées à l’occasion.

Son Éminence Monseigneur Joseph 
au réfectoire du Monastère 
Saint Jean-Baptiste avec les membres 
de la communauté et les membres du groupe “Nepsis”.

“ Prenez donc garde à vous-mêmes”. Archimandrite Touma Bitar.

En ce jour, la Sainte Église célèbre la mémoire des saints-Pères, qui se sont réunis au premier concile œcuménique, à la ville de Nice près de la ville de Constantinople. Le saint empereur Constantin faisait appel à ce concile nommé “le grand”, après avoir concerté avec certains évêques proches de lui, en ce qui concerne un enseignement étrange, que l’Église appelle “hérésie”. Ils se sont délibéré pour mettre fin au trouble causé par l’hérésie attribuée à un archimandrite Égyptien, nommé “Arius”.    

L’empereur  Constantin a pris l’initiative de convoquer les évêques de l’univers, c'est-à-dire le monde Byzantin, dans le temps. Il a voulu s’informer d’eux de l’enseignement officiel de l’Église Sainte Catholique Apostolique.

Why icons?.Archimandrite Touma Bitar.

Today, brothers, the Holy Church commemorates the fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council which affirmed the veneration of icons after a long period during which those who venerate them were persecuted and most ancient icons that had existed before the eighth century were destroyed.

   

 What is the importance of icons in the Church? First of all, brothers, we honor icons and do not worship them. For this reason, all that can be said about us worshiping idols if we use icons in the Church is false. There is a great difference between veneration and worship. Worship belongs to God and God alone. But man expresses himself with word and image. Man has senses with which he expresses himself. Thus we use incense. Incense, for us, is a sign of venerating the faithful and of worshiping God in the faithful. So too with the Holy Bible. There are words in it, but these words are only vehicles for God's presence among us. We cannot express ourselves in a non-human way.

Mariam the "Batoul"- Holy Mother of God.Archimandrite Touma Bitar.

Sermon of the Holy Fathers’ Sunday.
24 December 2017.

           In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We are now in the period of the feast of Nativity, and according to the liturgical calendar, the celebration started on Friday, and will be completed tomorrow, God’s willing.

Therefore today, which is the Sunday before Christ’s Nativity, is included in the period of the Nativity feast, where the holy fathers of the Lord Jesus in the flesh are mentioned.

Today, I would like to reflect upon the subject of the Holy Theotokos.

What is the one thing that the Most Holy Theotokos offered, that no one had ever offered before?... And nevertheless everyone is called to offer?.

The Goal of Earthly Life: Prayer.Archimandrite Touma Bitar

     

Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God,
Douma- Lebanon.

  He came to me with the question, "I do not pray very much lately. I think I'm falling into negligence. What should I do to bring my prayer back?"

      If you truly want to bring your prayer back, then you are able to do this in an instant. Through prayer you acquire prayer. Prayer is an act of will. Pray regularly. A little or a lot? It doesn't matter. With feeling or without feeling? That doesn't matter either. You begin with the body, with words and motions. What's important is that you do it attentively. Don't be hasty and don't be slow. Don't raise your voice and don't hush it. Be moderate. Put your mind on what you are saying, on each word. Understand what you are saying.

“The feast is the Lord ever coming to us!”

Archimandrite Touma Bitar

          
         What is the meaning of a feast?

         
         Surely, we’ve got accustomed to the Liturgy, and year after year, one becomes delighted in the sound of the melodies, and exhilarated by the meanings of the words, but none of this makes the feast, this only gives a feeling of it! The feast could be, merely, some sort of “emotional tickling”, and in a day or two, the effect of this “tickling” will fade and the feast is forgotten until the following year.

Une rencontre avec Jean-Claude Larchet...

The Church of Spirit and Truth.

“Now anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ,
he is not His (i.e. he is not for Christ).
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
these are the sons of God”.(Rm 8:9-14)

   Father Youssef Daros, from Egypt, sent us the following question: “Does the Holy Spirit act in the sacraments of the non-Chalcedonian Churches? (Copts, Syrians, Armenians and Ethiopians), and in the Catholic Church?”.

   Often our questions are incorrect due to our erroneous approach. It is however important, when considering these questions, that we try to explain the correct traditional perspective of “the Church”. Hence, in this correct framework, we can discern the correct question from the incorrect one!

   Firstly, we would like to express our reservation towards the way, the enquirer uses the terms “Church” and “Churches”. To know the cause of our reservation, I refer the reader to one of my previous articles, in the section “Dots on Letters”, titled “Seeking the Church”, written on 13 November 2016.

On " Shepherding, and Love in the Spirit." Archimandrite Thomas (Bitar)

Towards a Spiritual Ecumenical Movement!.

   I do not wish, in this article, to evaluate the work of the Ecumenical Council of Churches (ECC), especially during the twenty and twenty-first centuries. At least, this is not the scope of this article. However, this will not prevent me from expressing my strong belief, that a true Church unity begins with seeking union with God! True unity between believers can only be the outcome of this union, either wise it is based on common benefit. Union with God means unity in Christ!. If we limit ourselves to wordings and formalities relating to God and focus, only, on the closeness of dogmatic expression, and the oneness of administrative settings, translating these into an arrangement leading to the Common Cup, we will not gain any value for the Church but rather cause harm. Thus, in the context of the multitude of the Churches, or the distinct individual groups, and the ensuing divergence between them caused by historical circumstances, it is useless to aspire for the unity of the institutions or, that is to say, the Churches as institutions. This, on the contrary, constitutes the main obstacle in the face of acquiring the desired unity!.

Most Holy Mother of God Save Us!...

Iconostasis of the Nativity of the Forerunner Church

   On the 6th of August we celebrated the “Transfiguration of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” on the mountain. And the mountain is thought to be the “Mount of Thabor”. There, the appearance of the Lord Jesus changed and His clothes became white shining like snow and His disciples saw that.

   The light that the disciples saw on the mountain, that which made the garments of the Lord Jesus shine like snow, is the Light of Theology. The Lord Jesus was, and still is, and will remain forever God and the second hypostasis of the Holy Trinity.  Thus, this light is the Uncreated Light. It is the Light that shines from the Essence of God. This is the Divine Light. The remarkable thing is – and Saint Marc the Evangelist is the only one to speak about the glistening of the clothes of the Lord Jesus and how they became exceedingly white like snow – that the Lord Jesus Christ encompassed the Divine totally which glowed through His body and through His garments.

Nativity in modern time

                                            (From the weekly series "Dots on Letters")

   … The water is drifting the ship, with an enormous vigor, into the abyss of a deep waterfall, descending into the depth of the earth of perdition, and people on board are fighting, quarrelling and slaughtering one another!. They say it is “a fight for survival” which is nothing but foolishness! Absolute blindness!... What survival?! You have all departed or are departing! “Vanities of vanities, all is vanity. What advantage does a man have in all his labor, in which he toils under the sun?” (Ecc 1: 2-3)!... “Woe to us, because we sinned!” (Lam 5: 16), because we walked recklessly, in blindness… willingly. “Water flowed over my head” (Lam 3: 50)!. Who will deliver us from this body of death?! (Rm 7: 24)… All is falling into the deep!. There is nothing firm to hold on to!. The seas are hurling!. Will this night get to an end?!. A fall in the fall in the fall! Certainly!. He said: there is the one and only that is everlasting: “Love! .” “Love never fails” (1Co 13: 8)!. So there is hope for us!. This is the core, the essence!. This is the beginning and the end!. Love said: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end!.”

Spot-light on Organ Donation

                                            (From the weekly series "Dots on Letters")

   Believers have varied opinions with respect to organ donation. Perspectives differ and the subject is controversial. Every one tries to support his view through the Holy Scriptures. Some are enthusiastic about it, others are positive, others have reservations, whilst others totally reject the principle. Diversity of opinions, for the time being, may be enriching, though we cannot foresee an end to the debate in the near future as the issue is ambiguous.

Life Eternal

                                            (From the weekly series "Dots on Letters")

     The subject of eternal life presupposes hard questions! What is the meaning of eternal life? What does it mean to have eternal life? Why is eternal life the greatest gift? Is it because death cuts off life on earth, that eternal life acquires meaning? Is eternity a matter of time? If death is life cut off, and death comes, often, after trials, so of what value is life extended, if, practically, it means trials continued?! For to him who suffers, physically or psychologically, death appears as mercy! In man’s experience, life is desirable if it is full of delights, but when it is soaked with bitterness, he would rather desire death. So if eternal life is a matter of time, it has, in itself, no value, whatsoever!