Author: lazarus abboud
-
The Second Station: The Station of the Prodigal Son
Its keys: decision, dignity, remembrance. In the second station man remembers his personal dignity and the worth of himself; man among us does not remember God’s tenderness and love, since we have not yet entered into an experience with God and have not yet known God, but rather we know what He placed in us,…
-
The First Station: The Station of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
The Station of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector: “Know yourself.” This station revolves around a person’s knowledge of himself. Saint Isaac the Syrian says: “He who knows himself is greater than he who raises the dead,” and humility is precisely this knowledge. The Pharisee did not err when he said: “I fast twice a…
-
Prayer
“Pray without ceasing” What is prayer: for us, prayer is the state through which man passes over to God, and through which God looks upon us. By its action, as Metropolitan Paul Yazigi says, it is a feeling of the presence of God every moment in all the domains of our lives […]
-
John Climacus and Dostoevsky (The Fourth Sunday of the Fast, the Sunday of John Climacus)
Spiritual knowledge does not lead us to God by itself; rather, in reality it may cast us into a different world and in a completely opposite direction, for we may surrender to temptation and imagine that, by reason of the breadth of our knowledge, we have become the privileged ones with God, and thereby join…
-
The Sunday of Witness and Revolution (the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, the third Sunday of the Fast)
And when we prostrate ourselves in veneration before the Cross, we declare our joining of that revolution, to defend the dignity of His image and to overturn the standards, even if the price is that we be crucified like Christ. Metropolitan Paul Yazigi says: “This is the permanent challenge of Christians: to prove that they…
-
The Troublesome Baptist
What John wanted to do was not because he wished to change reality and change society and authority, but because he was a man of God, because God had placed in his mouth a scroll to proclaim His will, to proclaim His word, even if it were not heard. Therefore he was called a voice…
-
The Transfiguration of the Revolution (The Revolution of Awareness in Lebanon)
And the future of any nation through change begins with a revolution that opens its door and throws it wide open. The revolution does not remain a revolution; rather, it moves to new stages of change through long stages, for Europe did not reach what it is today in days, months, or years — it…
-
Not by Onions Does Man Live
Father Lazarus Abboud The Syrian government added a kilo of “onions” to the smart card, then when it saw the people’s turnout it rewarded them with a second kilo. The purpose is surely not to secure a foodstuff for the people; the people’s sustenance does not concern it, unfortunately, and we have experienced that a…
-
The End Does Not Justify the Means (People of the Way)
Father Lazarus Abboud. The whole of human life is an end and a meaning, and all human beings share in the fact that their ends are one despite their variety — peace, security, immortality, comfort, wealth, power, glory, and so on — and all institutions, states, and parties have the same aims. But the difference…
-
Despotism in the Ecclesiastical Institution
Father Lazarus Abboud The Intermediate Dictionary (Mu’jam al-Wasit) explains despotism (istibdad) linguistically: it is the verbal noun of the verb istabadda, and despotism is embodied in a person or a group: istabadda bihi means he monopolized it. Muhammad Abduh says: the despot does whatever he wishes without being accountable, ruling according to what his whims…