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Fifth Week After Pentecost
June 17-24, 2013
Matthew 12:9-13 – [Jesus] entered [the Pharisees’] synagogue. And behold, there was a man with a withered hand. And they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath?" so that they might accuse him. He said to them, "What man of you, if he has one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath." Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, whole like the other.
St. John Chrysostom – “Is it allowed” to heal on the Sabbath? Jesus knows how much the Pharisees loved wealth. He knew that they were all the more taken up with the love things than of persons. … Nothing could make them more gentle. Even as the man was being healed their condition was becoming worse. Jesus’ desire was to heal first their bitterness before he healed the withered hand. But even in his various attempts to offer them healing, both by what He said and did, their malady proved all the more intractable.
The icon is of St. Jude (June 19th).
Appeal of His Beatitude Gregorios III on the Eve of the Second Geneva Conference on Syria
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- Created on 04 June 2013
Prot. 284/2013R - Rabweh 30/05/2013
“Come to a common word.” (Surat aal ʿIm'ran 3: 64)
The Second Vatican Council says, “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.” (Gaudium et Spes, Preface)
Saint Paul says, “Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” (I Corinthians 12: 26) Saint Paul also says, “God …hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5: 18) The Qur’an says: "Come to a common word." A Hadith also says, “The believers are like one person; if his head aches, the whole body aches with fever and sleeplessness.” (Sahih Muslim 6260)
Beginning from these venerable verses and sublime teachings, we express our optimism for the holding of this Second Geneva Conference. We call for participating in this conference, in the name of the thousands of victims who have fallen on dear Syria’s soil, widows, orphans, handicapped, sick, bereaved, kidnapped, disappeared, students, young people, those full of doubt, wounded in conscience and feelings...and every suffering person in Syria.
In the name of all of them, and on the basis of our pastoral responsibility, and as President of the Assembly of Catholic Hierarchy in Syria, we address this appeal to the Russian Federation and the United States of America who have called this conference, and all those who will take part: sovereign states, organisations, sons and daughters of Syria, at home and abroad, allies and opponents. All of you, work with trust, in the spirit of reconciliation, dialogue and sincere citizenship... Put all your efforts into making this conference succeed. This is a very important opportunity, in a decisive central phase, and in the teeth of an historic, bloody, destructive crisis, the most serious in the history of Syria.
Read more: Appeal of His Beatitude Gregorios III on the Eve of the Second Geneva Conference on Syria
Orthodox and Catholics to “Brainstorm” about Church Unity
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- Created on 26 May 2013
Fairfax, Virginia – In October 2010, the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation produced a jointly-agreed document entitled “Steps Toward a Reunited Church.” For the first time ever, members of that dialogue will give presentations and discuss the document in a public forum at the Orientale Lumen XVII Conference on June 17-20, 2013 in Washington, DC. In addition to five members of consultation, other plenary speakers will include Metropolitan Tikhon of Washington, primate of the Orthodox Church in America, and Archimandrite Robert Taft, SJ, professor emeritus from the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. The moderator will be Fr. Ron Roberson, CSP, Associate Director of the Ecumenical Affairs office of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. The plenary speakers will include:
Msgr. Paul McPartlan
The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC
Father Thomas FitzGerald
Hellenic College/Holy Cross Seminary, Boston, MA
Father Sidney Griffith
The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC
Father James Dutko
St. Michael Orthodox Church, Binghamton, NY
Sr. Susan Wood, SCL
Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI
Read more: Orthodox and Catholics to “Brainstorm” about Church Unity