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Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches visits Melkite Patriarch’s Lebanese Residence

On 6 March, 2011, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, together with the Congregation’s Undersecretary, Mgr. Maurizio Malvestiti, and in company with the Apostolic Nuncio to Lebanon, Bishop Gabriele Caccia and his Adjutor, visited Patriarch Gregorios III of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church at the patriarchal summer residence of Ain Traz. Cardinal Sandri and the other visiting clergy admired the restored residence, which, among its other functions, is very well adapted for meetings of the Melkite Synod of Bishops. Later this year, the Ain Traz residence will be celebrating the two hundredth anniversary of its foundation.

V. C.

The Spirit of Truth

O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, You are everywhere present and fill all things. Treasury of Blesings and Giver of Life, come and dwell within us, cleanse us of all stain, and save our souls, O Good One.

Hymn from the Vespers of Pentecost

Wisdom from the Church Fathers

Even a pious person is not immune to spiritual sickness if he does not have a wise guide -- either a living person or a spiritual writer. This sickness is called _prelest_, or spiritual delusion, imagining oneself to be near to God and to the realm of the divine and supernatural. Even zealous ascetics in monasteries are sometimes subject to this delusion, but of course, laymen who are zealous in external struggles (podvigi) undergo it much more frequently. Surpassing their acquaintances in struggles of prayer and fasting, they imagine that they are seers of divine visions, or at least of dreams inspired by grace. In every event of their lives, they see special intentional directions from God or their guardian angel. And then they start imagining that they are God's elect, and often try to foretell the future. The Holy Fathers armed themselves against nothing so fiercely as against this sickness -- prelest.

Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky
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