+ The peace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. I wish to thank you my brethren for all your kind contributions; truly your support helped us greatly in the service of the "Brethren of the Lord."

+ My beloved brethren, we have spoken in previous newsletters of the first reward the Lord grants to those who have mercy on the poor and helpless. We have seen how God delivers in time of trouble those who consider the poor (Ps. 41:1). We will now speak of the second reward: "the Lord will preserve him and keep him alive" (Ps. 41:2).

+ Truly the Lord preserves the merciful souls with His mighty right hand. There are many examples of compassionate people whom God has preserved because they considered the poor and helpless. We begin by mentioning the Psalter David who joyfully sings this beautiful psalm. The Lord preserved him in all the steps of his life because he was merciful to the poor and helpless. David speaks much of God's protection and sings a beautiful symphony about Divine preservation composed of seven segments:

In the first segment he sings of how the Lord preserves him from trouble: "You are my hiding place; you shall preserve me from trouble; you shall surround me with songs of deliverance" (Ps. 32:7).

In the second segment he sings of how the Lord preserves the bones of the righteous: "He guards all his bones; not one of them is broken" (Ps. 34:20).

In the third segment he sings of how the Lord preserves him so that his foot is not moved: "My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Ps 121:2-4).

In the fourth segment he sings of how the Lord is his shade, at his right hand preserving him: "The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night" (Ps 121:5-6). Indeed the Lord blesses the merciful hand that gives cheerfully, and preserves it so it is not effected by the fire of temptations or the terror of the night.

In the fifth segment he sings of how the Lord preserves him from all evil: "The LORD shall preserve you from all evil" (Ps 121:7). With His faithful heart, God preserves us in His strong tower, regardless of the strength or the source of the evil.

In the sixth segment he sings of how the Lord preserves his soul: "He shall preserve your soul" (Ps. 121:7). Truly God preserves the soul from all sadness, tribulation and pain... He preserves it with His profound love and compassion.

David the king then concludes his symphony with the seventh segment by speaking of how the Lord preserves his entrances and exits: "The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore" (Ps 121:8).

+ Truly this is a beautiful symphony about God's preservation of every merciful soul which considers the poor and helpless. The Spirit of the Lord sang this symphony on the tongue of David the Prophet, who tasted and experienced how God preserved him from trouble... guarded all his bones so that none of them were broken... did not allow his foot to be moved... was his shade, at his right hand so that the sun did not strike him by day nor the moon by night... preserved him from all evil... preserved his soul... and preserved his going out and coming in. And just as the merciful David tasted God's protection, every merciful soul can also experience God's preservation and sing this spiritual symphony.

+ Through God's grace we will speak in future newsletters of other people whom the Lord preserved. May our Lord compensate you with the incorruptible instead of the corruptible, the heavenly instead of the earthly and the eternal instead of the temporal.

Bishop Youannes
General Bishop and Secretary of H.H. Pope Shenouda III