Bishop Youannes Spiritual Message

Blessed Fathers and beloved brothers, friends of the BLESS USA Program,

The peace, love, and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all.

I would like to congratulate you on the Fast of the Holy Apostles, the first fast established by the early church. This period, my beloved, should fill us with a holy and fiery zeal for the work of the Lord - especially for the service of His Brethren. The more we contemplate on the lives of our Fathers, the Apostles, the more we will be drawn to imitate their ways of love, service, and giving.

We would like to continue contemplating on how Divine Providence is bestowed on those who show mercy and consideration to the needy and the disadvantaged. In the last newsletter, we spoke about the seventh part of this magnificent topic as it was exemplified in our teacher David the Prophet's song: "The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul" (Ps.121:7). In the eighth and last part of this inspiring symphony on Divine Providence, our teacher David the prophet sings:

"The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore." (Ps.121:8)

My beloved brothers, how comforting and consoling these words are! The Lord has also promised that "if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth...Blessed shall you be when you come in and when you go out" (Deut.28:1, 6).

The Lord's promises are irrefutably true and those who show mercy and compassion to the needy and the less fortunate will undoubtedly be blessed with this comforting Divine voice softly reassuring them with this gentle whisper: "The Lord shall preserve [and bless] your going out and your coming in." Numerous instances attest to this indisputable truth. In fact, we cannot but acknowledge that the Lord has sustained and upheld us ever since we were born. This is how David the Prophet sums up this particular experience: "By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother's womb" (Ps.71: 6). In addition, the Lord preserves us everywhere: at home, at work, on the road and in all the different places that we frequent.

Now, my beloved, we will examine how the Lord preserves and guards us in accomplishing our missions no matter how difficult they might be. In this regard, we would like to discuss the late Bishop of Monofia, the great Saint Sarabamoun "Abou Tarha" (the veiled), a kind-hearted man who manifested exceeding compassion and kindness towards the less fortunate. We will see how the Lord had preserved and protected him in his "coming in" and "going out" of the palace of Prince Mohammed Ali where he was called to heal the Prince's demon-possessed daughter, Zohri.

Numerous physicians labored in vain to find a cure for her. Several acquaintances of the Prince suggested that he might be able to find a cure for his daughter if he sought the help of the Pope. Following their counsel, Prince Mohammed Ali sent for Pope Botrous El-Gawli to come to the palace and attempt to relieve his daughter. However, the Pope, fully aware of the particular needs of the Prince's daughter, entrusted Bishop Sarabamoun "Abou Tarha", a righteous and godly man, with that mission.

Prince Mohammed Ali was enraged when he learned that the Pope did not come but had opted to send one of his bishops instead. For this reason, when Bishop Sarabamoun arrived at the Prince's fortified palace, neither the prince nor his dignitaries stood to receive or greet him. However, the Bishop, in his humble apparel and holding the cross of His Holiness the Pope in his hand, tapped the floor gently with his staff saying: "God Almighty." Upon hearing this, everyone in the gathering stood up.

Bishop Sarabamoun was then shown to the Princess' room. Following an intensely powerful prayer, the unclean spirit departed from the Princess, and she was completely healed. Prince Mohammed Ali was exceedingly delighted and thanked the Bishop for this great act of kindness. Wishing to reward him for this great miracle, the Prince offered him four thousand pounds, but Bishop Sarabamoun graciously refused to accept. Instead, he requested that the Prince consider the restoration of several churches and that he adopt a more favorable attitude towards Copts in government positions. The Prince accordingly promised to grant Bishop Sarabamoun his request. Moreover, he insisted that the Bishop take the money. The Bishop thankfully took part of the sum and divided it among the soldiers and the servants in the Prince's palace before he left.

My beloved, considering how our Lord had preserved and blessed the "going in" and the "coming out" of this saintly, compassionate and righteous Bishop is both revealing and encouraging. He still preserves and blesses you "from this time forth, and even forevermore." Those who have compassion upon the disadvantaged truly experience God's Providence. It is a reality that the Lord preserves those who consider the needy and show them mercy and compassion. The Lord has promised to preserve us everywhere: at home, at work, on the road, in all the different places that we frequent and in any mission on which we embark, regardless of its difficulty: "The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore" (Ps.121:8).

God willing, we will continue pondering on this topic in an upcoming newsletter. We will further explore how the Lord preserves and blesses the "going out" and the "coming in" of those who consider the less fortunate and the needy. 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

The Holy Spirit, H.H. Pope Shenouda III

The Lord Jesus Christ began to form the church by choosing the twelve disciples and sending them out (Mt. 10:1-16). He then chose seventy more and sent them out, as well, (cf Lk. 10:1-20) with varied groups from among His beloved and disciples onto the far corners of the earth. However, He did not allow them "in spite of their being chosen by Him" to begin preaching and evangelizing without having received the Holy Spirit.

That great event then was the true turning point from which evangelizing began on a wide scale.

It was the Holy Spirit who empowered the fathers of the church with the ability to evangelize and spread the Word of God.

The commission of the Holy Spirit was a promise from the Lord (Jn. 14:26, 15:26, 16:7) in which He said to them, "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endowed with power from on high" (Lk. 24:49). The Lord continued to say to them, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

The Spirit of God was such a vital necessity for their mission that they would not have been able to work without Him.

We observe that they waited according to the Lord’s command; for though they were being prepared for the ministry for three long years, they could not dispense with the Holy Spirit and His work within them. I think that the ten days they waited, were days of intense prayer, hope, and internal and spiritual preparation for the coming mission.

~An excerpt from "The Holy Spirit and His Work in Us" by H.H. Pope Shenouda III