Ignatius Aphrem II

His Holiness Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and
Supreme Head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church

Speech at Manjanikkara dayara church

My beloved in Christ,

We give thanks to our father in heaven for finding us worthy to come in front of Him and offer this
holy sacrifice on this holy Sunday .Every Sunday we gather in the holy church for holy Qurbono we
are celebrating the death and resurrection of our lord and saviour Jesus Christ. However these forty
days that follows the holy feast of the resurrection of our lord and saviour, these are special time the
entire church celebrates the presence of Christ with disciples physically after the resurrection for 40
days. It was during these forty days before His ascension to heaven Jesus Christ our lord and saviour
taught the disciples all things pertaining to the kingdom of God that is all the things that has to do
with church and the liturgical and spiritual life of the faithful people. Therefore when we celebrate
the holy 40 days after resurrection two things we have to bring to our mind. One of them is
teaching-Jesus Christ was teaching disciples what to do and how to carry out his mission after Him in
this world. For that reason it is the duty of the Holy church, the hierarchy and the clergy who
represent Jesus Christ our lord and saviour on the altar to teach the people during these 40 days
especially, but also every day of our lives. To teach them and remind them of the things that our lord
told the disciples while He was with them on earth. It is the duty of every bishop, every priest to
teach the faithful how to be good Christians. A good Christian is the one who believes in Jesus Christ,
who loves God form all his heart and who loves his neighbour like himself. These two
commandments of love of God and neighbour is the greatest in the Holy Book as the Lord teaches
us. If we practice that love towards God and towards our neighbour automatically we will be better
people. Loving the God and loving our neighbour brings to us, each one of us, peace and tranquillity
and brings to the whole world peace. The true church of God is the church that teaches love peace
and harmony. This is our commands to all of you dear children in the Lord that you love God with all
your heart, with all your might and being and love your neighbour-and your neighbour is every
human being as you love yourself. The other thing we need to keep in mind during these holy 40
days is the response of the apostles and therefore each one of us to live a life of prayer, to pray
unceasingly without disruption. Our Lord commanded his disciples to remain in Jerusalem to pray, to
wait for power from above, the power of the Holy Spirit before they go out on their mission. Prayers
not only bring us closer to God, prayers equip us to be better Christians, to be good ambassadors
and apostles of our lord and saviour. No matter how strong we think ourselves, how powerful we
think we are, no matter how educated we are, no matter how many great people stand with us, how
may court verdicts come in our favour, if we do not pray and pray, we will not please God and we
will not reach our goal of good Christians, faithful Christians and good disciples of Christ. It is with
this notion of prayer that we need to tackle all our issues, to discuss all our problems, and try to
solve all the problems prevail in church and elsewhere. Many of us think that having money will help
us getting favourable solutions, having power on our side will make us win, having shrewdness and
cunningness and cheating will help us achieve our goal that is not the case dear children in Christ. It
is only through prayers, prayers that perform miracles, we can stand in front of God asking to help us
and He will. Of course someone may say, the Patriarch is calling us to pray while we are being kicked
out of our churches, persecuted for our faith, our loyalty to holy throne. Yes I tell you again, Pray. I
tell you to pray because I believe that it is through prayer that God will help us to overcome our
problems and get out of this terrible situation we are in. Because He told us to pray for all those who
hate us, persecute us, he also told us to come unto him all who are heavy laden and who are
troubled and find peace and tranquillity in Him. Dearly beloved as we lead this 40 days of holy
resurrection of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, let us all try to be better people, to be closer to
Him and to pray for our church. May God help us all, guide us all, to do the right things and to be
able to show light for our people and lead them to the pastures of holy life in Jesus our Lord. May
our lord, the risen Lord, our God and saviour Jesus Christ fill us all with His divine love and divine
teachings, not only these 40 days but throughout our lives that we may be better Christians, better
disciples and may be able spread love and harmony wherever we are for the sake of His name
through the intercessions of the virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord, St .Ignatius Elias 3rd and all the
saint who are with us today celebrating this divine liturgy. May the grace the love and Peace of our
good Lord, the Father son and the Holy Spirit be always with you! Amen.