Divine Liturgy in the Mariamiya Cathedral in Damascus on the occasion of the New Year's Day

Damascus-SANA

A Divine Liturgy was held in the Mariamian Cathedral in Damascus this morning, on the occasion of the New Year's Day, presided over by His Beatitude John X, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East.

The Patriarch was assisted in the service of the Mass by the Metropolitan of Aleppo and Alexandretta and their dependents, Avram Maalouli, Bishops Musa Al-Khoury, John Batsh, Arsanius Dahdal, Moses the Eunuch, the Patriarchal Vicar Romanos the Hannah, and a group of venerable priests.

His Beatitude Patriarch John X said in the Eid sermon: “We pray for Syria, which has tasted the bitterness of war and has tasted until now the bitterness of the sinful economic blockade that targets its entire people, and for the unity of its soil.”

Patriarch John X pointed out that the Syrian is always eager to live in dignity while clinging to his land, directing his appeal to the world and to its governments and societies, saying: “The suffocating siege imposed on the Syrian people has its effects that you pay and from your pockets you receive immigrants and displaced people, let us live in the land that we loved and love We do not claim idealism in our countries, but we are tired of the language of false sympathy and we have uttered the language of resonant slogans that are used only to achieve interests.

Patriarch John X explained, “In the midst of Christmas, we put before our eyes and the eyes of the whole world that Christ came to us on this land from the gate of Bethlehem from Palestine, the bride of this East. Here is the implantation of the Cross on Golgotha, the Holy City.

Patriarch John X indicated that today we are celebrating the birth of Christ, and in our hearts the grief of the kidnapped, including our two brothers, Archbishops of Aleppo, John Ibrahim and Paul Yazigi, who were kidnapped for nearly a decade, amid international silence and impotence, condemned and condemned. We all pray for the disclosure of the circumstances of this file and its desired conclusions.

Patriarch John X said: “Our prayer today is for our steadfast people in every occupied land, for the sake of Palestine and its people, and our prayer for the sake of Al-Quds Al-Sharif, which was and will remain the capital of Palestine and the qiblah and pilgrimage of our hearts, and our prayers for the sake of wounded Lebanon and Iraq, and for every part of this East.” And our prayers we raise for peace in the whole world.

At the end of his homily, Patriarch John X called for God to protect Syria, its people, its army, and its leader, and to restore its security and safety.

Muhammad Emad Al-Daghli

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