{"id":24852,"date":"2015-01-03T11:45:30","date_gmt":"2015-01-03T09:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/site\/?p=24852"},"modified":"2017-06-07T14:08:29","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T12:08:29","slug":"%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%84-%d8%b9%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%a9-59-%d8%b1%d8%b3%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ad%d8%a8%d8%a9-%d8%a7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%84-%d8%b9%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%a9-59-%d8%b1%d8%b3%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ad%d8%a8%d8%a9-%d8%a7\/","title":{"rendered":"On Life 59 \u2013 The Love Message \u2013 January 3, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Many happy returns on Christmas! I wish everybody all peace and blessing.<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0As we celebrate Christmas, we recall Christ\u2019s commandment to the world, that of love. Christ lent a lot of attention to this commandment. Thus, He made it a point that love for God and people are the most important Diving commandments and, through, applying them, man carries out God\u2019s commandments easily. In fact, when one of the law experts asked Him about the most important commandment, He answered that it is loving God and one\u2019s neighbor like oneself. We read,\u00a0\u201cTeacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Jesus replied:\u00a0\u201c\u2018Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.\u2019 This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: \u2018Love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Christ commanded His disciples and the people to love one another:\u00a0\u201cMy command is this: Love each other\u2026\u201d<\/span>\u00a0and that love extends to one\u2019s enemies. So, He said in the Sermon on the Mount,\u00a0\u201clove your enemies and pray for those who persecute you\u2026\u201d<\/span>\u00a0The disciples and apostles realized the importance of love. Thus, their lives reflected how they loved one another and everybody. Likewise, their teachings and writing emphasized the love commandment. St. John writes,\u00a0\u201cDear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.<\/span>\u201d Also, St. Paul stresses this very meaning in his Epistle to the Ephesians:\u201dwalk in the way of love\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Man\u2019s true strength resides in his ability to love others to such an extent that he might love his enemies. Reposed Pope Shenouda III writes,\u00a0\u201cThe strong are not those who defeat their enemies. Rather, they are the ones who win them over.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0True love manifests itself in sacrifice. A loving person helps, supports and encourages others. Through love, you fill others\u2019 desperate hearts with hope, give them confidence that they can achieve goals, and urge weaklings to attain the unimaginable.<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Love edifies your soul as well others\u2019 Whoever perfects in love does not fail. Rather, he becomes a strong fortress that resists the storms of life. So, with Christmas, I\u2019d like to send a message of love that challenges pains and hardships and inspires hope. Love is an endless path in which man learns from the all-loving God how to become a love song.<\/span><\/h2>\n

Many happy returns!<\/span><\/h2>\n

General Bishop<\/span><\/h2>\n

Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center<\/span><\/h2>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Many happy returns on Christmas! I wish everybody all peace and blessing. \u00a0 \u00a0As we celebrate Christmas, we recall Christ\u2019s commandment to the world, that of love. Christ lent a lot of attention to this commandment. Thus, He made it a point that love for God and people are the most important Diving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[6804,8704,6385,169,644,170,643,1007,642],"class_list":["post-24852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-on-life","tag-the-love-message","tag-youm7","tag-169","tag-644","tag-170","tag-643","tag-1007","tag-642"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24852"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24852"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47655,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24852\/revisions\/47655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}