Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Jerusalem (Fides Service) - In his Message for Lent 2006 the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah underlined that despite the difficulties and suffering they experience Christians in the Holy Land must realise that however poor, they, like all disciples of Christ ,have something to give and something important, that is love. “The purpose of our Lenten message is to focus attention on the role of charity in our life as a Church. It is true that we are a poor Church that receives from others, but we must remember that we also have the capacity to love and therefore to give” the Patriarch told his people.
In his message in which he refers to Pope Benedict XVI’s first Encyclical ‘Deus Caritas Est’ and the Papal Message for Lent, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem stressed the need to re-educate Christians in the Holy Land and teach them that “ even when they are living in need and in poverty, how to recognise and live the richness of the communion that existed in the first Church of Jerusalem”, and he concluded: “Our love for everyone without distinction will keep us from transforming our faith and our life of communion with our community into denominationalism, or religious individualism, or aggressive fanaticism. "Make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit," says Ezekiel (18, 31). We must strive for this. We must renew ourselves in spirit in order to become ever-more capable of accepting the life God wants to give us all”. (Agenzia Fides 6/3/2006 Righe: 25 Parole: 251)
