بدأ قداسة البابا تواضروس الثاني منذ قليل صلوات رفع بخور عشية بكنيسة السيدة العذراء والقديس الأنبا رويس بالكاتدرائية المرقسية بالعباسية بمشاركة عدد من أحبار الكنيسة، وذلك قبل أن يلقي قداسته عظته باجتماع الأربعاء الأسبوعي.

“الاصوام توبة الكنيسة “….عظة الأربعاء لقداسة البابا تواضروس الثاني

في البداية اهنئكم ببدء صوم الميلاد وهو أول أصوام الكنيسة وفيه نستعد لميلاد السيد المسيح. وأرحب بنيافة المطران أنطونيوس السوري مطران زحله وبعلبك للروم الأرثوذكس بلبنان .اتحدث معكم اليوم عن الأصوام توبة الكنيسة
وكنيستنا بها 4أصوام كبيرة :
1.صوم الميلاد 43يوم
2.الصوم الكبير 55يوم
3.صوم الرسل متوسط شهر تقريباً
4.صوم السيدة العذراء 15يوم
هذا بخلاف الأصوام القصيرة “البرمون،صوم يونان،أيام الأربعاء و الجمعة”
الأصوام فلسفتها أنها فترة توبة جماعية لكل الناس وكل فترة من الأصوام لها نسكيتها لكن فلسفة الصوم أنها فترات توبة جماعية أي نعمل معاً ونصوم معاً و الكنيسة لها ترتيبات تختلف من صوم لصوم ليس الهدف فترات الأكل أو الانقطاع ولكن الهدف الأساسي لك شخصياً فالسنة بها فترات يقدموا لنا مسيرة الإنسان
تعالوا نري ما هو تأثير الأصوام علي الإنسان
1.صوم الميلاد
نبدأ به ونستعد له من اخر أحدين في شهر هاتور وهو مرتبط بالتاريخ القبطي و الخبرة التي نأخذها في الصوم لتراجع مبادئك الروحية هي الآيه التي تقول”من له اذنان للسمع فليسمع ” هل اذناك تسمع و المبادئ التي تعيش بها صحيحة؟ صوم الميلاد يأتي لننهي به سنة ونفتح سنة ميلادية جديدة لكي يراجع الإنسان مبادئه و المبادئ هي الشئ الذي تبدأ منه لهذا بدأت بقراءة العظة علي الجبل لأنها الخلاصة الروحية هذا الصوم من أجل أن يراجع الإنسان مبادئه وما في قلبه وحياته
2.الصوم الكبير
هو صوم خاص لمراجعة التوبة الداخلية وفي الصوم الكبيرة تكون الآية”أدخل لمخدعك وأغلق بابك” ادخل جوه نفسك وصلح حياتك انشغل بداخلك .أحد ضعفات البشر انشغالهم بضعفات الغير أكثر من أنفسهم فأنت لك نفس واحدة إن خسرتها خسرت كل الأشياء في الصوم المقدس الكبير تراجع توبتك الداخلية،نقاوتك،أبديتك
3.صوم الرسل
صوم الخدمة لأن الرسل خدام و الخدام أمامهم هدف واحد الذي فعله الرب يسوع” اطلبوا أولا ً ملكوت الله وبره ” أنا خادم أساعد الناس وهو فترة لمراجعة الخدمة هل خدمتك الخارجية صح ام تبحث عن مجد نفسك ؟ راجع خدمتك والهدف منها هل الهدف الذات ام الشهرة؟
4.صوم العذراء
هذا الصوم بتحكمه خبرة امنا العذراء “تبتهج روحي” هذه الخبرة فائدتها تحميك من القلق و اليأس و الإحباط هذه البهجة تكون لحياة الإنسان بهجة الخلاص
-صوم الرسل خبرته ملكوت السماء
-الصوم المقدس خبرته التوبة الداخلية
-صوم الميلاد خبرته مراجعة مبادئنا
ضع خبرات الأربع اصوام مع بعض علي مدار السنة لتري الاحتياج الشديد لحياتك
فالأصوام توبة الكنيسة كيف نتشجع علي نقاوة حياتنا و المسيح قال “العالم وضع في الشرير” وأنت مسؤل عن نفسك فكر أن تراجع امانتك وقراءاتك وقانونك الروحي حتي لو صغير .تراجع ضميرك .تراجع علاقاتك مع الناس بصفة عامة تراجع طاعتك للوصية وأولوياتك .تراجع ميولك وقراراتك راجع حياتك في كل مراجعة أنت تستعد للسماء وفي أخر السنة كيف تكون مستعد؟
اريد أن ألخص لك:
كل الأربع خبرات في الأربعة اصوام هي أن نشبع بالمسيح “طوبي للجياع و العطاش إلي البر لأن لهم ملكون السموات” اربع آيات تدور فيها حياتنا
-“ليس بالخبز وحده يحيا الإنسان” الإنجيل
-“من يقبل إلي لا يجوع” صلواتك
-من يأكل جسدي ويشرب دمي يثبت فيا وأنا فيه” الأسرار
-“كل ما فعلتموه بأحد أخوتي هؤلاء الاصاغر فبي قد فعلتم” الخدمة وعمل الرحمة
الخبرة التي نأخذها من الاربعة اصوام
“إنجيل،صلوات،أسرار،خدمة وعمل رحمة “
و القراءات في الكتاب المقدس وزعها علي مدار السنة في الاربعة اصوام من اسفار العهد القديم
-في صوم الميلاد اقرأ سفر من اسفار موسي الخمسة
-في الصوم الكبير اقرأ سفر من أسفار الأنبياء
-في صوم الرسل اقرأ سفر من الأسفار التاريخية
-في صوم العذراء اقرأ سفر من الأسفار الشعرية
الخلاصة أن في أيام الصوم غذي نفسك بكلمة الله من أسفار العهد القديم اشبع لتكون صادق مع نفسك بالانجيل والصلاة و الأسرار و الخدمة وعمل الرحمة
ليعطينا مسيحنا أن تكون حياتنا نقية وتمجد اسمه علي الدوام الله يباركنا بكل بركة يرانا في احتياج إليها .له كل بركة من الأن وإلي الأبد أمين.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. One God. Amen. May His grace and mercy rest upon us, from now and forevermore. Amen. 

For the benefit of our learning, I will read the first section of the Sermon on the Mount, from the 5th Chapter of the Gospel of our teacher St. Matthew the Evangelist, may his blessings be upon us all. Amen.
1 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
14“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

(Matthew 5:1-16)
Glory be to God always and forevermore. Amen. 

I would like to congratulate you for the commencement of the glorious Fast of the Nativity, which is the first fast of the ecclesiastical year and it is the fast by which we prepare for the birth of Christ, and so because we are beginning a period of fasting I would like to speak to you on the subject of Fasting is the Church’s Repentance. 

The Church’s 4 “major” fasts

Our Church has four major fasts and by “major” we mean that they are lengthy in days:
1-The Fast of Nativity is 43 days,
2-The Great Holy Fast is 55 days,
3-The Fast of the Apostles ranges between 15 and 49 days – so almost one month, and
4-The Fast of the Virgin in Mary is 15 days long. 

We can compare these to the shorter fasts, like the Baramoun Fast, which is usually two or three days, and the Jonah Fast which is 3 days, and the weekly Wednesday and Friday Fasts, each of which are single-day fasts. 

Why does the Church have periods of fasting?

The philosophy or purpose of fasting periods in the Church are that they are periods of repentance, and this repentance is a collective repentance – for everyone, as a group. I can fast and I can repent any time I like, but there is wisdom in the Church’s having and organizing periods of fasting, and for each fast to have its own observances and practices. For example, because this is the Church’s first fast of the year, the Church permits for the inclusion of fish as a way of helping the believers, when we get to the Great Holy Fast, its ascetic practices are much higher, and the ascetic practices of the Great Holy Week are even much higher than that. 

And when we get to the Fast of the Apostles, which comes after the resurrection and ascension of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, we once again include fish as a way to help a person along their path. 

Then comes the Fast of the Virgin Mary during which some people will undertake very high ascetic practices, even to the point of fasting with “water and salt,” not eating fish, and some people will even add a week to the beginning of it so that it becomes a 3-week fast, and so on. It is a very beloved fast. 

But in the Church’s philosophy, periods of fasting are periods of collective repentance – to repent together as a group. And you may say to me, “So what if I don’t fast these collective fasts or what if I miss a few days and start late?” You’re free to do what you like, but don’t forget that the purpose of the fast is for people to repent as a group, which means that we work together and fast together. 

The Church has different or specific observances for each of the fasts, but the overall and primary goal is for me to focus on my spiritual path and life. The goal is not the types of food I eat or don’t eat, nor is the goal the periods of abstinence I take (which is something a person plans with their father of confession), but the primary and essential objective of every fast is you – you, personally. 

So let us take a look at these four fasting periods that are spread across the entire year and see how these four periods offer us ways to experience four things that each of us need throughout our path. Let me take a quick journey with you across these four fasts and let us see what these fasts do for an individual, personally.

The Church’s 4 “major” fasts 

1-The Nativity Fast: Examine my spiritual principles

We begin preparing for the Nativity Fast, which we have just begun yesterday, during the first one or two weeks (the first two Sundays) of the month of Hathor. We begin the fast on the 16th of Hathor because the fast is closely related to Coptic history. 

And we notice that on the first two Sundays of the month of Hathor the Church prays and reads the Parable of the Sower, in which is repeated the phrase “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Mt 13:9), and so the main thing we get from the Nativity Fast is that we examine and review our spiritual principles, but what does this mean? 

Sometimes a person will have a machine that becomes inoperable or ineffective, and so it is with a person’s machinery, that one’s ear may stop functioning. And I do not mean the physical or outer ears but I mean the ears of the heart; when one’s heart no longer hears, when one’s heart no longer responds the way it is intended to, when his heart has become cruel or his heart has hardened a bit. 

And so the Nativity Fast comes along to say, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Are your ears hearing? Are your inner ears obeying, obeying the Word of God? I wonder if you are continuing to live by your spiritual principles or whether you have forgotten about them? Sometimes a person will neglect a little bit here and a little bit there – a little bit in their prayers, a little bit in their Bible reading, a little bit in their Church life, a little bit in their Church-service, or neglected his spiritual practices in a general sense. Beware that you have not been carried away by the world. 

Also, because the Nativity Fast comes at the time of ending one year and beginning a new year – the Western year – it serves as an opportunity for each of us to examine ourselves, for a person to examine his heart and to examine his principles. 

And I want you to know that the word ‘principles’ is a beautiful word because the prefix ‘pri’ means ‘the thing from which you begin.’ What do you begin with? We all begin with the Commandments of the Bible. 

Our principles are the Commandments of the Bible and that is why I read the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount with you today, because it is the summary and essence of Christianity. I wonder, how are you doing with your spiritual principles? Are you keeping up with going to confession? Are you keeping up in your Church-service? I wonder, are you keeping up your prayers and praying with spiritual fervor? And are you growing in your prayers or are they heading downhill? I wonder. 

And so beloved ones, the purpose of this fast is for a person to review and examine their spiritual principles and to examine what is in their heart and in their life. And as I told you, this fast comes at the end of the year so it is as if you were taking an inventory of your year this year – did the year go well? Did it produce a profit? Were there any losses? And in this way you can catch it right away and make changes. And so the purpose of the Fast of the Nativity is to review and examine my principles.

2-The Great Holy Fast (GHF): Repentance 

The next fast, may it bring you blessings, is a special fast for one to examine and review their innermost repentance. I implore you to remember that no one can ever feel another person’s repentance, for I do not sense your repentance but heaven senses it and knows it. 

And I wonder, do you revisit or examine your state of repentance? Here in the 8th verse of the Sermon on the Mount it says, “Blessed are the pure of heart,” why? “For they shall see God,” for they shall see God. 

Blessed are the pure in heart, and so I wonder, what does your heart look like? What’s inside it? What are its thoughts? What are its feelings? What are you hiding in it? Your heart, which only God sees. 

And just as there is a theme verse for the Nativity Fast – “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” the theme verse for the Great Holy Fast (which is the verse for the first week of the GHF) is, “Go into your room, and…shut your door” (Mt 6:6), meaning, “It is time to pay attention to yourself now. You have wasted much time on what is outside you. It is now time to go within yourself, into your heart, and to improve your life.” And the Church helps us with this. 

The Church helps us to “go within and shut the door” by giving us periods of abstinence through the Liturgies that take place later in the day (and the fast itself incorporates many periods of abstinence), additional ascetic practices, and with hymns and prayers and prostrations, and so you find this fast to be particularly rich, spiritually. 

“Go into your room, and…shut your door” What else does this mean? It means that you do not become preoccupied with the external but that you become preoccupied and busy yourself with the internal. One of humanity’s weaknesses is that a person stops paying attention to himself and gets busy with the affairs of others. 

You all remember the parable about the speck, which is like a tiny piece of dust, and the plank of wood? The man in the parable said, “Let Me remove the speck out of your eye” (Mt 7:4), because he was preoccupied with the other person, while all the while what did he have in his own eye? A plank of wood! And so why don’t you talk about the piece of wood that is in your own eye? 

Just imagine a person coming to play eye doctor and trying to remove a little speck dust out of your eye while at the same time this person has a piece of wood in his own eye! To begin with, this person wouldn’t even be able to see nor would he be able to perform the work at all, and so one of humanity’s sins is that we have become preoccupied with the issues of others, but what about your own issues? 

And so I come back and repeat a statement I often repeat: You only have one soul, if you lose it you have lost everything. And so beloved ones, periods of fasting are opportunities for one to “take back” their own soul. Instead of losing my soul I am trying to win it back, to gain it back, as the Scripture says, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mt 16:26) What will he gain then? 

And so if I sit and talk and gossip about everyone and I forget about myself, what will the outcome be? It will be that that person will lose their own soul, and this is why during the Great Holy Fast we examine our innermost repentance. Examine your repentance, your purity, your life, your eternal life – this is the goal of the Great Holy Fast. 

3-The Apostles’ Fast: Servanthood

Next comes the Apostles’ Fast, so what is this fast about? We call it the “servanthood fast” or “the fast for service,” because the Apostles were servants and servants always have one goal before them, which the Lord Jesus taught us: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Mt 6:33). 

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I am a servant, so what is my role? My role is to help others and to seek for the kingdom of God and His righteousness as I am serving because we have no other goal than this: to have a portion in heaven. And so because of this, the Apostles’ Fast is the period during which you review and examine your acts of service, whatever your service may be.

And we are not divided into groups of “those who serve” and “those whom are served.” It should be that we all serve, but in different ways, for example, a father or a mother in the home is serving their family, the sons and daughters are learning and also serving, and so on. 

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I wonder whether your acts of service are done from a right heart or whether you are seeking glory for yourself. Or are you seeking for a good self-image or to be the center of attention? And of course a person who seeks such things is a person who is very far from Christ.

And so during this fast I am to review and examine my service and my intention behind it, to see whether I have ulterior motives from serving. For example, do I have egoic goals to be recognized or to be in control, or is my intention to purely seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness? Is your first and foremost goal to have a portion in eternal life? For what greater prize can a person seek for in their life than that he or she have a portion in heaven? There is no other prize. 

4-The Virgin Mary Fast: Rejoicing in God’s salvation

Next we come to the Virgin Mary Fast and this is a very beloved fast for us all. During this fast we hold special revivals and prayers and Liturgies, and it comes during the month of August which is during the holidays, and so this is also very nice. 

The theme of this fast is something our Mother the Virgin Mary experienced and said, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior” (Lk 1:46-47). What does this mean? Our Mother the Virgin Mary had the experience of her soul being in continual joy and her spirit rejoicing that God was her Savior, and so this fast intends for you to have the experience of the continual joy of salvation in your heart. 

And you may ask me, “But what would the benefit of continual joy of salvation be?” I would tell you that it will protect you from many diseases, from diseases of worry and anxiety and depression and despair, from discouragement and hopelessness. 

Our Mother the Virgin said, “My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior,” meaning that I am rejoicing within myself over the God who has saved me on the cross, and this is a joy a person can experience in life. 

In the Psalms we say, “For You have filled all with joy when You came to save the world. Glory be to You, O Lord,” and so the because of the cross of Christ and because of His crucifixion on the cross for each one of us and for the whole world, this fills a person with joy. And so what is the goal of the cross? The goal of the cross is to fill us all with the spirit of joy, the joy of salvation. 

The 4 experiences that the 4 “major” fasts teach and intend for us to have

The Nativity Fast, which we are now in, teaches us the experience of reviewing our principles and the principles of our life.
The Virgin Mary Fast teaches us the experience of living in the continual joy of salvation
The Apostles’ Fast teaches us the experience of the kingdom of heaven, which is the first and only thing we seek.
The Great Holy Fast teaches us the experience of inner repentance; that each person begin to pay attention to himself and “to go into their room.” 

Put these four points side by side and stretch them across the panorama of the entire year and you will see the great need we have for all of these things in our lives. As I told you, all Church fasts are for the purpose of the Church’s repentance. Fasts are periods for the Church to repent. The Church is not a set of buildings; the Church is us, people, and so when we fast as a group, this encourages us to keep our lives pure and to keep our ways and choices pure. 

There is much wickedness in the world and Christ even told us that “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 Jn 5:19), but you are personally responsible for yourself. And so even if we suppose that there are sins in the world, but you are nevertheless responsible for your own self. 

Areas for self-examination

1-Examine your faithfulness to your spiritual rule of life

Think of how you may examine your faithfulness. How does your faithfulness look like? You can examine your readings – your spiritual readings and what you read in general, review and examine your spiritual rule of life – are you taking and observing your spiritual rule of life from your father of confession? Even if your spiritual rule or practice is a minor one, even if it is as little as saying the “Our Father” prayer (Mt 6:9-13) every day, there is nothing simpler than that. And so revisit your spiritual rule of life and see whether or not you are indeed practicing it. 

2-Examine your conscience

Examine your conscience and see, what has happened with your conscience during this year? There is a person whose conscience is like a rubber band, but there is another person whose conscience is precise, and there is another person whose conscience is narrow, and there is another person whose conscience is absent, and may the Lord protect you but there are those whose conscience has altogether died out. And so take account of the state of your conscience. 

3-Examine your relationships

Examine your relationships with people in general. Are your relationships with people good ones or not? Are they materialistic or self-serving relationships? Are they momentary relationships? What is the nature of your relationships? Examine your relationships. 

4- Examine your obedience to the Word of God in the Bible

Examine your obedience to the Word of God in the Bible. 

5-Examine your priorities

As adults we know that when we were younger we had certain priorities, but as we grow older and mature, a person looks at life differently. We hear ourselves say things like, “This or that thing is meaningless. What is this meaningless thing that was taking up so much of my time and my thinking and my mind?” And so we find that a person has risen above his or her old priorities. 

6- Examine your desires and decisions

Examine your desires and your decisions. You may have taken wrong decisions. There may be adversity in your heart toward another person and you have grown apart from them, but when you examine yourself you may find yourself saying, “Why should I continue to live in this adversity or lack of peace or separation?” Examine, examine your life. 

Examine your life, because with every self-examination you are preparing yourself for eternal life, and the end of a year always reminds us with the end of life and how a person ought to be prepared. 

I want to summarize everything I have said to you today in this: That the 4 experiences that the 4 fasts teach us are for the purpose of your accomplishing this very beautiful verse: “That you may be filled with Christ” (cf. Eph 3:19).

Periods of fasting are for repentance, and why repent? So that you may be filled and satisfied with Christ. And the verse for this is very beautiful: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.” Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Christ, for they shall be filled.

I want you to memorize four verses that encompass the entirety of our spiritual lives, especially during periods of fasting: 

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4), and so the number one thing is the Bible; during periods of fasting you must have a strong relationship with the Bible.
“He who comes to Me shall never hunger” (Jn 6:35). This speaks of prayer, your prayers, and our Church is filled with many and various forms of prayers [to help you with this].
“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (Jn 6:56). This speaks of Communion.
“Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Mt 25:40). This speaks of servanthood and acts of mercy.

And so during every fast you are doing these four things: Bible, praying, Sacraments, serving others and acts of mercy. These four verses are what shape our spiritual lives. 

What to read during each of the 4 fasts?

The last thing I want to tell you is that one of the beautiful things you can do with the Holy Bible is to plan your Bible readings throughout the year according to each of these four fasts; to read Books from the Old Testament that relate to each of the fasts. I will give you an example of this. 

1-Nativity Fast: one of the 5 Books of Moses

We are now in the Nativity Fast, take one of the five Books of Moses – we have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – choose any one of them, with the guidance of your father of confession, and let it be your study during this fast. 

For example, during the Nativity Fast people always choose the Book of Exodus which tells the story of the burning bush, and the month of Kiahk is just around the corner, when we will sing the hymn of the burning bush as part of the Kiahk Praises, and so this Book and this story remind us of the incarnation of Christ, of our Mother the Virgin, and for our own preparation to meet the Lord Christ. And so during the Nativity Fast, choose one of these five Books. 

2-Great Holy Fast: one of the Books of the Prophets

During the Great Holy Fast, choose one of the Books of the Prophets. There are certain Books of the Prophets called the “major Books of the Prophets” because they are longer in length, like Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, and there are other Books of the Prophets called the “minor Books of the Prophets” because they are shorter in length, like Hosea, Amos and Jonah, and so on. 

3-Apostles’ Fast: one of the Bible’s Historical Books 

During the Apostles’ Fast, read one of the Historical Books from the Bible, for example First or Second Samuel, First or Second Chronicles, or First or Second Kings – historical books that tell of history. 

4-Virgin Mary Fast: one of the Wisdom Books

During the Virgin Mary Fast, read one of the Wisdom Books, which are written in poetic form, like the Book of Ecclesiastes, the Book of Job, the Book of Proverbs, or the Book of the Song of Songs. These are poetic books. And I don’t have to read the entire book in one fast, but I can read a portion of it this year, and may the Lord grant you long life and you complete the remainder of it next year.

Conclusion

In conclusion, days of fasting help us to be filled with God, and in order for you to have this experience of being filled with God you need to be honest with yourself and you do this by doing the four things I told you about:

1-Reading the Bible – “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” And so feed yourself with the Word of God from the Old Testament so that you may be filled.
2-Pray – “He who comes to me will never hunger,”
3-Take Communion – “He who eats My body and drinks My blood,” and
4-Continually offer acts of service and acts of mercy – “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these do with the least of these My brethren.”

May our Christ grant us that our lives during this fast be pure and lives that continually bring glory to His name, and May the period of fasting be a time of seriousness in one’s life. May God bless us with every blessing He sees we are in need of. 

To Him be all the glory and honor, from now and forevermore. Amen.