Dear Brother in Christ Holiness
Pope Francis
I would like to congratulate your holiness on the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Who by his death trampled our death and through his
resurrection raised us up
It is the resurrection of Christ that guides us to bearing suffering, as it was said in the prophets: “That the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles”(Acts 26:23)
That light enlightens us to know and experience Him in our lives, everyday and in everyhour, so we can say with the Apostle Paul: “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10)
I would also like to ask about the health of Your dear Holiness, praying to Our Good God to grant you strength and wellness in as much as your spiritual strength and high stature, and to grant your holiness a long life filled with good fruits: thirty, sixty, and one hundred.
As part of our celebration of the Day of Brotherly Love on May 10 of each year, I congratulate Your Holiness and the entire Catholic Church, I also congratulate my Coptic Church on this memorial day that has become a tradition, because it is according to the heart of the Lord Jesus,
“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died, and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. 5: 14-15)
By this brotherly celebration, the love of Christ dwells in us, and even compels us. Our celebration remains linked to the time of Easter, during which Christ’s love for all of us was manifested.
Our joy increases on this day this year because it is coming after a stop for the past two years due to the spread of the pandemic, which engulfed the whole world and claimed millions of victims and injured hundreds of millions.
May Lord Christ save Your Holiness from all evil.
Love does not stop at any borders, but extends itself to include our society in which we live together: Christians and Muslims in mutual love, both on a popular level, and on an institutional level as well.
The Family House is an institution which brings together Christian and Islamic clergymen as well as men and women of thought and influence for the purpose of approaching closeness and understanding in a framework of love.
On the other hand, the efforts of The Council of Churches of Egypt work hardly to coordinate between the various churches in Egypt to unify the work of serving our society and to spread the culture of love and peace in it.
I also ask Your Holiness to pray deeply for the success of the General assembly meeting of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), which is being held this month in Egypt and it is the first time for it to be hosted by our Coptic Orthodox Church. We pray and ask with faith and with the intercession of Our Lady,
Queen of all, and the Pride of Our Race, the Virgin Saint Mary, that the meeting succeeds in developing the spirit of love and peace, especially in the areas of conflict, not only in the Middle East, but throughout the whole world and in the Ukrainian crisis, which we hope will end quickly.
Therefore, when the time comes, we “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16)
Having this same desire to advance boldly to the throne of grace and with a good conscience before Christ, we strive, as much as we can, in the face of contemporary evils.
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