A huge fire broke out inside the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, leding to the collapse of its historic tower and its roof. The scene was painful and sad not only for the French people, but to the whole world because the cathedral is a hallmark of human civilization. The French people have gathered in the vicinity of the famous religious and tourist edifice to watch a genuine part of their history and tradition burn. It is a great loss and a disaster for human and civilization heritage beyond description, given the great religious, historical, literary and cultural symbolism for the French people and the entire world. It is also included in the UNESCO World Heritage. The building is known to contain religious treasures, and rare paintings.

This Cathedral is visited by about 14 million tourists each year. This means a great loss of money, but it is really a devastation of a cultural and historic place. It is a loss to the history of human civilization. The French government has announced that it will immediately begin to renovate the Cathedral. I know exactly what the French people feel about this disaster since they are cultured, life-loving, enjoyable, reassuring, optimistic about their future, hardworking, and respectful.

Growth is a characteristic of spiritual life in order to reach the main goal in our life, which is the eternal life. Thus, His Eminence Bishop Benjamin of Monofia, in his article ‘The Life of Growth’ explained that growth is a characteristic of life in general and spiritual life in particular. Man tries to overcome all what disrupts him according to the saying of St. Paul the Apostle: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead &(Philippians 3: 13) Such pursuit of spiritual growth is the ultimate goal of life. Thus, St. Paul warns us of preoccupation with any other purpose as an alternative to eternal life: ‘Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you’.

I send this message to the Governor of Egypt, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, while he is holding a meeting with US President Donald Trump. I want him to remember the importance and status of Egypt that was mentioned in the holy books and visited by many prophets and scholars throughout history. Mr. President, I want you to remember that Egypt has always been the heart of the heart of the Arab world, and great source of science, literature and art. It has Al-Azhar, Al-Husayn, Sayeda Nafisah, St. Tereze. On its land many great people lived like: Naguib Mahfouz, Abdel Wahab, Mustapha Mahmoud, Sargios, Mustafa Amin, Faten Hamamah, and other religious scholars, pioneers of science, literature and the arts.

Since I have worked for years in higher education and scientific research at the University of Alexandria, one of the oldest universities in Egypt and the Middle East, I am very proud of the positive steps taken by the political leaders in Egypt to promote university education and scientific research in the past few years. In a very successful move, Egypt hosted the World Forum on Higher Education last Thursday under the theme The Future Begins From Here . The conference was organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Egypt under the patronage of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi with the participation of fifty-five different countries of the world. The World Forum on Higher Education comes as part of the Year of Education activities in Egypt is a confirmation that the bright and enlightened future can only be achieved through quality education and modern scientific research.

Historically, the ancient Egyptian king Ahmose led the Egyptians in the battle of Liberation against the Hyksos, the tribes that Egypt and occupied it for nearly a hundred years. When Egypt decided to restore its land, the King Ahmose was the leader of its army that followed them to the borders of Palestine. In the past years, the Egyptian society has been subjected to a serious intellectual and cultural invasion that negatively affected Egyptian identity and ideology after the extremists reached the presidential palace leading to the division of Egyptians following the ugly ideas and retardation that affected the Egyptian society.

The tragic accident that killed nearly fifty people in New Zealand is a humanitarian disaster by all means. Nobody can accept it, especially Christians, since such attack can only be driven by evil. The assailant being a Muslim who belong to ISIS in Turkey, or a racist atheist who declared his faith in the 73 pages published on his account on Facebook, can t belong to Christianity. If Muslims declare that ISIS don t represent Islam, how can a man who doesn t belong to Christianity represent it.

The true prayer is the awakening to the remembrance of God as it is written, "Watch and pray". When the mind wakes up, it doesn t go astray and prefers to stick to the Lord through prayers. Pope Tawadros II in his article entitled "Prayer is our strength" explained that short prayers should include the name of the Lord Jesus Christ unceasingly. Its basic words are: "My Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me the sinner".

When we provide evidence that Christians have no hand at all in the events of terrorism, this is not a sign of weakness, but rather to demonstrate to the extremists that Chrsitianity teaches us love since God is love. I wonder about those who believe that God has ordered people to kill and hate like Wagdi Ghoniem, Borhami, Qaradawy, Mohamed Hassan and Howainy, who offend the faith that they preach since they only speak evil. God asked David, in both the Bible and Quraan, to judge fairly among the people. Then it is the job of people in charge to be fair in order to avoid punishment of God. However, the biggest challenge lies before the teachers and clergy who instruct other people.

Pope Shenouda III was a source of inspiration for Egyptian Copts with his prestige, courage, firmness and determination. He was an outstanding wise man whose knowledge was impressive. Moreover, he was funny and long suffering as well as very sensitive. During his period, the Church faced many conflicts and problems, but he treated them with wisdom and could manage the situation with the least amount of losses. His Holiness was stronger than all the events and all tribulations that descended upon the Church. During his time, the Church was stable and peaceful. Pope Shenouda was a brilliant politician who knew how and when to oppose and how to speak. His weekly sermon was expected every week by his beloved congregation. At certain time, he decided to lock himself in the monastery to pray, which raised the anger of President Sadat. His relationship with President Mubarak was good and based on common interests, whether political or religious. Pope Shenouda left his troubles to be carried by his successor Pope Tawadros, may God help him to bear such great burden, troubles and unrest.

All religions, messengers and prophets agreed that peace is a constant of religions since they aim to achieve peace and security and to prevent all terrorism and violence. Throughout history, terrorism has used religion to cover its ugly face, which led to conflicts and wars and caused human tragedies all over the world. Peace is agreement, tolerance, coexistence, harmony and stability on local or international scale. It is a desirable situation that countries hold treaties in order to achieve peace.

After the American actor from Egyptian origins Ramy Malek won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the film Bohimian Rhapsody , he declared his Egyptian origins in front of the whole world at the happiest night of his life. On the other side of the world, people with Wahbi ideologies decided to do their best to destroy the celebration by claiming that Rami and his movie is trying to promote homosexuality and destory the morals of the youth of the Arab world. Members of the House of Representatives and media presenters adopted that conspiracy theory, but other illuminated people invited the Oscars winner to visit Egypt to promote tourism. Human Rights Watch said that the Egyptian authorities celebrates Ramy Malek, but can t show the film in Egyptian theaters without deduction of several scenes. It added that Mercury would have been sent to jail in Egypt according to the fight against immorality and debauchery just like 76 people were imprisoned last year. It should be known that art is used to deliver messages and make change, and many Egyptian actors appeared in movies as terrorists, gays, drug dealers, and harlots, but they have never been accused of inciting any of that. However, they may think that art aims to spread religion just like they linked the success of Muhamed Salah in football to his religion!

The Lord Jesus was an example of practical love, suffering for us and carrying our pains as the Holy Bible says: Bear one another s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2) As Christ bore our burdens, so we are committed to this approach to bear the burdens of one another. Thus, Father John Nassif, priest of the Church of Our Lady of Chicago, told us in his article, Remember the prisoners that Brotherly love begins with the feeling of one another as members of one body. Losing one s love will lead to lack of feeling for one another. We should get in touch with people suffering like those in prison or hospitals. The prisoners are not only those who are in actual prisons, but those who are trapped in their sins and bad habits. We should seek their salvation, just like ours, like Jesus Christ showed us.

A small trick is used to train and control the elephants, which is to tie his legs with chains to a tree. The little elephant tries hard to get rid of his chains, but fails over and over again till he gives up. The elephant stops trying even when he grows up and becomes very strong. The chains became the secret of controlling the elephants who never try to get rid of the chains ignoring how powerful their bodies are! This is the same concept used to control the oppressed and enslaved peoples. They were raised on slavery and fear the imaginary restrictions. They don t try to get their freedom back and their minds become absent. Such peoples have to use their minds and think about their situation and future.

God does not despair of the immobility of man and the multitude of sins committed by men, but he reshapes our hearts to take away the bad habits, just like pottery. Dr. Rasmi Abdul Malik, head of the humanities department at the Theological seminary talked in his article I am like ceramics in your hands about the reshaping of man s heart by the hand of God. God has created man for good deeds, but the corruption of man s nature prevented that goal. God doesn t despair from man and never abandon his salvation. Thus, He reshapes our hearts for his work with the Holy Spirit.

Christ did not leave us a specific textbook to memorize it, and has not handed a creed to the disciples, but only gave them the principles of love, holiness and justice through which, they were guided by the Holy Spirit and wrote the creed to be widely accepted by Christians all over the world. This was explained by Father Youhanna Nasief, the priest of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Chicago, in his article the formation of the creed in which he assured that it was written thanks to the holy spirit. In the first church, it was a simple statement of the basic beliefs before accepting baptism which was referred by St. Paul saying Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6: 12)

The military court sentenced 8 defendants to death penalty on charges of attempt assassination of president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and here I remember few political assassinations in Egypt. Th oldest political assassination in the history of modern Egypt is the assassination of Napoleon s deputy Clipper during the French campaign against Egypt. He was killed by Suleiman al-Halabi, a student who came from Syria to study at Al-Azhar. Al-Halabi hid himself between the trees claiming to be a beggar, and used a knife to stab Clipper to death. Then, during the British occupation of Egypt, the Black Hand Association was formed by the National Party, which believed that the assassination is one mean of struggle. They assassinated the English soldiers and those who collaborated with them among the Egyptians. They killed Sir Le Stack, the governor of Cairo, Ahmed Maher Pasha and Amin Pasha Osman. The Muslim Brotherhood continued the list by killing Counselor Khazandar in front of his house in Helwan, and Salim Pasha Zaky in front of the Faculty of Medicine, and placed bombs in front of the churches, and then killed Prime Minister Nukrashi Pasha.

We listen these days to the justifications of those supporting the amendments to the Egyptian Constitution. They say that the Constitution is not a sacred text and the second article, which states that Islam is the main source of legislation for the laws, and that Egypt is an Islamic state is not an exception. Such article was planted in 1980 like a bomb by Sadat to be reelected for lifetime and wanted to get the support of the Islamists. The problem of article 2 is that it impairs the entire judiciary, such as the crimes called (honor killings), a murder that any murderer can claim to defend his honor even if he is a pimp. Moreover, the bearded officers were not excluded since Islamic Sharia doesn t prohibit letting one s beard grow. The personal status laws were no exception despite their extremely big scale. The second article is not a problem for Christians alone, but for all Egyptians, police and army.

5 years have passed since Mr. President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi took the presidential office, and he always tells us that he won t continue in that office if the people don t want him to. I want to remind him of the story of Harun al-Rashid, who used to hide himself in clothes of a bigger at night to listen to his people and to compare it to the sayings of the people surrounding him. President al-Sisi was born and raised in a local and historical neighborhood, Gamalia, and I visited this neighborhood since I admire Islamic antiquities like Qalawoon, Ghouri, Barqouq, Merdani, Mohamed Bai Abdul Dahab, and Akmar mosques which are full of beauty.

I Write this article to discuss what I am trying to understand, not to evaluate or criticize. It may look useless as a friend told me since our leaders prefer stubbornness, tyranny and even murdering! The situation is totally nonsense as wisdom is hated and giving advice is a crime that is not forgiven. We have tried to amend the constitutions before, and what was the result? Sadat opened the duration of presidential period to be unlimited instead of just two. Yet, he was murdered before his initial period was over.

Lord Jesus Christ used to demonstrate his teachings to the disciples using parables. Furthermore, he encouraged them to think over its meanings. One of these parables is the house over the rock. Sister Marian Edward, minister at the church of St. Mary in Amsterdam, talked about the meaning of such house explaining that life of each of us is similar to a building that we build and save throughout our lives. In that account, Lord Jesus has talked about three kinds of houses referring to human life and work and spiritual struggle. First, the house built on sand is the person who hears a lot but does not do according to what he hears, and this house will fall quickly. Secondly, the house built on the rock is a human being who hears and then goes and obeys what he hears. The empty house means life without spiritual struggle in the constant prayer and the bible study. Such person doesn t have spiritual practices and therefore it lacks fruits of the holy spirit like love, happiness and peace. Everybody should check his heart and house and find out which type he belongs to, and whether the way is leading to the kingdom of heavens.