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.

Dr. Hisham Abdul Jalil Sayed is an Egyptian doctor who worked in the Saudi Kingdom at a village called Al-Shunana in Al-Qassim. He used to work hard for 12 hours a day at the Medical Family Center. The people of the village respected him and even loved him for his great loyalty and dedication. When he died, more than 3,000 people attended his funeral and many of them visited his family in Egypt to offer their sincere condolences and to offer money for them. Sayed used to visit the patients in their homes, and therefore, the family of the village refused to transfer him to another place in the Saudi Kingdom. May God repose his soul and bless his family by the inheritance he left to his children of love of the people. He was a great man from Alexandria whom I was honored to write this article about.

Egyptian international star Rami Malik won the Oscar for his role in the film Bohemian Rhapsody in which he represented the famous singer Freddie Markouri. It was a great success, and Malik has won several prizes before he got the Oscars. In fact, this event was call of happiness and positive energy to the majority of Egyptian young people for several reasons: First of all, he is the youngest actor to get the Oscars at this age and he was able to overcome all obstacles. Moreover, he is the first Egyptian or Arab to win such a prestigious prize. His Arab background was such a great challenge before his acceptance in that career. Yet, some of the wretched people who used to steal the joy of other people as well as their positive energy started to spread their misery assuring Rami is not even Egyptian, which contradicts with Rami s description of himself as well as the reports of international media that called him the Egyptian pharaoh. If we accepted such nonsense that he is not even an Egyptian, we wouldn t consider Majdi Yaqub, Dr, Ahmed Zewail, Dr. Farouk Al-Baz and other international figures that kept the Egyptian identity. I would like here to assure that Rami had to face many obstacles in his way before he achieves such success. This success that was achieved by toil, dream and hard working. Let Rami achieve more and more success and let you, the wretched, suffer your misery.

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.

In one of his stupid statement Ahmad abou Al-ghaeit said lately that Plasteine issue is the main reason of extremism in the region. I don’t understand how a politician can justify violence and make it sounds right. Let me tell you Mr abou Al-ghaeit why there is a violence in our region. When we lack to justice and resort to revenge as a mean to wipe out our political rivals, will be always violence. When we see corruption and can’t do anything with it, will be always violence. When we teach our children to hate others in schools and mosques, will be always violence.

As Egypt bid farewell to 3 martyrs of al-Darb al-Ahmar terrorist attack, 9 terrorists were getting ready to receive death penalty over assassination of Egypt s former public prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, who was assassinated when a car bomb struck his vehicle in 2015. Responding to the news about the execution of the nine men convicted of the attack, several online media campaigns were launched and complained that the trial was unfair. The nine were among 28 men sentenced to death for the killing of the former public prosecutor. Several of the men said they were forcibly disappeared and tortured in order to confess to the killing. Many people started to accuse the government of killing innocent people at the time pro government supporters see it as fair trial and that the terrorists deserved it.

George Wajih Fakhri is an actor with no limbs, but he has a gift and always receives warm applause from the audience. He is a young man in his mid-twenties, who is weak in body and strong in personality. His smile is always on his face despite the his suffering with life. His devotion to acting developed in the theaters of the churches after he was accepted to join the ministry couple of years ago. He wanted to serve God with his talents and to spread happiness among the people. People love his acting and encourage him to continue. Such words of support renew his passion and gives him hope and encouragement.

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.

Now as the Egyptian Parliament has accepted the request submitted by 155 MPs to amend the Constitution, Egypt embarks on the crucial phase during which the proposed amendments are discussed and drafted, then put up for public referendum. Let us look into Article 226 of the Constitution, which governs the approval of any constitutional amendment. The article comes under the Chapter VI titled: “General and Transitional Provisions”. It reads: “The president of the republic, or one-fifth of the members of theParliament, may request the amendment of one or more articles of the Constitution. The request should specify the articles proposed for amendment and the reasons for amendment. In all cases, the Parliament shall discuss the amendment request within 30 days of the date it receives that request. The Parliament shall issue its decision to accept the request in full or in part by a majority of its members. If the request is rejected, amendment of the same articles may not be again requested till the following legislative round.

When you live abroad for a while it is easy to notice many things you wouldn t notice if you live inside your native country. Lately, I noticed while walking or going somewhere that a lot of people actually read and listen to the news of their original country not the country they live in now. Although many left their countries for many reasons from persecution to search for a better life, however, everyone is still connected to his native country through social media, TV and The News. While we are in the Valentine s Day, that shows the love everyone carry for his native country although the suffering and the problems he passed by in his life to come to a new country. In conclusion, we can feel the love going through our body to our countries even if we don t live in it anymore and that s why this year I want to say Happy Valentine s Egypt.

As the whole world is celebrating Valentines Day, I would like to talk today about offering love before gifts. I am talking here about the mature love that is expressed by giving. Yes, one should express his love by giving from his time, efforts, money and etc. This concept extends to love our children, homeland, church, family, friends and spouses. Thus, lets think today about the love that we can offer to those whom we do care about. It is not just about giving more; it is about what we give and how we present it. The gift is valuable no matter how much it costs as long as it is offered with love. A child wanted to give his dad a present at Valentine’s Day, so he offered him the last piece of chocolate that he had and indeed this was very valuable gift since it was wrapped with true love. Lets think about giving more love to those whom we care about. Lets give them a touch of caring, respect and appreciation. Enjoy a happy Valentines Day my dear friends!

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.

Again Egyptian and the political regime in Egypt don t want to learn from his past mistakes and lately member of the parliament suggested many amendments to the constitution. These amendments mainly targeting increasing how many times the president can run for the election, thus, president Sisi can be in the power for longer time. Unfortunately, most of the intellectual and elite of the society can t utter a word or objecting what s going to happen otherwise they will face what the Egyptian director “Khaled Youssef” faced by provoking him with sexual videos.

A friend of mine suddenly decided to move to Rwanda and invest his savings in that African country assuring it is a great investment opportunity. It was an interesting turn in his life that made me curious to learn more about this country. Rwanda is one of the smallest countries on the African mainland and has suffered from civil war and genocide in which around 1 million people were killed. However, Rwanda has changed dramatically and witnessed great development. Moreover, its economy and health services has witnessed great improvement. Paul Kagame is a Rwandan politician and former military leader. He is currently the President of Rwanda, having taken office in 2000 when his predecessor, Pasteur Bizimungu, resigned. Kagame previously commanded the rebel force that ended the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He was considered Rwanda s de facto leader when he served as Vice President and Minister of Defence from 1994 to 2000. He was re-elected in August 2017 with an official result of nearly 99% in an election criticized for numerous irregularities.He has been described as the "most impressive" and "among the most repressive" African leaders. Kagame has been president of Rwanda for 19 years and though he has made many achievements in several fields, democracy remains not one of them. This may show that there is a big difference between development and democracy.

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.

French newspapers talked about the visit of French President Emmanuel Macaron to Egypt, which shows how Makron responded to the demands of his people. The French journalist said that President Macaron has drawn the attention of Egyptian translators more than once to the fact that he speaks about human rights, and yet they do not translate the words accurately to President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. This shows that those surrounding the president don t translate the situation accurately to him and not only the words of the the French guest. The situation also showed that president Macron determined to talk about the issue of human rights no matter what happens. This also happened after he was criticized for not mentioning it last year upon the visit of al-Sisi to France, and therefore, decided to mention it clearly this year. He declared it several times even before he visited Egypt saying that Egypt violated human rights and freedoms. Yet, no body responded in Egypt.

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.

CNN released recently a report comparing between Apple Revenues and some Arab countries revenues and the report shows that Apple almost beat all the Arab countries revenue like (Egypt- Emirates- Saudi Arabia) not combined but individually. For Example the report showed that apple revenue was about 250 Billion Dollar compare to 239 to Saudi Arabia, 112 to Emirates, 56 to Egypt, 54 to Kuwait, and 49 to Qatar. The statistics explain why US Economy still remain one of the strongest economies on the earth although all troubles happened lately with China related to the trade war. It s a big shame when we see a company in US can beat bif counties especially Egypt which has now over 95 Million population who should be a main power for the economy. Having said that, we need to recognize that this is a big challenge that Arab countries face and we should take it as incentive to work hard and beat such numbers but will the Arab leaders listen and follow, this is the real challenge.

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.