Monthly Message from Fr. Ghassan - November/December 2025

Monthly Message from Fr. Ghassan - November/December 2025

Sayings of Saint Isaac the Syrian:
Prayer
+ Give me a contrite heart and the strength to let acceptable tears flow from my eyes, illuminating my heart with pure prayer.
If you are tempted to neglect your prayers and fall asleep, don't give in to yourself... Always force yourself to pray at night and add psalms to it.
Prayer is one thing, and contemplation of prayer is another. Likewise, prayer and contemplation influence each other. Prayer is like sowing, and contemplation is the ripening of the harvest.
+ Constantly immerse yourself in the divine books and the lives of the saints, because constant contemplation of them makes prayer easier for you.
Prayer is the flight of our mind to God. Indeed, it is a lofty act, transcendent above all virtues, and a virtue more noble than all other works.
Purity is not acquired or found through extensive knowledge and various books, but rather through attentiveness to prayer. Prayer is a lofty act, transcendent above all virtues.
I believe that prayer is the key to the true concepts recorded in the divine scriptures.
If the spirit of neglect descends upon us and our temper cools, we sit down with ourselves, gather our thoughts, and carefully distinguish what is causing our neglect, where it began, and what is invalidating you from prayer and worship.
Be confident that prayer is the key that unlocks the true meanings of the sacred scriptures.
The prayer of a spiteful person is like seeds sown on a rock.
Repentance
The principle of repentance is humility, without false, confusing garb. Repentance is the door of mercy open to those who seek it, and through this door you enter into divine mercy. We find no rest outside this entrance, for we have all sinned, as the divine book says (Lamentations 3:42), but through His grace we are freely justified (Romans 3:24).
Repentance is the second grace, and it is born in the heart from faith and fear. The clay is a parental rod that guides us until we reach the spiritual paradise of Eden. And when we reach that, it abandons us and we return. Repentance is the door of mercy open to those who seek it. Without this door, no one enters into life. All have sinned, as the Apostle said: “By grace we are justified freely.” Repentance, then, is the second grace, and it is born in the heart from faith and fear.
The righteousness of Christ frees us from the righteousness of justice, and by faith in His name we are saved by grace freely through repentance.
There is no virtue before repentance.
Repentance has bestowed grace upon grace upon people. Repentance is the birth of grace from God, and the proof of this is that we exist in God. We receive the pledge of His gift through repentance.
The mind that blames its intention and procrastinates and leaves it without correction, even if God’s care is at times alerting it to repentance, and at times disciplining it, and at times suppressing it, and at times saddening it with accidents and diseases and attracting it with mercy to progress, he remains negligent, despising these emotions and neglecting the prick of intention. Grace is suddenly removed from him, and he falls into the hand of justice to correct him, and he does not escape until he pays the last penny.
Repentance is the highest of virtues, and its work is endless. It is suitable for everyone, whether they are sinners or righteous.
Remember the magnitude of the sins of the ancients who fell and then repented, and the degree of honor and dignity they attained through repentance, so that you may be comforted in your repentance.
Repentance is wearing beautiful, luminous garments.
The beginning of repentance is abandoning sin.
The perfection of repentance is hating sin.
Repentance is the mother of life. It opens its door to us through escaping from all the grace we have lost through the corruption of our conduct. Repentance renews it in us through the secretion of reason. By water and the Spirit, we have put on Christ, but we have not felt His glory. By repentance we enter bliss, and by the grace of secretion that is ours we are purified. The one who is devoid of repentance is disappointed in the bliss that is intended to be.
Blessed is he who perseveres in repentance until he goes to the Lord.
He who thinks that there is another way to repentance other than prayer...
And deceived by the devils. Examine yourself thoroughly, see what kind of person that is, and ask God to forgive you. The sick person who admits his illness will find healing easy. Likewise, the one who admits his pain will be close to recovery. As for the hardened heart, its pain will increase, and the sick person who disobeys the doctor will see his suffering increase.
Constant tears during prayer are a sign of divine mercy bestowed upon the soul as a result of its repentance being accepted. Through these tears, the soul is prepared to enter into eternal purity.
Cover up the sinner without alienating yourself from him, so that you may bear God's mercy.
Woe to him who does not weep, nor feel distressed, nor purify his own faults while there is still time for repentance.
Just as iron, when thrown into the fire, becomes white and purified from impurities, so too, when the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, dwells within the soul, it becomes pure like salt, shining with the whiteness of virtue. It forgets earthly things and longs for heavenly things, always preoccupied with divine things and passionate about the sublime. He who knows his sins is greater than he who raises the dead.
Where there is no fear, there is no repentance either.

Remember the fall of the ancients into their greatest sins and how they repented and attained honor and dignity, so that you may be comforted in your repentance.
There is no sin without forgiveness except that which is without repentance.