Words of Thanks in Kfar Yassif at the First Liturgy (December 25, 2016)

Christ is born! Glorify Him!
My father, the Very Reverend Oikonomos Atallah Makhouli, most honoured,
Esteemed men of religion,
My dear wife, my family, my relatives and our honoured guests,

Here I stand today, after a wait of decades, before the altar of the Lord, bearing the name of St. Nektarios at my first Divine Liturgy, giving thanks to the Child incarnate in the cave of Bethlehem for bestowing His divine grace upon me, a sinner and unworthy, yesterday in the Church of the Resurrection, as I rose to the first degree of the holy priesthood. There, at Golgotha, I saw Your saving Passion: the Cross standing high and You hanging upon it, opening Your arms and embracing the whole world out of the abundance of Your goodness and Your love for it. And here I carry my new cross, which I have pledged to You to carry, with my family, in the service of Your loving people, so that we may offer You thanks and praise for ever. This heavy cross is nothing but a joy of the Resurrection whose light shone within me on the day I received this holy grace; it is the joy of the light of the empty, life-giving tomb, for we are the light of the world for ever.

From the sufferings of the Cross and the joy of the Resurrection I recalled, O Lord, Your humility and Your divine condescension in Your saving Incarnation from the holy Virgin, the Theotokos. I saw You as a newborn Child, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger like the poorest of men. Heaven trembled, the angels were amazed, the shepherds rose up in haste and the Magi set out on their way, for Your humility filled them with awe and Your love astonished them. How can I forget that on the day of Your great Incarnation You visited us from on high, the Dayspring from the East? I ask You, my Saviour, to visit me too, a sinner, with that same humility and wondrous love, so that by the power of Your holy Cross I may wash and kiss the feet of Your faithful beloved ones and be a faithful servant to them, and they may be to You “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.”

O wondrous Child, my tongue fails to thank You, and my heart is bewildered and asks: what shall I offer You, O Christ, for You have appeared on earth as man for our sake? Every one of the creatures You have made offers You thanks: the angels their hymn, the heavens the star, the Magi their gifts, the shepherds their wonder, the earth the cave, the wilderness the manger. And I, what shall I offer? Behold, I offer myself and my whole life to You and to the service of Your holy Church, guarding her always and obedient to her holy canons, walking uprightly like my holy fathers and forefathers, and offering You a loving people for whom I shall give account on the day of the general resurrection.

Finally, I thank God first of all for His gifts and the abundant graces He lavished upon me on the day I received the degree of the diaconate. Secondly, I offer my thanks and my love to His Beatitude Kyrios Kyrios Theophilos III, Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine and Jordan, and to the Holy Synod, for granting me their trust and support to serve the temple of the Lord and Him who dwells in it, with all love, humility and devotion.

I also offer my thanks to the Very Reverend Oikonomos Atallah Makhouli, who has accompanied me and taught me the foundations of spiritual prayer from when I was ten years old until this very hour.

Nor shall I forget the labour of the Very Reverend Oikonomos Nikolaos Basal, who serves the neighbouring parish of Abu Snan, and his full support for me ever since he learned of my longing for the priesthood: he has been a friend, a father and a wise teacher to me.

And were I to forget, how could I forget to thank my small family, and above all my beloved wife, for standing by me and for her boundless support? She is my steadfast support, for my cross is her cross and my resurrection is her resurrection.

In closing, I offer my sincere thanks to my family, my relatives and all the people of my dear town for enduring the hardship of travelling yesterday; I am certain that my joy is your joy as well.

In my own name and in the name of my parents and the family, we thank you all, each and every one, for sharing our joy in this blessed ordination, and we pray to the incarnate Child to fill you with every good thing, every blessing and all love in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.