دير مار موسى الحبشي Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi

h1 class="western">Christmas Letter from Iraqi Kurdistan

Kirkuk, December 20^th, 2011

Dear friends,

Thank you again for the warm welcome I received this fall from the Swiss and Italian members of the associations of friends of our monastic community. It felt good to have you near. Many thanks also for your numerous expressions of solidarity in these turbulent times for the Middle East. Our website's statistics and our “inbox” that you are following us attentive, thank you! The Middle East, and especially Syria, really needs much prayer and solidarity. We are witnessing a continuous rise of violence, and we cannot but call with all our energy to non-violence and reconciliation.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Peace, love, solidarity and reconciliation, from our Savior,

We deemed appropriate to write you about the service of reconciliation, because we consider it part of our sacred duty and charisma. We retain that, in the treatment of the current tragic situation, adopting any non-evangelical project or trespassing, for any reason, the ethnics of our Messiah, or the positions of his most pure Mother, or the tradition of the disciples and apostles in the original church, is forbidden to us.

Press release in conclusion of the 1 october 2010 about the

Week of spiritual jihad, through fasting, prayer

and sakina (God-inspired peace of the soul)

for reconciliation between the children of Mother Syria

at the monastery of Mar Musa al-Habashi

Monks and nuns of the monastery dedicated themselves, with friends and a number of visitors from the vast Syrian mosaic, to fast and prayer. We met daily in the church to read the Gospel, recite the Quran and meditate on a selection of texts about non-violent activism for reform, through forgiveness, through a dialogue based on brotherly reciprocal listening, through the acceptance of difference without conditions. A large number of friends (people and organizations) from around the world joined us in spirit, which made us feel deeply in communion and unity before God.

Ai cari figli e figlie, Monaci e Monache della Comunità Monastica di Deir Mar Musa,

Pace e carità nel Signore!

Sulla base della lettera della Congregazione per le Chiese Orientali a Noi indirizzata (prot. 120/84) del 25 Novembre 2006, a proposito del “Tipico del Monastero di San Mosè l’Abissino (Deir Mar Musa el-Habasci, Nebek, Siria) ”,

Avendo questo documento ottenuto il nulla osta da parte della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede per mezzo della Congregazione per le Chiese Orientali,

Successivamente allo studio di questo Tipico da parte della Commissione Episcopale, comprendente, oltre all’Arcivescovo George Kassab, il Corepiscopo Michel Nuaman, il Padre Rami Qabalan, il Monaco Padre Yaaqub Murad e il Monaco Padre Jihad Youssef,

Abbiamo deciso di approvare ciò che, estratto dalla totalità dei canoni del Tipico suddetto, abbiamo ritenuto per oggi sufficiente, e che porta il titolo di “Regole monastiche di Deir Mar Musa el-Habasci, Nebek, Siria”.