Greetings from our small village of Taybeh! As I stare out this evening from my living room window at the lights of Jerusalem, I can’t help but think that as Christians we must remain as the Light of the world. As I see the lights shining from this sacred and holy city, I can’t help but think that there must be a stronger voice coming from the Holy Land promoting peaceful resolutions for the bloodshed and violence that has plagued the land of Christ’s Holy Resurrection.
Dearly Beloved in the Name of the Lord,
Greetings from our small village of Taybeh! As I stare out this evening from my living room window at the lights of Jerusalem, I can’t help but think that as Christians we must remain as the Light of the world. As I see the lights shining from this sacred and holy city, I can’t help but think that there must be a stronger voice coming from the Holy Land promoting peaceful resolutions for the bloodshed and violence that has plagued the land of Christ’s Holy Resurrection.
During the fourth century, Saint Helen, the mother of Constantine the Great Emperor stood in this very same area as I write to you today, the Biblical town of Ephraim, on her way to finding the true cross. Saint Helen with the help of her son, St. Constantine, built the first church in Taybeh because Christ walked into our village right before his crucifixion as mentioned in John 11:54.
Saint Helen amazes me so much because as a woman and at a late age came to the Holy Land and wanted to build churches, chapels or place a cross in every spot that Christ walked or performed a miracle. Especially after her son Constantine had the vision of the True Cross, she was extremely motivated to find this symbol of Christianity.
Saint Helen is believed to have build our church of Saint George in Taybeh that is now in ruins at the same time she built the Nativity Church in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre over Christ’s tomb and the Church of Ascension where Christ ascended to heaven. Living here in this sacred land, I am completely fascinated at the efforts, time and energy Saint Helen contributed in order to preserve and maintain our Christian presence.
Saint Helen died approximately at 327 A.D. never really knowing that the Church will recognize her as equal to the apostles. I was supposed to have her name since my paternal grandmother was “Eleni” and the first born child takes the name of the paternal grandfather or the paternal grandmother in the strict Greek Orthodox families in Greece, but my mother had difficulty having children thus I was promised to God.
As is stated in one of my books for children, Christina’s Favorites Saints, “Christina is amazed that Saint Constantine and Saint Helen built so many beautiful churches because they loved Christ very much” Please ask yourself this very moment what you are doing if you love Christ very much. I truly believe that we are all called to serve and give glory to God in any small or large way. It is a matter of finding and understanding God’s plan in our lives.
Today we remember Saint Helen because it is actually May 21st on the old Julian calendar and the Feast Day of Saint Constantine and Helen in the Orthodox Christian Church.
However, this land seeking to keep its Christian identity has a long battle ahead. The Palestinian Center for Peace and Justice (PCPJ) revealed in its monthly report that the Israel army killed 28 medics, assaulted medical teams and ambulances 450 times, wounded 406 medics, destroyed 39 ambulances, in addition to 59 cases, which pregnant women delivered on checkpoints causing the death of 31 infants after soldiers banned ambulances from crossing. Since 2000 these are harsh statistics to hear.
The number of Palestinians killed since the beginning of the Intifada, September 28, 2000 reached 2,965, including 759 children. Meanwhile the report revealed that the number of Palestinians injured since September 2000 is 53,336, including 14,961 children, 44,992 homes destroyed, including 4,105 homes completely demolished. This is of course very depressing to me since I feel I live in a palace compared to people around me.
I pray and hope that the face of Christianity, the Head of all the Christian churches in the Holy Land, can unite in one voice and proclaim a strong Christian presence for the Holy Land. If you have specific questions before my trip to Boston, feel free to express them as I will try to bring you the thoughts and feelings of one Christian leader in the Holy Land, the opinion of His Beatitude Michel Sabbah, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem scheduled for an interview this Monday. His Beatitude Michael Sabbah and His Beatitude Patriarch Irenios I, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate were both in Taybeh this last week for the graduation ceremonies of the two Christian schools in the village. Both encourage people to love as Christ loves us. And both encourage Palestinian Christians to stay in the land of their Christian roots.
