“Happy New Year … Merry Christmas”
With these words we embark on our new year, with good wishes and prayers for the Lord to preserve our Egypt, guard her against all evil, and bless her people.
As we contemplate the past year, we find that we can do no better than to thank the Lord for His tender love and kindness, and His generous care that brought us to this hour in which we celebrate His coming to our world. In so doing, He carried to us a message of love and peace, as sung by the angels: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace; goodwill towards men”.
I say this even as I live the aftermath of the harsh experience I underwent last year: that of losing my wife, Amira, who was my life partner, love, and friend. But this was the good will of God and His fatherly care. His overflowing grace inundated me, so that I was immersed in a sense of complete acceptance of His will. His peace gave me the comfort and strength to go through the journey of pain, loss, and deprivation. Now I have the inner joy of knowing for certain that I have a special intercessor who is free of the pains of this world, and who prays for me in Heaven.
My good wishes for a blessed Christmas go to the faithful, wise pastor Pope Tawadros II, Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church; and to all Metropolitans, Bishops, priests, servants, and congregation of the Church. My good wishes also go to the Heads of the Catholic and Evangelical Churches in Egypt, and to their priests and congregations. I pray to God to stretch His healing, loving hand to bless our land and her good people.
Watani International
31 December 2021