Page 70 - AlNashra Year 2024 Issue 04
P. 70
Youth and Liturgical Life*
Patriarch John X
My dearly beloved, I will begin my address to was common. In this sense, what was hers
you by recounting an incident known as "The was also his, and vice versa. Nevertheless, he
Torn Book", about a man and his wife. The was not convinced by her explanation. In a fit
wife was deeply pious — she fasted, prayed of anger, he snatched the Bible from her and
and read the Bible continuously. Her husband, said, “Fine, if you claim this book is shared, I
however, was not as devout to religious will tear it in half”. And so it was. The husband
practices. Sometimes, he grew irritated with teared the book in half, handed her the first
his wife’s frequent practice and reading of the half, saying, “This is your share,” and he kept
Bible. The wife worked as a seamstress and the other half for himself. The wife took the
stood by her husband in carrying out the first half, and carried out to read it daily. It
burdens of daily life. One day, she expressed so happened that the Bible was torn at the
her desire to purchase a new Bible. Her fifteenth chapter of Luke - the reading of the
husband, frustrated, dissuaded her from prodigal son - precisely the verse that says,
buying the book, claiming that they were “He (the prodigal son) came to himself and
suffering from financial difficulties. Despite said, 'I will arise, and go to my father...”. The
this, the wife did not show any reaction and remainder of the verse, however, was on the
implicitly resolved to carry out her wish. One first page of the second half, which belonged
evening, much to her husband’s surprise, she to her husband's share. One day, by chance,
came home with a new Bible. When he asked the husband read the remainder of the verse,
her about how she acquired the book, she which piqued his curiosity and made him
answered that it was the fruit of her labor. eager to learn what the first part of the verse
As a seamstress, she doubled her work to was. His curiosity prompted him to read the
increase her income, allowing her to buy the part of the Bible in his possession to discover
Bible without adding any burden on him. She what it was about. At the same time, his wife
also sought to remind him that their life was had already read the other half of the book
shared, and thus everything between them in which the part of the verse that fueled
* From the archives of His Beatitude when he was Bishop of Al Hosn (Pyrgos)
69 Issue 4 - 2024
