2022-2023 Melkite Catholic Eparchy of Newton Bishop’s Appeal.

During the past few months, I have been showered with God’s blessings through your many greetings and prayers. I

feel so welcomed by our entire Melkite family. I am grateful for the energy and excitement of so many who desire to

serve our Melkite Catholic Church in the United States of America.

I would like to share with you my vision for the future of our Church, and invite you to collaborate with me and

with our Melkite community in the important mission which Jesus has given us.

These weeks following my ordination have been an absolute whirlwind; filled with both God’s grace, and an

overwhelming realization of the magnitude of the responsibility that God has given to both me, your bishop, and to all

of you, God’s holy people.

In my daily prayer for you, in my meetings and weekly parish visits, one thing is constant and is clear to me: the

abundant strength and power of the Holy Spirit working in and through His Church. Our individual and communal

prayer life must be the source of everything we do, so that we can continue to be open and receive His blessings.

I am praying for you, and I want to stop now for a moment and ask you to pray with me for our entire Melkite Catholic

Church:

Shine in our hearts, Master Who love mankind, the pure light of Your divine knowledge, and open the eyes

of our mind that we may understand the announcing of Your Good News. Set in us reverence for Your blessed

commandments so that, trampling all carnal desires, we may live according to the Spirit, both willing and doing

everything that pleases You. For You, are the light of our souls and bodies, O Christ God, and we render glory to

You, and to Your Eternal Father and to Your All-Holy, Good and Life-Giving Spirit, now and always and forever

and ever. Amen.

Each day in my prayers, I find myself returning to the beautiful story of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, in Luke

24. Filled with confusion, frustration, and even anger at Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, the two disciples encounter the

Risen Lord as they return to their home. Not realizing that it is Jesus, they begin to share with Him what had taken

place, and then they say something that keeps coming back to me in prayer: “We had hoped that he was the One.” Of

course, Jesus is the One! He is the one in whom we place all our hope. It is this hope in Jesus that is the foundation of

my vision for our Melkite Catholic Church in the United States.

As we prepare to celebrate the Nativity of our Lord in Bethlehem, and prepare our hearts to welcome the new-born

Savior, we must once again be filled with hope and enlivened by the expectation of what Jesus has come to share with

us. We must allow this hope to enliven our mission as Christians.

Do you realize the magnitude of the gift of our Melkite faith? Jesus chose to be born among our ancestors - they

were the first disciples and then missionaries to all nations. All of us have received the gift of our faith from the first

Christians who gathered around Jesus. Today, Jesus is also choosing us, men and women from all nations, to share

His light with men and women from all nations.

What remains is our response. Will we have the courage to be His disciples, and to make disciples? Will we commit

to being vibrant members of the Church that Jesus established?

Our Heavenly Father has certainly bestowed His blessings on us by sharing the greatest gift of all: His beloved Son.

Are we who have received so much from the Lord willing to bless others with the blessing which the Lord has poured

into our hearts?

The Lord has placed in our hands the “pearl of great price” (Mt. 13:45), and it is now our opportunity to allow it to

shine brightly in our hearts, in our homes, in our churches, and in our society.

Today, I am filled with hope and joy to be your new bishop, and to lead our Melkite Catholic Church in the years to

come. I invite you to collaborate in our common ministry. I want to encourage you, to say “yes” to the Lord,

and to His invitation to be His disciple, growing in the rich beauty of our Melkite Catholic family tradition.

My vision for our future could not be clearer, because it is the vision the Lord himself gives us. Our unique encounter

with the Lord, our unique experience of our Melkite Catholic faith, must become a missionary movement; much

like that which inspired the Apostles to leave Jerusalem after they received the Holy Spirit to evangelize the world.

Our Biblical roots, our Church fathers, mothers and saints, our holy icons, our magnificent Liturgy, and all the

treasures of our Melkite Catholic tradition must shine once again with the same power which first converted the

world to Christianity.

To do this, the Lord awaits our response to His invitation; our willingness to encounter Him in the face of the child

born in Bethlehem. Then we must walk with Him to observe once again how He healed, taught, forgave, and showed

mercy. We must join Him as we see Him take up His cross. Our joy which flows from His holy resurrection can only

be an authentic and lasting joy if it begins with true discipleship. Today, having recommitted ourselves to being disciples

of the Lord, I share with you a challenge and an invitation to collaborate with me in the missionary ministry of Jesus.

As I begin my ministry as your bishop, I invite you to share your whole self as a servant of Jesus. What are your gifts?

What has God put in you to share with others? As we begin our ministry together, take a moment today to write to

me, and to share something about yourself, your gifts, and your dreams for our future. When I visit your parish, I want

to sit with you and talk with you personally to hear your faith story, and how you want to commit to serving God and

His people.

I invite you to be charitable with your time, creative in sharing your talents, and generous in using your financial

resources for God’s work.

First and foremost, I ask you to pray. I then ask you to reflect on how your talents can contribute, as all of us work

together to fulfill God’s will for our lives, and for His Holy Church. Finally, having prayed together today and shared

something about ourselves, I want to ask you to prayerfully consider the sharing of the treasures God has given you.

Each year at this time, my predecessors organized a “Bishops Appeal” campaign, which has helped our church remain

financially stable over the years. I am grateful for the financial stewardship of Bishop Nicholas, and how he received

our resources as a sacred gift to be invested in the growth of our Melkite Church. I am committed to continuing the

model of his faith and service. Your past gifts have helped our Melkite Church in so many places, and allowed our light

to shine to the rest of the world.

Even in these first few months, I have seen the many needs of our Melkite Catholic Church in the United States. Some

of our older communities have experienced demographic changes which have challenged their financial stability, and

some of our new outreaches and missions need help getting established.

We also need funding to help develop new educational resources, vocation awareness, media work, strengthen our

online presence, and develop creative new ministries to respond to the changing needs around us.

Together we can grow our Melkite Catholic Church across the country and make our communities everything

God wants them to be. I am enclosing a donation envelope. I ask you to pray and consider my request to share your

time and talents. I also ask you to pray about what amount you can contribute to our healthy financial future.

We have also set up a donation page for this year’s appeal at Melkite.org

Please be as generous as you can, as we begin this new chapter of our spiritual life together.

I pray daily for our Melkite Catholic Church in the United States, and for you, its dynamic faithful. I also ask you to

pray for me, and to open your heart to Jesus—our new-born Savior—this Christmas and every day of your life.

I commit to collaborating with you as we continue to build a future of faith for you, your family, and the surrounding

society that needs our faith to shine now, more than ever before.

In the service of the Christ Child,