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The church of St. Mari-Marouta

The church of St. Mari-Marouta

During the renovations of the monks’ cells located below the northern fence, the foundations of an ancient church were discovered, in front of the El-Sourian church. This ancient church is the church of St. Mari-Marouta. The discovery was made to the south of the baptistery that is present at the end of the chancel of the Maghara church. St. Mari-Marouta’s church dates back to the eighth century, and from the inside it spans an area of, 6 m in length and 3.85 m in width. It extends from the eastern side of the monastery (where the monastery’s current office is located), all the way to the Maghara church’s western wall.

          A wooden iconostasis was constructed as a partition between the altar and the church’s nave. The church’s external walls are adorned with mosaic icons. On the church’s western wall there is a very unique mosaic icon that depicts St. Miriam giving St. John Kame the Priest, three dinars. On the church’s eastern wall there is a picture that depicts St. Mari Ephraim the Syrian. The church’s main door is located on the church’s western wall. The outside of the door is adorned with a mosaic picture of St. Mari-Marouta El- Souriany. St. Mari-Marouta’s church is located southwest of the Maghara church. The Maghara church also has a second entrance in its chancel, leading to St. Mari- Marouta’s church.

His Grace Bishop Metaous prayed the first Holy Liturgy on the church’s altar on the day of 10/10/2017.

The Immersion Basin

The immersion basin is 80 cm deep, 2.1 m wide, and 2.1 m long. It used to be filled with water, and the Holy Lakan prayers were recited upon it during the feast of the Epiphany. The Christians who lived during this time period used to step into this basin to take the blessings of the holy water, as a symbol of when our Lord Jesus Christ stepped into the Jordan River. This basin is considered an ‘immersion basin’, and not an official baptistery.

Tubah 1

Tubah 1, 1734 -9 January 2018, Tuesday (The Open Heavens)

Hurry to me my Savior by opening Your fatherly arms that is Your love's heaven and show it to me.
So I praise You with all longing and love and praise Your sweet name with all happiness and joy.
So I can raise myself to Your presence at all times and forget the dust, the ashes and the filth.
So I can take the power from You to overcome my enemy and gird my loins and strive with all diligence.
So I can happily tolerate all sickness and all temptation and all afflictions so that Your Spirit may descend upon me.
And I desire the milk of wisdom of the tree of life and the wild honey that will take me to You.
So I run between Your lovely arms when I'm weak or sick so You give me power and purify me.
So I can carry my cross happily every day forgetting what is behind and follow You anywhere You go.
So I can enter into the cloud of Your glory and be dressed by Your illuminated clothe.
My Lord Jesus Christ... Teach me how to be happy in tiredness, affliction, sickness, and pain without being lazy so I don't regret looking at You opening Your arms to carry me to You so  that I will live with You forever.

Kiahk 27

Kiahk 27, 1734 - يناير 5, 2018, Friday (Lets go to Bethlehem)
Lead me my Lord Jesus to You so that I may see You, find You and enjoy You.
Show me the way of Your salvation, You who leads the people in the olden days and Your children in every era.
Remove from me the fear, the worries and the distrust so that I may follow You without fear.
Elevate me to there, where the manger and the swaddles and where the beautiful presence of the Holy so that I may enter into God's alter towards the face of God that rejoices my youth.
Fill me with Your life-giving words and teachings that guide me to You.
Distance from me the spirit of the lost and lying and lighten my eyes with the light of Your love.
Fill me with the true love so that I may see You and reach You with my brethren.
My Lord Jesus Christ... Reveal to me the road ahead of me and open to me Your door and show me Your beauty and love... Oh Lover of mankind!!

Kiahk 28

Kiahk 28, 1734 –6 January 2018 Saturday (The Beauty of His Royal Glory)
Today shines your light and your beauty my GOD to prepare me for the Godly image in me with all the glory and beauty and happiness

You Lord untangle me from the bonds of darkness and the shadow of death and the slavery of sin and its ugliness to transfer me to the beauty of God’s Children's glory and freedom

You are Emmanuel...God with us, who shines with the beauty of his Godly radiance on all aspects of my life.

You are the infant who is born in the manger...You are the beauty of the divine alter amidst the choir of angels praising You and Your radiance with wonderful majestic praises. Such beauty from an comprehensible picture.

You dress me with the luminous glory suit, like a young child carrying the shining image of his father

Your Holy Spirit shouting internally you the Father of fathers...As a child speaks with his Father embraced in his arms all the time.

You overwhelm me with beauty of Your love, so I immerse my brethren with true love so the earth may become heavenly ...So fill me with the love of my brethren so I can abide in You.

Teach me to do all Your will, like David your servant, so the heavenly icon may be completed

My Lord Jesus Christ, my tongue is unable to speak, and my heart stands wondering in front of the mystery of  the mangers, so love me and prepare me, Oh the Lover of Mankind  

Kiahk 26

Kiahk 26, 1734 - يناير 4, 2018, Thursday (Spirit of Son ship)
You granted me Lord the marvelous spirit of son ship within me

With it I have salvation from my sin and I see You always
By it I see You, hear Your voice, rejoice in You, and meditate on Your work
By it I cry to Your father as a son and I call him Father
By it I dress in virtue and the righteousness and the purity
With it I overcome the world and all that is in it, the evil and its stumbling stone
With it I live by You and I earn from your life and I abide in You and You in me
My lord Jesus Christ renew Your sprit in me and fill my inward parts with your presence and from Your happiness ,peace and grace... forsake all the darkness and confusion