“Our heart is the temple wherein the Spirit of God dwells” (1 Cor. 3.16). We rejoice each time a church is built, giving thanks to God who permits that a new house be built for Him, bearing witness to the existence of God amid His people, and seeking daily renewal in the Spirit of God.

Where should the house of the Lord be built?

It is said that a brother, on seeing the abundance of his harvest, thanked God for His gifts, and wondered, “My married brother is in greater need than I for this harvest. I’ll give him from what my God has granted me. I’ll give him from that which doesn’t belong to me!”

True to his word, he carried some of what he had and placed it with his brother’s harvest. In doing so, he had such a feeling of great happiness and inner joy that he decided to repeat what he had done the following night. This made him feel even more joyful, and he continued to do it repeatedly. his harvest in the meantime was increasing.

One night, while praising God and carrying his harvest to his brother’s silo, he saw a shadow approaching him in the darkness. As he got closer, it turned out to be his brother who was also carrying his harvest. They both dropped what they were carrying and embraced. They discovered that they were each giving the other, believing that the other’s need was greater. Both praised God and thanked Him for the love in their hearts.

According to the Jewish tradition, that was the spot on which the temple of Solomon was built.

Do you want to participate in the house of the Lord?

Do you want to build the house of the Lord?

Offer love to your brother. If you give up your life for his sake, God will accept your worship, your praise, and your thanksgiving. He will establish His kingdom within you (Luke 17. 21) and proclaim His heavens in you. You will partake in the Divine Nature (2 Pet. 1.4), thus partaking in God’s overwhelming love for humanity. Finally, you will enjoy communion with the heavenly hosts, who speak the language of unceasing love, joy and praise.

The Lord will proclaim His glory and build His invisible house wherever true brotherly love is found. The whole world will thus be the Lord’s.

→ English translation of the story here at St-Takla.org: كنيسة جديدة! وقلب جديد!

During a visit to one of the patients at the University Hospital in Alexandria, I met a university professor who happened to be non-Christian. He told me that he had befriended Pope Kyrillos VI, and that he, along with the rest of his family, had known the Pope for many years. He said,

 “We’ve loved him a lot since he was still a monk in Old Cairo. At that time I was a child. Together with my friends, we feared him, but we ran to him, since we considered him to be like a father to us.

We enjoyed his good-naturalness and his charming company.

Do you know what my parents and their friends used to say of him?

He is not of this world!”

This is how the Lord builds His house within us, making us bear witness to the world that we are a heavenly house.

A Vigorous Old Man Building the Church

Short Stories (Stories for the Youth) Books by Father Tadros Yacoub Malaty

They Paid Much