We need your help today

If you have heard about the unemployment news this morning, you may have gotten the wrong impression that things are getting better. Yes in some areas the unemployment rate went down from last month. But let’s take a real look at those figures closer to home, at least the homes served by the Mor Gregorios Community Center.

Last month in Marshal County, Indiana, where the Community Center is located, March’s unemployment rate was 14.3 percent. And yes that is less than February’s. February’s unemployment rate was 14.9 percent. Let see, if I did my math right that means that March’s rate is four tenths of a percent less than February. And last year the unemployment rate in Marshall County was only 6.1 percent.

The real story is on the faces of the people who come in for the Community Center’s employment program. There are also more people coming in every week.

The Mor Gregorios Community Center also serves the neighboring counties of Starke and Fulton. In Starke County the unemployment rate last month was 14.8 percent, and in Fulton County the rate was 12.7 percent.

We know that we are making a difference in the lives of your friends and neighbors. We are called by God to do just that. So are you. Several people have help us and have made a difference. Computers and other equipment, time has been volunteered to listen and help, and a few dollars have been donated. Every donation, every prayer is important. No matter how small the donation, you have been remembered at all of the parish’s services. And almost every day someone tells us to thank all those who have donated time, and money, and equipment. So, from those we serve, “Thank you!”

But we need more help. We need help in meeting our overhead. If the electric goes off, the computers don’t work. If the computer’s don’t work our consumers can not file their unemployment claims, prepare their resumes, apply online for new jobs. I short, they are not able to put food on their families table.

We have been able to pay for the internet connect this month, but there is still an unpaid utility bill...the heat, the lights, the computers.

Your help is needed to help make a difference in the lives of your friends and neighbors. To discover how you can make a difference, email us at monastery@synesius.com, or call the Mor Gregorios Community Center and St. Mary’s Church at 574-540-2048.

And please, please keep our work and those we serve in your prayers. In the eyes of every person who walks in the doors of the Mor Gregorios Community Center we see Jesus. If you were here, so would you. So can you look into the eyes of Christ, smile, turn away, and just not help?

Help and help today!

Look at all the dark blue ink! The bluer it is, the more unemployed friends and neighbors there are. These are your friends and neighbor. These are the people served by the Mor Gregorios Community Center. And we need your help to continue to help.

To discover how you can hlep, email us at monastery@synesius.com, or call the center and parish at 574-540-2048.

And please keep the Mor Gregorios Community Center and all who we serve in your prayers.

Facebook Visible Vote Instructional Video Part 2

Visible Vote is a new Facebook application that has the goal of making government Transparent and Accountable to the American People. For more information please go to: http://www.facebook.com/apps/applicat...

Facebook Visible Vote Instructional Video Part 1

Want your representative to know your opinion? Visible Vote is a new Facebook application that has the goal of making government Transparent and Accountable to the American People. For more information please go to: http://www.facebook.com/apps/applicat...

Poem "I am Israel"

Greetings from Taybeh!

With the frustration of having another visitor denied a visa entry to Israel, I thought to share this poem received from Peter Shanab, Holylanders Association for Preservation of Christian Heritage. May you have many blessings during this very sacred and holy time of year, in Christ, maria

I am Israel By Hashem Said
The Daily - Washington State University,

Feb. 25, 2002

I am Israel - I came to a land without a people for a people without a land. Those people who happened to be here, had no right to be here, and my people showed them they had to leave or die, razing 480 Palestinian villages to the ground, erasing their history.

I am Israel - some of my people committed massacres and later became Prime Ministers to represent me. In 1948, Menachem Begin was in charge of the unit that slaughtered the inhabitants of Deir Yassin, including 100 men, women, and children. In 1953, Ariel Sharon led the slaughter of the inhabitants of Qibya, and in 1982 arranged for our allies to butcher around 2,000 in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla.



I am Israel - carved in 1948 out of 78% of the land of Palestine, dispossessing its inhabitants and replacing them with Jews from Europe and other parts of the world. While the natives whose families lived on this land for thousands of years are not allowed to return, Jews from all over the world are welcome to instant citizenship.

I am Israel - in 1967, I swallowed the remaining lands of Palestine - the West Bank and Gaza - and placed their inhabitants under an oppressive military rule, controlling and humiliating every aspect of their daily lives. Eventually, they should get the message that they are not welcome to stay, and join the millions of Palestinian refugees in the shanty camps of Lebanon and Jordan.

I am Israel - I have the power to control American policy. My American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) can make or break any politician of its choosing, and as you see, they all compete to please me. All the forces of the world are powerless against me, including the UN as I have the American veto to block any condemnation of my war crimes. As Sharon so eloquently phrased it, "We control America".


I am Israel - I influence American mainstream media too, and you will always find the news tailored to my favor. I have invested millions of dollars into PR representation, and CNN, New York Times, and others have been doing an excellent job of promoting my propaganda. Look at other international news sources and you will see the difference.

I am Israel - and you Palestinians want to negotiate "peace!?" But you are not as smart as me; I will negotiate, but will only let you have your municipalities while I control your borders, your water, your airspace, and anything else of importance. While we "negotiate," I will swallow your hilltops and fill them with settlements, populated by the most extremist of my extremists, armed to the teeth. These settlements will be connected with roads you cannot use, and you will be imprisoned in your little Bantustans between them, surrounded by checkpoints in every direction.

I am Israel - with the fourth strongest army in the world, possessing nuclear weapons. How dare your children confront my oppression with stones, don't you know my soldiers won't hesitate to blow their heads off? In 17 months, I have killed 900 of you and injured 17,000, mostly civilians, and have the mandate to continue since the international community remains silent. Ignore, as I do, the hundreds of Israeli soldiers who are now refusing to carry out my control over your lands and people; their voices of conscience will not protect you.

I am Israel - and you want freedom? I have bullets, tanks, missiles, Apaches, and F-16's, to obliterate you. I have placed your towns under siege, confiscated your lands, uprooted your trees, demolished your homes, and you still demand freedom? Don't you get the message? You will never have peace or freedom, because I am Israel.
http://www.subzerob lue.com/archives /2004/07/ i_am_israel. html <http://www.subzeroblue.com/archives/2004/07/i_am_israel.html>

Saint Seraphim of Sarov

A video: The soul cannot know peace unless he prays for his enemies. The soul that has learned of God's grace to pray, feels love and compassion for every created thing, and in particular for mankind, for whom the Lord suffered on the Cross, and His soul was heavy for every one of us.

The Lord taught me to love my enemies. Without the grace of God we cannot love our enemies. Only the Holy Spirit teaches love, and then even devils arouse our pity because they have fallen from good, and lost humility in God.....(St.Silouan the Anthonite)

Prayers for our enimies

Lord Jesus Christ, Who didst command us to love our enemies, and those who defame and injure us, and to pray for them and forgive them; Who Thyself didst pray for Thine enemies, who crucified thee: grant us, we pray, the spirit of Christian reconciliation and meekness, that we may heartily forgive every injury and be reconciled with our enemies. Grant us to overcome the malevolence and offences of people with Christian meekness and true love of our neighbor. We further beseech Thee, O Lord, to grant to our enemies true peace and forgiveness of sins; and do not allow them to leave this life without true faith and sincere conversion. And help us repay evil with goodness, and to remain safe from the temptations of the devil and from all the perils which threaten us, in the form of visible and invisible enemies. Amen.