The journey has helped me to write to you from it and about it. I have tried to remain here, to pick out my words from it. It was not always the images that were my purpose, but rather what was behind them. How does this entire world prostrate to God? This is what I ...

Here, my answer was the same to any young brother who asked me for advice: take from this country what knowledge you think you are capable of or that which it offers you, and take its languages, for your own edification and the prosperity of a country that awaits you. Do not care for any ...

Here, I learned that the word "Canada", in the Iroquoian language (the ethnic language of Quebec), is derived from the word "kanata", which means village. No word in the world seduces me like this word: village. This is not an objection on my part to the fact that I was born in a city and ...

A few days ago, my daughter-in-law asked me about my younger days. I told her, in detail, about my father, about his death, which taught me, early on, to put a distance between myself and all people. My father handed me the responsibility for his household early on. I set out to the working world ...

She is a lady who works in homes, here, in the province of Quebec. You want her in your home, you bring her from where she lives and take her back there. Umm Muhammad comes to my son’s house once every week or every other week. Here, this service is expensive. The poor are not ...

The question, which I have heard here many times, is: “how do you see life here?” Life is beautiful. There is no way to compare this city from the distant world to any other city I have ever known in my life. Yesterday, I told some of my friends: “if we decide in Lebanon, to ...

This silent expanse, which makes you feel that it is desolate, is sometimes buzzing with “words that are not like words”! Before I was told by a friend of mine who visited us in our house here, I did not know the meaning of what I had seen on some of the roads of the ...

What does it mean to have a monastery on earth? This is a question that seized me after Brother Zaher Semaan invited me to meet with some brethren from the Movement at the “Monastery of Virgin Mary the Consolatory”, which I mentioned yesterday. It was not the first time I have heard about this monastery ...

The Church is the home of incarnate thought; the home of talents which agree on regenerating the body and the work of good; the home of openness; the home of comfort and service; the home that is wide open for the sake of the holiness of the world. Last Saturday, I met with brethren in ...

Ever since I arrived here, I have been observing everything that happens in our house. Life goes by quickly. About three years have passed since my son and his family traveled. I have missed many details, especially those related to the children. The two elder have grown in beauty and intelligence, and also in mischief, ...