Hello 2nd August 2024 - 101 (One Hundred and one) months on - Oh, Dearest Mum Bathqyomo Marine Khoury-Issa ???? ??????? ??? ?????? ???????

Hello everyone on this Friday the 2nd of August 2024 - as I memorialize 101 (one hundred and one months on the eternal sleep of my Mum -

Oh, Dearest Mum Bathqyomo Marine Khoury-Issa

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Today, Friday the 2nd of August 2024, on the Feast and commemoration of Mor Aho (St. Aho D’emeh) ???? ???? ??? ???? that our church commemorates and celebrates in Iraq, I come again to go through this journey, as I venerate my Mum observing 101 months since my Mum's eternal sleep.

We miss you Mum very dearly.

May God repose your soul Oh Mum.

Certainly, I have been writing these monthly entries for the last 100 months, and this is my 101 entry. I feel that I owe this to my Mum, just to repay her some of what she did for me, no matter how much I intend to state the way she raised us (my siblings and I), words will never be enough to describe the love, the care, the grace, the passion, the kindness, the empathy, and excellence, always instilling in us the Christian values, and urging us to always keep hope, faith and love close to our hearts and minds no matter what faces us.

This month, I came through a simple prayer about faith and my Mum immediately came to my mind, thus, I am sharing this prayer with you here:

FAITH

Faith is looking beyond what is and trusting what will be.

Faith is believing that all things are possible in the midst of impossibilities.

Faith is taking small steps knowing they lead to bigger ones.

Faith is saying YES when everything else is NO.

Faith is the presence of light in darkness.

Faith is the presence of GOD in all.

Amen.

Indeed, losing such a brilliant person that I am proud to call my Mum, has been an immense loss, and as she taught us, prayers were strengthening me throughout since that Wednesday afternoon 2nd March 2016, thus, I was taught by Mum to keep on praying, not for a reason but simply making prayer a my way of life.

Therefore, prayer being the theme of this article this month, and here is another prayer that I came through this month, and it would be very appropriate to include here, and this prayer on behalf of all:

Prayer for today

Father in Heaven,

Thank YOU for this day, for the gift of life and for abundant blessings.

We believe in your kindness from the bottom of our heart.?

Please be with us today as our GUIDE and SAVIOR in every second of our life.

LORD, bless us with strength, joy, and peace.

Please keep us and our family under YOUR watchful eye throughout the day.

LORD, please fill this day with happiness and answered prayers.

Thank YOU for hearing our prayers.

Through Christ our LORD.

Amen.

Indeed, we have been always raised on facts that I found a simple saying that state these facts in a very simple way:

Never forget, nothing is more powerful than PRAYER

Nothing is stronger than FAITH

And nothing is greater than GOD.

Amen

Once again, and every time I talk about my Mum, I would fondly and warmheartedly recall those wonderful afternoons that we used to spend at the backyard as I arrive home from work, whilst Mum sitting in the backyard reading from the Holy Bible, and the time with the presence of Dad would turn into a discussion and a lesson - how wonderful it used to be. Oh Mum.

Today, and for this article I chose two verses from the Old Testament and two verses from the New Testament that speak about strength, recalling those beautiful times, as if I am sitting with Mum contemplating in the Holy Bible verses.

Indeed, Mum, you always taught us that God loves us, thus this verse from the book of Jeremiah would bring some taste of this:

Mum, you always taught us that we should not be distracted with whatever comes in front of us that we might think that it would give us strength, but always seek strength from God the Almighty that will make our ways perfect. The following verse from the book of Psalm seems to be from where Mum derived her way of teaching in this manner:

Further, no matter how much work we used to have, how many responsibilities, how many activities, Mum would always say seek from Christ Who will strengthen you to face all these things, as St. Paul repeats in his Epistle to the Philippians:

Finally, indeed, for Mum, it was always seeking the strength from the LORD and seeking power from Him in whatever we do, as we hear St. Paul repeat in his Epistle to the Ephesians:

As I mentioned in the previous articles, Oh Mum, through the last seven articles of #02JAN2024, #02FEB2024, #02MAR2024, #02APR2024, #02MAY2024, #02JUN2024 and #02JUL2024, I shared with you about my 2024 new initiative, and thank God, with God's grace the initiative continues and we are now in Chapter twenty-six of the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. I continue to use images from your garden 'Marine's garden'. This is today's image:

Further, and in the usual manner since the beginning of 2024, here is the image that was used a cover for the whole month of July 2024 and the whole month's verses and images can be reached through this link:

Certainly, and as you instilled in us to be always thankful to God the Almighty, I continue to thank God the Almighty for giving me the strength to continue throughout the month, with the daily verses featuring images from Marine's garden, praying that I continue to be supported and strengthened to continue with this initiative. God hears my prayers.

Moreover, simultaneously, I continue to share prayers on daily basis, and there were several occasions for our beloved church. These for the month of July 2024 can be reached on this link.

Here is the first image of these prayers collection - the image this month derives from the archives of images taken of Marine's garden:

Again, and in the usual manner, I conclude this entry with this beautiful Syriac hymn that was shared earlier, received from Touma:

Now, concluding this article with a prayer that we can all repeat, that I read this month, but added a line in relation to my Mum:

GOD, thank YOU for everything YOU have done for me and my family.

Forgive me of all my sins.

Create in me a clean heart and a right spirit.

Renew my mind.

Heal me from the hurt from my past.

Cover me, my family and my friends in the precious Holy Blood.

LORD bless and protect everyone who seeks YOU.

REPOSE THE SOUL OF MY MUM

I LOVE YOU and I need YOU.

Amen.

As I would usually say, again, and again and again and from a heart filled with gratitude I continue to be very thankful and extremely grateful to God the Almighty who honored me and blessed me to be the daughter of Bathqyomo Marine Khoury-Issa, something I am extremely very proud of ... Oh Mum... miss you very dearly... Oh Mum...

Now, thank you all for taking the time to go through this corner/article.

On behalf of the Issa Family

Your Eldest daughter

Theodora Issa

PS: Theodora acknowledges the sources used in coming up with this entry including the Issa Family archives for Mum's image shared in this entry, also some collected beautiful flowers, trees and other plants in the garden images that Theodora photographed this month or from the archives. Also, Lamsa Holy Bible, and the Department of Syriac Studies.