Thrice-Blessed
His Grace Bishop Jacobus (Anba Yakobos)
Our Master...
Has it truly been eight years since Your Grace departed to Heaven?!
How can we forget your abundant and overflowing pastoral care?!..
How can we forget the episcopal richness that distilled from Your Grace like drops of dew?!..
How can we forget the soul saturated with your prominent, distinct, and fatherly presence?!..
How can we forget the bronze serpent, the pastoral staff, and the honored crown?!
How can we forget the venerable Faragiya (clerical cassock) with its authentic sleeves...
so majestic...
How can we forget your embrace of our magazine?!.. How can we forget your encouragement, your support, and your follow-up?!..
As we boast in humility, that our magazine was one of the pulpits that witnessed your rich and profound writings...
How can we forget the Great Lent Liturgy of March 1995, during the faithful acquisition of the Church of the Virgin Mary and St. John the Apostle?!..
Wherein lies that wondrous tone, the likes of which we had never heard from Your Grace before, and which was never repeated thereafter...
Where those who possessed discernment perceived, according to the discernment given to them, the essence of the heavenly expanse in which you praise...
and in which you soar...
Intercede for us, O Saint of Zagazig, before Him who sits upon the Throne of Grace, and remember us — with your very voice, Your Grace — so that we may grant a life pure in repentance...
a Christian perfection...
and an eternal inheritance.