The heavens rejoice in receiving our beloved father and friend, Abouna
Sorial Sorial. He reposed in the Lord on Friday, February 15, 2008 and has gone to the paradise of joy, the place out of which grief, sorrow, and groaning have fled away.
We pray that God may repose his soul and grant comfort to his family and children.
Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch of the See of St. Mark
-An excerpt from His Holiness' book Words of Spiritual Benefit.Revised from the
original for translation and grammar.
To have a powerful effect on your spiritual life during Lent, you need to follow certain exercises.
These exercises, when you apply them to life's situations, will help you benefit from your fast:
To exercise giving up a specific sin, from the sins that prevail upon you, and which is repeated in many of your confessions.
To
exercise learning some Psalms from the Agpeya. You may choose one or
two Psalms from each of the seven prayers, especially the Psalms that
leave an effect on you.
To exercise learning the Bible readings
of the different hours, divide them into parts, analyse them, knowing
that for each prayer there are three or six parts.
To exercise the mental prayer of what you have learned. You may pray during work, on the road, while with people or at any time.
Use
these prayers, Psalms and Bible readings as a sphere for contemplation,
to enable yourself to pray them with depth and understanding.
To
exercise spiritual readings: either by reading from the Bible
regularly, with understanding and meditation, or reading the lives of
the Saints or some spiritual books, so that you gain a profitable yield
of deep readings.
During lent, you may exercise learning the
hymns of lent and the Passion Week, and repeating them until you are
full of their spirit. The same is true of Advent.
You may exercise a certain higher level of fasting, under the supervision of your spiritual father.
There
are many spiritual exercises in the field of dealing with people...
such as gentleness, patience, enduring others' weaknesses, controlling
anger, using words of praise and encouragement, serving and helping
others, kindness and meekness.
Other exercises in purity of the
heart: Such as modesty, inner peace, love of God, being satisfied
without grumbling, quietness with no disturbance, internal joy in the
spirit, faith and hope.
Fr. Sorial Sorial, who was born on Jan. 6, 1957, died on Feb. 15, 2008. In loving memory of our beloved father who has departed into the bosom of the saints. Fr. Sorial Sorial was the priest of St. George & St. Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church, Jersey City. He was the husband of Mrs. Amal Sami Zaky, the father of Jessica, Monica, Irene and Abanoub, and brother of the late H.G. Bishop Karas (may the Lord repose his soul), Dr. Edward, Dr. George, Dr. Mary, Mrs. Theresa and Dr. Armia Sorial. Fr. Sorial was ordained Oct. 4, 1994, and served in Brighton, England, for two years prior to serving in Jersey City in 1996, and was promoted to Hegomen in February 2007. As a layman, he was a well-accomplished doctor, receiving his M.D., Ph.D. in physiology from London University, England, and teaching in medical universities throughout the world. As a priest, he touched the hearts of all and exemplified the love of Christ. The heavens rejoice in receiving our beloved father and friend, who has gone to the paradise of joy, the place out of which grief, sorrow and groaning have fled away. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 5:19)
DEATH NOTICES
Published in the Star-Ledger on 2/20/2008.