Worshipping in the language of Jesus:

The Rev. Rodrigue Constantin belongs to a rare group of Minnesotans who can carry on a conversation in Aramaic, the language believed to have been spoken by Jesus 2,000 years ago.

When he consecrates the bread during his Christmas services, Constantin’s words, "Ho no den ee tow faghro deel," will carry an added authenticity, because this is how Jesus would have told his disciples: "This is my body."I find that people are really fascinated by the language; there’s a mysterious aspect to it," said Constantin, of Holy Family Maronite Catholic Church in St. Paul. "There’s a historic thread starting 2,000 years ago that has reached me."

He is among roughly 100 people in Minnesota who can order loaves and fishes — or lefse and lutefisk — in Aramaic. They are mainly immigrants from small Christian communities in southeastern Turkey, one of a few pockets of the Middle East where a dialect of Aramaic remains a living language.

Aramaic also lives on in Minnesota as a liturgical language, used during church services at Holy Family and St. Maron Catholic Church in Minneapolis.

"We’re a small minority of people who speak this language, and we don’t want it to die," said Zahura Can, one of about 80 Turkish immigrants in the Lakeville area whose everyday language is the Aramaic dialect called Syriac.

"It’s a very, very old language, and we are proud to speak it," Can said. " We speak it to our children. All four of my children understand it well."

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