Category: Maronite

Seasons of the Great Lent, Passion & Resurrection in the Maronite Church for 2021

2/14/2021

Christ in the Wilderness by Ivan Kramskoy, 1872

The first season (February 14, 2021), Cana Sunday, to Hosanna or Palm Sunday, March 28), Great Lent, is a preparation for the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, and the second, the Season of Resurrection, unfolds before us, over a period of fifty days, the meaning and joy of the Resurrection of the Lord. The feast of the Resurrection is thus the center and pivotal point of this whole liturgical season, as well as the whole liturgical year.

According to the ancient Antiochene (Church of Antioch) tradition, the Sundays of Great Lent commemorate the gestures of mercy of the Savior towards his people, which were, at the same time, as Saint John says, "the signs urging the faith." During Lent we journey to that safe harbor guarded by the glorious beacon of the cross.

Passion Week (March 29 to April 3) shows us and helps us to follow, each of the perplexities of the passion of our beloved Savior in order to better us by it, associate ourselves to it, and to benefit through its merits so that we too might share in the hope of rising with Christ.

The Season of Resurrection (April 4 to May 22) makes us appreciate the salvation which was obtained for us by the death of our Lord, the Good Shepherd, "who gave his life for his sheep".

Introduction- Season of the Great Lent

The Season of Great Lent marks the Church's period of preparation for the feast of feasts, the Resurrection of our Lord. This season recalls the forty-day period the Lord spent in the desert in prayer and fasting and at the same time, it invites us to personal conversion through penance, fasting, prayer and almsgiving. During this season we follow the Lord as he goes up to Jerusalem to suffer, die and rise to a glorious new life.

The seven Sundays of Great Lent are:
-        Entrance into Lent, Cana Sunday;
-        First Sunday of Lent, Sunday of the Leper;
-        Second Sunday of Lent, Sunday of the Hemorrhaging Woman;
-        Third Sunday of Lent, Sunday of the Prodigal Son;
-        Fourth Sunday of Lent, Sunday of the Paralytic;
-        Fifth Sunday of Lent, Sunday of Bartimaeus the Blind;
-        Sixth Sunday of Lent, Hosanna Sunday.

These Sundays of Great Lent place the miracles of the Lord before us, especially his healing miracles, which are the messianic signs of his power over sin and death. They point to the greatest wonder of God, the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Each of these miracles are signs of the faith of the one being healed. We are called to respond to Jesus as they did by deepening our faith in the Lord and Giver of life. (From Prayer of the Faithful According to the Maronite Liturgical Year)

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St. Charbel, A Role Model About Preparation for Eucharist

7/22/2020

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By Fr. Richard Kunst

When Pope John Paul the Great was criticized for canonizing so many saints, he acknowledged that he did, indeed, deliberately raise more saints to the altar than any of his predecessors, because he believed we are living in a time that needs saints as witnesses more than ever. There have been books written about the people he canonized and beatified, and it is quite refreshing to read about many of them, because we can identify with people from our own era who lived a heroic faith life.

As much as I like hagiography, the study of the saints, I have to admit that many of them, living in a different era, seem to be a bit untouchable, or even unreal. In many cases they became “kitsch,” entering so much into the piety of worldwide Catholicism that they became little more than statues. I am reminded of St. Therese of Lisieux who has rightly been called the greatest saint of modern times. Her statue seems to be in a majority of churches, but I’d like to know how many people in the pews actually know anything about her life.

I very much enjoy reading about those who lived seemingly normal yet holy lives. They were simply examples of the Gospel, lived. However, we can also learn something from the “untouchable” saints, those who for whatever reason seem otherworldly to us. In the month of July we have one such saint. On October 9th, 1977, Pope Paul VI canonized a Lebanese Maronite Rite monk, Charbel (or Sharbel)) Makhlouf. While very few saints are honored with a place on the universal liturgical calendar, St. Charbel is one who is so revered that he does, indeed, have a feast day, which we celebrate on July 24th.

St. Charbel was born in 1828 in Northern Lebanon. In 1859 he became a priest with particularly strong devotions, both to the Blessed Mother and even more so for the Eucharist. For the last decades of his life, he was a hermit, living in the mountains in complete poverty. This austere behavior is one of the reasons he seems to be untouchable: how many of us can identify with a Lebanese Maronite monk, living in complete solitude, eating hardly anything, and all the while performing miracles? Probably not many of us. Yet it is St. Charbel’s prayer practice that makes him even more unique, while at the same time giving us an incredibly relevant example.

St. Charbel’s life was centered on the Eucharist and the celebration of Mass, and this devotion intensified in his last twenty years. He would regularly celebrate Mass at noon, but he would awaken eight to ten hours beforehand to pray continuously in preparation for receiving Christ in the Eucharist. Imagine! Ten hours of prayer in preparation to receive Communion! But it doesn’t end there. Afterwards, he would spend another eight to ten hours in a prayer of thanksgiving for having received the Eucharist!

The Eucharist was literally the center of his life, and everything else revolved around it. This seems to add to his otherworldly status; who among us could do something like that, day in and day out for decades? Who among us would want to? And yet, what a beautiful example!

Image by Fr. Shadi Beshara

Reflecting on the life of St. Charbel calls to mind a common frustration among my brother priests and me. On a regular basis, many people come into Mass late. Often they are so late they miss one or two of the readings. It is even more common for whole portions of the church to be empty after communion. While we are happy that these people at least come to Mass, think of the contrast between our experience and that of St. Charbel, who would spend hours in prayer both before and after receiving communion.

We would never go to a movie late, or leave before the story was over. Why in the world, then, would we do that with the Divine Liturgy where heaven and earth meet?

St. Alphonsus de’ Liguori (1696-1787), born 130 years before St. Charbel, believed that if we didn’t receive our first communion until we turned 100, we would still not have sufficient time to prepare. At another time, he said that once we receive communion, twelve angels surround us, worshiping what we just consumed. Obviously, that is not dogma, but it is food for thought if we are tempted to leave Mass early.

The saints are always icons of having lived the Gospels, including those who seem to be so different from us. St. Charbel is a great example of this. I pray to him that through his intercession more people will grow in awe and reverence for Christ’s Eucharistic presence. —Father Rich

St. Charbel, pray for us!

Blessed Pope Paul VI canonized Charbel Makhluf on October 9, 1977.

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Seasons of the Great Lent, Passion & Resurrection in the Maronite Church for 2021

St. Charbel, A Role Model About Preparation for Eucharist

By Fr. Richard Kunst

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