Catholic Maronite Readings

For I know well the spring that flows and runs,
Although it is night. That eternal spring is hidden,
For I know well where it has its rise,
Although it is night. I do not know its origin, for it hasn’t one,
But I know that every origin has come from it,
Although it is night. I know that nothing else is so beautiful,
And that the heavens and the earth drink there
Although it is night. I know well that it is bottomless
And that no one is able to cross it
Although it is night. Its clarity is never darkened,
And I know that every light has come from it
Although it is night. I know that its streams are so brimming
They water the lands of hell, the heavens, and earth,
Although it is night. I know well the stream that flows from this spring
Is mighty in compass and power,
Although it is night. I know that the stream proceeding from these two
Is preceded by neither of them,
Although it is night. This eternal spring is hidden
In this living bread for our life’s sake,
Although it is night. It is here to call to creatures: and they
Are filled with this water, although in darkness,
Because it is night. This living spring which I long for,
I see in this bread of life,
Although it is night.
maronite readings – rosary,team

Moses wrote in the Torah: “God made humankind in his image and likeness.” (Gen 1:26)… So it is up to us to reflect for our God, for our Father, the image of his holiness… Let us not be painters of a strange image… And so that we don’t bring in to ourselves the image of pride, let us allow Christ to paint his image in us. He painted it when he said: “My peace I give you, I leave you my peace.” But of what use is it to know that that peace is good if we don’t watch over it? Usually, what is very good is very fragile; and precious possessions require greater care and more vigilant guarding. Peace, which can be lost because of a careless word or a small injury inflicted on a brother or sister, is very fragile. And there is nothing that gives greater pleasure to people than to speak of irrelevant things and to be busy about matters that don’t concern them, to give empty speeches and to criticize those who are not present. From now on, may those who cannot say: “The Lord has given me the tongue of a disciple, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word,” (Isa 50:4) keep silent or, if they say something, may it be a word of peace… “The fullness of the law is love.” (Rom 13:8) May our good Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the author of peace and the God of love, deign to inspire us with it.
maronite readings – rosary,team

Our Lord said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Mt 5,3), by which eternal Wisdom shows us how the workers of the gospel should avoid all flamboyance in deed and word and adopt a humble, easy, straightforward manner of acting and speaking. It’s the devil who delivers us over to the tyranny of wanting to be a success and who, when he sees us drawn to comport ourselves simply and plainly, says: “What a base fellow he is! He’s so dull and thoroughly unworthy of christian dignity.” What a trick of the devil! Watch out, Messieurs, turn away from these vanities… Keep our Lord’s behavior before your eyes, so humble and unassuming. He might well have given brilliance to his works and a lordly authority to his words, but he did not. “You will do the same things as I do,” he said to his disciples, “and even greater things than these.” Now, Lord, why do you want them to do even more than you when they do what you have done? Because our Lord wants to be surpassed in what is done publicly so that he might excel in what is humble and hidden. He desires the fruits of the Gospel, not the acclaim of the world. And so he has done more through his servants than by himself. He wished Peter to convert, on one occasion three thousand, and on another occasion five thousand people (Ac 2,41; 4,4), and for all the earth to be illumined by the apostles. Whereas, although he was the light of the world (Jn 8,12), he preached only in Jerusalem and the countryside round about, and he preached there knowing he would be less successful than elsewhere… He achieved little enough, then, while his poor disciples, ignorant and common fellows, filled with his power, achieved more than he. Why? Because he wanted to be humble in this respect.

maronite readings – rosary,team

Our Lord has allowed no doubt or uncertainty regarding so great a mystery… Hear him revealing to the apostles everything we need to know to believe: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me then you will also know my Father… Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say: ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”… Therefore he who is the way is not leading us along paths with no conclusion or in a desert without a way; he who is the truth has no desire to deceive us with lies; he who is the life will not abandon us in errors that end in death… “No one comes to the Father except through me”: the way to the Father passes through the Son… “If you know me then you will also know the Father.” We see the man, Christ Jesus…, his outward aspect, namely his human nature…; so how is it that to know him is to know the Father also? In the mystery of the body he took, our Lord makes known the divinity that is in the Father, while keeping to a certain order…: “If you know me, you will know him and see him”… He makes a distinction between the moment of seeing and that of knowing; he says they must recognize the one who is speaking to them and they will see…; he has to teach them to recognize the divine nature within him. These words, for which they were unprepared, trouble Philip. He sees a man and this man claims to be the Son of God… The Lord says to him that he has seen the Father and that therefore he knows him because he has seen him. The limitations of his humanness prevent Philip from understanding any such statement… That is why he answers that he has not seen the Father and asks the Lord to show him to him. Not that he wants to see him with his bodily eyes but he is asking to be enabled to understand who it is that he sees… Expressing a desire to understand rather than to see, he adds: “That will be enough for us”.
maronite readings – rosary,team

The first of sign of love teaches us that Christ gave his flesh to be our soul’s food and his blood to be our soul’s drink. Such a marvel of love had never been heard of in previous times. Now it is the nature of love always to give and to take, to love and to be loved; these two aspects are found in everyone who loves. Christ’s love is both avid and generous. He gives us all that he has and all that he is, he also takes from us all that we have and all that we are… His hunger is incomparably great… The more willingly we grant it, the more does he savor us. No matter how much of us he consumes, he cannot be satisfied, for he… has an unquenchable appetite. Even though we are poor, that does not matter to him, for he does not wish to leave us. First of all, he prepares his food by burning all our sins and transgressions. Then, when we have been purified and roasted in the fire of love, he opens his mouth wide… for by consuming our sinful life he wishes to transform it into his own life, which is full of the grace and glory which he keeps always ready for us if only we are willing to deny ourselves and renounce our sinful ways (cf. Mt 16,24)… Although these words of mine sound strange, those who love know what I mean… He gives us himself in return, together with a spiritual hunger and thirst which make us want to savor him eternally. To satisfy our spiritual hunger and heartfelt affection, he gives us his body as our food, and when we eat and consume it with fervent devotion, his glorious, warm blood flows from his body into our human nature and into all our veins. In this way we become inflamed with love and heartfelt affection for him, and our body and soul become thoroughly flooded with longing and spiritual savor. He thus gives us his life full of wisdom, truth, and instruction, so that we might follow him in all the virtues. He then lives in us and we in him.
maronite readings – rosary,team