Catholic Maronite Readings

I firmly believe that you know the kingdom of heaven is promised and given by the Lord only to the poor (cf. Mt 5:3), because she who loves what is temporal loses the fruit of love. It is not possible to serve God and mammon, for either the one is loved and the other hated, or the one is served and the other despised; one clothed cannot fight another naked because she who has something to be caught hold of is more quickly thrown to the ground: someone who lives in the glory of earth cannot rule with Christ; it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt 19:24). Therefore you have cast aside your garments, that is, earthly riches, so that instead of being overcome by the one fighting against you, you will be able to enter the kingdom of heaven through the straight path and the narrow gate (cf. Mt 7:13-14).

maronite readings – rosary,team

We ought not to forget that the dignity of work is founded on love… People can’t be restricted to doing things, making objects. Work is born of love, demonstrates love and is ordered towards love. We recognise God, not just in the vistas opened out to us by nature, but also in the experience of our work and efforts. Thus work is prayer, thanksgiving, because we know that it is God who has set us on earth, we know he loves us and we are heirs of his promises. It is only right that he should say to us: «Whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do at all, do everything for the glory of God» (1Cor 10,31). Professional work is also an apostolate, an occasion for giving ourselves to others to reveal Christ to them and lead them to God our Father, which is only a consequence of the love the Holy Spirit pours into our souls. Among the criteria Paul gives to the Ephesians concerning the way in which the change brought about by their conversion is to be manifested…, we find this: «The thief must no longer steal , but rather labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with one in need» (Eph 4,28). People need earthly bread if they are to be fed, but they also need the bread of heaven to enlighten and warm their hearts. In your work, in the initiatives that flow from it, in your conversation, in your relationships, you can and must realize this command. If we work in this spirit, our lives, in spite of all the limitations proper to our earthly condition, will be an anticipation of the glory of heaven, of that communion with God and the saints in which love alone will reign, generosity, fidelity, friendship and joy. You will find within your ordinary, professional occupations the real, enduring and solid material that will enable you to realize your whole christian life and manifest the grace that comes from Christ.

maronite readings – rosary,team

Oh Jesus, I know that love is repaid with love alone, and I have searched and found the way to soothe my heart by returning to you Love for Love. “Make friends for yourselves through your use of this world’s goods, so that when they fail you, a lasting reception will be yours.” (Lk 16:9) That is the advice you gave your disciples, Lord, after telling them that “the children of darkness are more capable of looking after their affairs than the children of light.” As a child of light, I understood that my desire to be everything, to embrace every vocation, was a wealth that could easily make me unrighteous, so I used it to make friends for myself. I remembered Elisha’s request of his father Elijah when he dared to ask him for a “double portion of his spirit” (2 Kings 2:9), and I came before the angels and saints and told them: “I am the smallest of creatures, I know my poverty and weakness, but I also know how much noble and generous hearts love to do good. So I beg you, Oh blessed inhabitants of Heaven, I beg you to adopt me as your child. To you alone will be the glory that you let me acquire, but deign to hear my prayer. It is foolhardy, I know, however I dare to ask you to obtain for me a double portion of your Love.

maronite readings – rosary,team

It is not without purpose Saint Luke has set three parables before us one after the other: the sheep that was lost and was found, the drachma that was mislaid and was found, and the prodigal son who was dead and came back to life, so that, encouraged by this threefold medicine, we might heal our wounds… Who are the father, the shepherd, the woman? Are they not God the Father, Christ and the Church? Christ who took your sins on himself carries you in his body; the Church goes looking for you; the Father welcomes you home. Like a shepherd he brings you back; like a mother it seeks you out; like a Father he clothes you. Mercy first of all, then rescue, and finally reconciliation. Each of these details is appropriate to each one: the Redeemer comes to our help, the Church rescues, the Father reconciles. The mercy of the divine work is the same but the grace differs according to our worthiness. The wearied sheep is brought back by the shepherd, the missing drachma is found again, the son retraces his steps to his father and returns wholly repentant for the wandering off he rejects… So let us be glad that this sheep who strayed in Adam has been restored in Christ. Christ’s shoulders are the arms of the cross, it is there I have set my sins, on the noble neck of that gibbet have I found rest.

maronite readings – rosary,team

How can it be that, in spite of such promises and incentives on the Lord’s part, we refuse to abandon ourselves wholly and unreservedly to him and renounce all things, even life itself, in accordance with the Gospel (Lk 14,26) in order to love him alone and nothing but him? Consider all that has been done for us: what glory has been given to us; what benefits granted by the Lord from the time of the fathers and prophets with the history of salvation in view; what promises, what encouragements, what compassion on our Lord’s part ever since the beginning! And at the end he demonstrated his unutterable care for us by coming himself to dwell with us and dying on the cross to turn us back to him and bring us back to life. Yet we, we don’t set aside our self will, our love of worldly things, our evil inclinations and habits, and thus we appear as people who have little or no faith at all. And yet, in spite of this, see how God shows himself to us full of gentle goodness. He protects and cares for us invisibly; he does not completely abandon us to the world’s wickedness and illusions, despite our sins; in his great patience he keeps us from perishing and watches from afar for the time of our turning back to him.

maronite readings – rosary,team