Catholic Maronite Readings

Now the reign of life has come and the power of death overturned. Another birth has appeared together with another life, another way of being, a transformation of our very nature. This birth is not the result of “the will of man nor the desire of the flesh, but of God” (Jn 1,13)… “This is the day the Lord has made” (Ps 118[117],24). It’s a very different day from those in the beginning because on this day God creates a new heaven and a new earth, as the prophet says (Is 65,17). Which heaven? The firmament of faith in Christ. Which earth ? A true heart, as the Lord says: earth that is saturated with the rain that falls on it and that brings forth an abundant harvest (Lk 8,15). In this creation the sun equals the pure life; the stars are the virtues; the air is transparent behaviour; the sea is the rich depths of wisdom and knowledge; the grass and herbage are God’s solid doctrine and teachings where the flock – that is, the people of God – finds pasture; the fruit-bearing trees are the practice of the commandments. On this day true man was created, made in the image and likeness of God (Gn 1,27). Is this not an entire world that is begun for your sake in “the day the Lord has made” ?… The greatest privilege of this day of grace is that it has destroyed the sufferings of death and given birth to the firstborn from the dead (Col 1,18)…, he who says: “I am going to your Father and to my Father, to my God and to your God” (Jn 20,17). O what excellent, what good news! He who for our sakes became like us to make us his brothers and sisters, carries his own humanity to the Father so as to bear all humankind along with him.
maronite readings – rosary,team

When our Lord was leaving his Apostles, and they were sorrowful, he consoled them by the promise of another Guide and Teacher, on whom they might rely instead of him, and who should be more to them even than he had been… At the same time this new and most gracious Comforter, while bringing a higher blessedness, would not in any degree obscure or hide what had gone before… How could the Holy Ghost, who was one with the Son, and the Spirit proceeding from the Son, do otherwise than manifest the Son, while manifesting himself? How could he fail to illuminate the mercies and perfections of him, whose death upon the Cross opened a way for himself, the Holy Ghost, to be gracious to man also?… On the contrary, Christ expressly announced to the apostles concerning him, in the words of the text: “He shall glorify me.”… The special way in which God the Holy Ghost gave glory to God the Son, seems to have been his revealing him as the Only-begotten Son of the Father (Jn 1,18)… Our Savior said most plainly, that he was the Son of God;… Our Savior said all that need be said, but his apostles understood him not. Nay, when they made confession, and that in faith, and by the secret grace of God, and therefore acceptably to Christ, still they understood not fully what they said… He purposely concealed that knowledge, which yet he gave; as if intending it should be enjoyed, but not at once; as if his words were to stand, but to wait awhile for their interpretation; as if reserving them for his coming, who at once was to bring Christ and his words into the light… Apparently, it was not till after his resurrection, and especially after his ascension, when the Holy Ghost descended, that the apostles understood who had been with them.

maronite readings – rosary,team

If you want to pray in your heart and are not able, be content to pray with your lips and keep your mind attentive to what you are saying. Little by little the Lord will also give you the grace of interior prayer and then you will know how to pray without distractions. Don’t try to bring about prayer of the heart by using techniques; you would risk harming your heart and, in the end, you would only be praying with the lips. Acknowledge the rule of the spiritual life: God grants his gifts to those who are humble and without guile. Be obedient; don’t overdo things, whether in food, speech, or whatever you undertake. Then the Lord himself will give you the grace of interior prayer… Spiritual silence is born of the desire to fulfil Christ’s command: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul… with all your strength,” (Mk 12,30). It is a silence brought about by the search for the living God in anyone who wants to be free from this world’s temptations so that they can find our Lord in fullness of love and live in his presence in pure prayer. Lord, how could I not seek you? You have revealed yourself to my soul in such an amazing way! You have made it a prisoner of your love and it cannot forget you. Indeed, the soul recognises its Lord all at once in the Holy Spirit; who can describe this joy, this consolation? The Holy Spirit acts within the whole man, mind, soul and body; even so is God acknowledged, on earth as in heaven. In his infinite goodness the Lord has granted this grace to me –sinner that I am – so that men might know him and turn back to him.
maronite readings – rosary,team

It is justly promised by the Lord that the Spirit «will teach you all things» because, unless the Spirit is present in the heart of a listener, the teacher’s utterance is useless. No one should attribute to his teacher what he understands from him, because unless there is an inner teacher, the one outside is exerting himself in vain. You all hear equally the single voice of the person speaking and yet you each have a different perception of the meaning… Teachers possess fiery tongues, because when they preach out of love for God they enflame the hearts of their hearers. A teacher’s utterance is useless if it cannot provide the flame of love. The men who said: «Were not our hearts burning within us as he spoke to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us» (Lk 24,32) received this fire of teaching from the mouth of the Truth himself. When words are clearly heard the mind is set on fire, numbness and cold recede, the heart becomes solicitous in its desire for heavenly things on high and strange to earthly desires. The true love which fills it torments it to the point of tears… It gladly listens to the heavenly precepts and instructed by the commandments it is as if it were being set on fire by so many torches. A heart once made torpid afterwards burns with the words it hears… set on fire with the torches of an interior love. A word is brought to their ears, and their hearts glow within them and are consumed by the flames of inner delight.
maronite readings – rosary,team

The Holy Spirit is the wheat that comforts us along the road to the fatherland, the wine that gives us joy in tribulation, the oil that sweetens life’s sorrows. This threefold support was needed by the apostles who had to go out to preach through the whole world. This is why Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to them. They are filled with him – filled, so that no impure spirits might gain entrance into them: when a container is completely full nothing else can be put into it. The Holy Spirit « will teach you » (Jn 16,13) so that you can know; he will prompt you so that you can will. He gives both knowledge and will; add to this our “ability” according to the measure of our strength and we shall be temples of the Holy Spirit (1Cor 6,19).

maronite readings – rosary,team