Catholic Maronite Readings

I think our Sisters have received that communication of joy that one sees among many religious who have given themselves unreservedly to God. The work is only the expression of the love we have for God. We have to pour our love on someone. And the people are the means of expressing our love for God. We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grow in silence; see the stars, the moon and sun, how they move in silence. Is not our mission to give God to the poor in the slums? Not a dead God, but a living, loving God. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life. We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say, but what God says to us and through us. All our words will be useless unless they come from within – words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness. Our progress in holiness depends on God and ourselves – on God’s grace and on our will to be holy. We must have a real living determination to reach holiness. ‘I will be a saint’ means I will despoil myself of all that is not God; I will strip my heart of all created things; I will live in poverty and detachment; I will renounce my will, my inclinations, my whims and fancies, and make myself a willing slave to the will of God.
maronite readings – rosary,team

If sometimes we feel as if the Master is away, is it not because I have kept myself far from some Sister? One thing that will always secure heaven for us: acts of charity and kindness with which we have filled our lives. We will never know how much good just a simple smile can do. We tell people how kind, forgiving and understanding God is – are we the living proof? Can they really see this kindness, this forgiveness, this understanding in us?

maronite readings – rosary,team

“Awake, you sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will give you light!” (Eph 5,14)… We often say of those who are manifestly dead that they are sleeping; and indeed they are all sleeping for the One who is able to awaken them. For you a dead person is truly dead: you may well slap and shake him…, he will not wake up. But for Christ, the man he commanded to “Rise up!” was merely sleeping and he rose up immediately (Lk 7,14). It is easy enough to waken a sleeper from his bed but Christ awakens a dead man from his tomb with even greater ease… “By now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days” (Jn 11,39). But the Lord, for whom all things are done with ease, is coming… No bonds hold secure before the Savior’s voice. The powers over the dwellings of the dead tremble and Lazarus is restored to life… For Christ’s life-giving will even this death of four days is merely a sleep. But reflect over the nature of this resurrection. Lazarus, coming alive out of the tomb, was as yet unable to walk. So the Lord commanded his disciples: “Untie him and let him go”. Christ raised him up; they set him free from his bonds. The true majesty of the God who brings the dead back to life emerges in this narrative. The Word of life (1Jn 1,1) exhorts those who are bound by their evil habits… Having been strongly admonished these sinners return to themselves, begin to reconsider their lives and feel the weight of the chains of their evil habits. Ashamed, they make up their minds to change their lives. From then on they are raised from death and brought back to life since they condemn their former way of living. However, even though they are alive once more, they cannot walk as yet…; their bonds have to be untied. This is the ministry our Lord entrusted to his disciples when he said: “Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 18,18).

maronite readings – rosary,team

I lifted my arms up to the sky, towards the grace of the Lord.
He took off and threw my chains far away from me.
My protector raised me in accordance with his grace and salvation.
I was stripped off of darkness and clothed with light; My limbs no longer suffer from sadness, anguish or pain.
The thought of the Lord assisted me;
His light overjoyed me;
I walked in His presence;
As I praise and glorify Him, I will approach Him.
My heart has over flown; it reached my mouth,
Came out on my lips.
The joy of the Lord and his praise enlighten my face.
Alleluia! I escaped my chains and ran to you, my God!
You have been my right hand, my salvation and help.
You kept back those who rose up against me and they disappeared.
Your face was with me and your grace saved me.
I was scorned and condemned in the eyes of the majority.
But you gave me strength and aid.
You placed the light at my right side and left side.
May everything in me be only light! I put on the clothes of your Spirit,
And you took off from me the leather garments you had first clothed me with (Gn 3,21).
Your right hand raised me and chased the sickness away from me.
Your truth made me strong and your justice sanctified me.
I was justified by your love so sweet,
And your peace is for me now forever and ever.
Alleluia!

maronite readings – rosary,team