Maronite Readings

Do not cease to do acts of humility and love towards God and human beings. For God speaks to the person who keeps his heart humble before him, and God enriches him with his gifts. If God has the sufferings of his Son in store for you and wants to let you touch with your […]

The psalmist says: “Bread fortifies the heart of man and wine rejoices his heart” (Ps 104[103],15). For those who believe in him Christ is food and drink, bread and wine. He is bread when he strengthens and establishes us according to Peter’s words: “After you have suffered a little, the God of all grace who […]

The first and the greatest of the commandments, that on which the Law and the prophets are based (Mt 22,40), is love, which it seems to me brings its greatest proof in love of the poor, in tenderness and compassion for one’s neighbor. Nothing gives as much honor to God as mercy, for nothing is […]

We don’t see that the words of Genesis: “God rested on the Sabbath day from all his works” came to pass on this seventh day of creation nor, indeed, that that they have come to pass today. We always see God at work. There is no Sabbath when God stops working, no day when he […]

O humility, lovely flower, I see how few souls possess you. Is it because you are so beautiful and at the same time so difficult to attain? Oh yes, it is both the one and the other. Even God takes pleasure in her. The floodgates of heaven are open to the humble soul and a […]

Jerusalem was a city of peace but she has also been a city of torment since Jesus so greatly suffered there and died there in great pain. Within this city we must be his witnesses, not in words but in truth, by our lives, imitating him as much as we are able. Many there are […]

“A sower went out to sow his seed.” It is a vivid scene. The divine sower is also sowing his seed today. The work of salvation is still going on, and our Lord wants us to share that work. He wants Christians to open to his love all the paths of the earth. He invites […]

Today, the holy and living ark of the living God, the one whose womb carried her own Creator, rests in the Lord’s temple, a temple not built by human hands. David, her ancestor and God’s relative, dances for joy (2 Sam 7:14); the angels dance in unison, the archangels applaud, and the powers of the […]

How good you are, O my God, to call all nations to salvation. (…) And not just all the nations in general through your apostles and their successors, but each person individually and at every moment through the unceasing action of your grace! And not just to salvation and to heaven but to the “first […]

“Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath. And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spiri” … “She was bent over and was quite unable to look upwards.” Ev­ery sinner who thinks about the things of earth and fails to seek those of heavenly things is unable […]

Curse me not as you cursed the fig tree (cf. Mt 21,19) Though I be like a barren tree, Lest the green leaves of my faith Are withered with the fruit of my works. But set me fast in what is good Like the branch on the holy Vine That your heavenly Father tends (Jn […]

You may well believe that there is no one in the world, neither friend nor brother, father or mother, husband or fiancé who loves you more than your God loves you. Divine grace is that treasure of great price, that boundless treasure of which the wise man speaks, which, as soon as we use it, […]

In the climate of increased cultural and religious pluralism which is expected to mark the society of the new millennium, it is obvious that this dialogue will be especially important in establishing a sure basis for peace and warding off the dread spectre of those wars of religion which have so often bloodied human history. […]

Brothers and sisters, let us never lose trust in the patience and mercy of God! Let us think too of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus: their sad faces, their barren journey, their despair. But Jesus does not abandon them: he walks beside them, and not only that! Patiently he explains the Scriptures […]

O Spirit of God, Spirit of love and of mercy, Who pours into my heart the balm of trust, Your grace confirms my soul in what is good, Giving it an invincible strength: constancy! O Spirit of God, Spirit of peace and of joy, Who comforts my thirsting heart, Pour into it the living spring […]

“Prepare to meet your God, O Israel, for he is coming!” (cf. Am 4:12) And you too, my brothers, “be on guard. The Son of Man will come when you least expect him.” Nothing is more certain than his coming, but nothing is more uncertain than when he will come. For we know so little […]

God accepts our offerings of money and is pleased with the gifts we make to the poor, but on one condition: that every sinner, when offering God his money, should offer him his soul at the same time… When our Lord says: “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to […]

“Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and everything you need will be added to you”… It is said, then, that we should seek the Kingdom of God. “That we should seek”: it’s a simple word but it seems to me to be saying a great deal. It means… unceasing work for God’s […]

Christians should cooperate willingly and wholeheartedly in establishing an international order that includes a genuine respect for all freedoms and amicable brotherhood between all. This is all the more pressing since the greater part of the world is still suffering from so much poverty that it is as if Christ Himself were crying out in […]

Zacchaeus prayed thus in his heart: “How blessed is he who is worthy to receive this Just man into his house”. Our Savior said to him: “Zacchaeus, come down quickly!” And he, seeing that the Lord knew his thoughts, said: “Since he knows about these he must also know all I have done”. That is […]

     Although every disciple of Christ, as far as possible, has the duty of spreading the Faith, Christ the Lord always calls whomever He will from among the number of His disciples, to be with Him and to be sent by Him to preach to the nations (cf. Mark 3:13)…       Yet man must respond to […]

Those who shed Christ’s blood did not do so to wash away the sins of the world… yet, without realising it, they aided the plan of salvation. The salvation of the world that followed owed nothing either to their might, or their will, or their intention, or their act, but came from the might, will, […]

Anyone who does not know God, even though he may entertain all kinds of hopes, is ultimately without hope, without the great hope that sustains the whole of life (cf. Eph 2,12). Man’s great, true hope which holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God—God who has loved us and who continues […]

“Little children, this is how we know we are of the truth, when we love in action and truth, not only in words and speech, and assure our heart in his presence” (1Jn 3,18-19). What does “in his presence” mean? Where he himself sees. Hence, the Lord himself says in the gospel, “Beware of practicing […]

God prompts man to rise up from his sins… The more swiftly a man acknowledges his wretchedness, the more swiftly, too, he humbles himself and abandons himself to God knowing that the work of converting him belongs to God alone. He becomes aware of it by degrees through the constant inspirations God sends him and, […]

In the Creed, after professing: “I believe in one Church”, we add the adjective “holy”; we affirm the sanctity of the Church, and this is a characteristic that has been present from the beginning in the consciousness of early Christians, who were simply called “the holy people” (cf. Acts 9,13, 32, 41; Rom 8,27; 1 […]

Christ’s miracles were ordained to manifest his divinity. However, this had to remain hidden from the demons, otherwise the mystery of the passion would have been hindered by them: “If they had known the Lord of glory, they would not have crucified him,” (1Cor 2,8). It would seem, then, that Christ should not work miracles […]

If anyone wants a high office let him want the labor it entails not the honor it will bring him. He should desire to serve and minister to everyone and not expect everyone to serve and minister to him. For the desire to be served comes from the supercilious attitude of the Pharisees; the desire […]

We turn out thoughts today towards an effect proper to Pentecost: the supernatural life produced by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the visible, social and human body of Christ’s disciples. This effect is the eternal youth of the Church… The human persons making up the Church undergo the fate of time; they are […]

The Master’s servants, in other words, God’s angels noticed that there were weeds in the field, that is to say that the ungodly and the wicked were mingled with the good and lived with them, even in the Church of Christ. They said to the Lord: “Do you want us to go out and pull […]

The soul of the humble is like the sea. Throw a stone into the sea – for a moment it will ruffle the surface and then sink to the bottom. Thus do afflictions disappear down in the hearts of the humble because the strength of the Lord is with them. Where is your habitation, O […]

“At Nazareth, on the Sabbath day, Jesus stood up to read. Unrolling the scroll he found the passage in Isaiah where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; he has anointed me’” (Is 61,1). It was not simply by chance but by an intervention of Divine Providence that Jesus unrolled this […]

God is in the unfettered heart, in the silence of prayer, the willing sacrifice to suffering in the rejection of the world and its creatures. God is in the Cross, and as long as we do not love the Cross we shall not see him, we shall not feel him. Let those who are only […]

Our Savior was truly made the Anointed One according to the flesh, becoming true king and true priest. He was both so that nothing might be lacking in the Savior. Notice therefore that he became king, when he says: “I was set by the Lord as king on Zion, his holy mountain” (Ps 2,6 Vg). […]

The Ninevites fasted with a pure fast when Jonah preached repentance to them… This is what is written: “When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of his blazing wrath” (cf Jon 3,10). It is not said that: “He saw a fast of bread and water, with sackcloth […]

The place before the great sanctuary in which you will stand immediatelly after your baptism symbolizes the glory of the world to come. The singing of psalms with which you will be received is a prelude to the hymns of heaven. The lamps you will light prefigure that great procession of lights in which we […]

Jesus accompanies his words with many “mighty works and wonders and signs” (Acts 2,22), which manifest that the kingdom is present in him and attest that he was the promised Messiah. The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him. To those who turn to him in […]

We are to consider why and how we are to pray. People who want to give themselves to prayer must, before all else, collect their heart within themselves, recall it from its wanderings and from the dissipation into which it was going astray, and then humbly cast themselves down at God’s feet, ask him for […]

According to God’s providential design it has been granted to everything that exists to attain its end according to its nature. People, too, in order to obtain what they hope from God, have received a means adapted to the human condition. This condition allows us to make use of prayer to obtain from others what […]

My brethren, do you imagine God is ignorant of what you need? He who knows our distress foreknows our desires also. That is why, in teaching them the Our Father, the Lord counselled his disciples not to use many words: “When you pray, do not keep babbling because your Father knows what you need before […]

Listen to the prophet announcing our Lord. He compares him to a lamb, a sheep, the most innocent of animals: “Like a lamb led to the slaughter, or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth” (Is 53,7)… Our Lord was not compared to a lion when he was led […]

Virtue does not only have one face. Martha and Mary’s example shows us active devotion in the works of the former and a heart’s devout attention to the word of God in the latter. If this attentiveness is joined to a deep faith, it is to be preferred to works: “Mary has chosen the better […]

The senses are full of curiosity; faith is content to know nothing, it… longs to pass its life motionless before the Tabernacle. The senses love riches and honour; faith holds them in horror… “Blessed are the poor” (Mt 5,3). She adores the poverty and lowliness with which Jesus covered his life as though with a […]

Love in yourself what he who loved you has made you to be. Despise in yourself what you yourself have made of yourself. Submit yourself to what is above you; despise what is beneath you. Love yourself in the same way as he loved you who gave himself up for you. Despise yourself for having […]

Unless the mission is oriented by charity, that is, unless it springs from a profound act of divine love, it risks being reduced to mere philanthropic and social activity. In fact, God’s love for every person constitutes the heart of the experience and proclamation of the Gospel, and those who welcome it in turn become […]

Coming forth from the eternal Father’s love, founded in time by Christ the Redeemer and made one in the Holy Spirit, the Church has a saving and an eschatological purpose which can be fully attained only in the future world. But she is already present in this world, and is composed of men, that is, […]

Since I came here, I have had no rest. I have been from village to village and every child not yet baptized I have baptized… But the children would not let me say my office or eat or rest till I had taught them some prayer. It was then that I really began to feel […]