maronite readings

“Happy the one who bore you and she who nursed you at the breast.” How great is the devotion, how great the faith are expressed in the words of this woman in the gospel. Whereas scribes and Pharisees put the Lord to the test and blaspheme against him, this woman acknowledges his incarnation before them all with such loyalty and confesses it with such assurance that she undoes the calumny of her contemporaries and the false faith of heretics to come. Offending against the works of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ contemporaries deny he is really the Son of God, consubstantial with the Father. Later on people also denied that Mary ever-Virgin had, through the working of the Holy Spirit, provided the substance of her flesh to the Son of God, who would be born with a truly human body. They denied he was really Son of man with the same nature as his mother. But the apostle Paul condemns this opinion when he says of Jesus that he was “born of a virgin, subject to the Law” (Gal 4,4). For, conceived in the womb of the Virgin, he took his flesh, not out of nothing, nor from some other source, but from the body of his mother. Otherwise it would not be correct to call him truly Son of man… O truly happy mother who, in the words of the poet: “has given birth to the King who, through all ages, rules heaven and earth. She has the joy of motherhood and the honor of virginity. Before was there none like her and none will be seen after her” (Sedulius). Nevertheless the Lord adds: “Happy, rather, are those who hear the Word of God and keep it”. The Savior gives magnificent confirmation to this woman’s testimony. Not only does he declare blessed she to whom it was granted to give birth to the Word of God bodily, but blessed, too, all those who give themselves to spiritually conceiving the same Word through the hearing of faith and to giving birth and feeding him either in their own hearts or in that of others, keeping him present by doing good.
maronite readings – rosary,team

Joy is a basic component of the sacred time now beginning. Advent is a time for being watchful, for prayer, for conversion, in addition to being one of fervent and joyful expectation. The motive is clear: “The Lord is near.” (Phil 4:5) The first thing said to Mary in the New Testament is a joyful invitation: “Exult, rejoice!” (Lk 1,28 in Greek) Such a greeting is linked to the Savior’s coming. Mary is the first one to receive the announcement of a joy that will be afterwards proclaimed to the whole people. She participates in it in an extraordinary way and to an exceptional extent. In her, ancient Israel’s joy is concentrated and finds its fullness; in her, the happiness of messianic times bursts forth irrevocably. The Virgin Mary’s joy is in particular that of the “small remnant” of Israel (Isa 10,20f.), of the poor who await God’s salvation and who experience his fidelity. So that we also might participate in this feast, it is necessary to wait in humility and to welcome the Savior with trust. “In considering the ineffable love with which the Virgin Mother awaited the Son, all the faithful who live the spirit of Advent through the liturgy, “vigilant in prayer and filled with gladness”, will be led to take her as their model and to prepare to go out to meet the Lord who is coming” (Paul VI, Marialis cultus).
maronite readings – rosary,team

“God called to Abraham: Take your son whom you love, Isaac whom you have treasured; go to the heights and you shall offer him up as a holocaust.” (cf. Gen 22:2) Isaac prefigures Christ who will suffer. He comes on a donkey… When the Lord came to suffer his passion for us, he untied the foal of a donkey and sat on it… Abraham said to his servants: “We will come back to you.” He prophesied that which he did not know… Isaac carried the wood; Christ carried the gibbet of the cross. Abraham went with his son; the Father went with Christ. For he said: “You will leave me quite alone. Yet I can never be alone; the Father is with me.” (Jn 16:32) Isaac said to his father…: “Here is the wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust?” He spoke prophetic words but he did not know it. For the Lord was preparing a lamb for the sacrifice. Abraham also prophesied when he answered: “God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust, my son.”… “The angel said: ‘Abraham, Abraham… Do not lay your hand on the boy, do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.’ (cf. Rom 8:32)… Abraham looked about and spied a ram hanging by its horns in the thicket.” Why a ram? He is the most valuable in the flock. Why hanging? To show you that it was no earthly victim… Our horn, our strength is Christ (Lk 1:69), who is superior to every human being, as we read: “Fairer in beauty are you than the sons of men.” (Ps 45:3) He alone was raised up from the earth and exalted, as he teaches us by his words: “I do not belong to this world; I belong to what is above.” (Jn 8:23) Abraham saw him in this sacrifice, he glimpsed his passion. That is why the Lord said of him: “Abraham saw my day and was glad.” He appeared to Abraham and revealed to him that his body would suffer the passion by means of which he redeemed the world. He even indicated what kind of passion he would undergo by showing the ram hanging. The bush is the gibbet of the cross. And raised up on this wood, the flock’s incomparable guide drew everything to himself so as to make himself known to everyone.

maronite readings – rosary,team

We see then that the two cities were created by two kinds of love: the earthly city was created by self-love reaching the point of contempt for God, the Heavenly City by the love of God carried as far as con­tempt of self. In fact, the earthly city glories in itself, the Heavenly City glories in the Lord. The former looks for glory from men (Jn 5,44), the latter finds its highest glory in God, the witness of a good conscience. The earthly lifts up its head in its own glory, the Heavenly City says to its God: «My glory; you lift up my head» (Ps 3,4). In the former, the lust for domination lords it over its princes as over the nations it sub­jugates; in the other both those put in authority and those subject to them serve one another in love, the rulers by their counsel, the subjects by obedience. The one city loves its own strength shown in its powerful leaders; the other says to its God: «I will love you, my Lord, my strength» (Ps 18[17],2). Consequently, in the earthly city its wise men who live by men’s standards have pursued the goods of the body or of their own mind, or of both. Or those of them who were able to know God «did not honor him as God, nor did they give thanks to him, but they dwindled into futility in their thoughts, and their senseless heart was darkened: in asserting their wisdom;… they worshiped and served created things instead of the Creator, who is blessed for ever» (Rm 1,21-25). In the Heavenly City, on the other hand, man’s only wisdom is the devotion which rightly worships the true God, and looks for its reward in the fellowship of the saints, not only holy men but also holy angels, «so that God may be all in all» (1Cor 15,28).

maronite readings – rosary,team

There was a time when the person whom you despise now was above you; the one who is now a man was eternally perfect. He was in the beginning, without any cause; then he submitted himself to the contingencies of this world… That was so as to save you who insult him, who despise God because he took your crude nature… He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, but when he rose from the tomb, he got rid of his shroud. He was laid in a manger but glorified by the angels, announced by a star, adored by the magi… He had to flee to Egypt, but he freed that country from the superstitions of the Egyptians. Before his enemies, he had “no stately bearing … nor appearance that would attract us” (Isa 53:2), but for David he was “fairer in beauty… than the sons of men” (Ps 45:3), and on the mountain, he shone more brilliantly than the sun (Mt 17:1f.). As man, he was baptized; but as God, he took away our sins. He did not need to be purified, but he wanted to sanctify the waters. As man, he was tempted; but as God, he triumphed, he who “conquered the world” (Jn 16:8)… He was hungry, but he fed thousands, he who is “the living bread come down from heaven.” (Jn 6:48.50) He was thirsty, but he cried out: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me; let him drink” (Jn 7:37)… He knew what it was to be tired, but he is rest for all who “are weary and find life burdensome.” (Mt 11:28)… He was called a “Samaritan and possessed” (Jn 8:48); but it is he who saves the person who has fallen into the hands of thieves (Lk 10:29f.) and who makes the demons flee… He prayed, but it is he himself who hears prayers. He wept, but he puts an end to weeping. He was sold for a base price, but it is he who redeems the world at a high price: through his own blood. Like a sheep, he was led to his death, but he leads Israel and now the whole earth to the true pasture. (Ezek 34:14) Like a lamb, he was silent; but he is the Word announced through the voice of the one who cried out in the desert (Mk 1:3). He was disabled and wounded; but it is he who heals every illness and every infirmity (Mt 9:35). He was raised up on the wood and he was nailed there; but it is he who restores us through the tree of life. He died, but he gives life and destroys death. He was buried, but he rose, and ascending into heaven, he liberated the souls from hell.
maronite readings – rosary,team