maronite readings

To be an apostle? How? Through those whom God makes available. Priests have their superiors who tell them what they are to do. Laypeople should be apostles towards all those they reach: relations and friends but not them alone; charity is not restricted, it embraces all those embraced by the Heart of Jesus. By what means? By the best possible, taking into account those to whom they address themselves. But with all those with whom they are in relation, without exception with goodness, kindness, brotherly love, the example of virtue, and with the humility and gentleness that is always so attractive and so Christian. With some people without ever saying a word to them about God or religion, being patient as God is patient, good as God is good, by being a tender, prayerful brother. With yet others, speaking to them about God in the degree they are able to bear it. As soon as they have started thinking about seeking out the truth then through the study of religion, putting them into contact with a carefully chosen priest who is able to do them good. Above all, see a brother in every person.
maronite readings – rosary,team

The saints show us the way to attain happiness, they show us how to be truly human. Through all the ups and downs of history, they were the true reformers who constantly rescued it from plunging into the valley of darkness; it was they who constantly shed upon it the light that was needed to make sense – even in the midst of suffering – of God’s words spoken at the end of the work of creation:  “It is very good”. One need only think of such figures as St Benedict, St Francis of Assisi, St Teresa of Avila, St Ignatius of Loyola, St Charles Borromeo, the founders of 19-century religious orders who inspired and guided the social movement, or the saints of our own day – Maximilian Kolbe, Edith Stein, Mother Teresa, Padre Pio. In contemplating these figures we learn what it means “to adore” and what it means to live according to the measure of the Child of Bethlehem, by the measure of Jesus Christ and of God himself. The saints, as we said, are the true reformers. Now I want to express this in an even more radical way:  only from the saints, only from God does true revolution come, the definitive way to change the world. In the last century we experienced revolutions with a common programme – expecting nothing more from God, they assumed total responsibility for the cause of the world in order to change it. And this, as we saw, meant that a human and partial point of view was always taken as an absolute guiding principle. Absolutizing what is not absolute but relative is called totalitarianism. It does not liberate man, but takes away his dignity and enslaves him. It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true. True revolution consists in simply turning to God who is the measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love. And what could ever save us apart from love? Dear friends! Allow me to add just two brief thoughts. There are many who speak of God; some even preach hatred and perpetrate violence in God’s Name. So it is important to discover the true face of God. The Magi from the East found it when they knelt down before the Child of Bethlehem. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”, said Jesus to Philip (Jn 14: 9). In Jesus Christ, who allowed his heart to be pierced for us, the true face of God is seen. We will follow him together with the great multitude of those who went before us. Then we will be travelling along the right path.

maronite readings – rosary,team

We can apply these hourly periods to each individual person’s life. Morning is the childhood of our understanding. The third hour can be taken as our youth, because the sun is advancing on high as the impetuosity of age increases. The sixth hour is that of young adulthood, because when we reach our full strength it is as if the sun is in the center of the heavens. The ninth hour we take to be old age, because like the sun descending from its zenith, this age lacks the warmth of youth. The eleventh hour is the age that is called infirm or old… Since then one person is brought to a good life in childhood, another in youth, another in young adulthood, another in old age, another at the age of infirmity, it is as if workmen are being called to the vineyard at different hours. Look at your conduct, my friends, and see if you are still God’s workmen. Let everyone reflect on what he is doing, and consider whether he is laboring in the Lord’s vineyard… One who has neglected to live for God up to the last period of his life has stood idle, as it were, up to the eleventh hour… “Why do you stand here all day idle?” meaning, “Even though you have not been willing to live for God in your childhood and young adulthood, at least come to your right mind in the final time of your life. Come to the ways of life”… Did not the thief come at the eleventh hour? (Lk 23,39f.) He possessed nothing by the length of his life, but he had something, coming late though it did, by his punishment. He confessed God on the cross, and he gave forth his last breath almost as he spoke. The householder began paying the denarius beginning with the last, because he called the thief to the repose of paradise before he called Peter.
maronite readings – rosary,team

These [social] teachings [of the Church] could diminish the distance that pride is pleased to maintain between the rich and the poor, but simple friendship is still too little. If we obey Christianity’s precepts, union will be brought about through fraternal love. On both sides, people will know and understand that absolutely all human beings have come forth from God, their common father; that God is their common and only goal, and that God alone is able to communicate perfect and absolute happiness to angels and to human beings. In addition, all have been redeemed by Jesus Christ and restored by him to their dignity as children of God, and thus a true bond of fraternity unites them, whether this be among themselves or to Christ their Lord, who is “the first-born of many brothers.” (Rom 8:29) Finally, they will know that all the goods of nature, all the treasures of grace belong in common and indiscriminately to the whole human race, and that only those who are unworthy will be disinherited of the heavenly goods. “If you are children, you are heirs as well: heirs of God, heirs with Christ.” (Rom 8:17)
maronite readings – rosary,team

One evening after returning to Assisi, young Francis’ companions chose him to be their group leader. So, just as he had often done before, he had a sumptuous banquet prepared. Once they were satiated, everybody left the house and went all over the town singing. Francis’ companions went before him as a group; he himself, holding the leader’s baton, ended the procession a little behind them; he didn’t sing because he was deep in thought. And thus the Lord suddenly visited him and filled his heart with such sweetness that he could no longer speak or move… When his companions turned around and saw him so far away from them, they came back to him frightened, and they found him as if he were already changed into a different person. They questioned him: “What were you thinking about so that you forgot to follow us? Were you by any chance planning on taking a woman?” “You are right! I was planning on taking a wife, one who is nobler, wealthier and more beautiful than any whom you have ever seen.” They made fun of him… From that moment on, he worked to place again at the center of his soul Jesus Christ and the pearl which he wanted to buy after selling everything (Mt 13:46). Shying away from the eyes of those who scoffed at him, he often – almost every day – went to pray in secret. He was pushed to do so as it were by the foretaste of that sweetness which came to him quite often and which pulled him away from the public square or other public places  towards prayer. For some time already he had been a benefactor of the poor, but he promised himself even more firmly that he would never again refuse a poor person requesting alms, but rather that he would give more generously and more abundantly. Thus, whoever the poor person was who asked him for alms outside of the house, he always gave him money if he could. If he didn’t have any money, he gave him his hat or his belt so as not to send him away empty-handed. But if he didn’t even have that, he withdrew to a hidden place, removed his shirt, and secretly sent it to the poor person, asking him to take it for God’s sake.
maronite readings – rosary,team