maronite readings

[When sinners acknowledge their sin], divine grace causes such great contrition, compassion and true longing for God that the sinner, suddenly delivered from sin and from pain, is raised up… By contrition we are made clean, by compassion we are made ready, and by true longing for God we are made worthy. These are three means, as I understand, through which all souls come to heaven, those, that is to say, who have been sinners on earth and will be saved. For every sinful soul must be healed by these medicines. Though he be healed, his wounds are not seen by God as wounds but as honors. And as we are punished here with sorrow and penance, in contrary fashion we shall
be rewarded in heaven by the courteous love of our almighty God… For he regards sin as sorrow and pains for his lovers, to whom for love he assigns no blame. The reward which we shall receive will not be small, but it will be great, glorious and honourable. And so all shame will be turned into honor and joy. For our courteous Lord does not want his servants to despair because they fall often and grievously; for our falling does not hinder him in loving us… He wants us so to take heed that he is the foundation of our whole life in love, and furthermore that he is our everlasting protector, and mightily defends us against all our enemies, who are very cruel and very fierce towards us, and so our need is great, the more so because by our falling we give them occasion.
maronite readings – rosary,team

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Now let us see why the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a mustard seed. Another passage that refers to a mustard seed comes to mind where it is compared to faith, when the Lord says: “If you had faith like a mustard seed you would say to this mountain: Cast yourself into the sea” (cf. Mt 17,20; Mk 11,23)… So if the Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed and faith is like a mustard seed, then it goes without saying that faith is the Kingdom of heaven and the Kingdom of heaven is faith. To possess faith is to possess the Kingdom… That is why Peter, whose faith was genuine, was given the keys of the Kingdom of heaven that he might likewise open it up to others (Mt 16,19). Next, let us appreciate what the gist of this comparison is. Without any doubt this seed is something perfectly ordinary and uncomplicated. But only cook it and it exudes its strength. In the same way, faith seems something simple at first glance, but when crushed by adversity, its strength increases… Our martyrs Felix, Nabor and Victor were like mustard seeds: although they bore the odor of faith, yet they were passed over. But when persecution came, they laid down their weapons, extended their necks and, struck by the sword, shed abroad the beauty of their martyrdom “even to the ends of the earth” (Ps 19[18],5)… But our Lord himself is a mustard seed: so long as he had undergone no attack, the people did not recognise him. He chose to be hustled…; he chose to be pressed in such a way that Peter said: “The crowds are pressing in upon you” (Lk 8,45); he chose to be sown like a seed “that a man takes and throws on his garden”, for it was in a garden that Christ was both arrested and buried. He grew up in this garden and was even raised up again in it… You, too, sow Christ in your gardens, then… Sow the Lord Jesus: he was seed when he was arrested, tree when he rose again – a tree overshadowing the world. He was seed when buried in the earth, tree when he rose up to heaven.

maronite readings – rosary,team

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Saint Paul said: “May I never boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6,14). There was something astonishing in the man born blind regaining his sight at Siloam, but what difference does that make to all the blind people in the world? Lazarus’ resurrection after four days in death was a great event that exceeded the laws of nature, but this grace profited no one but him, it was of no advantage to all those in the world who died because of their sins. It was an amazing thing to cause food to spring forth with which to feed five thousand men with five loaves, but it made no difference to those throughout the world who were undergoing the hunger of ignorance. It was an astonishing thing to release a woman whom Satan had held in bondage for eighteen years, but what is that where we are all concerned, bound by the chains of our sins? The victory of the cross, however, brought into the light all those whom ignorance had made blind, set free those whom sin had made captive, and redeemed all humankind. Don’t wonder that the whole world should have been redeemed. He who died for this was not just a man but the only Son of God. Adam’s fault had brought death to the whole world; if one man’s fall had caused death to reign over all, how much more will not the righteousness of one man cause life to reign? (Rm 5,17). If in former times our first parents were cast out of paradise through eating the fruit of the tree, will not those who believe enter Paradise with far greater ease through the cross of Jesus? If the first being, formed of the earth, brought death to all, will not he who formed him of earth bring him life eternal, since he is himself life? (Jn 14,6).
maronite readings – rosary,team

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Sin is the sharpest scourge that any chosen soul can be smitten with — a scourge which greatly afflicteth a man or woman, breaketh him in pieces and purgeth him of his self-love; to the extent that at times he thinketh himself fit for nothing but to sink into hell; until such time as, by the touching of the Holy Ghost, contrition overtaketh him and turneth his bitterness into hope in God’s mercy. Then his wounds begin to heal and his soul to revive as he is converted to the life of Holy Church. The Holy Ghost leadeth him to confession to reveal his sins willingly, nakedly and truly; with great sorrow and with great shame for having so befouled the fair image of God. Then he undertaketh the penance for all his sins enjoined by his confessor, who is instructed in Holy Church by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. This is a meekness that greatly pleaseth God. Most preciously our good Lord keepeth us when it seemeth to us that we are well nigh forsaken and cast away for our sins. And because we see that we have deserved it, and because of the meekness that we get thereby, we are raised high in God’s sight, by his grace. Then also, when our Lord will, he visiteth us with his special grace, with such contrition and also with compassion and true longing to God that we are at once delivered of sins and pain, and lifted up to bliss, equal with the saints.
maronite readings – rosary,team

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For twenty centuries, this source of joy has not ceased to spring up in the Church, and especially in the hearts of the saints… In the first rank is the Virgin Mary, full of grace, the Mother of the Savior. She, accepting the announcement from on high, the Servant of the Lord, Spouse of the Spirit and Mother of the Eternal Son, manifests her joy before her cousin Elizabeth who celebrates her faith: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…henceforth all generations will call me blessed.” She has grasped, better than all other creatures, that God accomplishes wonderful things: His name is holy, He shows His mercy, He raises up the humble, He is faithful to His promises. Not that the apparent course of her life in any way departs from the ordinary, but she meditates on the least signs of God, pondering them in her heart, (Lk 2,19.51). Not that she is in any way spared sufferings: she stands, the mother of sorrows, at the foot of the cross, associated in an eminent way with the sacrifice of the innocent Servant. But she is also open in an unlimited degree to the joy of the resurrection; and she is also taken up, body and soul, into the glory of heaven. The first of the redeemed, immaculate from the moment of her conception, the incomparable dwelling-place of the Spirit, the pure abode of the Redeemer of mankind, she is at the same time the beloved Daughter of God and, in Christ, the Mother of all. She is the perfect model of the Church both on earth and in glory. What a marvelous echo the prophetic words about the new Jerusalem find in her wonderful existence as the Virgin of Israel: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garment of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels,” (Is 61,10).

maronite readings – rosary,team

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