Called to Radiate the Eucharist

By Sister Therese Maria Touma

Over the last two years of my formation as a Maronite Servant of Christ the Light, I have experienced a beautiful growth in my own spirituality and love for the Eucharist. It is the center of who I am and an ongoing source of light for my path to wholeness and union with God. Our convent life of Liturgical and communal prayer has deepened my understanding of how to approach prayer, how to surrender my will to the present moment, and to carry out my day in recollection.

As Maronite Servants, the primary purpose of our mission is to give God praise by striving for holiness following the Typicon (rule) of our Congregation. We are inspired and sustained by a vowed life in community of prayer, Eucharist, and joyful communion in living the Gospel of the Lord. We offer our lives as spiritual mothers in prayer and pastoral service, working alongside our priests, praying and sacrificing for them and the needs of all our Maronite people. (Adapted from our Typicon Art. 2)

Sister and a young women pray in the convent chapel.

In imitation of Mary, we are called as servants of the Lord to radiate the light of Christ’s merciful love and hope by offering the gift of our spiritual motherhood to nurture God’s life in the hearts of children, families, and people’s of all ages through works of mercy. (Typicon Art. 3)

We live the monastic spirit of our Maronite spirituality through a contemplative-apostolic prayer life centered on the Eucharist. We find our strength and source of charity for the other in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the heart of our worship, and the centre of our devotional life of daily adoration which we seek to nurture in our Maronite faithful. (Typicon Art. 8)

Daily, we attend Divine Liturgy and we also offer an hour of prayer in the presence of the Eucharist, entrusting to the Lord, the needs of the world, the Church and community.  We are particularly praying for holy vocations to the priesthood and to our Maronite Servant community, for generous supporters, and each day we offer our prayers and sacrifices for a priest serving in our Maronite Eparchy. Please join us in our prayer intentions. \

In living this Eucharistic life as a community, I am amazed how I have discovered more about the mystery of who I am, in his Radiant Light, and with His mercy and grace I am learning to embrace it all, the good and all that needs transformation and healing in my humanity and the humanity of those around me.  God is so good!

Help us to spread the word about our Community especially to young women. For more information about vocations email Sister Marla Marie: sister@maroniteservants.org.  Read more about our recent events and articles at RadiateHisLight.blogspot.com.

Open House - Mother of the Light Convent

by Sister Marla Marie

We were pleased to have close to 150 people visit our convent last Sunday for our Open House.  As you can see from the photos, our company was a diverse group of our friends including the Dominican Sisters of Hope who had previously owned the property. 

Our guests were first introduced to our Chapel of Saint Maron, and then they proceeded to the dining room which was set up as a display area featuring photos of before and after the renovations.  Refreshments were served by dedicated volunteers in our sunroom where our friends could sit back and enjoy each other's company.

We invite you to visit us.  Please call and arrange for a visit or a day of retreat. 

The following excerpt written by one of our visitors captures the spirit of many comments we received that day:

“Mother of the Light Convent is absolutely lovely. Thank you for your invitation on Sunday to witness the renovations, so well designed.

Our visit to the Chapel was the highlight of our tour. Watching those who were writing their pleas and seeing one young man expressing his sorrows. So very moving.

We felt much peace in our tour of the convent, especially on floor 2. The simplicity of color and décor is where we immediately sensed a peaceful aura where prayer could not be interrupted and one’s mind could not be distracted with worldly goods, only to direct our hearts and mind to our dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."

Dominican Sisters Visit Us

On Saturday 25^th February, our friends, the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation visited our Mother of the Light Convent for dinner and evening prayer (Ramsho). We were so happy to share our new home and hospitality with the Dominican sisters, who are our dear sisters and friends in Christ. We enjoyed an evening together in fellowship, laughter, prayer and good Lebanese food prepared by us. 

Last June, the Sisters welcomed us in to their community for what was supposed to be a two week stay which turned into seven months due to delays in renovations here. In this time we had the unique opportunity to get to know the Sisters and share in their beautiful life in community.

As part of the evening’s recreation with the Sisters, we gave them a tour of  the convent and showed them the before and after photos of our newly renovated home. They were all amazed with the transformation and so are we!

We thank God for his blessings, for the gift of friendship, for the gift of religious life and for his ever present providence.

Bishop Gregory Urges Action to Protect Religious Liberty

22 February 2012
Prot. No. 134/1/12

Dear Brother Priests, Deacons/Subdeacons, Monks, Sisters, Faithful of the Eparchy and Friends:

On February 3, 2012, I wrote to all of you the following:
“There can no longer be any doubt that religious liberty in our country is in jeopardy. On January 20, 2012, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with the approval of President Obama issued a new federal mandate making coverage of all abortive drugs, sterilization, and FDA-approved contraceptives obligatory for virtually all employees, including those working in faith-based institutions.
The new mandate is the first federal regulation in our nation’s history to require all religious institutions to pay for this coverage. Now nearly all those who provide insurance must comply. To force people to provide these mandated services that violates both their faith conviction and their freedom is just not right in the land of the free!” (see http://stmaron.org/blog/)”

Now brothers and sisters, President Obama has recently made a much publicized “compromise”. However, this is no real compromise, for the burden of responsibility has simply shifted from employers to insurance companies to provide these services “for free.” In our case, some of these
insurance companies are owned and operated by the Church so that we may insure ourselves. By continuing this insistence on this mandate, the Administration has ignored the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and has decided what is good for us, whether we agree or not, whether it violates our conscience or not. (See article by Anne McGuire attached).

Please visit http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/conscience-protection/ to learn more about this mandate, which is not only a blow to religious liberty, but also an unnecessary entry of government into the free exercise of religion and conscience, and what we can do about it. With gratitude for your collaboration in this very important matter and with every good wish, I am

Yours in Christ,
+Gregory John Mansour