Fatima -- the Immaculate Heart of Mary

“Jesus wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world.

I promise salvation to those who embrace it.” (Our Lady of Fatima, June 13, 1917

This years’ centennial commemoration of the Fatima apparitions reminds us of the urgent call to prayer, conversion, and consecration contained in the message of Our Lady.  I would like to highlight the Five First Saturdays devotion that Our Lady asks for as a small effort to encourage you to take up this prayer on behalf of peace in the world, and peace in your heart.

Our Lady of Fatima explained the Five First Saturdays to Sr. Lucia dos Santos, one of the visionaries, “Tell them that I promise to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, in order to make reparation to me, on the First Saturday of five successive months: go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the rosary, and keep me company for a quarter of an hour, meditating on the mysteries of the rosary.  

More information on this devotion can be found at http://www.marian.org/13th/firstsaturday.php

Summer Newsletter

Please take a few minutes and read our Summer Newsletter 2017.  We have lots to share with you and ask your prayers for our mission.

The Year of Witness and Martyrs

The Year of Witness and Martyrs

An Excerpt from the Pastoral Letter

of His Beatitude

Patriarch Bechara Peter Rai

The Year of Witness and Martyrs on the Feast day

of our Father, Saint Maron on February

9, 2017, and end it on March 2, 2018,

the Feast day of our Father, the First

Maronite Patriarch, Saint John Maron.

“The Year of Witness and Martyrs is a

special occasion to renew our Christian

commitment to witness to Jesus and to

be prepared to fulfill it even to the

witness of blood, so that hatred can be

conquered by love, war by peace,

enmity by fraternity, and injustice by

justice. It is a year that removes fear

from our hearts while we are witnessing

nowadays torture and persecution of

Christians. …

In the Year of Witness and Martyrs we

lift up our thoughts and our minds to

Massabki Brothers, Martyrs

Mary our Mother, the Queen of

Martyrs. We ask that this year be a

period of hope and perseverance, to

complete the work of salvation that

Jesus Christ has started and completed,

a work that Saint Paul describes as, "in

my flesh I am filling up what is lacking

in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of

his body, which is the Church"

(Colossians 1:24). May this year be an

incentive to follow in the footsteps of

our witnesses and martyrs, to collect

their heritage, a year to discover the

forgotten martyrs and the unknown, so

they can all intercede for us and be an

example for us to follow Christ and

witness to his love, in giving,

sacrificing, forgiveness and

reconciliation.”

Safe Zones and Syrian Refugees in Lebanon.

Please take less than two minutes and watch this video sharing some of the staggering statistics about Syrian refugees in Lebanon and the desperate need for Safe Zones.

Solemnity of Corpus Christi – June 15

The following Homily was given by Fr. Herbert Nicholls on June 15th at the Mother of the Light Convent

My reflections today are taken from a homily given by John Cardinal O’Connor, former Archbishop of New York on a Friday night at a conference at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio.

The Cardinal began with his well publicized chastisement of the New York Yankees for playing their home opener on Good Friday between 12PM and 3PM. As a result he told Mr. Steinbrener that he would not attend any Yankee games that year. The Cardinal received many letters of encouragement and support from laity and clergy as well. But several weeks later when he asked that Little League organizations refrain from playing on Sunday mornings, the volumes of letters turned against him.

The Cardinal explained that baseball is not the issue. “I am as much a supporter of baseball and little league as anyone, but I chose to bring attention to a much broader picture—the secularization of modern society”.

In a secularized society, there is no such thing as mystery. There is no reality except that which can be experienced through the senses. There is therefore no such thing as Eucharist. It is not the Body and Blood of Christ, but merely bread and wine. Since mystery cannot be unveiled, there is no need for a mediation from God on our behalf.

Each person in a secularized world has rights that are not God-given and inalienable but rather given by the government. In such a society where government endows rights, it also reserves the right to rescind them. They are no longer inalienable. We have seen the results of such thinking in the society of Nazi Germany where persons became victims of the state. Are we beginning to see the formation of similar thinking in our own society today?

In a secularized society, the Church must defend itself, and its need and right to worship. The Church which is the Body of Christ must be involved in the defense of every aspect of God-given self-defense, based on the dignity of persons and God-given inalienable rights.

This confrontation becomes a nasty struggle, requiring much courage to continue and not give up. The temptation is there not only for laity and priests but for this Cardinal as well. The courage required to persist can only come from feeding on the Body and Blood of Christ, the one who never gave up; from communion with Him who strengthens our heart’s desire to be saved.

The Cardinal went on to speak of his own ministries to the physically and mentally handicapped and the autistic, to aids victims, to mothers who would otherwise have aborted their child. He went on to give example of a young autistic girl who was unable to demonstrate any visible response, not even the batting of an eyelash, no response even to her mother. Yet when the Cardinal comes for Mass, the child insisted upon sitting near him and watching his every move, staring intently as if she truly understood the mystery unfolding before her. Is it coincidence or is it miracle?

According to one recent survey, 71% of Catholics claim to no longer believe in the Eucharist because they have lost the sense of intimacy. Some of the early Fathers of the Church were not embarrassed to compare the intimacy of the Eucharist with the intimacy of marriage. The Sacrament of Marriage is complete unless and until it is consummated, until the bodies become one in an act of love. Unless the bodies are given to each other in unity the marriage is invalid.

Can we also say that the union of persons, body and blood, must be given to each other for the Sacrament of the Eucharist to be valid and effective? The Bible speaks of sexual intercourse as “knowing”. Adam knew Eve and Mary did not know man, but God invites us to know Him in a sacred spiritual union.

We can come to Mass merely to fulfill an obligation, to be present through the rituals; many marriages make that same mistake and fall apart. We can choose not simply to be present as Mass but to participate by entering into a relationship with God, Who is absolute Love, who can empower us to change our lives as well as society. We can enter into mystery but only if we believe, only if we want to. It must be our heart’s desire. God does not force love, there is no such thing. Forced love is no love at all.