PREPARING FOR THE FEAST
Dear Parishioners,
Next Sunday is the Feast of St Maroun, the Patron of our Maronite Church around the world and as well our Maronite Diocese of Australia.
In our Diocese the main celebration will be the Solemn Mass this Friday night 7pm at St Maroun’s Cathedral Redfern celebrated by His Excellency Antoine-Charbel Tarabay our Maronite Bishop of Australia. The Priests of our Diocese along with invited Religious and Government Dignitaries will join the Bishop and all our parishioners who can attend for this Solemn Mass and Feast.
St Maroun’s Cathedral Parish are holding their Annual Parish BBQ on the Saturday Night to which we are also all invited to attend.
Here at Our Lady of Lebanon and in our Mass Centres we will also celebrate the Mass for St Maroun’s Feast at all our Sunday Masses. We are preparing some new Holy Cards with a reflection and prayer through Family Committee members which will be distributed at all our Masses next Sunday. After our 9:30am English Family Mass we will be having a brunch and a children’s presen-tation about St Maroun in the Recreation room.
In preparing and reflecting for the Feast of Saint Maroun and on his life, we can’t help but be amazed. The reason why is that through the grace of God, in the life of St Maroun and his response to this grace and his determination to evangelise, 1600 years later and all around the world, members of a particular Church community within the Universal Catholic Church, carry his name, as Maronites, not only in Syria his place of origin and mission but also through his followers, in Lebanon and all the Middle East, the Americas, Africa, Europe and Australia.
St Maroun’s life with his prayer and preaching, is a powerful testimony to the power of the grace of God in the Holy Spirit in spreading and shining the light of Christ throughout the world. Pope Francis’ words that “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, Jesus, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” would apply to St Maroun and his mission. It reminds us today that God’s grace is present and we are called, like St Maroun, to be trusting in prayer and witnessing in our families and society.
