Feast of Saint Maron, Father of the Maronites

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

“Blessed are you, Saint Maron, for you became a prayer on the lips of the faithful, and a living example for the people who bear your name and will be known as Maronites to end of the age.” - Ramsho
St. John Chrysostom an early Father of the Church heard of the holy life of prayer and miracles of St. Maron. St. John asked him for his prayer and blessing. The prayer of the just man obtains much (James 5:16). It is the most sensible and reasonable thing to do, to ask God’s friends to speak to Him on our behalf. God rejoices in such humility and fraternity.
The Church, while recognizing the urgent need of exterior works … teaching, preaching, care for the poor, helping the sick, and so many other works …continues to desire and support the essential work of those religious who form what is called the contemplative life, consecrated to the interior apostolate. “The religious orders which are vowed to contemplation are, in certain way, necessary to the Church.” (Address of Pius XII, December 8, 1950).
The Church is going through a difficult time, and it may be because there are so few vocations to the work of the interior apostolate. St. John Chrysostom triumphed over his enemies by the prayers of St. Maron. We need in our day many more vocations, who like St. Maron consecrate themselves to a life of hidden immolation in order to obtain from God all the graces that He desires to give to the Church. The holier a soul is, the greater is the influence that it exercises in the Church.
“I understand that love alone imparts life to all the members of the Church, so that should love ever fail, apostles would no longer preach the Gospel, and martyrs would refuse to shed their blood. I realize that love includes every vocation, that love is all things, that love is eternal, reaching down through the ages and stretching to all the uttermost limits of the earth.” – St. Therese of the Child Jesus

† Selim Sfeir
Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus