Happy Feast Day of the Nativity of Our Lady! Mary, Mother of God, is the only woman conceived without original sin. Only a person so perfect could bear the Son of God in Her womb. We ask for Her prayers and intercessions today and always. May She always lead us closer to Her Son.
Sunday’s Gospel
This week, we read from the Gospel of St Luke the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. This parable contrasts two different men with two different attitudes and two different prayers. The Pharisee corresponds to the self-righteous, merciless worshipper of the law, and the tax collector exemplifies the humble sinner. Both are sinners, although the outward form of their sins differs. The Pharisee prays as one who needs no forgiveness, and he got none while the tax collector prays as one is need of forgiveness, and he receives it.
May we always learn to be humble and ask for God’s mercy. May we commit ourselves to seek God in our lives and live our faith truthfully.
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Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
On the 14th of September, we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. This feast was observed in Rome before the end of the seventh century. It commemorates the recovery of the Holy Cross that was returned to Jerusalem by Emperor Heralius in 629. Let us look to the cross frequently, and realize that when we make the Sign of the Cross we give our entire self to God: mind, soul, heart, body, will, thoughts. May we also remember that the Cross is the sign of our salvation with which our Saviour triumphed over the sin of the world.
Mass times at St Charbel’s are as follows:
Thursday 13 September: 11am (Arabic), 6pm (English), 7pm (English)
Friday 14 September : 7.30am (Arabic) and 6pm (Arabic)
The Pope in to Lebanon
As you may be aware, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will be visiting Lebanon from the 14th to the 16th of September. Christians and Muslims in the Middle East are praying for the success of this event. We join our prayers to theirs hoping that this peace will be brought to Lebanon and all the area. Pope Benedict’s message of unity and peace is urgently needed in our homeland and all the countries of the Middle East.
I wish you all a safe weekend and a blessed week!
In God’s Love,
Fr. Dr. Antoine Tarabay
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20th Year—Number 1025 Sunday 09/09/2012
Season of the Pentecost
16th Sunday
Sunday’s Readings: Roma 8: 18-27 & Luke 18: 9-14
God, be merciful to me, a sinner“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income." But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’” Luke 18: 9-14
Reflection of the Week
The humble heart is heard by God
The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector contrasts two different men with two different attitudes and two different prayers. The Pharisee corresponds to the self-righteous, merciless worshipper of the law, and the tax collector exemplifies the humiliated lawbreaker. Both are sinners, although the outward form of their sins differs. The Pharisee pray as one who needed no forgiveness, and got none while the tax collector pray as one needed for-giveness, and he received it.
The Pharisee
The Pharisee glories in what he is ("I am not like other men"), what he does ("I fast twice a week"), and what he gives ("I give tithes of all that I possess"). Self is a noticeable feature of his prayer—he uses the personal pronoun "I" five times—showing his great obsession with himself. He does not pray for others, and he has no interest in them other than to point out their faults. His prayer shows that he thinks of God as being impressed with pettiness and severity. These are unforgivable sins to the Pharisee.
People like the Pharisee trust in their own works to gain salvation and eternal life, not trusting in Jesus Christ for them. They do not really think they need His sacrifice or help because they think they are good enough in themselves.
The tax collector
The tax collector humbles himself before God, pleading for mercy, and in the end, he receives exaltation. In Proverbs 27:2, Solomon expresses the principle of this parable: "Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips." This principle works in all facets of life, but most people cannot see it at work because they see no reward for humbly working behind the scenes.
Humility
Humility also results in praise in two ways. First it results in praise to God. For while a proud self-righteous person brings down God's standard of holiness to a level he feels that he has achieved, the humble does not do so. The humble worships in spirit and in truth, but the proud in the flesh and in lies. And while the proud have no mercy on the humble, the humble acknowledge their God as being merciful.
Secondly, it results in praise from God to the humble. For He appreciates an honest person more than one caught up in self-deception though he appear clean on the outside. And it is innate within righteous men to treat each other likewise. Practically all the great men of the Bible went through times of humiliation, which developed humility in them and which resulted in praise in the long term. "He must increase and I must decrease" John 3:30
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Think About
A humble and contrite spirit is necessary for true and effective prayer. Pride is the enemy of prayer; pride and vanity and confidence in self, will hobble the soul of man and make him, like the Pharisee in this parable, powerless in prayer
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14th September
Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
Readings:
1 corintians 1: 18-25 & John 12: 20-32
Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
Readings:
1 corintians 1: 18-25 & John 12: 20-32
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Saint of the Week
14 September
Feast of the Triumph of the Cross.
On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (or Triumph of the Cross) we honor the Holy Cross by which Christ redeemed the world. The public veneration of the Cross of Christ originated in the fourth century, according to early accounts. The miraculous discovery of the cross on September 14, 326, by Saint Helen, mother of Constantine, while she was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, is the origin of the tradition of celebrating the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on this date.
Saint Helen razed the Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior's tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher over the tomb. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman.
The cross immediately became an object of veneration. At a Good Friday celebration in Jerusalem toward the end of the fourth century, according to an eyewitness, the wood was taken out of its silver container and placed on a table together with the inscription Pilate ordered placed above Jesus' head: Then "all the people pass through one by one; all of them bow down, touching the cross and the inscription, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes; and, after kissing the cross, they move on."To this day the Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike, celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the September anniversary of the basilica's dedication. The feast entered the Western calendar in the seventh century after Emperor Heraclius recovered the cross from the Persians, who had carried it off in 614, 15 years earlier. According to the story, the emperor intended to carry the cross back into Jerusalem himself, but was unable to move forward until he took off his imperial garb and became a barefoot pilgrim.
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The Maronites and Lebanon (27) The Ottomans era (6)
The end of the Ottomans era
The end of the Ottomans era
Ten Patriarchs have used Dimane as a summer residence and Bkerki as a winter one: Youssef HOBAISH of Sahel Alma (1823-1845), Youssef EL KHAZEN of Ajaltoun (1845-1854), Boulos MASSAD of Ashkout (1854-1890), Hanna EL HAJJ of Dlebta (1890-1898), Elias HOAYEK of Hilta (1898-1931), Antoun Arida of Bsharri (1932-1955), Boulos MEOUSHI of Jezzine (1955-1975), Anthony KHORAISH of Ain Ibl (1975-1986), Nasrallah SFEIR of Reyfoun (1986-2011) and Bechara Al Raii (2011) after the resignation of Patriarch Sfeir.
All these Patriarchs bore a heavy burden of responsibility, working for the unity of their flock. Their main concern has been the independence of Lebanon.
The early part of the 19th century was dominated by acts of aggression by the Druze against the Christians which culminated in the deaths of many thousands of Christians at the hands of the Druze with Turkish assistance in the Massacres of 1840-1860 which were finally halted in July 1860 when the great powers finally decided to act, France taking the initiative by dispatching 7,000 troops. The Ottomans fearing this intervention, sent their foreign minister, Fuad Pasha, to Lebanon ahead of the French and put an end to the violence. The French troops landed in Beirut in August 1860.
On October 5, 1860, an international commission composed of France, Britain, Austria, Prussia, and the Ottoman Empire met to investigate the causes of the events of 1860 and to recommend a new administrative and judicial system for Lebanon that would prevent the recurrence of such events. The commission members agreed that the partition of Mount Lebanon in1842 between Druze and Christians had been respon-sible for the massacre. Hence, in the Statute of June 9, 1861 Lebanon reunited under a non-Lebanese Christian mutasarrif (governor) ap-pointed by the Ottoman sultan, with the approval of the European pow-ers. The mutasarrif was to be assisted by an administrative council of twelve members from the various religious communities in Lebanon. Maronite nationalists strongly objected to a non-Lebanese governor and insisted on self rule.
This Statute which was revised on September 6,1864 and also adhered to by Italy in1867 recognized and guaranteed the autonomy of Lebanon, but not the Lebanon of Fakhr-al-Din and Bashir, but one stripped of its maritime and inter-mountain plains with their cities and reduced to its mountainous region. Only Mount Lebanon was to be out of the Ottoman grasp. The leading signatory, Turkey, cherished the conviction that Leba-non, without its ports, cities, and plains was unviable and could not sur-vive. Turkey was wrong, despite the mutasarrifs being totally incompe-tent, Lebanon, thanks to the efforts of its inhabitants, not only survived, but registered a record of prosperity, security, and progress that made it the envy of the provinces of the Ottoman empire. Lebanon's neighbours found expression in the saying 'Happy is he who owns but a goat's enclo-sure in Lebanon.'
This situation lasted till the World War I when a blockade was imposed on the Lebanese Mountains and hundreds of thousands starved. The Church opened its doors to the poor. During this period, Lebanon suf-fered more than any other Ottoman province, estimation of 120,000 persons lost their lives that was over one third of its population to slow and painful deaths.
Relief for Lebanon came in September1918 when the British general Edmund Allenby and Faysal I, son of Sharif Husayn of Mecca, moved into Palestine with British and Arab forces, thus opening the way for the liberation of Lebanon and Syria.
Cedars of Lebanon as it is portrayed during the Mutasarifieh period
Next Sunday: The independence
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