Past Events
A new DVD for the texts of the Maronite Patriarchal Synod has been issued in Arabic, English and French. It is available at the General Secretariat of the Synod - Zouk Mosbeh, phone no: 09/225923 and Bkerke, phone no: 09/933500.
This is the message of His Beatitude Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir delivered on Sunday November 2nd 2008, by His Excellency ArchBishop Youssef Bechara, general secretary of the Maronite Patriarchal Synod, at the liturgy in Bkerke launching the third year of the application of the Maronite Patriarchal Synod:
PATRIARCAT MARONITE D'ANTIOCHE
ET DE TOUT L'ORIENT
BKERKE – LIBAN
Apostolic Benediction to our Brothers Their Excellencies,
the Dignified Priests and Fathers and the Believers
It would have been our pleasure to be present with you today, on the Sunday of the Consecration of the Church and the beginning of the Liturgical Year, to launch the third Synod year following the assembly of the Maronite Patriarchal Synod, and remember our faithful departed before God, asking Him to bestow His mercy and contentment upon their souls. Our stay in Rome was deemed necessary as we receive His Excellency the President of the Republic who is visiting His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and the Italian President as well as our historic Maronite College in Rome.
The three-year anniversary of our Maronite Synod constitutes a major occasion for our Maronite Church. Since that time, many indispensable achievements have been accomplished in this domain, such as the translation of the Arabic Synod documents to French and English, which have now become available to all those who wish to study them. The translated documents were published in manuals that are easy to circulate. All the Arabic, French and English texts were registered on a DVD to make them accessible to all, particularly the young who are proficient in using the modern media tools, as well as to attempt to activate these texts and apply them in every day’s life.
We are fully confident that taking on the texts listed in the third year’s calendar will allow engaging in critical subjects dealing with school and university education, pastoral life, liturgy, Christian education, media and other subjects related to our lives and obligations at more than one levels. Therefore, we incite you all to give these texts the attention and examination they deserve for they are of great importance due to their religious and national dimensions. We hope that they enforce good intentions in the spirits and will of the people, especially during these times, when we are most in need to go back to our religious teachings and abide by them.
Going back to our religious teachings is our only salvation. The farther we get from those teachings, the wider the gap between us will become and the worse our situation will be; the harder we try to implement them, the closer we will get to the right path and the more loyal we will be to our history. Here, we are reminded of an old but true saying: “Religion prunes morals”. Distance, ostracism and malignancy can only lead to ruin. Harmony, love and solidarity are the only way to preserve the Lebanese entity and its noble history. We fear that a day will come when we hear the words of the mother of an Andalusian Prince being said to us and of us:
“Cry tears of women for a lost kingdom that you could not protect like men”
We ask God to inspire us to follow in the light of our religious teachings and bring them to life, to forgive and embrace each other, to cooperate and work with one another and never to forget that no one will love us more than we love ourselves. History is the best teacher and it has taught us that no one wants to help us correct our ways without gain or profit. The nations of the world have never been charitable organizations. The impressive proverb says: “No one scratches your skin better then your nail”.
Let's fear God in our country and repent to Him and to one another in the Spirit of reconciliation, and may God governs our intentions.
As we ask God the Almighty, through the intercession of Our Lady of Lebanon, to inspire us to walk in His path and follow His commandments, namely the commandment of love, we bestow upon you our fatherly benediction asking God to protect you and guide your way towards all bounties.
From our headquarters in the Maronite College in Rome, November 1st, 2008.
Cardinal Nasrallah-Boutros Sfeir
Patriarch of Antioch and the Entire East
PATRIARCAT MARONITE D'ANTIOCHE
ET DE TOUT L'ORIENT
BKERKE – LIBAN
Beloved brothers and Sisters,
At the end of our annual retreat, last June, the general secretariat filled us in on the different development phases of the synodal process in all dioceses, parishes, and religious orders as presented by the respective delegates. We thank God for the efforts employed in more than one Church institution so the Synod’s texts reach clergy and laity alike. Furthermore, the publication of those texts in English and French has enabled our children in the expansion to benefit from them and develop a shared Maronite understanding regardless of geographic locations and distances. We hope these texts find the importance and the dissemination they deserve so Maronites remain united in their faith and their Church belonging despite existing differences in their orientations.
Let us highlight the plan adopted to accept the texts. During the first two years, the focus was on the first and second texts. The first dealt with the Maronite identity, vocation, and mission; the second treated with the topic of renewal in structures and in persons. This year, we witness the distribution of the third file whose topics are much closer to our comprehension since the topics it handles have their direct impact on our lives and commitments, be that parochial matters, Christian education, rites and rituals, schools and universities, media, and others.
One cannot ignore the importance of such topics and the commitment they require at all level: individuals, communities and institutions. Thus, faith becomes the main inspiration of our attitude and behavior, so we could bear true witness to our Lord Jesus Christ, to His teachings, and to the much needed evangelical values He entrusted us, on top of which we find collaboration, solidarity, forgiveness, and the removal of all that separates us. It is imperative to remember that the first purpose of the Synod is the renewal at all levels by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Once again we call upon you, particularly the hesitating ones, to work hard on spreading the texts and use them in your pastoral and monastic communities, benefiting from the successful experiences on different fronts. These experiences, as all Synod’s texts, are placed on the Synod’s website. Meanwhile, all texts have been saved on DVDs in order to facilitate their total or partial use on all occasions, making them accessible to researchers. We were also pleased to learn that these texts have not been exclusively used by our Maronite children only, but many Lebanese and foreign parties have highly appreciated their content and methodology. This cannot be but a proof and a testimony to our work which is not solely ours but destined to all.
We also inform you that the Synod’s follow-up committee continues to study the recommendations and the best way to realize them in collaboration with the dioceses and religious orders. One of the Synod’s fruits, we have established a General Secretariat in the Patriarchal See to include different departments to help make Church work better studied and prepared within groups of experts from both the clergy and the laity.
In this respect, we have decided to launch the third synodal year with a pontifical liturgy to be held in Bkerke, on November 2nd, on the Sunday of the sanctification of the Church and beginning of the liturgical year. We invite you to take part at it, so we could thank God for all the graces He has bestowed and never cease to bestow upon our Church, graces which are greatly manifested in its saints, and to express our commitment to the Synod’s outcomes, for the synod’s value, as was mentioned earlier, resides in its execution; and this is the responsibility of all of us, clergy and laity.
We implore on you all the blessings of our Lord Jesus, through the intercession of His Mother Mary, our Lady of Lebanon, hoping that the year of St. Paul will be an opportunity to further our knowledge of this Apostle and his letters. Thus, St. Paul’s letters and the Synod’s texts join to create a spiritual atmosphere that consolidates our faith and our hope in our Lord Jesus always alive in His Church.
Bkerke, September 26, 2008
Nasrallah Boutros Cardinal Sfeir
Patriarch of Antioch and the Entire East
The texts of the Maronite Patriarchal Synod have been published in English and French and are available at the General Secretariat - Zouk Mosbeh, phone no: 09-225923.