Friday, September 27, 2024

Maronite Music Jeopardy

Maronite Music Jeopardy Game

Created by one of our catechists' from the parish in Boston. This fun tool will help your class to learn words of the parts of the sung Liturgy and prayers.

click here - Jeopardy


Thursday, September 5, 2024

Catechetical Sunday Materials - September 15th

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Ministry:

 

I hope you are having a very good summer. 

 

Please find attached the 2024 Catechetical Sunday packet. It is sent to you electronically, as has been the norm for the last few years. This should allow you to prepare for Catechetical Sunday which falls on September 15, this year.  Print a copy for your parish file.  Also print another copy and pass it to your Religious Education Coordinator in order to start preparing for this worthy celebration.  

 

Please check the last paragraph in the Table of Content page. You might find it helpful also if you frequent the 2024 Catechetical Sunday website of the USCCB. 

 

Should you need any assistance regarding the 2024 Catechetical Sunday Celebration or should you have any question regarding the use of the packet please do not hesitate to contact me,

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Msgr. Georges El-Khalli, Ph.D., Pastor

Our Lady of the Cedars of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church


Here is the link to the USCCB resource page for Catechetical Sunday.  

Here is a link to our Eparchy Catechetical Sunday Certificate to be presented to the parish catechists, preferably at the Divine Liturgy on September 15th or the day your pastor chooses.  



Thursday, April 18, 2024

Introduction to Syriac Spirituality Zoom Sessions

 Introduction to Syriac Spirituality Seely Beggiani – ܡܰܪܓܳܢܺܝܬܳܐ ܓܢܺܝܙܬܳܐ

with Chorbishop Seely Beggiani 
Zoom Series Hosted by the St. Sharbel Spiritual Life Center

April 18: The Syriac World View
April 25: The Early Period (The Demonstrations of Aphraat and the Book of Steps)
May 2: The Foundations of Spirituality (Faith, Baptism, The Holy Spirit, Eucharist)
May 9: The Foundations of Spirituality Cont (Penitence, Humility, Hope, Charity, Mercy)
May 16: Stages of the Spiritual Life: The Corporeal Stage (Faith and "Fear of God", Observing the Commandments, Asceticism, Passionlessness)
May 23: Stages of the Spiritual Life Cont: Eight Major Temptations, Abstinence, Vigil, Almsgiving, Discernment
May 30: The Stage of the Soul (Private Prayer, Luminosity, Purity of Heart, Simplicity, Stillness and Solitude)
June 6: The Stage of the Soul Cont: (Contemplation, The Divine Presence in Creation, Divine Providence, Sacred Scriptures)
June 13: The Stage of the Spirit (Silent Prayer, The Spiritual Senses, Unknowing, Spiritual Wisdom, Ecstatic events)
June 20: Summaries and Conclusions

Friday, March 22, 2024

A New Maronite Saint

Good news to share with your catechists and children.

Patriarch Estephan El Douaihy, a pillar of the Maronite Church, will soon be beatified, joining the long list of holy Maronite saints.

Friday, March 15, 2024

More classroom resources for Great Lent

Saintly Tips on Discipline

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Praying Stations with Kids
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Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Letter of Bishop Gregory on the Year of Prayer

  

5 March 2024                                                                          Prot. No. 058/1/24

Cir.24.32

 

 

Dear Brother Priests, Deacons and Subdeacons, Consecrated Men and Women, Lay Faithful, 

 

 

On January 21, 2024, Pope Francis opened the Year of Prayer in anticipation of the Jubilee Year 2025. The Holy Father’s intention is to have us look closely at how we relate to the Church, to the family, and to the world, according to the wisdom of the Second Vatican Council, and then apply this practically to our own life of prayer. 

 

As you know, Pope Saint Paul VI beatified Saint Sharbel at the end of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, along with a missionary priest martyr, Jacques Berthieu, who served in Madagascar, Africa. What an honor for us as Maronites, to have shared in this spotlight, and what a message the Saintly Pontiff gave to the world (and to us!) that prayer, silence, sacrifice, and a missionary spirit are the ways forward to the renewal of the Church, the family, and the world!

 

In the Apostolic Letter by which Sharbel was declared blessed, we read this:  

 

“We should mention that we recently decreed the same honors (Beatification) for Jacques Berthieu, who won the prize by struggling in the action of life as though in a spiritual combat. Now, a monk, removed from all human association and given over to contemplation of divine things in solitude, is extolled. Both lives are commended by the Church…. Sharbel who represented anew the life, distinguished by the sanctity of the ancient hermits, kept his mind unperturbed…so that from the happiness of his soul would flow the cheerfulness of his countenance.”

 

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, during this Year of Prayer, let us use this opportunity, in the same spirit that animated Pope Saint Paul VI at the end of the Second Vatican Council when he pointed to Saint Sharbel as a model of prayer and devotion, so that we may keep our “minds unperturbed” and thus from the “happiness of our soul” God will cause to “flow the cheerfulness of our countenance.”

 

+ Gregory

 

 

PS: Please see the link below for some of the offerings of our new Saint Sharbel Spiritual Life Center on prayer and life of the holiness. https://saintsharbelcenter.org/

 

Friday, March 1, 2024

YEAR OF PRAYER RESOURCES

>Year of Prayer 2024 - How can we live it?  Read More Here

>Weekly Rosary with our Eparchy every Thursday

Join every Thursday at 5:00 PM via Zoom to pray the rosary for all the souls of the faithful departed. Father Vince, pastor of Our Lady of Purgatory, and Bishop Gregory, along with many from our Eparchy participate in this devotion. 

Join via Zoom 
Meeting ID: 890 3889 9691
Passcode: 011387

>The Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization has issued a new resource on prayer aimed at inviting the faithful to “intensify prayer as a personal dialogue with God” and to reflect on their faith and commitment in today’s world.

>HALLOW APP https://hallow.com/        ...Discover new ways to grow closer to God alongside millions of other Christians worldwide: family prayer; prayers for children; Scripture; ...