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/

Photo by Walter Coppola: https://www.pexels.com/photo/stone-bell-tower-against-blue-sky-18708479/