March 26, 2024: Passion Week
The Coming to the Harbor
This rite belongs to the Maronite “Book of Passion” of Holy Week. The lenten weekday cycle of the Maronite rite reflects our estrangement from God and our need to coversion. We are called to take courage and to turn back. They Syriac fathers have traditionally spoken of this movement toward God as a nautical journey whose destination is the harbor of life. During the journey of Lent, we pray:
Bless, Lord, our fasing… Make it a journey which leads us to the harbor of salvation.
At its conclusion, the Divine Office of Passion Week offers us a special Qawmo (Watch) in the Night Prayer precisely “The Coming to the Harbor” (Wa’deh dal-Meeno’). With it, we cross the threshold of our journey and enter new life, as we come to the harbor of peace, safety and salvation.
We do it through peace, conversion and renewal. As is the case, in this New Millenion, for us, the Universal Church and for all humankind.
“After years of preparation, we find ourselves at the threshold of the Great Jubilee. Much has been done during these years throughout the Church to plan for this event of grace. But now, as in the last stage of preparation for a journey, the time has come for the finishing touches. The Great Jubilee is not just a series of functions to be held, but a great interior experience to be lived. External factors make sense only in so far sas they express a deeper commitment which touches people’s hearts…” (John Paul II, Letter Concerning Pilgramage to the Places Linked to the History of Salvation, 1)
For that reason, we use this “Coming to the Harbor Rite” in our churches in order to continue the call of the Great Jubilee in our communities for a “deeper commitment” and a “great interior experience to be lived according to one of the most moving Passion Week traditions. For that reason, we use this “Coming to the Harbor Rite” in our churches in order to continue the call of the Great Jubilee in our communities…… and a “great interior experience”
♱ Stephen Hector Doueihi, S.T.D.
Bishop of The Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn
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Forward to The Passion Week According to the Antiochene Syriac Maronite Church, Saint Maron Publications 2001.