October 27, 2003
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Faithful in the Diocese of Our Lady of Lebanon,
Grace and peace be with you.
This past August I met with the Presbyteral Council, a body of priests that help advise me in the care of the Diocese, and in this month of October I have met with the newly formed Eparchial Pastoral Council, and then the next week, the Stewardship Council. We are on the move, already planning for our ten-year anniversary as a Diocese in 2004. Specifically, this weekend, which is Diocesan Awareness Weekend, I want to share with you some thoughts about who we are, and where we are going.
I hope that you will use some of these thoughts, and add some of your own, to help our people understand who we are as a Diocese and as a Church, One Holy Catholic and Apostolic.
It is my prayer and hope that there will always be great unity among you, a unity that shines in the entire world as we hold out to it "the medicine of life," that is, Jesus, our atoning and perfect sacrifice. As St. Ephrem says "All these changes did the Merciful One make, stripping off glory and putting on a body; for He had devised a way to reclothe Adam in that glory which he had stripped off." May we, dear friends, be a shinning example of Christ's divinity for he is "the firstborn among many brothers" who removes "the sword from the entry to Paradise."
It is my hope that this divine glory will be present in our Diocese: through its sacred liturgy, in a renewal of religious vocations, and in our celebration of the Holy Eucharist by which we "pluck the fruit of Him who gives life to all."
The launching of our new Website is a concrete way to embody our unity together as Maronites and Catholics. Moreover, a greater use of our distinctive Maronite Catechism and more participation at Holy Eucharist will develop the kind of unity I envision. It is important that all be made more aware of our National Shrine to Our Lady, of the
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Maronite Seminary in Washington DC, and of our Convent of the Antonine Maronite Sisters in Youngstown Ohio. For those who feel God's possible call to a religious
vocation I strongly urge a serious consideration of these places as possible future life paths.
Remember that our greater striving towards unity in our Diocese is not only of value within, but our unity should encourage an outreach to all our separated Christian brethren, that they may be as the apostle Paul said "one in spirit and purpose." As our Most Holy Father, Pope John Paul II has noted:
"The commitment to ecumenism must be based upon the conversion of hearts and upon prayer, which will also lead to the necessary purification of past memories. With the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Lord's disciples, inspired by love, by the power of the truth and by a sincere desire for mutual forgiveness and reconciliation, are called to reexamine together their painful past and the hurt which that past regrettably continues to provoke even today. All together, they are invited by the ever fresh power of the Gospel to acknowledge with sincere and total objectivity the mistakes made and contingent factors at work at the origins of their deplorable divisions."
Let us keep our eyes firmly on Jesus, the model and perfecter of our faith, who "being in the very nature of God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but instead made himself nothing, taking on the form of slave, being made in human likeness, He humbled himself unto death, even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, on heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Such is the mission of this our Diocese. Such is the mission I want to encourage this weekend as we enter into a new liturgical year, and specifically Diocesan Awareness Weekend.
Let us always remember Our Blessed Lady of Lebanon, that she may guide and protect us through her bountiful intercession to Christ our Lord. I greet you all with a greeting of peace.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
+ Robert J. Shaheen, D.D.
Bishop of the Eparchy of
Our Lady of Lebanon
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