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.

“Your King shall come to you, humble and riding on a donkey!”

Behold, the King of Sion rides a donkey and enters the city amid the songs of praise of little children and suckling babes. Everyone cries out:

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.”

Waving olive branches, they praise the King of Israel. Today, the Church gathers her children from all peoples and nations; in the churches and convents they chant hymns of praise. In procession small and great alike go forth, singing in every language.

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,”

Christ the King.

O Our Lord, Jesus Christ, we firmly believe in all that our Mother the Holy Church believes in and teaches us to believe in because You are the One who revealed it to her, O You, who are the Truth which neither deceives nor is deceived.

We beseech You, through your love for Your Holy Mother, the Virgin Mary, and for Saint Joseph, Your chosen Just One, and through your the five wounds inflicted upon you because of our sins, grant us Your Grace so we may live and die with it.

By the road, as Christ walked along, sat a man who could not see.
Bartimaeus began to shout: ”Son of David, pity me! I believe you are the Lord, who can give light to my eyes.
Since you let me hear your voice, let me also see your face. Give me light that I may see.”

O Our Lord Jesus Christ, we are sorry from the depth of our hearts, because we have sinned against You with our bad actions, deserved Your punishment by temporal sufferings and everlasting fire of Hell and lost the joys of Your Heavenly Kingdom. We are especially sorry for we have sinned because we have sinned against Your Fatherly Love, O You who are the Good God and deserve the love of all your lowly creatures. We firmly resolve not to return to sin and rather, to accept death one thousand times than to commit one mortal sin.

Jesus Christ our Lord, you carry the sins of the world and you forgave the sins of the paralytic. You cured him and had him carry his mat in front of the crowd. Make us worthy to meditate on your amazing miracles, and strengthen us with the power of your forgiveness. May we share in the grace of your redemption, to glorify and thank you, your Father, and your living Holy Spirit, now and for ever.

O Our Lord Jesus Christ, we dedicate ourselves to Your Divine and Trustful Will, and willingly accept from Your Hand sickness, tribulation and death the way You want and when You want. O Our Beloved Jesus, all we desire is to accomplish Your Good Will now and always in all places and at all times.

Today we commemorate the announcement to Mary that she is to be the Mother of God. The feast actually recalls two aspects of the same salvific mystery: the incarnation of the divine Word and the motherhood of Mary. With time, the incarnation of the Son of God was stressed on the feast of the Birth of Our Lord and today’s feast became a Marian feast.

Holy One, through you, sinners are sanctified and the penitent seek you who desire our salvation and well being.
Do not look on the weakness of our humanity and the insignificance of our deeds. but treat us according to your mercy, for we take refuge in you.
orgive our offenses, for who besides you can pardon?
Full of joy, we shall give you glory, now and for ever.

O Sister Rafka, you walked with Jesus and carried daily your cross with courage. After a life lived in pain and torment, you were rewarded with heaven’s glory.

Lord, guard and sustain your Church. Raise up saints and holy ones within her ranks, and bless all her monks and nuns. Sanctify them as the live and work for you. Alleluia! We praise you, Lord.

O Our Lord Jesus Christ, we rely on You and hope from you to help and guide us in this our life, to forgive our faults so that we may inherit Your everlasting paradise because all our hope is dependent on Your endless mercy and Your indescribable goodness.

Make us worthy, O Lord, to stand before You with pure hearts and to believe in Your birth from a virgin as Joseph, Your chosen one, believed after You revealed Your mystery to him. As You appointed the angel in the garden of Eden to guard the tree of life, so have You chosen Joseph and appointed him guardian of Your virgin mother in whom You dwelt. Grant us, O Lord, to taste the cherished fruit of Your tree, so that we may glorify You, Your Holy Father and Your blessed Spirit, now and forever.

Jesus Christ, O Physician, Lover of all people, we thank you for your compassion, for you have bandaged the wounds of our suffering humanity. Heal the sick and console the sorrowful. Accept our prayers as you accepted the plea of the hemorrhaging woman. Bless our comminity that prays to you. We believe that you are our Savior and Redeemer, and we await the day of your glorious resurrection..

O Our Lord Jesus Christ, we confess and adore You because You are our God, our Savior and our Supreme Judge. We bow in front of Your Divine Majesty offering You our thanks for all the Graces You granted and will grant us.

We beseech You, through your love for Your Holy Mother, the Virgin Mary, and for Saint Joseph, Your chosen Just One, and through the wound of Your RIGHT FOOT. Grant us to live and die in your grace.

Amen.

In a pleading voice, the leper said to the Savior of mankind:

“If you desire, Lord, you can make me clean.”

With mercy and kindness our Savior extended his hand and touched him:

“I desire it; be cleansed and be a witness to the truth.”

The governor of Sebaste in Armenia wished to force forty soldiers to renouce Christ. First he imprisoned them and then he threw them into a frozen pond. They prayed with one heart.

"We forty have entered the arena, O Lord, grant that we may be able to receive the crown,”

One of them escaped and renounced Christ, but their guard, a pagan, took his place. In the morning the guards broke their legs and burned their bodies. They received the crown of martyrdom around the year 322. May their prayers be with us. Amen.

O Our Lord, Jesus Christ, we firmly believe in all that our Mother the Holy Church believes in and teaches us to believe in because You are the One who revealed it to her, O You, who are the Truth which neither deceives nor is deceived.

We beseech You, through your love for Your Holy Mother, the Virgin Mary, and for Saint Joseph, Your chosen Just One, and through the wound of Your LEFT FOOT, to grant us Your Grace so we may live and die with it.

Amen.

O Christ, the only-begotten Son, on this day you chose to sit among the invited guests, enriching them with the abundance of your divine gifts. As your disciples believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, we also believe in you. In place of the old Law, you have given us your new Gospel, and instead of the fruit of the vine, you have quenched our thirst with the chalice of your redeeming blood.

During these forty days of Lent, may we meditate on the benefits of fasting and prayer. Through fasting and prayer souls are made pure, bodies are made chaste, spirits are uplifted, passions are restrained, mercy abounds, and the Holy Spirit dwells in the soul that was created to be the temple of God.

Jesus Christ our Lord, true High Priest, you called our father, Saint John Maron to the order of holy priesthood, ordained him a bishop, and then chose him as the first Patriarch of Antioch for our Maronite Church. Now make us worthy to remember him and to celebrate his glorious feast with prayers and hymns. With him we raise glory and thanks to you, to your Father, and to your Holy Spirit, now and for ever.