I came back this afternoon from a 24-hour retreat at the Maronite Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Petersham, MA. Eric Ewanco and I were there to attend the Holy Thursday and Good Friday services.
While there, I started translating a little prayer booklet by Fr. Jean Galot into English; it’s dedicated to the Sacred Heart, and here’s one of the prayers.
Lord Jesus, God of love incarnate
Since you have come into this world to reveal to us the love divine, help us to discover in the gospel this love which inspired all your actions.
Make us understand the deep significance of your words and your gestures, the intimate sentiments of affection that make you appear as the Good Teacher and the Good Shepherd.
Introduce us into the mystery of your heart, in this hidden sanctuary of your soul that forms an unceasing furnace of love.
When we shall have grasped, going through the gospel stories, this inexhaustible love that surfaces and manifests itself in your way of acting, teach us to find this same love in all our existence, since you continue to give yourself over to us by your presence and your blessings.
Under the light of the Holy Spirit, might we be able to believe more firmly in this love, which explains everything in your life and in ours, to attach ourselves more completely to your heart, and to entrust to it all our being!
–Jean Galot, S.J.
The monks’ new chapel is almost complete, and they’ve begun to use it. The colors are a little off in the photo I took; the wood of the walls, columns, and ceiling is lighter, but not really much different from the color of the wooden pews and choir stalls.
Did you like the Maronite Liturgy?? Is Father William Driscoll still superior??
Yes and yes! The community is about a dozen at Petersham, half of them priests, and they also have a daughter house (in Nova Scotia, IIRC).