ARTICLES

The Meaning of Our Shrine

Marian Shrine at the Center of Thriving Maronite Parish

BY ANNE KNIGHT

As Saint Ephrem's Maronite Catholic Church in El Cajon celebrated its second annual Mariam Mother of Life Festival on the weekend of May 29-31, its pastor, Father Nabil Mouannes, reflected on several recent developments in the parish. The festival dates coincided with Pentecost this year and thus, said Father Mouannes, the release of white doves at the opening ceremony by Maronite Bishop Robert Shaheen and Monsignor Fred Florek, pastor of St. Therese Church, had added significance, since a white dove can symbolize the Holy Spirit as well as peace.

Father Mouannes was pleased by this year's increased attendance at the festival's liturgical events and spiritual talks, as well as the participation of the local Syriac Orthodox and other Eastern Catholic communities, including Melkite Father George Bisharat and Chaldean Bishop Sarhad Jammo, each of which celebrated liturgies at the festival. "Many people from many denominations were there to represent all the different people present at Pentecost," Father Mouannes observed.

During the past few years Saint Ephrem's has experienced significant growth in several areas of parish life, including its faith life, Father Mouannes reported. The 9:30 a.m. English liturgy started with about 10 regular attendees when the parish moved into its present facilities in 1999 and now averages over 50 attendees. Saint Ephrem's Academy opened with 20 students in 2000 and now has 50. Attendance is steadily increasing at its weekly Bible study, started several months ago and led by Naji Mouawad. Three new apostolates are being formed and a monthly healing Mass has been started very recently. Next summer the parish will host a major Maronite convention.

The parish's Mariam Mother of Life Shrine was opened at last year's festival of the same name and is nearing completion. In March, sculptures depicting the glorious and sorrowful mysteries of the rosary arrived from Lebanon. They are slated for installation in the shrine. The remaining mysteries as well as a few other finishing touches remain to be done. Last spring, the Our Father and Hail Mary, in Aramaic transliterated into the Latin alphabet, were engraved into the shrine close to the feet of the temporary statue of the Virgin Mary. Father Mouannes estimates that the permanent, significantly larger statue of Mary holding the Infant Jesus, now being sculpted in Lebanon, will arrive by the end of the year.

He recalled lines spoken by Mary to Jesus on the cross in the film The Passion of the Christ: "Flesh from my flesh" and "heart from my heart." "That's the meaning of our shrine: the Virgin Mary is holding Jesus on the left side, on the side of her heart," he explained. "The main idea was to show that Jesus is in the heart of Mary and in the heart of Mary you can find Jesus, and that they suffered together the way of the cross and offered their suffering to God the Father. The sculptor shows this very well. All of us are called to come and visit and convert our life to the hearts of Jesus and Mary and to consecrate our families, our children, the newborn, and the unborn to the Virgin Mary and the heart of Jesus."

The shrine's impact on the parish has been enormous. "We had a conversion in our parish life," Father Mouannes said. "When we used to invite people for prayers, we could find one or two. Now they come in numbers. When we used to try to do any procession, we used to be one or two; now they come in numbers, with faith and enthusiasm.... The shrine has become like a sign of evangelization to all people. It's like we were lost before; now we found a shepherd and we found a mother. We found a merciful God.... We feel Mary's presence in a very deep way, in many signs and many miracles that have already been done among our people. Some of them were very far away from the Lord; sometimes they were even in other religions and they are coming back, without any proselytism."

The shrine is now used for many activities, such as processions during the Mariam festival and other Marian festivities and special occasions. During the annual week of prayer for Christian unity in January, Saint Ephrem's hosted an ecumenical procession at the shrine with Bishop Cordileone, a Protestant former archbishop of Jerusalem and other Protestant, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox clergy. Father Mouannes added, "The shrine is now at the heart of the life of our school."

Two hallmarks of all of Saint Ephrem's undertakings are doctrinal orthodoxy and a strongly evangelistic spirit that reaches out not only to the Maronite community, but to all Catholics and the larger community. Father Mouannes emphasizes, for example, that the Bible study program relies on the teachings of the Catechism and the Church Fathers, so that Catholics will learn to interpret the Bible "as the Church wants us to interpret it."

A new parish apostolate in English that is open to all Catholic women, is the Sorority of the Immaculate Conception. It promotes the rosary and other forms of Marian spirituality. Saint Ephrem's youth group has launched the Missionaries of the Mariam Mother of Life Shrine. Its members will make bi-weekly visits to homes of parishioners to pray with them, offer a book of prayer for families and encourage ongoing prayer in the family. They hope to expand beyond the parish's borders. Anyone can request a home visit by the Missionaries by contacting Saint Ephrem's.

Another parish group dedicated to the shrine will be daily commuters who commit to praying the rosary while they drive -- either with other people in the car or by listening to a rosary recording if alone -- for all persons that they pass on the road, for their conversion and for their peace and good will. At his liturgy during the Mariam festival, Bishop Shaheen consecrated the new members of the Missionaries of the Shrine, wearing specially blessed blue robes they will wear on their visits, and the Sorority of the Immaculate Conception.

The third component of the Missionaries that Saint Ephrem's is launching is an apostolate in which at least one person per day would pray the rosary at or near the shrine. "It is a very big mission; our community cannot do it alone. Our main intention is to offer the rosary for the unborn babies ... and for the girls and boys so that they will not go through with this 'choice' [abortion]."

This apostolate began with a rosary at Saint Ephrem's on June 10. Another new development at Saint Ephrem's is a healing Mass offered on first Saturdays, in honor of Saint Charbel, an important Maronite saint. "Saint Charbel is a worker of miracles through Jesus Christ. His miracles are spread all over the world," Father Mouannes explained. "He's very well known in Mexico and Canada and we want him to be very well known also in the U.S."

This year Saint Ephrem's Academy began to teach Aramaic, in addition to the Arabic, Latin and French already taught there. Students attend Mass each morning at 8 a.m. and the Mass incorporates English, Latin and Aramaic. "This year, the students of our school, like last year, won all the prizes of a nationwide contest open to Maronite youth to promote vocations," Father Mouannes announced proudly. "We're seeking excellence in teaching, but also we're seeking deep practice of our faith. We try to implement orthodox Catholic teaching."

Consequently, he said, academy teachers "need to have a strong foundation in orthodox Catholic faith." With five teachers now on staff, the academy is seeking to hire additional teachers for the upcoming school year.

Also being celebrated at Saint Ephrem's these days is the May 16th canonization of Nimatullah Al-Hardini, a 19th-century priest of the Lebanese Maronite Order whom the Holy Father had beatified in 1998. About 10 people from San Diego attended Saint Hardini's canonization ceremony in Rome. "I saw a pope great even with his suffering, a holy pope giving us hope and strength through Hardini," Father Mouannes recalled.

Mouannes was touched by the Holy Father saying "Peace be with you" in Arabic and the chanting of the gospel in Arabic during the Mass.

Father Mouannes expressed gratitude to "all of the people around us, Our Lady of Grace parish and to the diocese, for accepting us here in San Diego and now we offer them back the shrine.... She who is full of grace is available for your needs and our parish is also an open door."

Contact St. Ephrem's Maronite Church, 750 Medford St., El Cajon, CA 92020, 619-337-1350, www.stephrem.org.

TOP