Beloved Parishioners and Friends of St. Maron,

Peace and grace to you with the hope that you are in good health. I hope that you had the chance to enjoy the beautiful autumn season that brought us much beauty with colors. With the first Sunday of November, we enter into the new Liturgical Year as we relive our Christian journey focusing on the Birth, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, Coming of the Holy Spirit, and Second Coming of our Lord Jesus. I pray that this new Liturgical Year will bring you closer to Jesus, our Savior.

At the end of the month we celebrate Thanksgiving, as we give thanks to God for all the blessings that He bestows upon us, thanking Him for the abundance of food, health, faith and family. We thank Him for this great nation that we are living in where we enjoy our freedom and democracy. The first week of this month, all of us Americans will have the golden opportunity to exercise our freedom and rights of voting as we elect leaders to serve our country. It is a sacred duty to participate in this process and to practice our democracy.

Catholics have a great responsibility to make a difference in politics as well as to shape the policies and the future of our country by putting our faith into action. Let us also pray that our leaders will use their talents and energy to serve the people and to safeguard this great country that is an inspiration to others who are struggling to obtain freedom in their countries.

I extend my sincerest thanks and appreciation to all those who have helped in the drive for Lebanon. Many of you were very generous in giving clothes, school supplies, and other items, besides the monetary donations that you gave. May the Lord God reward you with health and peace.

I urge all parents please to make extra efforts to keep your children connected to their faith and connected to the religious education program, as well as to bring them to church, safely, by practicing clean hygiene and social distancing. I hope that the Corona pandemic will slow down soon or disappear so that we can return back to our normal life. Meanwhile, you and I are called to be patient, to focus on the positive aspects in life, and to keep walking in the light and toward the Light who is Jesus our God.

I assure you of my prayers and ask you please to keep me in yours.

Please feel free to call upon me if I can be of any help.

With prayers and best wishes, I remain,

Devotedly yours,

Chorbishop sharbel Maroun

A 15-year-old Italian computer whiz, who died of leukemia in 2006, moved a step closer to possible sainthood Saturday October 10, 2020, with his beatification in the town of Assisi, where he is buried. Carlo Acutis is the youngest contemporary person to be beatified, a path taken by two Portuguese shepherd children living in the early 1900s, who were proclaimed Catholic saints in 2017.

Already touted as the "patron saint of the internet," Acutis created a website to document and catalog Eucharistic miracles and took care of websites for some local Catholic organizations. "Carlos used the internet in service of the Gospel, to reach as many people as possible," Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the papal legate for the Assisi basilicas said during his homily, adding that the teen saw the web “as a place to use with responsibility, without becoming enslaved.�

He was put on the road to sainthood after Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to Acutis: The healing of a 7-year-old Brazilian boy from a rare pancreatic disorder after coming into contact with an Acutis relic, a piece of one of his T-shirts. Another verified miracle is necessary for sainthood, although Pope Francis has waived that on rare occasions.

Acutis was buried in Assisi at his own request, having become an admirer of St. Francis of Assisi for his dedication to the poor. The Umbrian town was one of his favorite travel destinations. His body as been on display for veneration before his beatification in a sanctuary in the town, and his heart will be displayed in a reliquary in the St. Francis Basilica.