Most Catholics have Ash Wednesday on their radar as the calendar flips to February and nears this year’s start of Lent on Feb. 14.
But some are thinking about Ash Monday. This is the official start of Lent for Maronite Catholics. Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun, pastor of St. Maron in northeast Minneapolis, joined producer Kayla Mayer on the “Practicing Catholic” radio show to talk about how Maronite Catholics observe Lent.
“For us Maronites, it’s a journey that leads us to the harbor of safety, which is the Lord Jesus himself,” he explained. “We begin our Lent on Ash Monday. … We have two extra days of fasting because maybe we need them more than the Roman Catholics and the rest of the Church.”
He was joking on that last point. Similar to Roman Catholics, Maronite Catholics embrace the threefold practice of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. They call the entire season of Lent the “great Lent,” and refer to Holy Week as the “Week of Passion, the great week,” he said.
The Week of Passion begins with Hosanna Sunday, which Roman Catholics know as Palm Sunday. Beginning on this day, the Maronite tradition differs from the Roman tradition.
“In the evening (on Hosanna Sunday), the people gather outside the church, and then there’s a knock at the door — open the door to your door of mercy,” Chorbishop Maroun said. “We are knocking at Jesus’ door to open for us the doors, and after three times of knocking, the door is opened. And then people come into the church with candles in their hands.”
Holy Week continues the next day and on through the week with services every day at the church. Wednesday is known as the Wednesday of Job, which links the suffering of Job to the suffering of Jesus. Powerful symbols are the seven candles, which represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Also part of the Wednesday service is the blessing of oil and anointing the people with the blessed oil “as a symbol of healing,” Chorbishop Maroun said.
Finally, there’s the Triduum, with Holy Thursday resembling that which is practiced in the Roman Catholic tradition. Good Friday is called Great Friday in the Maronite tradition. “It’s the greatest day of the year,” Chorbishop Maroun explained, “because Jesus paid the full price of salvation for us.”
There are services throughout that day, culminating in a ritual resembling a funeral in the Holy Land, he said. “Jesus is taken down from the cross — the corpse — and then carried around the church three times.”
After that, it is placed in a tomb, along with the cross. Both remain there until Easter Sunday, when the tomb is opened during the Rite of Peace. Also, there is a procession that goes around the block, weather permitting. A similar procession takes place on Hosanna Sunday.
He also noted another tradition in which Catholics visit seven churches in northeast Minneapolis on Holy Thursday, because all seven are within walking distance of each other.
To hear more about the Maronite traditions during Lent, and examples of beautiful prayers spoken and sung during Lenten services, listen to “Practicing Catholic” when it airs at 9 p.m. Feb. 2 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, or when it repeats at 1 p.m. Feb. 3 and 2 p.m. Feb. 4.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes discussions with Pam McSweeney of St. John the Baptist School in Savage who talks about Catholic Schools Week and the importance of faith in the classroom, and with a local Catholic photographer and videographer, Neal Abbott, who talks about the good, the true and the beautiful that can be found everywhere..
Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
