Harmonie sacrée : de la famille maronite et de la foi dans la tradition maronite

Abstract

The study of Syriac liturgy and the families of Lebanese saints highlights the profound spiritual influence of the Maronite Church on family life, calling for a renewed pastoral vision aimed at building “parishes of sacred families.” It shows how the close bond between the Maronite Church and village families, shaped by the ascetic spirituality of hermits, fostered a domestic life grounded in prayer, fasting, sacrifice, Scripture reading, and Christian virtues. This heritage, rooted in the early Christians of Antioch, enabled the sustained transmission of Christian values through an asceticism shared by both clergy and laity. The flourishing of saintly vocations thus appears as the fruit of a deep fusion between family and parish. In the face of today’s culture of confusion and individualism, Maronite liturgy educates families by cultivating a theology of love and joy within marriage, strengthening responsibility and mutual sharing. Inspired by the Holy Family of Nazareth, the Maronite family, in close union with the Mother Church, becomes a place of sanctification where the human person is renewed as a temple of the Holy Spirit, and where wise mothers give rise to saints.