The Maronite Liturgy is rooted in the Apostolic traditions of Jerusalem and Antioch and originally incorporated the Church’s earliest liturgical forms, which is reflected in the fact that the Maronite Service of the Holy Mysteries contains the Church’s oldest Eucharistic Prayer, Rome sent apostolic visitors to Lebanon between the 15th and 17th centuries to scrutinize Maronite liturgical texts, “in the period where they started to Latinize everything, “ father Mouannes explained. They ordered the Maronite to purge elements from their liturgy that they deemed heretical, and the Maronites complied, even when obliged to burn liturgical books. However, in doing so, some of the Church’s primordial liturgical practices were lost. “ That’s why, now, in our Mass, we have a lot of similarities with the Latin [Roman Rite] Church, “he pointed out.” We are Latinized more than the other ones [Eastern Rite Churches], because we searched for it. We wanted to show that now we are one with Rome, on hundred percent; we are with the rock. “The pre-Vatican II Maronite liturgy was in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus and Semitic peoples throughout the ancient Middle East. Eventually Aramaic was largely supplanted by Arabic and Persian. The post-Vatican II Maronite Liturgy is evenly divided between Syriac and Arabic. The Maronite Rite follows its own liturgical calendar, which incorporates some of the major feast days of the Roman Rite calendar. Since Vatican II the Eastern Catholic Churches have been encouraged to reform their liturgies in accordance with their earlier tradition. The Maronites made the first such reforms in 1992 and 1993.
Saint Ephrem’s offers a daily 11:30 a.m. Mass on weekdays. On Sundays its 11:00 a.m. Mass is in Arabic and Syriac and is usually accompanied by a large choir performing traditional Maronite hymns. The Sunday schedule also includes a 9:30 a.m. Mass largely in English, with key parts of the liturgy in Arabic and Syriac. In keeping with Eastern liturgical tradition, father Mouannes chants several parts of the Mass. A small choir provides musical accompaniment and hymns are selected largely from the traditional repertoires of the Maronite and Roman Rites. In both Masses worshippers hear the words of consecration spoken in Syriac, using the exact words spoken by Christ at the last Supper. The Saturday vigil Mass is at 5:30 p.m. and the sacrament of reconciliation is available on Saturdays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. or before any Mass. On the third Sunday of each month Saint Ephrem’s offers a French Mass for San Diego’s French Catholic community, a reminder of France’s significant role in Lebanese history.
In autumn 2000 the parish opened Saint Ephrem Academy, the first Maronite school in U.S. and Canada, thereby fulfilling father Mouannes’ vision of providing a solidly orthodox Catholic education for children. He credits divine intervention for his introduction to a group of Catholics pursuing the same vision for a school in the East Country. Michael Horvath, the group’s leader, was led to father Mouannes in 1999 by a priest friend of Horvath’s who knew of father Mouannes’ desire to start a school. They began praying together for the project’s outcome and obtained a conditional use permit from the City of El Cajon in April 2000. Horvath, now the Academy’s headmaster, holds a master’s degree in education, has extensive teaching experience and served as youth minister for nine years at Ascension Church. “The Academy is loyal to the Holy Father and the tradition of the Church,” he explained. “The philosophy of the school is the salvation of souls through excellence in education.” In its first academic year 20 students were enrolled; this year there are 30. The Academy promotes the traditional spirituality of the Eastern Catholic and Roman Rites and is open to students from both Rites in grades kindergarten through twelve. Students are required to wear uniforms.
Each school day starts with 8 a.m. Mass and students pray a decade of the rosary every hour on the hour. They pray the Stations of the Cross in the church each Friday. Horvath teaches religion to grades three and up, assists teachers as needed, performs administrative work and teaches physical education to grades kindergarten through two. Students are divided between two full-time instructors, one for kindergarten through second grade and the other for grades three and up. A part-time instructor teaches Arabic and French to students in grades kindergarten through six and French only to the older students. Another part-time instructor teaches math and science to older students. A parent volunteer teaches physical education to grades three and up. Families with students enrolled at the Academy are expected to attend Mass at Saint Ephrem’s at least once per month. Father Mouannes is the school’s spiritual director and provides instruction in Maronite spirituality. Saint Ephrem’s also sponsors an Arabic language course for children at the parish on Saturday mornings.
Father Mouannes was born into a family of six children near Beirut, Lebanon on February 11, 1958, the centennial of the first apparition of our Lady of Lourdes. Since early childhood he has had a strong personal devotion to Mary which reflects Maronite spirituality’s profound trust in the blessed Mother’s maternal intercession and solicitude in all circumstances. As a young man he narrowly escaped death three times and believes she saved his life. Civil war was raging when father Mouannes was in seminary and, at times, his classes were interrupted by bombs falling nearby. He asserted that, although the Western news media often depicted the war in Lebanon as a Christian persecution of Moslems, the reality was different. When Palestinian refugees began entering Lebanon from Jordan in the early 1970s, “We opened our doors for them… as we opened our doors for all the persecuted people in the Middle East… We opened our homes and our monasteries for them, even the Moslems, and we even offered them land. That’s why all Palestinian camps [in Lebanon] are on Maronite Church land. “The large influx of Palestinians upset Lebanon’s delicate balance between Christians and Muslims and Lebanon’s policy of noninvolvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict polarized the nation. The ensuring civil war was between a Moslem coalition allied with Palestinian guerrilla groups and Christian militias.
For the previous thirty years, Lebanon had experienced relatively peaceful Christian-Moslem coexistence and acculturation, and there were many conversions to Christianity. Father Mouannes believes these trends alarmed Islamic fundamentalists outside of Lebanon and speculates that they exploited the Lebanese political situation to bring about a war to halt the process: “They used the Palestinians; they used all the factions…. As a tool to stop this very big acculturation. “When the war began most Christians were unarmed, while the Palestinians were heavily armed. Father Mouannes recalled that, during the war, at the seminary, “We were never taught by our theologians or professors to have any hate or any discrimination. They never gave us any interpretations of any answers that could help us or lead us to go to war ……. On the other side, you could hear people saying, ‘Go out, kill them!”
Maronite leaders did much soul searching regarding the proper Christian response to the war, Father Mouannes related, and he confesses that he was repeatedly amazed by the restraint they displayed in the face of raw aggression. Eventually they consulted Pope Paul VI, how advised them that they needed to defend themselves and resist evil. Given this scenario, Father Mouannes commented on the irony of the Western press depicting the Lebanese Christians as merciless killers. He asserted that, when Palestinian and Muslim forces engaged in hostilities against Lebanese Christians, the Western powers showed little concern; “only the Pope was talking about it.” Father Mouannes acknowledged that atrocities were committed by Christians against Moslems during the Lebanese war, but stated that they were frequently reprisals for atrocities first committed by Moslems against Christians, circumstances which were frequently unreported by Western news sources.
A year after his ordination in Lebanon in 1984, Father Mouannes was sent to Europe to continue his studies. After studying at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and the Catholic Institute of Paris, he received a degree in anthropology at the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1990. He earned a doctorate in religious philosophy from the Sorbonne in 1996 and hopes to have his doctoral thesis translated from French to English. He has authored seven books in theology and spirituality, five of which are published, and has had numerous articles on theology, spirituality, political philosophy, the Middle East, Lebanon and Maronite history published in several periodicals in various countries. In 1999 he brought his parents to live with him in the house adjoining the parish, where they are frequently visited by his two siblings and their families who live in the San Diego area.
The prevailing spirit at Saint Ephrem’s is evident in Father Mouannes’ assessment of the parish’s progress: “From the beginning, when I arrived here, and until now, everything that is happening with us [Saint Ephrem’s] is because of her [Mary] too; I have to say it. I was praying, asking her to help us and give us exactly what we need, and she sent me the right person at the right time, always.” Everything that Saint Ephrem has achieved, he said, has been “only by prayer.” For more information, contact Saint Ephrem Church, 750 Medford Street, El Cajon, CA 92020, phone 619-697-3040, e-mail frmouannes@stephrem.org or visit www.stephrem.org. |
