Lebanon: The providential and maternal protection of Mary

On June 9, 2019, the feast of Pentecost, Patriarch Ria, the head of the Maronite Church in Lebanon, renewed the consecration of Lebanon and the Middle East to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, an annual pronouncement started in 2013, upon the recommendation of the 2010 synod of bishops during the pontificate of Benedict XVI.

"We have seen the fruits of this consecration," he said, "whenever Lebanon reaches the edge of the abyss on the political, security or economy level, the invisible hand of the Virgin protects us and prevents the fall."

The patriarch went on to mention some positive developments in the Middle East, which he perceives as being the benefits of Mary's providential maternal protection: the fact that Iraq did not break out into three states, that Mosul and the plain of Nineveh were finally taken back from ISIS, and that Syria escaped dismemberment. He encourages the people of the region to turn to the Virgin Mary to defeat "the world conflicts that aim to disperse them, destroy their identity, change their history, turn them into beggars and place them in a position of hostility with their host countries."

On Saturday, at the end of the annual retreat of the Maronite synod, Bishop Rai presided over the ceremony of making and consecrating the holy Myron (Chrism), with all the Maronite bishops of the world gathered in Lebanon. Normally held on Holy Thursday, this ceremony was delayed until the synod of all Maronite bishops.

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