Superior General
Maronite Lebanese Order
Original Text
Most Holy Father,

Grace upon grace, this is what we ceaselessly receive from the fullness of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Saint John affirms in the prologue of his Gospel.

Grace upon grace, first of all, through Saint Charbel, the saint of Lebanon, whose intercession continues to enlighten souls and to pour upon the world the wonders of Heaven.

And here is yet another grace: your presence, Most Holy Father, in this sanctuary of silence and light, where you have come to pray before the tomb of this humble hermit, enflamed with love, the hermit who knew how to “seek God, listen to Him, praise Him, and invoke Him, day and night, in the secrecy of the heart,” according to your own words, Most Holy Father, addressed to the hermits of Italy on the 11th of October last.

During the Jubilee of Consecrated Life, celebrated at the Vatican on the 9th of October, and on the very feast of the canonization of Saint Charbel, you exhorted us, Most Holy Father, to widen the “asking,” the “seeking,” and the “knocking” of prayer and of life toward the eternal horizon that transcends the realities of this world, and to orient them toward the “unsetting Sunday.” On this blessed day, the grace of your presence makes that horizon almost tangible: it lifts our gaze toward Heaven and transforms our daily life into a foretaste of eternity.

Another grace, for history itself speaks to us today. In 1925, exactly one century ago, the Superior General of our Order, Abbot Ignace Dagher, presented to the successor of Peter, Pope Pius XI, at the Vatican, the cause for the beatification and canonization of Saint Charbel. And now, in 2025, one hundred years later, Your Holiness, successor of Peter, comes to bless with your presence this same monastery, thus sanctifying its memory and renewing its grace. Your visit will forever mark, along this same path, the history of this monastery and of our Order. 

And because grace, as Saint Augustine tells us, is “given freely,” “granted as a gift and not as a reward,” I express to you, Most Holy Father, on behalf of the Maronite Lebanese Order, our deepest and inexhaustible thanks, our immeasurable gratitude, and our unwavering filial devotion.

As I rejoice at the presence among us of His Excellency General Joseph Aoun, President of the Republic, and of the First Lady, I bid Your Holiness welcome to Annaya, humbly asking you to receive, on behalf of the entire Order, the assurance of our unconditional obedience, our constant prayers, and our most devoted filial sentiments.

In Christ. Thank you.