Lebanon: a “generator” of salvation for man and our Common Home arrives

The Monastery also suffers from this situation and the friars are forced to buy electricity from producers of private generators, who now have to face the lack of diesel and the exorbitant increase in its cost in the market, as well as the costs of maintenance of the machines themselves. Hence the idea of ​​resorting to renewable energy and launching an energy efficiency project for the entire facility, using new generation solar panels and boilers. “The work has already begun and it seems to be progressing well,” Father Maged Maroun, attorney general of the Antonian Maronite Order (OAM) before the Holy See and rector of the College of Saint Isaiah, told Vatican News and L’Osservatore Romano. In fact, the Order’s commissary has decided to assume 10% of the costs of the project, while the bulk of the financing has been assumed by Roaco, (Riunione Opere Aiuto Chiese Orientali), a body dependent on the Dicastery itself. “I have spent the last two weeks in Lebanon and I have spent a few days in the Mar Nohra monastery – continues Father Maroun – and I have been able to see with my own eyes that it is impossible to continue like this. For everyone, for the people who do not comes at the end of the month, for future generations and also for the friars.The idea of ​​this project arose for several reasons.First of all, to guarantee the mission of the monastery itself: I mean the religious mission, but also the pastoral and educational. In fact, the monastery currently welcomes both student monks during the diaconate year, as well as lay people for spiritual retreats or formation gatherings. And there is also an important school of iconography. They know that in the East iconography, icons, Icon writing, the theology behind iconographic art and the spirituality attached to it are really very important, and the monks are dedicated to the education and training of young people to convey the background to them. religious and ancestral of this country and of being a Christian. Finally, they have an agricultural activity, cultivating the land independently and feeding, according to an equally ancient practice, from the work of their hands. The monastery cannot live without water and electricity, so, given the drastic rationing applied by the State, we thought of an alternative energy source, to survive ourselves and so that the people who come to us for help, to learn, to pray, feel better. We want to set up a “salvation generator” for man and the environment, and the choice of renewable energy sources is the only possible one, in addition to being obligatory in itself, also because here, if there is something that is almost never lacking, dealing with of a predominantly Mediterranean climate, is sunlight”.

Vivir in connection

The OAM Attorney General reflects on the help that the Church is providing in this context of serious crisis and adds: “the Church, following the Social Doctrine, has always been close to the people, and it is spiritually but also materially. In Furthermore, in recent times, listening to the will of Pope Francis, clearly expressed in Laudato si’ and in Fratelli tutti, we are getting even closer and committing ourselves to issues such as the environment, which are no longer secondary issues. realized the importance of finding an energy that does not pollute, that does not harm the Planet, but that can improve the quality of life and respect for our Common Home. In addition to local churches and monasteries, public schools and universities also they try to obtain funds and means to produce clean and, therefore, sustainable energy”. As Christians, says Father Maroun, we cannot neglect the good and care of man in his entirety: “I speak of mental, spiritual but also material well-being, of his health, and today more than ever we are convinced that man can only be well in connection with Creation, with the House that God has granted you to inhabit and with all other animal and plant species. This is the idea of ​​Pope Francis and also of the entire Social Doctrine of the Church. There is no respect for the man with no respect for the Earth. Our monks have spent 300 years trying to spread this culture, which is not only for the benefit of Christians, but for the good of all. The Pope appeals to all men of good will. We all need breathe clean air, drink uncontaminated water, wash, eat and live with dignity. We all need a healthy environment, and if we continue to destroy or plunder nature, it will ask us to account. We see it with earthquakes, with natural catastrophes, we have seen it with the pandemic. So we continue a life, a monastic religious culture in this teaching, strong with the words of the Pope.”

Mar Nohra Monastery

solidity and subsidiarity

Reversing course, betting on another way of life, educating in the alliance between humanity and the environment, preaching and putting ecological conversion into practice, fostering creativity and the power of technology, the principle of the common good, are themes of Laudato si’ that emerge in this initiative of the monks. But other important themes mentioned in Francis’ encyclical are solidarity and subsidiarity, and Father Maroun insists on the latter concept and on the idea that everyone should be able to take responsibility for the healing processes of the society of which they are a part. . For this reason, the friars welcomed this energy efficiency project financed by the Maronite Order and, for the most part, by Roaco, a charitable organization dependent on the Dicastery for Oriental Churches, and for this reason those who have the means to help cannot throw themselves away. behind.

The mission of the monks

togetherto rewrite the future

During the general audience on September 23, 2020, the Pope said: “To get out of a crisis better, the principle of subsidiarity must be implemented, respecting the autonomy and initiative of everyone, especially the last. All parties of a body are necessary and, as Saint Paul says, those parts that might seem weaker and less important are actually the most necessary (cf. 1 Cor 12, 22).In the light of this image, we can say that the principle of subsidiarity allows each one to assume their own role for the care and destiny of society. Applying it, applying the principle of subsidiarity gives hope, gives hope for a healthier and more just future; and we build this future together, aspiring to bigger things, broadening our horizons. Either together or it doesn’t work. Either we work together to get out of the crisis, at all levels of society, or we will never get out. Getting out of the crisis does not mean giving a brushstroke of varnish z to current situations to make them seem a little fairer. Getting out of the crisis means changing, and true change is made by everyone, by all the people who make up the town. All professionals, all. And all together, all in community. If they don’t all do it, the result will be negative”. In Mar Nohra, therefore, a “little piece of the future” is being rewritten to alleviate the mistrust, frustration and fatigue that all Lebanese have suffered for too, too long. .