Wa Habbibi

Wa Habibi (O My Son)
English adap.: Fr. M. Labaky

Verse I
Wa habibi Wahabibi
Ayu Halen Anta Fyh
Mann Shajaka Mann Manaka
Ebnu Mann Haza Safih
Ya Habibi Ayu Zanben
Qad Sana'ta Awo Karyeh
Anta Majhudon Jarihon
Layssa Fihka Min Shifa
-Transliterated Arabic

Verse I
O my son om beloved
Se the plight love brings you to
what distress and What afliction
Wicked Men have laid on you!
O my Son , o what transgression
or what evil did you do
that you should be vexed and wounded
with no hope for any cure?

Verse II
Look on me daughter of Sion
Crushed beneath this might wave
anguish fills my very marrow
And it leads me to the grave
there is none to be a friend now
and this angry mob to brave
comming forward to console me
for the suff'ring I endure.

Verse III
I was bound and I was beaten
Like the meanest renegade
I was taken like an outlaw
and with whips to blood was flayed
for your sake I bore this anguish
that your joy be unallayed
so be hold my sad condition
have you seen travail so pure!

During the Great Friday service, me and my new friend Andrew were asked to help carry the cloth ,containing the wooden corpus of Our Lord, in procession around the church and to hold it over the heads of the people as they walked under it after the procession. Sadly I am not strong and was unable to hold it over the people's heads so I had to switch off with another parishoner : ( . The service ended with the burial of Our Lord's corpus in a tomb, covered by the chalice veil to represent that the Altar is the tomb in which Our Lord is buried in every Liturgy and then we sang the above song. The sermon was on the saving power of Christ's cross and that without Christ, the cross is a meaningless symbol. Likewise without Christ's death, His resurection is non existant, but similarly without the resurection, His death is meaningless as well.

Great Friday of the Crucifixion blogpost

Today is the day in which we comemorate the crucifixion of Our Lord. So in the maronite church we celebrate the Anaphora of the Signing of the Chalice. Abouna told us today that the original Anaphora was lost in times past , but today they have reconstructed one using the Anaphora of Peter III (Sharrar). Sharrar is an anaphora that is very very similar to the the Anaphora of Addai and Mari of the Assyrio-Chaldean(east syrian) tradition, unlike the other Maronite anaphoras which are like the Syriac (west syrian) tradition. It was a very beautiful liturgy. I had attended one before two years ago, but Fr. Rudolph did not do it with nearly as much ceremony as Fr. Claude. Fr. Claude said the Qurbono facing the east, and used pre-consecreted leavened hosts from last night's Thursday of Mysteries.

Anyways this break has been pretty good. My cousin's ordination was a wonderful Mass celebrated (of course) by Archbishop Burke of St. Louis. I then went to sunday Mass at the Cathedral where Archishop Burke and the new deacons did the Palm Sunday Mass. I never knew Archbishop Burke wore the Dalmatic under his Chausable, so that was cool to see that. Monday I tried finding a shrine, couldn't though. I went to Cahokia mounds, an ancient Native American city that my grandfather had taken me as a small child. I then ate at the Dany Inn, an irish pub with amazing codfish sandwhich. I dropped in the St. Louis Catholic supply store, checked out the goods there. Came back to my aunt's house, then ate dinner at a restaurant(I forget the name). Next morning, me and my mom hit the road for home. The trip back was quite dangerous as it was pouring down rain all the way from St. Louis to Louisville , KY. Made it back safetly though. Weds. I went to St. Elias' and got some blessed bread dough after the service, then chilled at Waffle house with some friends. Thursday of the Mysteries, I went to a beautiful 2 hour long Qurbono in which Abouna used Leavened bread for the hosts (the ancient practice of the Maronites). He gave an excellent sermon on why Holy Thursday is really about all the Mysteries, but most importantly the priesthood. Then I stuck around for some adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. And now here I am typing this blog. Pretty exciting stuff. I also got to eat at a crepery (a crepe restuarant) in St. Louis. Excellent food! Grades need to be a little better, but other then that I am good in the department(or well good as long as I write these two papers for school before tuesday!) . Well I guess I don't have much else to say so, God bless.