My Dear Mission Spiritual Family, Volunteers, Donors, Contributors, and all Friends of the Mission of Hope and Mercy,
Good holy evening.
Before tonight’s special episode begins, I will pause for a brief pastoral reflection and prayer following the painful acts of desecration at the Marian pilgrimage site of Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
An image of Our Lady on Apparition Hill was defaced, and the outdoor altar of St. James Church was damaged by fire. In response, the Medjugorje parish has called the faithful not to repay evil with evil, but to answer through prayer, fasting, forgiveness, conversion, love, and hope.
The Virgin Mary is honored at Medjugorje as Our Lady, Queen of Peace. We will therefore begin by entrusting Medjugorje, its parish and pilgrims, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon, persecuted Christians, and the whole suffering world to her maternal intercession.
Our response to darkness cannot be hatred.
We take up the spiritual weapons Christ has entrusted to His Church: the Holy Rosary, the Holy Eucharist, Sacred Scripture, fasting, confession, forgiveness, truth, and works of mercy.
The Rosary is not a weapon against human beings. It is a spiritual weapon against pride, deception, hatred, division, discouragement, despair, and the works of darkness. Through its mysteries, the Rosary fills our hearts with the life, Passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and teaches us the humility, obedience, perseverance, and peace of the Virgin Mary.
We Begin with “Gridiamo Maria”
Following this prayer for Medjugorje, the complete special episode of IRREVOCABLE with Fr. Andre will begin as planned with a Marian offering:
“Gridiamo Maria—Let Us Cry Out: Mary”
I recorded this Italian Marian hymn with Gracia Maria, with English subtitles and words inspired by the Marian spirituality of Blessed Patriarch Elias Peter Hoayek.
This hymn belongs at the beginning of the program because tonight’s episode is prayer before it is commentary.
It connects the maternal protection of Mary, the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon at Harissa, the suffering of Lebanon, the call to peace, and the Mission’s own consecration to Our Lady of Hope.
Watch “Gridiamo Maria” with English subtitles
The Shepherd Who Fed a Nation
Following his beatification in Dimane, the Church has placed Blessed Elias Hoayek before us as a shepherd whose holiness entered history.
He was a man of profound devotion to the Holy Eucharist, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Virgin Mary. Yet his devotion did not remain confined to private prayer.
From the Eucharist, he went to the hungry.
From devotion to the Sacred Heart, he learned that authority must become sacrificial love.
From his love for Mary, he helped give Lebanon its great national Marian shrine at Harissa.
From his pastoral office, he defended the poor, educated children, welcomed the displaced, protected the persecuted, and helped secure the future of Lebanon.
During the catastrophe of the First World War and the Great Famine, Blessed Elias opened the resources of the Church to suffering families. Monasteries and convents became places of refuge. He sought assistance through the Lebanese diaspora and international contacts. He refused to allow helplessness to become an excuse for indifference.
For many, he is remembered as the Father of Greater Lebanon.
But he is also remembered by the people as:
The Patriarch of the Poor and the Oppressed.
His cross was not an ornament.
It was a promise.
His authority did not separate him from the suffering of his people. It bound him more deeply to them.
The Grain, the Stone, and the Water
Tonight’s episode is also deeply personal.
I will share the family testimony entrusted to me by my father concerning my grandfather and great-grandfather during the famine.
My grandfather was still a small child. He traveled with his father along the mountain roads as grain distributed through Patriarch Elias Hoayek was carried secretly into suffering villages.
When they encountered someone collapsing from starvation, my great-grandfather would take a few grains of wheat and crush them upon a stone so that they might become soft enough for the dying person to swallow.
My young grandfather carried the water.
Consider the path of mercy:
From the concern of a patriarch,
to a bag of grain,
to the hands of a village leader,
to a stone beside the road,
to a child carrying water,
to the mouth of a dying human being.
Mercy has a chain of transmission.
The patriarch could not personally reach every suffering person. But he awakened conscience, gathered resources, entrusted others, and sent them.
My grandfather was only a child.
But even a child could carry water.
How This Inheritance Formed the Mission
I will also share how Blessed Elias Hoayek’s spiritual inheritance entered my childhood through the Maronite Sisters of the Holy Family, the congregation he founded.
During the years of war and hardship, the sisters taught us never to waste food while another child remained hungry.
They taught us that the poor child was not a stranger outside the gates.
The poor child was sitting beside us.
They formed more than our minds. They formed our hands, our habits, and our consciences.
Those lessons remained within me and later helped inspire the Apostolate of Our Lady of Hope–St. Rafka Mission of Hope and Mercy and its continuing works of:
prayer, food assistance, medicine, educational support, rent and emergency assistance, advocacy for persecuted Christians, religious freedom, Christian unity, and service to vulnerable families.
Every Mission food box says:
You are not forgotten.
Every medicine says:
Your suffering matters.
Every tuition payment says to a child:
Poverty will not have the final word over your vocation.
Every prayer says to a family:
You are remembered before God.
And every gift entrusted to the Mission becomes part of the continuing chain of mercy.
A Question for the Church—and for Each of Us
The beatification of Blessed Elias Hoayek is a great joy, but it is also an examination of conscience.
Can the poor still enter our schools?
Can the sick receive care in our hospitals?
Do our institutions exist to serve the dignity and salvation of people?
Does authority remain service?
Can love of country become dialogue, sovereignty, religious freedom, responsibility, and peace—without becoming hatred of one’s neighbor?
Can the wounds of war, persecution, betrayal, and injustice become service rather than bitterness?
And will each one of us place what we possess into the chain of mercy?
The central message of tonight’s episode is:
Holiness enters history when the Eucharist becomes bread, authority becomes service, and memory becomes mission.
Please Join Me Tonight
Please gather your family, light a candle, and join me for this special presentation of IRREVOCABLE with Fr. Andre.
Please share the broadcast link with your family, friends, parish community, prayer group, and all who love the Virgin Mary, Lebanon, the Maronite Church, religious freedom, and the Church’s mission among the poor.
WATCH LIVE TONIGHT AT 7:30 P.M. MOUNTAIN TIME
To learn more about the Mission, submit prayer intentions, or support our continuing service, browse this website.
Those who cannot contribute financially are never excluded from this spiritual family.
Carry water.
Pray for one family.
Share one truthful story.
Open one door.
Invite one person to become an Apostle of Hope and Mercy.
The chain of mercy needs every faithful hand.
Our Lady, Queen of Peace, pray for Medjugorje and for the whole world.
Our Lady of Lebanon, pray for Lebanon.
Blessed Elias Hoayek, pray for us.
Our Lady of Hope, pray for us.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
United in Christ as Apostles of Hope and Mercy, I leave you with the Blessings of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, and the Intercession of Saints Charbel and Saint Rafka. Through Prayer we shall always be united in holy hope and divine Mercy! May God bless us all.
In Christ,
Fr. Andre Y. Sebastian Mahanna
President
Apostolate of Our Lady of Hope–St. Rafka Mission of Hope and Mercy
