Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, the Maronite Patriarch, presided over the celebratory Mass on the occasion of the Transfiguration Day, which was held this morning in the “Cedars of God” Forest in Bcharre. Several political, religious, and municipal figures as well as members of the “Friends of the Cedar Forest Committee” and a large gathering of believers attended.

“We are all called to the resurrection, through our anguish and the various challenges we are living through these days,” the Patriarch said in his homily. “We are the children of the resurrection and not of death.”

He deemed that the Resurrection of Chirst “is an affirmation for each of us that we are a community of hope,” and that “no matter the difficulties, we adhere to the Risen Jesus, the Master of History, who knows how to bring us out of the state of death to the beauty and hope of the resurrection.”

“Today we ask the Lord Jesus, on the day of His transfiguration, to strengthen our faith, and we ask Him to grant us the grace to overcome all the difficulties of life with the power of hope, and to continue our way, to find with Him alone the answer to all the questions and challenges of life, and to know how to read in the light of the Word all the signs of the times,” al-Rahi asserted.

He concluded by expressing his well-wishes on this glorious occasion, and raising prayers in glory to Christ “our Savior, our Light, our Life, our Way, the Truth and the Life.”