(Note: I love this Saint very much. I have prayed, to him, since the early 1980′s.

Saint Charbel Makhlouf was a Maronite Priest and Hermit. He prepared for Mass all morning, and at Noon he Celebrated Mass. All afternoon, he thanked God for the Holy Sacrifice of The Mass. I think that was so awesome! To recognize the Solemnity of Every Mass! Saint Charbel Makhlouf, pray for us. Thank you! Amen.)

Sunday 24 July 2011

17th Sunday of the year

St Charbel Makhlouf (1828 – 1898)

He was born in the Lebanon, the son of a mule-driver, and brought up by his uncle, who did not approve of his devotion to prayer and solitude. He would go secretly to the monastery of St Maron at Annaya, and eventually became a Maronite monk and was ordained priest. After being a monk for many years, he was drawn to a closer imitation of the Desert Fathers and became a hermit.
At his hermitage he lived a severely ascetic life with much prayer and fasting. He refused to touch money and considered himself the servant of anyone who came to stay in the three other cells that the hermitage possessed. He spent the last 23 years of his life there, and increasing numbers of people would come to receive his counsel or his blessing.