Listening to the words of Bishop Robert P. Deeley at St. Augustine Church in Augusta on June 25 were 52 married couples, sitting among an assembly that had gathered for the annual Silver & Gold Mass, a celebration of the gift of Christian marriage.

Cardinal Patriarch Moran Mor Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, the head of the Maronite Catholic Church, will preside over the Saturday evening liturgy at St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church, located on 3 Appleton Street in Waterville, on Saturday, June 25 at 4 p.m. A reception will be held following the Mass, and Bishop Robert P. Deeley will be present to welcome Cardinal al-Rahi to Maine. All are invited to gather for the Mass. The Maronite Catholic Church is the largest of the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches in the Middle East with around three million members, including nearly one million in Lebanon. The Maronite Church traces back to a community formed around St. Maron, a 4th century monk, receiving papal recognition in 518 A.D. The Maronite Church is in full communion with the Church of Rome and the Pope.

Family, friends, clergy, and fellow seminarians gathered at St. Anthony Monastery in Kennebunk on Saturday, June 4, to watch Anthony Cipolle, a seminarian of the Diocese of Portland, take an important step in his vocation journey: the Rite of Candidacy, in which he openly expressed his desire to be accepted as a candidate for the priesthood.