The icon of the Holy Family of Divine Will of Unity and Peace is being taken around Lebanon and will be taken to Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan. The icon is inlaid with relics from the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel. (CNS photo/Episcopal Committee of Justice and Peace of the Council of Catholic Patriarchs of the Middle East)
BEIRUT — The pilgrimage of the icon of the Holy Family of Divine Will of Unity and Peace has begun. The icon, written by Melkite Father Samir Rouhana of St. Elias Parish near Haifa, Israel, will be in Lebanon for a month. The icon of the Holy Family is inlaid with relics from the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel. It was blessed and consecrated there by Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, June 27, the day in which the Middle East was consecrated to the Holy Family. Simultaneously June 27, patriarchs and bishops in the Middle East also celebrated Mass for peace in what will be an annual tradition on the last Sunday in June. The icon will be taken to Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan. It will then be returned to the Holy Land and be taken to the Vatican for the closing Mass celebrated for the year of St. Joseph Dec. 8. From there it will be returned to the Holy Land. “We receive this icon in Lebanon with joy ... knowing how much this small country has been suffering for years,” Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan, celebrating the first Mass in Lebanon with the icon, said July 31 in his homily from the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Annunciation in Beirut. Noting that Lebanon “is going through the most dangerous stages today,” Patriarch Younan stressed that “more than ever before, it needs the blessings of the Holy Family. ... “We resort to the Holy Family and place under their feet our pain, anxiety, weakness and hopes.”
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