On Tuesday April 1, 2014, the relics of Saint Rafqa visited the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) and were welcomed by the University community and hundreds of the faithful, who all gathered to receive the blessing at the University Main Entrance.

Then, the relics were taken on a tour inside the University to the sacred beat of prayers and religious songs. A holy mass was celebrated afterwards, presided over by the Secretary General of the Lebanese Maronite Order (LMO) Rev. Fr. Claude Nadra, assisted by a group of priests from the Order within the Holy Spirit Church, in the presence of a monks, nuns, members of the University Council, professors, administrators, students, as well as a large crowd of the faithful.

After the holy Gospel, Fr. Nadra said in his exhortation: “In the Holy Lent period, the Church calls us to engage in a journey of repentance and renewal in the Holy Spirit…One hundred years passed since the death of Saint Rafqa; one hundred years and Rafqa is living in the Christ; she who fondly bore, during her entire life, the cross of our Lord and considered that the daily cross and death are a special gift from God and an expression of his love to her as ‘she asked him to give her a proof of his love by including her in his passion’. She received what she wanted.”

He added that “Rafqa is a proof of the Gospel of joy at a time when Pope Francis has invited us to discover the ‘Evangelli Gadium’ (Joy of the Gospel) which, by the Holy Spirit, transforms, for those who accept it, from a said and heard word to a living, active and present word. Here before Saint Rafqa, we find ourselves before a living biblical page and a loyal witness of the Lord and of his salvation.”