Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Amanda and Anthony Sloan via phone call on March 31st, 2025. Some of the questions have been rearranged and edited to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.
Tell your faith journey as a married couple.
Amanda: On my first date, I learned that Anthony was Maronite Rite. He invited me to this liturgy. We opted to go to a Roman Rite for our marriage. We wanted to get married in a Maronite church but the priest was out of town the weekend we were going to get married.
Anthony: Baptism is a separate Sacrament from Chrismation. Most kids receive both Sacraments from a young age. I am learning more and more about the Maronite Rite as an adult. For me, growing up my father was Roman Catholic and my mother was Maronite. Once I went to college and left the state, I went to a Roman Catholic liturgy due to there not being a close Maronite parish. About ten years ago I started receiving more access to the Maronite liturgy. And around four years later when we moved to South Carolina there was a Maronite church close by and my faith became alive in a way that was incredible.
Growing up my family would do a mix of the two liturgical calendars. So for when I got reacquainted with the Maronite Rite in the weeks leading up to Christmas we don’t have Advent. It’s the Season of Announcement.
Amanda: It’s six weeks long and the color is blue. Blue is related to Mary and you are traveling with her this season.
Anthony: It’s like a journey with Mary. So many of the Maronite hymns and songs are connected to Mary. In these ancient hymns we hear her voice and see things through her eyes.
Who are your favorite feast days and sacred art?
Anthony: Saint Charbel (Maronite). My favorite sacred art piece is “Saint Charbel” by Heart of IVSUS.
Amanda: Our Lady of Guadalupe (Roman), Commemoration of the Righteous and the Just (Maronite – its basically the equivalent of All Saints Day, but there is more emphasis on souls that haven’t necessarily been canonized yet). And my favorite sacred art is “Pentecost” by Jean Restout the Younger.
What’s another major difference between Roman and Maronite?
Amanda: Maronites have more Holy Days of Obligation. All of Holy Week is its own season. There’s more different liturgies during Holy Week, there’s a burial of Christ liturgy.
Anthony: There’s a coffin that the congregation brings to the parish and roses are put into the coffin. If there’s a corpus to come off the crucifix or a crucifix is placed in the coffin. Usually four strong men from the parish carry the coffin around the church. There’s these songs of mourning. More of the hymns are in Arabic. In my opinion, one of the most powerful days is Good Friday.
And the “Holy Saturday” which in the Maronite tradition is referred to as the “Saturday of Light” there’s a ceremony that’s called the prayer of forgiveness and it celebrates the forgiveness won by the death of Jesus Christ. Parishioners are encouraged to go to confession ahead of time.
Wednesday of Job is the Wednesday of Holy Week. Since Job is a prefigurement of Christ, this day is a reminder that Christ willingly sacrificed himself for us like Job willingly suffered in the Old Testament.
What’s another difference between the two Rites in terms of structure?
Amanda: There are two eparchies in the United States. And these are like the equivalent of the diocese in the Roman Rite.
Are there particular feast days or celebrations that hold special significance in the Maronite?
Amanda: In terms of feasts, Saint Maron is a major feast on March 9.
Anthony: Probably the Season of the Glorious Birth of Our Lord.”
Amanda: Maronites are passionate about the names of their seasons There’s no Ordinary Time. And even with Lent it is called “Great Lent”.
Anthony: Which is interesting because in the Latin Rite, Ordinary Time is such a long period of time.
What challenges have you encountered as an inter-ritual family?
Amanda: I think when we moved here the transition to the Maronite liturgy was tougher because it was a bit longer than the Roman Rite. And the order of the liturgy is different.
Anthony: And on the flip, there’s a lot more music to the (Maronite) liturgy. There’s not a lot of variance with the patterns, but it has a depth. Even our two-year old was able to pick up on the hymns and sing at home. Our bishop mentioned in a homily that much of the Maronite hymns were written for a farming community. They were designed to be prayed/sung during the movement of the day and your work.
Amanda: And the tune is the same each week although the words of the hymns change each week.
How has being inter-rite enhanced your understanding of the universal Church?
Anthony: I love that our Church is so diverse. There’s so much beauty that while there’s different liturgies that we all adhere to the same core truths.
You experience that the same words/language Christ used at the Last Supper is the same in both rites. There’s so much depth to our Catholic Church and our faith!
Amanda: I would say that a broadening of understanding of liturgy occurred. Being able to experience the other lung of the Church as Pope Benedict XVI referred to it was so beautiful. There’s so many beautiful expressions of our faith we miss if we only see things one way. There’s a richness to our Catholic faith.
About Amanda and Anthony:
Amanda is a wife and mother to four daughters, and two more souls in Heaven. Channeling her years in parish ministry as well as her background in theology, Amanda is the Owner and Creative Director of Worthy of Agape, a Catholic business that aims to encourage families to become Saints together!
Anthony is a Maronite Catholic as well as a FOCUS Missionary. After moving to various campuses around the country, Anthony and his family now call South Carolina home, where they’ve been able to dive deeper into their Maronite roots. Anthony enjoys tending to their family chickens as well as spending time exploring with his wife and daughters.
