Have we not all the same God?

Have we not all the same God? Has not one God created us?
Why do we deal treacherously, a person against neighbor?

Justice shall you pursue, that you may live in your land.
If a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not wrong him/her.
The stranger that sojourns with you, shall be unto you as the native among you, and you shall love him/her as yourself. One law shall be among you for the native and the stranger alike.

If your neighbor becomes poor and his/her means fail, you shall uphold him/her.
Harden not your hearts to the needy in your midst, nor shut your hand to the needy; But open your hand unto him/her, and lend him/her sufficient for his/her needs.
Hate not your brother/sister in your heart; love your neighbour as yourself.

You shall deal your bread to the hungry, and bring the poor that are cast out to your house. When you see the naked, cover him/her, and hide not yourself from your own flesh.

You have given man/woman understanding and insight and have shown him/her what is good and evil. You have revealed unto him/her what is good; you have given him/her to choose between right and wrong.

You have given him/her a mind, that he might use hisher blessings wisely; a heart You have given him/her and free will that he/she might consider his/her ways and live according to Your will.

We are mindful of all the great gifts which You, O Lord, have given us; may we use them wisely that they may not be in vain. You have been told, o man/woman, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you; to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your healing shall spring forth speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the Glory of God shall be your protection.

Behold how good and how pleasant it is, when people dwell together in unity.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord's countenance shine upon you, and be gracious unto you.
May the Lord's blessing be upon you and give you peace. Amen

Dhikr for the Ascension Sunday (B)

“These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents (with their hands), and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." (Mark 16: 17-18)

What are the new signs that must accompany our following of Christ today?
• Is it FELLOWSHIP in his name – regardless of color, race, belief, language and gender?
• Is it our fellowship with the poor and the excluded?
• Is it our capacity to do the “extra mile” and to give away our extra coat as well?

Our "grounding" in the Cross... 

"Planted in the house of the Lord..."

Peace!
Simply sharing with you the passage that struck me while saying Psalm 92...

"Planted in the house of the Lord
they will flourish in the courts of our God,
still bearing fruit when they are old,
still full of sap, still green,
to proclaim that the Lors is just;
in him, my rock, there is no wrong."

This passage challenges us to remain ever fresh - 'continue to bear fruit and to feel still full of sap' - in our ministry nothwithstanding age and whatever conditions where we find ourselves...

The key is to ensure that we are, indeed, 'planted and rooted in the house of the Lord'.

"The Lord has abandoned us!"

People, sometimes, think: "the Lord has abandoned us! He has forgotten us" (Is. 49:14. And God answers with the words of the great prophet: "can a woman forget her own baby, and not love the child she bore? Even if a mother should forget her child, I will never forget you. I have written your name on the palms of my hands" (Is. 49: 15-16).

Yes, on the palms of the hands of Christ, pierced by the nails of the crucifixion. The name of each one of you is written on those palms.

Therefore, with full confidence we cry out: "the Lord is our help and our shield. In him do our hearts find joy. We trust in his Holy Name" (Ps. 28:7) Amen.
(Prayer of John Paul II duirnh his short visit in Khartoum on February 10, 1993 expressing his solidarity with the persecuted Christians in the Sudan.)

To love a person...

"To love someone," Fr. Vernier said, "is to reveal his beauty to him, to reveal to him that he is a person, that he is important, that he can do beautiful things with his life."

Love, Vanier continued, must not be only emotional. People must be loved "with intelligence to help them get up again," "to want to go beyond the walls, through the walls," "to reveal to those who have been crushed that they are of value."

"What I wish to transmit before I die is that life is beautiful if we are determined little by little to demolish the walls that separate us," he said.

According to the founder of L'Arche, we must be honest with ourselves and acknowledge an important truth: "I am not superior to you, I am not better than you, I am like you. I have my frailty, my limitations which, perhaps, I have often hidden; you have your limitations, perhaps more visible, but behind your limitations you are a person, your heart is."

"For the walls to disappear, for us to be able to be vulnerable to one another, to not let ourselves be led by competitiveness, for the world to find peace, we need a community of brothers and sisters of Jesus," he said.

Mother Theresa - Friend of Jesus and Friend of the Poor 

Friends of Jesus

In the Gospel for the 6th Sunday of Easter (B), Jesus calls us his friends...

“I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” (John 15: 15)

Among the many names given to the followers of Jesus, the title: “FRIENDS of Jesus” is, no doubt, the closest to the heart of discipleship.

Many people who have become "pilgrims" have cherished the call to be Jesus's FRIENDS and indeed, we are…!

The HEART of the matter…

Today, May 18, 2006, a passage from the Acts echoes the core of the Badaliyya movement… the heart of our solidarity with all believers…

“And God, who knows the heart, bore witness by granting them the Holy Spirit just as he did us. He made no distinction between us and them, for by faith he purified their hearts (Acts 15: 8-9)

Many spiritual masters and directors claim that Spiritual Life is a matter of the heart. These are some of the famous phrases that point to this reality:
• Being single-hearted…
• A clean/purified heart...
• The heart of the matter…
• Religion of the heart…
• God dwelling in the heart…

We invite our readers to add to the enumeration…

Dhikr for the 5th Sunday of Easter (B)

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you” (John 15: 7)

The challenge is to remain steadfast in the faith both in good times as well as in bad times… We have Jesus’ guarantee that our prayers will be heard...!

Sudan: "Passion for Christ, Passion for Humanity..."

In Southern Sudan, many catechists were martyred during the two decades of civil war and their blood became an oasis of strength as they begin to shape the destiny of the new Sudan.

The catechists, local clergy and missionaries accompanied the Christian community wherever they journeyed. All bear the marks of war - physically, psychologically and spiritually. "like malaria, it is already in our blood", a local priest said.

Following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005, this is a "kairos" moment for the new Sudan. It is the opportunity to put into effect the 5 R's of the CPA: Reconciliation, Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Repatriation and Re-education.

The prophet Isaiah captures this moment: "For now I create a new heaven and a new earth, and the past will not be remembered, and will come no more to the minds of people... No more will the sound of weeping or the sounds of cries be heard in her... they will build houses and inhabit them, plant vineyards and eat their fruit: (Isaiah 65: 17-25).

The exhausted feet from "Exodus" are now bent in prayer...as the new Southern Sudan shapes its destiny. 

Prayer for Peace

O Risen Lord,
Your breathe your Holy Spirit on us
and tell us: "Peace be yours".

Opening ourselves to your peace -
letting it penetrate the harsh and
rocky ground of our hearts -
means preparing ourselves to be
bearers of reconciliation
whereever you may place us.

But you know that at times
we are at a loss.

So come and lead us
to wait in silence,
to let a ray of hope shine forth
in our world. (Brother Roger, Taize)

n.b.
We ask our readers to participate in a special prayer
for peace in Sri Lanka, DR Congo and the Sudan.

Unity with the Divine...

The journey to God aims to arrive at communion/unity with God. Jesus in the Gospel tells us of his communion with the Father: "the Father and I are one" (John 10: 30).

When we embark on our journey to God's abode, we desire to arrive at this communion with God.

In the midst of the up's and down's, including perils and fears of the path, we are steadfast in our faith that Jesus accompanies us - all throughout the journey.

The Lamp in your Heart... 

Wisdom of Heart...

While reading this morning's Psalm 90, a sobering phrase has struck me. The phrase is "wisdom of heart". Here is the complete text...

"Make us know the shortness of our life
that we may gain wisdom of heart."

The challenge for us is to ask for that GRACE as we advance in years...

Dhikr for the 4th Sunday of Easter (B)

“I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep." (John 10: 14 - 15)

We are, indeed, called to become THAT GOOD SHEPHERD… with people entrusted to our care and service.

Three Challenges of Acting Justly…

The first challenge in our desire to act justly is to struggle to bring justice into society. Concretely, this means to make an “option for the poor”. This is not a matter of being biased against the rich or discriminating morally against them as we are, often, accused.

It is simply a question of recognizing the more than a century-old history of the Church’s social teachings, beginning with Rerum Novarum by Leo XIII in 1892. The rich and the powerful are well able to look for themselves and their own interests. The poor, however, need special protection from society and those in authority.

The second challenge is to recognize that we – Church people – are privileged in many ways. It is very difficult for people like us to break with the vested interests of our own class, our institutions, friends, associates and comfort zones.

The third challenge is a paradigm shift. There is the real need for a change of outlook – a change of heart, a conversion! There is the need for a new UNDERSTANDING of how our society and communities work – and particularly how they are structured in ways that favor certain groups – usually the rich and the powerful. Then there is the need for a PASSIONATE COMMITMENT to correct injustices, not just on an “ad hoc” basis but the will and the act to replace the unjust structures with ones that are equitable.

Acting and Living JUSTLY...

To act and live justly means much more than paying our debt and not staling from others. It means, above all, working to build a society that is just - a society in which the structures are just and the relationships of peoples are just. Some concrete examples are the following:

• Minorities are not discriminated;
• Migrants are respected;
• Women are not treated as second-class citizens;
• Wealth and labor are equitably distributed; and
• God’s creation is held as trust.

At the international level, the same kind of bias operates and as a result the poor countries lag behind further and further from the wealthy nations.

What God asks of us...

"This is what Yahweh asks of you, only this:
THAT YOU ACT JUSTLY,
THAT YOU LOVE TENDERLY,
THAT YOU WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD."
(Micah 6: 8)