Badaliya Session

Badaliya 002: Our monthly Badaliya session…

We began by reflecting on the foundations of the Badaliya in order to ground us in the spirit of its original intention. The Badaliya began with a vow made by Louis Massignon and Mary Kahil in an ancient Franciscan church to dedicate themselves to the well-being of the Muslim community. Since we are a small group it was reassuring to realize that the Badaliya began with only two.
The initial responses to the idea of a vow led us to begin to realize the seriousness of our endeavor. One person reminded us that all our vows are essentially a deepening of our baptismal promises. This is an invitation for us to struggle more intently with what we are called to become. We discussed the meaning of the arabic word, badaliya, substitution, and began some reflection on Massignon's understanding in light of his intense Christian faith. Substitution is a controversial and challenging call that we will continue to explore through the writings of Massignon and others at our gatherings.

In keeping with the original statutes of the Badaliya we would begin our prayer together in silence. We shall use a piece of music to help us focus our prayer, and then spend some time in silent reflection. We center our gathering on the theme of peace and each person is asked to bring a reading or something to share. There are scripture passages, a reading from the Qur'an, and an original poem written about Saint Francis. Our intercessory prayers include a plea for peaceful resolution to the crises in the Middle East and for conversion of hearts of all those whose hatred leads them to terrorist actions. We pray for the courage to forgive them by offering ourselves in their place to be reconciled to a benevolent God. We close with the prayer of our Church, the Lord's Prayer.

The Badaliya in Cairo began with praying together in silence in the spirit of Charles de Foucauld, and Exposition and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. In solidarity with l'Union-Sodalité de Charles de Foucauld, the Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, we agree to join them in praying for peace in the world, especially in the Holy Land, each First Friday of the month. They are the outgrowth of Foucauld's vision of an organization of Christian lay people and religious loosely bound to one another throughout the world through their prayer.

Today there are members in 52 countries. The Union was officially recognized by a Bishop of the Catholic Church as an association of the faithful at Christmas in 1986 continuing the recognition given to Foucauld in 1909 by Mgr. Bonnet, the Bishop of Viviers in France.The Cairo Badaliya always included spiritual readings by Charles de Foucauld or others that we will include in our prayer as well.

Paz y Bien!