27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Short Reflection for the 27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Readings: Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4; Second Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14; and Luke 17:5-10

Selected Passage:  “The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."  The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to (this) mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.   (Luke 17: 5-6)

Meditation:  Faith is God’s gift to us.  We believe in God who has called us from the very beginning.  And if we truly believe, we know that through the eyes of faith, we can do wonders -  forgive sins; heal the sick; and drive out demons!  Our call lies in the fact that we stand and live by the values we believe in.  This remains a formidable challenge to each one of us. Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Moral Progress and Regression

MORAL PROGRESS AND REGRESSION

We can trace, historically, some of the more salient moments in this process: It took us, the Christian world, eighteen hundred years to accept, unequivocally, that slavery is wrong, but eventually we learned it. It took us two thousand years, and the last pope, John Paul II, to accept that capital punishment is wrong, but, like slavery, eventually too we learned that. And it has taken us two thousand years and we are still, slowly, learning and accepting more and more of the implications of the gospel in terms of social justice, equality for all, and respect for the integrity of creation.

The good news is that we are, slowly, getting it. It is no accident that, for instance, Holland, the most secularized culture in the world, takes care of its poor better than any other country in the world, has perhaps the highest status for women in the world, and is a culture of high tolerance. These are major moral achievements inside of a culture that is at the same time regressing morally in terms of its acceptance of abortion, euthanasia, prostitution, pornography, and drugs.  What’s best morally inside of secular culture issues forth mostly from its Judeo-Christian roots.

What all this highlights is that our moral judgments may not be simple: The past we sometimes idealize, for all its moral strengths (its faith in God, in church, in family, in sacrifice, in self-renunciation, in sexual responsibility) was, because of racism, sexism, and dogmatic intolerance, less of a golden age for some than for others.

Today, our secularized liberal culture, for all its heightened moral sensitivity within the areas of race, gender, justice, tolerance, and the integrity of creation, has its own glaring moral blind-spots in the areas of abortion, end of life issues, church, family values, and sexuality.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/moral-progress-and-regression/#.XYj6fOdKg_8
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26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Short Reflection for the 26^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C): The Rich Man & Lazarus

Readings: Amos 6:1a, 4-7; 1Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31.

Selected Text:  "There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores" (Luke 16: 19-21)

Meditation:  The parable is a strong reminder to us that we cannot continue to dress in purple garments and dine sumptuously without the poor partaking at our table. The real challenge for us, believers, is the generosity to share our blessings with the poor. Our failure to do so is already the judgment that awaits us. The poor have a SHARE in our blessings. In fact, our generosity and capacity to share purify our wealth and make them legitimate for us to us. Beware! Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Short Reflection for the 25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Readings:  Amos 8: 4-7; 1 Timothy 2: 1-8; Luke 16: 1-13

Selected Gospel Passage: “The master commended the dishonest steward for his shrewdness; for the sons of this world are shrewder in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations.” (Luke. 16: 8-9)

Meditation:  The original meaning of "shrewdness" is "practical wisdom" or "prudence". It is the ability to deal with a given situation, to see what needs to be done and to do it. We are challenged to have that foresight, discernment, and judgment (the ability to see through and understand a situation and what will likely happen if we do not take appropriate action. The Gospel teaches us how to be good and prudent stewards.The Gospel advocates good governance and administration, and faithful stewardship.

Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Doing the Right Thing....

DOING THE RIGHT THING BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING

Karl Rahner wrote that and then added: "If you have done this, you have experienced God, perhaps without knowing it."



Jesus would agree, so much so that he makes this both the central tenet of religion and the overriding criterion for salvation.
We see this explicitly in the famous text in the gospels where Jesus tells us that whatsoever you do to the poor here on earth you do to him. For Jesus, to give something to a poor person is to give something is to give something to God, and to neglect a poor person is to neglect God.

However, a mature disciple doesn't calculate or make distinctions as to whether God is inside of a certain situation or not, whether a person seems worth it or not, whether a person is a Christian or not, or whether a person appears to be a good person or not, before reaching out in service.

A mature disciple serves whoever is in need, independent of those considerations.

T.S. Eliot said that the last temptation that is the greatest treason is to do the right thing for the wrong reason.

Jesus would add that doing the right thing is reason enough.



To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/doing-the-right-thing-because-it-is-the-right-thing/#.XUm6jpNKg_8

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September 27 Badaliyya Session

Badaliyya - Philippines

September 16, 2019

Dear Friends,

Greetings of Peace!

The increasing crisis in the world today, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa and some parts of Asia calls us to prayers and ask for the grace of hope and courage.

In his letters to the Badaliyya Movement, Fr. Massignon wrote of the encouragement that he received from articles in journals. For those that might like to see what others in the Arab world are doing to encourage inter-religious dialogue and reconciliation we read the narratives of the visit of Pope Francis the Peninsula of Arabia.

In many ways, the Pope’s pilgrimage to the Peninsula of Arabia is an invitation to Muslim/Christian pilgrimage that Fr. Massignon started in 1954 in Brittany, France. It is a journey guided by extraordinary faith and vision that sees the Pope’s pilgrimage continues to honor Muslim and Christian relations.

It is a pilgrimage that reminds us anew of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, which is a story that is found in Sura XVIII of the Qur'an about 7 Christian Saints. The story continues to be chanted in Arabic at the pilgrimage every year on the week-end on or following the feast of Mary Magdalene, July 22nd.

If you would like to know more details about the story of the Seven Saints of Ephesus please read the final chapter in "Dialogues with Saints and Mystics: In the Spirit of Louis Massignon". A short version of the original story can also be found in the Short Encyclopedia of Islam.

Thank you for your continuing interest in Fr. Massignon's Badaliya and for joining us in prayer and Spirit. May you find peace in your hearts and joy in the Spirit…

Badaliyya-Philippines Movement meets every last Friday of the month from 2:30 to 5 pm at the OMI Spiritual Center in Tamontaka, Cotabato City. You are invited to join our monthly prayers session... (Sept. 27, 2019).

See: www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

Fr. Jun Mercado, OMI

#Badaliyya-Philippines

September 16, 2019