The theme of "compassion" is central to Massignon's understanding of the Badaliyya and substitution as a call to intercessory prayer, action and inter-religious relationship. In his twenties, in 1908, Massignon had a profound experience of what he later described as "God breaking into his life" and as his "conversion experience". From this beginning he recognized the compassionate caring and prayer for him by others, including Charles de Foucauld and the Muslim Alussy family in Baghdad. Deeply affected by his correspondence with Foucauld, his understanding of compassion became a center piece of his spirituality and a vital component of his experience of authentic relationship with God and others. As we explore the meaning of compassion in our lives, and pray with and for those suffering in our world, hear the words of Louis Massignon:
"As long as God leaves us absorbed in our own suffering we remain sterile, nailed to ourselves. As soon as compassion brings us beyond, to another's suffering other than our own, we enter into the science of compassion experientially, we discover wisdom in it; in the immortal company of all creatures purified by angelic and human trial we glimpse the joy of tomorrow through the pain of today".
Kargador at Dawn
Work in the Vineyard
Monday, June 11, 2007
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Dhikr for Corpus Christi Sunday (C)
“Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.” (Luke 9:16-17)
The miracle of the Eucharist is the call and the empowerment to break bread with people who have none… there is enough and in fact MORE…. only if we learn to share and make our table more inclusive!
Visit
www.badaliyya.blogspot.com
www.omigen.org/ipid
http:scbrc.net
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
The miracle of the Eucharist is the call and the empowerment to break bread with people who have none… there is enough and in fact MORE…. only if we learn to share and make our table more inclusive!
Visit
www.badaliyya.blogspot.com
www.omigen.org/ipid
http:scbrc.net
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Badaliyya Prayer Circle based on the Tradition of Fr. Louis Massignon...
Ciao Friends and Partners!
Peace! There are six elements that are of crucial importance in the Badaliyya Circle. These are: CHARITY, FIGURE OF ABRAHAM, RANSOM/SUBSTITUTION,WITNESS, HOSPITALITY and DHIKR.
1. Charity. It is an active and sensitive charity. Solidarity understood as the ability to suffer with those who suffer injustice. It is an attempt to liberate … at least to know how to protest with sorrow. It is to accompany the poor with help and sympathy. Charity is shown with great delicate respect to a person before many and varied religious option.
2. The Figure of Abraham. The figure of Abraham is a mystery of election and exclusion. Is it also a mystery of acceptance and a mystery of rejection? Ismael vs. Israel, David and Paul… Hadith has it: “No one is truly a believer until one prefers not for his brother what one prefers for himself.”
3. The reality of being a Badal – Substitution. Louis Massignon had “discovered” the reality of BADAL – Substitution for the reparation of injustices and for witnessing to the poor and victims of injustices. Substitution demands an offer of the total self – similar to the test of fire. The witness “par excellence” is the one who does complete or offered as a total ransom that which is lacking in truth that God knows… Massignon found this in the life and martyrdom of Husayn at Kerbala in the Shi’a Theology. Husayn is the vivification of the mystery of redemption.
• The Ram in place of Isaac
• The Paschal Lamb for the first born of Israel
• The tribe of Levi for the nation of Israel
• Jesus for humanity.
Examples used by Fr. Louis Massignon…
• The demand on the part of Christians at Najran
• The offer of St. Francis of Assisi at Damietta
• The Desire of St. Raymund of Lull
• The acceptance of Louis Massignon & Charles de Foucauld, mystically; to become Badal…
5. Hospitality as the Value Lived by Badal… Louis Massignon discovered hospitality when wounded in battle and cared for by Muslims. “I had been saved in the Muslim land by the virtue of the obligation of sanctuary lived heroically by my Muslim hosts notwithstanding the espionage and betrayal that they denounced before me.” He discovered that in Islam the priority of sanctuary is over the obligation of the just war. The praxis of hospitality made Massignon understand the sense of Abrahamic faith – communicated not by logic but by living intuition emerging from a life lived in their midst. “I share the trust of the Muslims in the God of hospitality.” The hospitality of Abraham is the sign that announces the final end of gathering all nations. The host is God’s envoy. He is the witness – person that welcomes strangers, heals the sick, clothes the naked…
6. The Person in Prayer (through Remembrance - DHIKR). To live in God's presence by remembering him always through our lips, mind, hands and heart.
Eliseo “Jun” Mercado, OMI
Badaliyya – Philippines
Jun.mercado@gmail.com
Peace! There are six elements that are of crucial importance in the Badaliyya Circle. These are: CHARITY, FIGURE OF ABRAHAM, RANSOM/SUBSTITUTION,WITNESS, HOSPITALITY and DHIKR.
1. Charity. It is an active and sensitive charity. Solidarity understood as the ability to suffer with those who suffer injustice. It is an attempt to liberate … at least to know how to protest with sorrow. It is to accompany the poor with help and sympathy. Charity is shown with great delicate respect to a person before many and varied religious option.
2. The Figure of Abraham. The figure of Abraham is a mystery of election and exclusion. Is it also a mystery of acceptance and a mystery of rejection? Ismael vs. Israel, David and Paul… Hadith has it: “No one is truly a believer until one prefers not for his brother what one prefers for himself.”
3. The reality of being a Badal – Substitution. Louis Massignon had “discovered” the reality of BADAL – Substitution for the reparation of injustices and for witnessing to the poor and victims of injustices. Substitution demands an offer of the total self – similar to the test of fire. The witness “par excellence” is the one who does complete or offered as a total ransom that which is lacking in truth that God knows… Massignon found this in the life and martyrdom of Husayn at Kerbala in the Shi’a Theology. Husayn is the vivification of the mystery of redemption.
• The Ram in place of Isaac
• The Paschal Lamb for the first born of Israel
• The tribe of Levi for the nation of Israel
• Jesus for humanity.
Examples used by Fr. Louis Massignon…
• The demand on the part of Christians at Najran
• The offer of St. Francis of Assisi at Damietta
• The Desire of St. Raymund of Lull
• The acceptance of Louis Massignon & Charles de Foucauld, mystically; to become Badal…
5. Hospitality as the Value Lived by Badal… Louis Massignon discovered hospitality when wounded in battle and cared for by Muslims. “I had been saved in the Muslim land by the virtue of the obligation of sanctuary lived heroically by my Muslim hosts notwithstanding the espionage and betrayal that they denounced before me.” He discovered that in Islam the priority of sanctuary is over the obligation of the just war. The praxis of hospitality made Massignon understand the sense of Abrahamic faith – communicated not by logic but by living intuition emerging from a life lived in their midst. “I share the trust of the Muslims in the God of hospitality.” The hospitality of Abraham is the sign that announces the final end of gathering all nations. The host is God’s envoy. He is the witness – person that welcomes strangers, heals the sick, clothes the naked…
6. The Person in Prayer (through Remembrance - DHIKR). To live in God's presence by remembering him always through our lips, mind, hands and heart.
Eliseo “Jun” Mercado, OMI
Badaliyya – Philippines
Jun.mercado@gmail.com
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Dhikr for Trinity Sunday (C)
“Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that the Spirit will take from what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16: 15)
Trinity Sunday reminds us of the COMMUNITY in the ONE God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is mystery that we desire to become and be witnesses on the basis of our baptism – regardless of color, race, belief, language and gender?
Visit
www.badaliyya.blogspot.com
www.omigen.org/ipid
http://scbrc.net
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Trinity Sunday reminds us of the COMMUNITY in the ONE God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is mystery that we desire to become and be witnesses on the basis of our baptism – regardless of color, race, belief, language and gender?
Visit
www.badaliyya.blogspot.com
www.omigen.org/ipid
http://scbrc.net
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Friday, May 25, 2007
The Badaliyya Remembrance Prayer...
The Badaliyya Remembrance Prayer is based on a vision of prayer network - praying in concert around the world. As the Header tells it the Badaliyya prayer has as it's ground the spiritual call to "substitution", that is, to offer one’s life through prayer and action to the reconciliation of the three religions that find their commonality in Abraham.
We discover the meaning of offering ourselves in the concrete way for the well-being, even the salvation, of those of other faith traditions. It is clear that this is not an easily understood path and can only be encouraged in the context of our world today and its needs. In the words of Blessed Charles de Foucauld: "Every Christian must look on every human being as a beloved brother or sister. Christians have the attitudes of Jesus' own heart toward every human being".
We discover the meaning of offering ourselves in the concrete way for the well-being, even the salvation, of those of other faith traditions. It is clear that this is not an easily understood path and can only be encouraged in the context of our world today and its needs. In the words of Blessed Charles de Foucauld: "Every Christian must look on every human being as a beloved brother or sister. Christians have the attitudes of Jesus' own heart toward every human being".
Dhikr for Pentecost Week
Text: “Jesus breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." (John 20: 22-23)
Meditation: We have not received the spirit of slavery and live in fear, but the spirit of courage that empowers us to call God – Abba (Father)!
Visit the following web sites
www.badaliyya.blogspot.com
www.omigen.org/ipid
http://scbrc.net
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2.Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Meditation: We have not received the spirit of slavery and live in fear, but the spirit of courage that empowers us to call God – Abba (Father)!
Visit the following web sites
www.badaliyya.blogspot.com
www.omigen.org/ipid
http://scbrc.net
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2.Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Impunity's Limits - Remembering the "Desaparacidos"...
by Juan L. Mercado (Phil Daily Inquirer & Cebu Daily News 22 May 07 )
“All nations are constructed on the basis of great rememberings and great forgettings,” Ernest Renan wrote. Is today’s frenzy over election results, actual or fudged, mutating into amnesia that smothers other issues?
Impunity for crime here drives parents to “wear down the stones of public squares” in the words of a Honduran mother, searching for her abducted son. A recent Inquirer photo shows the late press freedom advocate Jose Burgos Jr’s widow : Edith. She stares at a dumped corpse in a macabre ritual mothers of "desaparecidos" agonize through.
“No,” Edith says, the article reports. It’s not the body of her third child: 36-year old agriculturist Jonas.. In a Quezon City mall, burly men bundled Jayjay into a car traced to the 56th Infantry Battalion. Jayjay has not been seen or heard from since.
Only motorcycle keys were left of Redemptorist Father Rosaleo “Rudy” Romano, abducted by Marcos agents in Cebu July 1985. Olongapo publisher Romeo Legaspi disappeared in January 1993. Sto. Tomas students were among those who vanished in paranoid communist progroms. Muslim community leader Datu Abdullah Sadurah Alah disappeared. And kidnapped UP students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan have never surfaced.
Abductors, meanwhile, loll in impunity. In a Mother’s Day gathering of desapaercido parents, at Quezon City ’s Good Shepherd convent, Edith said: “I have forgiven my son’s abductors, his torturers, and even their Commander in Chief. If we accept what has happened, and forgive the wrong done us, the dawn will come early”…”
Did the "capo di tutti capi" listen? “The weak can never forgive,” Asian statesman Mahatma Ghandi once said. “Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong…( Even when violence appears ) to do good, the good is only temporary. The evil it does is permanent…”
Forgiveness, however, does not extinguish accountability. “Men are unable to forgive what they can not punish” Hannah Arendt, stresses in her essay on Nazi terror.
That’s precisely the point of "Let the Stones Cry Out”. Published by Protestant National Council of Churches here, this 83-page report documents 836 politically motivated killings since 2001, Most remain unsolved .After the Palm Sunday killing of Indonesian priest Fr. Franciskus Madhu, SVD, in Kalinga, Catholic bishop Prudencio Andaya asked: . “Perhaps, we’ve been too silent for a long time, afraid to speak out against all killings in the past that we tolerated more killings to happen! "
A culture of impunity -- where traitor, abductor or torturer go free -- does not emerge full-blown over night. It builds up incrementally, stoked by official support, tolerance and silence. “A man begins to die the moment he remains silent about things that matter,” Martin Luther King warned.
The Philippines waffled on who collaborated with World War II Japanese occupiers, historian Frank Golay notes.This blurred the difference between Quislings and resistance fighters.
Under Marcos’ dictatorship, the Philippines “became a gulag of safe houses where members of the Armed Forces…were responsible for acts of unusual brutality,” torturing over 35,000 men and women,. Amnesty International noted. But those who tortured and salvaged bluffed and threatened their way into first de facto, then legalized, impunity.
“Policemen and soldiers who tortured and salvaged are still among us,” sociologist John Carroll, SJ noted in his 2002 paper: “A Nation In Denial”. Some were elected to national office. Little has been done to “uncover the facts, give the nameless dead their true names and decent burials”, much less identify, and prosecute perpetrators. “Unless the nation rises to vindicate it’s common conscience, it may be condemned to wander forever in the wilderness of valueless power plays among the elite.”
That has come to pass in today’s generation of abductors and killers, whether as vigilantes in Cebu City , rouge military bands or communist executioners..
South Africa ’s truth commission sought confession to shape collective memory. Greece prosecuted torturers as ‘national catharisis”. Guatemala , where 100,000 were salvaged. launched a project to “recover historic memory”.
By contrast, “the Philippines stretched impunity to it’s limits…by trying to forget it’s authoritarian past,” writes Alfred McCoy in “Closer Than Brothers” ( Yale University) “This evasion transformed torturers into heroes…Remembering became stigmatized as subversive...and politics emerged with the lingering paralysis of collective trauma”
Do parents of our desapercidos foreshadow a Philippine version of Argentinian mothers who turned Plaza de Mayo into a worldwide scream of protest against abduction of their children?.
Perhaps not – for the moment. In eight years, 30,000 individuals disappeared in Argentina . We’ve not reached the grim benchmark that Inquirer’s Michael Tan recalled : chiquitos desaparecidos : children given away, once their “disappeared” mothers, who gave birth in detention centers, were salvaged.
But the perception spreads that to survive politically, this regime would not think twice to expand further today’s impunity. How wretched the country where tenure of public office compels mothers, like Edith Burgos, to say: “I will continue searching for my son.”
Donde estas, Roger? Donde estan? “Where are you, Roger? Where are they?” cried Elvia Cristina de Gonzales of Honduras , in a poem, after her 24-year old son disappeared. In today’s Philippines , even “the stones cry out,” the same question. ####
“All nations are constructed on the basis of great rememberings and great forgettings,” Ernest Renan wrote. Is today’s frenzy over election results, actual or fudged, mutating into amnesia that smothers other issues?
Impunity for crime here drives parents to “wear down the stones of public squares” in the words of a Honduran mother, searching for her abducted son. A recent Inquirer photo shows the late press freedom advocate Jose Burgos Jr’s widow : Edith. She stares at a dumped corpse in a macabre ritual mothers of "desaparecidos" agonize through.
“No,” Edith says, the article reports. It’s not the body of her third child: 36-year old agriculturist Jonas.. In a Quezon City mall, burly men bundled Jayjay into a car traced to the 56th Infantry Battalion. Jayjay has not been seen or heard from since.
Only motorcycle keys were left of Redemptorist Father Rosaleo “Rudy” Romano, abducted by Marcos agents in Cebu July 1985. Olongapo publisher Romeo Legaspi disappeared in January 1993. Sto. Tomas students were among those who vanished in paranoid communist progroms. Muslim community leader Datu Abdullah Sadurah Alah disappeared. And kidnapped UP students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan have never surfaced.
Abductors, meanwhile, loll in impunity. In a Mother’s Day gathering of desapaercido parents, at Quezon City ’s Good Shepherd convent, Edith said: “I have forgiven my son’s abductors, his torturers, and even their Commander in Chief. If we accept what has happened, and forgive the wrong done us, the dawn will come early”…”
Did the "capo di tutti capi" listen? “The weak can never forgive,” Asian statesman Mahatma Ghandi once said. “Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong…( Even when violence appears ) to do good, the good is only temporary. The evil it does is permanent…”
Forgiveness, however, does not extinguish accountability. “Men are unable to forgive what they can not punish” Hannah Arendt, stresses in her essay on Nazi terror.
That’s precisely the point of "Let the Stones Cry Out”. Published by Protestant National Council of Churches here, this 83-page report documents 836 politically motivated killings since 2001, Most remain unsolved .After the Palm Sunday killing of Indonesian priest Fr. Franciskus Madhu, SVD, in Kalinga, Catholic bishop Prudencio Andaya asked: . “Perhaps, we’ve been too silent for a long time, afraid to speak out against all killings in the past that we tolerated more killings to happen! "
A culture of impunity -- where traitor, abductor or torturer go free -- does not emerge full-blown over night. It builds up incrementally, stoked by official support, tolerance and silence. “A man begins to die the moment he remains silent about things that matter,” Martin Luther King warned.
The Philippines waffled on who collaborated with World War II Japanese occupiers, historian Frank Golay notes.This blurred the difference between Quislings and resistance fighters.
Under Marcos’ dictatorship, the Philippines “became a gulag of safe houses where members of the Armed Forces…were responsible for acts of unusual brutality,” torturing over 35,000 men and women,. Amnesty International noted. But those who tortured and salvaged bluffed and threatened their way into first de facto, then legalized, impunity.
“Policemen and soldiers who tortured and salvaged are still among us,” sociologist John Carroll, SJ noted in his 2002 paper: “A Nation In Denial”. Some were elected to national office. Little has been done to “uncover the facts, give the nameless dead their true names and decent burials”, much less identify, and prosecute perpetrators. “Unless the nation rises to vindicate it’s common conscience, it may be condemned to wander forever in the wilderness of valueless power plays among the elite.”
That has come to pass in today’s generation of abductors and killers, whether as vigilantes in Cebu City , rouge military bands or communist executioners..
South Africa ’s truth commission sought confession to shape collective memory. Greece prosecuted torturers as ‘national catharisis”. Guatemala , where 100,000 were salvaged. launched a project to “recover historic memory”.
By contrast, “the Philippines stretched impunity to it’s limits…by trying to forget it’s authoritarian past,” writes Alfred McCoy in “Closer Than Brothers” ( Yale University) “This evasion transformed torturers into heroes…Remembering became stigmatized as subversive...and politics emerged with the lingering paralysis of collective trauma”
Do parents of our desapercidos foreshadow a Philippine version of Argentinian mothers who turned Plaza de Mayo into a worldwide scream of protest against abduction of their children?.
Perhaps not – for the moment. In eight years, 30,000 individuals disappeared in Argentina . We’ve not reached the grim benchmark that Inquirer’s Michael Tan recalled : chiquitos desaparecidos : children given away, once their “disappeared” mothers, who gave birth in detention centers, were salvaged.
But the perception spreads that to survive politically, this regime would not think twice to expand further today’s impunity. How wretched the country where tenure of public office compels mothers, like Edith Burgos, to say: “I will continue searching for my son.”
Donde estas, Roger? Donde estan? “Where are you, Roger? Where are they?” cried Elvia Cristina de Gonzales of Honduras , in a poem, after her 24-year old son disappeared. In today’s Philippines , even “the stones cry out,” the same question. ####
Friday, May 18, 2007
The Mystical Ladder of Love...
(The Dark Night, Book 2, Chapters 19 & 20)
Step One: Longing for God
• An “ache” within… a “sickness” at heart…
• Nothing satisfies… a feeling of “emptiness…
• Getting aware of our “foolish” pursuits…
• Acknowledging our limitations, weaknesses…
• Begin seeking “another” way…
In Ps. 119: 81, David gave us the expression as RELEASE FROM SIN, FOR FORGIVENESS & REDEMPTION. The crisis is an opportunity to let go of our idols… This is the first rung of the ladder…
Step Two: Searching for the Beloved without Ceasing…
• Passion for repentance…
• Searches for paths that lead to the beloved…
• Attentive to the epiphany of the Lord…
• Centering all care on the beloved…
• The process of purification begins…
“In all his thoughts, he turns immediately to the beloved; in all converse and business he at once speaks about the beloved; when eating, sleeping, keeping vigil, or doing anything else, he centers all his care on the beloved…” (DN II:19,2)
Step Three: Performing Good Works with Fervor…
• Contemplation results in an outflow of charity in good works…
• Care for others…
• Generosity to share…
St. John cited the example of Jacob who served the Yahweh for seven years more than the seven he had already served – all because of love and an unbreakable promise to obey God’s call (Gn. 29: 20,30).
Step Four: Pursuing God with or without Consolation…
• Being accustomed to suffering for the sake of Christ…
• “Love makes the heaviest burden light” (St. Augustine)…
• Developing a sense of equanimity, neither seeking consolation nor trying to escape desolation…
• Search for the divine pleasing… doing what is pleasing to God… no matter the cost.
The example cited by St. John is the Visitation narrative. The child in her womb leapt for joy (Lk. 1: 39-45).
Step Five: Ascending Higher with Incessant Hunger…
• Feeing of longing that is almost overwhelming…
• Impatience grows…as longing becomes intense….
• Hunger and Thirst for the Beloved…
Like the Psalmist we long to dwell in the house of the Lord…(Ps. 84: 2-4).
Step Six: Running Swiftly to God…
• Stretching towards the finish line…
• Renewing our strength and ascending on eagle’s wings (Is. 40:31)
• Like a deer racing toward a flowing spring (Ps. 42: 2-3).
St. John attributes the swiftness to reasons… 1st to dramatic increase in self-giving or charity and second to the process of purification…
Step Seven: Moving Upward with Ardent Boldness…
• St. Paul says that Love knows no bounds: it believes in, hopes for, and endures all things (Cor. 13: 17).
• Moses begged God to either forgive the Israelites for their iniquity or to strike his name from the book of life (Ex. 32:32).
• Abraham also bargained with God with boldness to save the city (Gn 18: 23-32)
This entails at one and the same time, maintaining holy boldness while conserving our humility…
Step Eight: Holding on to the Beloved…
• Communion is established…
• Reformation… on going formation … transformation
Step Nine: Burning Gently in God…
• Burning in love is re-creative…
• It wounds tenderly…
• The fire in one’s heart at Pentecost…
We are on fire but are not consumed physically…
Step Ten: Seeing God Clearly…
• Blessed “sight”… Blessed are the pure… they shall see God.
• Being in communion with God…
• Being in the likeness of God…
Step One: Longing for God
• An “ache” within… a “sickness” at heart…
• Nothing satisfies… a feeling of “emptiness…
• Getting aware of our “foolish” pursuits…
• Acknowledging our limitations, weaknesses…
• Begin seeking “another” way…
In Ps. 119: 81, David gave us the expression as RELEASE FROM SIN, FOR FORGIVENESS & REDEMPTION. The crisis is an opportunity to let go of our idols… This is the first rung of the ladder…
Step Two: Searching for the Beloved without Ceasing…
• Passion for repentance…
• Searches for paths that lead to the beloved…
• Attentive to the epiphany of the Lord…
• Centering all care on the beloved…
• The process of purification begins…
“In all his thoughts, he turns immediately to the beloved; in all converse and business he at once speaks about the beloved; when eating, sleeping, keeping vigil, or doing anything else, he centers all his care on the beloved…” (DN II:19,2)
Step Three: Performing Good Works with Fervor…
• Contemplation results in an outflow of charity in good works…
• Care for others…
• Generosity to share…
St. John cited the example of Jacob who served the Yahweh for seven years more than the seven he had already served – all because of love and an unbreakable promise to obey God’s call (Gn. 29: 20,30).
Step Four: Pursuing God with or without Consolation…
• Being accustomed to suffering for the sake of Christ…
• “Love makes the heaviest burden light” (St. Augustine)…
• Developing a sense of equanimity, neither seeking consolation nor trying to escape desolation…
• Search for the divine pleasing… doing what is pleasing to God… no matter the cost.
The example cited by St. John is the Visitation narrative. The child in her womb leapt for joy (Lk. 1: 39-45).
Step Five: Ascending Higher with Incessant Hunger…
• Feeing of longing that is almost overwhelming…
• Impatience grows…as longing becomes intense….
• Hunger and Thirst for the Beloved…
Like the Psalmist we long to dwell in the house of the Lord…(Ps. 84: 2-4).
Step Six: Running Swiftly to God…
• Stretching towards the finish line…
• Renewing our strength and ascending on eagle’s wings (Is. 40:31)
• Like a deer racing toward a flowing spring (Ps. 42: 2-3).
St. John attributes the swiftness to reasons… 1st to dramatic increase in self-giving or charity and second to the process of purification…
Step Seven: Moving Upward with Ardent Boldness…
• St. Paul says that Love knows no bounds: it believes in, hopes for, and endures all things (Cor. 13: 17).
• Moses begged God to either forgive the Israelites for their iniquity or to strike his name from the book of life (Ex. 32:32).
• Abraham also bargained with God with boldness to save the city (Gn 18: 23-32)
This entails at one and the same time, maintaining holy boldness while conserving our humility…
Step Eight: Holding on to the Beloved…
• Communion is established…
• Reformation… on going formation … transformation
Step Nine: Burning Gently in God…
• Burning in love is re-creative…
• It wounds tenderly…
• The fire in one’s heart at Pentecost…
We are on fire but are not consumed physically…
Step Ten: Seeing God Clearly…
• Blessed “sight”… Blessed are the pure… they shall see God.
• Being in communion with God…
• Being in the likeness of God…
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Dhikr for the Ascension Week (C)
Text: “And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24: 46-48)
Meditation: We are the WITNESSES of repentance and the forgiveness of sins…
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Meditation: We are the WITNESSES of repentance and the forgiveness of sins…
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Prophets for our Time: Are We Listening>
by Dorothy C.Buck
When I think of Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Muhammad, the ancient Hebrew prophets, Abraham, Elijah, Moses then John the Baptist and Jesus, in fact the religious reformers and visionaries of all cultures and traditions in every age, one word overshadows all else.
They knew how to listen, first to God, then to the voices of others in the world around them. As Christians we talk of God “calling” us into relationship, of the prophets being “called” to speak publicly for God, to challenge and confront the ways that God's voice was not being heard. In the Gospel according to Matthew John the Baptist is heard quoting the major Hebrew prophet Isaiah, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! ...A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” (Matthew 3:2, Isaiah 40:3)
Unless we listen to the prophets among us we are likely to wander farther and farther away from the kingdom of God's love into a maze of tempting cultural values and materialistic idols. We hear competing voices inundating our TV programs enticing us with more and more “things” we must have and that we are told will make us “happy”. Even cigarettes and an SUV are claimed to fulfill our longings for love and companionship, and more and more credit debt is the capitalistic means of achieving the successful consumer lifestyle that feeds our economy, but not our souls.
We have ample voices throughout our short history as a country who has warned us of the dangers of not heeding the call of the poor, of not feeding the hungry, offering a drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, and welcoming the strangers in our midst. Now we are challenged, almost beyond our capacity to respond, by the fear of terrorist attacks and the distrust and hatred felt towards this country in many parts of the world. Are we listening?
(Source: Badaliyya USA)
When I think of Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Muhammad, the ancient Hebrew prophets, Abraham, Elijah, Moses then John the Baptist and Jesus, in fact the religious reformers and visionaries of all cultures and traditions in every age, one word overshadows all else.
They knew how to listen, first to God, then to the voices of others in the world around them. As Christians we talk of God “calling” us into relationship, of the prophets being “called” to speak publicly for God, to challenge and confront the ways that God's voice was not being heard. In the Gospel according to Matthew John the Baptist is heard quoting the major Hebrew prophet Isaiah, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! ...A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” (Matthew 3:2, Isaiah 40:3)
Unless we listen to the prophets among us we are likely to wander farther and farther away from the kingdom of God's love into a maze of tempting cultural values and materialistic idols. We hear competing voices inundating our TV programs enticing us with more and more “things” we must have and that we are told will make us “happy”. Even cigarettes and an SUV are claimed to fulfill our longings for love and companionship, and more and more credit debt is the capitalistic means of achieving the successful consumer lifestyle that feeds our economy, but not our souls.
We have ample voices throughout our short history as a country who has warned us of the dangers of not heeding the call of the poor, of not feeding the hungry, offering a drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, and welcoming the strangers in our midst. Now we are challenged, almost beyond our capacity to respond, by the fear of terrorist attacks and the distrust and hatred felt towards this country in many parts of the world. Are we listening?
(Source: Badaliyya USA)
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
A Hiking Prayer
Divine Master of all Creation
Grant me the ability to be alone.
May it be my custom to go outdoors each day
Among the trees and grass, among all living things.
And there may I be alone, and enter into prayer,
To talk with the one to whom I belong.
May I express there everything in my heart,
And may all the foliage of the field
(All grasses, trees, and plants).
May they all awake at my coming,
To send the powers of their life into the words of my prayer
So that my prayer and speech are made whole
Through the life and the spirit of all growing things,
Which are made as one by their transcendent source.
(Source: Catholic-Environmental Justice)
Grant me the ability to be alone.
May it be my custom to go outdoors each day
Among the trees and grass, among all living things.
And there may I be alone, and enter into prayer,
To talk with the one to whom I belong.
May I express there everything in my heart,
And may all the foliage of the field
(All grasses, trees, and plants).
May they all awake at my coming,
To send the powers of their life into the words of my prayer
So that my prayer and speech are made whole
Through the life and the spirit of all growing things,
Which are made as one by their transcendent source.
(Source: Catholic-Environmental Justice)
Friday, May 04, 2007
A Spirituality of a Great Proponent of Social Justice...
Message of radical French priest still challenges church
By Ecumenical News International
3 May 2007
The thoughts of Abbé Pierre, a French Roman Catholic priest who championed the homeless and the destitute and was revered in his home country, will now be available in English, following his death in January 2007 - writes Stephen Brown of ENI.
"Abbé Pierre is well-known in the French, Spanish and Italian speaking worlds, but he is much less well-known in the English speaking world," said the Rev. William McComish, the former dean of the Protestant St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva. McComish translated Abbé Pierre's final book, "Why, oh why, my God?", from French with his wife, Carolyn.
The French priest was born Henri Grouès in 1912 to a middle class family in Lyon. During the Second World War he was a resistance fighter and took the name Abbé Pierre - Abbé is a traditional French title for a priest. After the war, he set up his Companions of Emmaus movement for the homeless, and the group now works in more than 50 countries.
"Sadly, I think the Emmaus community has a future in this society, divided as it is between rich and poor," said McComish, at the launch of the book in Geneva on 30 April.
Abbé Pierre became a household name to many French people with his black beret and white beard, and was frequently voted France's most popular man ahead even of personalities like football star Zinedine Zidane. He used his fame to challenge political leaders about homelessness.
The book, whose French title is "Mon Dieu ... Pourquoi?", is a series of meditations by the priest on Christian faith recorded by French journalist Frédéric Lenoir.
It shows Abbé Pierre to have been out of step with several positions of the Catholic Church. In the book the priest says he supports the abolition of obligatory celibacy for priests and sees no theological obstacle to the ordination of women. He also confessed that he had "given in ... occasionally" to sexual desire.
Still, noted McComish, "This is the book of someone who was a devout member of the Roman Catholic Church."
McComish recalled that he invited the French priest to take part in a service at St Pierre Cathedral, when Abbé Pierre already used a wheelchair. The priest was held upright by a rabbi and a leader in the local mosque as he addressed the congregation.
"He was so practical. He had this attitude totally stripped of any pretension," said McComish, who first met Abbé Pierre about 15 years ago and is now active in the work of the Emmaus community foundation in Geneva.
The book has been published by the World Council of Churches in its "Risk" book series.
"We are very proud to bringing out this book," said the Rev. Theodore Gill, senior editor of WCC Publications. "We tend to get bogged down in all kinds of institutions. The 'Risk' book series tries to look beyond that to discover the Gospel."
"Why, oh why, my God? Meditations on Christian faith and the meaning of life", Abbé Pierre/Frédéric Lenoir, WCC Publications, 2007.
[With grateful acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches]
By Ecumenical News International
3 May 2007
The thoughts of Abbé Pierre, a French Roman Catholic priest who championed the homeless and the destitute and was revered in his home country, will now be available in English, following his death in January 2007 - writes Stephen Brown of ENI.
"Abbé Pierre is well-known in the French, Spanish and Italian speaking worlds, but he is much less well-known in the English speaking world," said the Rev. William McComish, the former dean of the Protestant St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva. McComish translated Abbé Pierre's final book, "Why, oh why, my God?", from French with his wife, Carolyn.
The French priest was born Henri Grouès in 1912 to a middle class family in Lyon. During the Second World War he was a resistance fighter and took the name Abbé Pierre - Abbé is a traditional French title for a priest. After the war, he set up his Companions of Emmaus movement for the homeless, and the group now works in more than 50 countries.
"Sadly, I think the Emmaus community has a future in this society, divided as it is between rich and poor," said McComish, at the launch of the book in Geneva on 30 April.
Abbé Pierre became a household name to many French people with his black beret and white beard, and was frequently voted France's most popular man ahead even of personalities like football star Zinedine Zidane. He used his fame to challenge political leaders about homelessness.
The book, whose French title is "Mon Dieu ... Pourquoi?", is a series of meditations by the priest on Christian faith recorded by French journalist Frédéric Lenoir.
It shows Abbé Pierre to have been out of step with several positions of the Catholic Church. In the book the priest says he supports the abolition of obligatory celibacy for priests and sees no theological obstacle to the ordination of women. He also confessed that he had "given in ... occasionally" to sexual desire.
Still, noted McComish, "This is the book of someone who was a devout member of the Roman Catholic Church."
McComish recalled that he invited the French priest to take part in a service at St Pierre Cathedral, when Abbé Pierre already used a wheelchair. The priest was held upright by a rabbi and a leader in the local mosque as he addressed the congregation.
"He was so practical. He had this attitude totally stripped of any pretension," said McComish, who first met Abbé Pierre about 15 years ago and is now active in the work of the Emmaus community foundation in Geneva.
The book has been published by the World Council of Churches in its "Risk" book series.
"We are very proud to bringing out this book," said the Rev. Theodore Gill, senior editor of WCC Publications. "We tend to get bogged down in all kinds of institutions. The 'Risk' book series tries to look beyond that to discover the Gospel."
"Why, oh why, my God? Meditations on Christian faith and the meaning of life", Abbé Pierre/Frédéric Lenoir, WCC Publications, 2007.
[With grateful acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches]
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Dhikr for the 3rd week of Easter (C)
Dhikr for the 3rd week of Easter (C)
Text: “Jesus said to them, ‘have you caught anything to eat?’ They answered him, ‘No.’ So he said to them, ‘Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.’ So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish.” (John 21: 5-6)
Meditation: We, too, are asked to ‘cast our net…’ Have the courage to do so… even it may seem futile.
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Text: “Jesus said to them, ‘have you caught anything to eat?’ They answered him, ‘No.’ So he said to them, ‘Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.’ So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish.” (John 21: 5-6)
Meditation: We, too, are asked to ‘cast our net…’ Have the courage to do so… even it may seem futile.
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Dhikr for the 2nd week of Easter (C)
Text: “Jesus said to him, ‘Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed’." (John 20: 29)
Meditation: To believe is a grace from God… But people see the Lord – Risen and at work in the concrete lives and works of Christians. May we never fail to be witnesses of the Risen Lord …
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Meditation: To believe is a grace from God… But people see the Lord – Risen and at work in the concrete lives and works of Christians. May we never fail to be witnesses of the Risen Lord …
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Remembrance Prayer for Easter
Ciao Folks!
The Lord is Risen! Alleluia!
On Easter Monday I will be flying to Yei , then onward to Rumbek stay overnight there and hoping to catch a UN plane to Wau - All the said Dioceses are in South Sudan.
Earlier on I stayed in Rumbek for ten days for a Justice & Peace Training Workshop for the whole South Sudan. It was HOOOOT and DRY in Rumbek!
In Wau, the Health Department will conduct a Workshop for health workers - sponsored by Misereor. I will try to share some tips on alternative medicine, including my latest training on Pranic Healing. Wau is just like Rumbek....!
I will return to Nairobi on the 17th April. Beginning Holy Thursday until the 17th, I will have NO access to internet...
Wishing you all a Blessed Easter!
Bapa
-----
Dhikr for Easter
Text: "They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, 'Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day'." (Luke 24: 5-7)
Meditation: Easter is a great remembrance of the God who is alive! Why do we keep seeking for the living one among the dead? The Lord is Risen! Alleluia!
Remembrance Prayer is a SIMPLE METHOD...
1st step: Write the TEXT 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
The Lord is Risen! Alleluia!
On Easter Monday I will be flying to Yei , then onward to Rumbek stay overnight there and hoping to catch a UN plane to Wau - All the said Dioceses are in South Sudan.
Earlier on I stayed in Rumbek for ten days for a Justice & Peace Training Workshop for the whole South Sudan. It was HOOOOT and DRY in Rumbek!
In Wau, the Health Department will conduct a Workshop for health workers - sponsored by Misereor. I will try to share some tips on alternative medicine, including my latest training on Pranic Healing. Wau is just like Rumbek....!
I will return to Nairobi on the 17th April. Beginning Holy Thursday until the 17th, I will have NO access to internet...
Wishing you all a Blessed Easter!
Bapa
-----
Dhikr for Easter
Text: "They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, 'Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day'." (Luke 24: 5-7)
Meditation: Easter is a great remembrance of the God who is alive! Why do we keep seeking for the living one among the dead? The Lord is Risen! Alleluia!
Remembrance Prayer is a SIMPLE METHOD...
1st step: Write the TEXT 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
Monday, April 02, 2007
Dhikr for the Holy Week (C)
Text: “When the hour came, he took his place at table with the apostles. He said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for, I tell you, I shall not eat it (again) until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God.’" (Luke 22: 14-16)
Meditation: The Holy Week Celebration, specifically the Triduum is our unique way “eating the Passover” with the Lord. It is our journey with the Lord as we celebrate his suffering, death and resurrection – hoping that we, too, shall rise with him in the fullness of life.
Meditation: The Holy Week Celebration, specifically the Triduum is our unique way “eating the Passover” with the Lord. It is our journey with the Lord as we celebrate his suffering, death and resurrection – hoping that we, too, shall rise with him in the fullness of life.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Dhikr for the 5th week of Lent (C)
Text: Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She replied, "No one, sir." Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more." (Luke 8: 10-11)
Meditation: We, too, are fast in condemning others, yet we are not actually sinless… Jesus is showing us the way, that is, NOT TO CONDEMN…!
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Meditation: We, too, are fast in condemning others, yet we are not actually sinless… Jesus is showing us the way, that is, NOT TO CONDEMN…!
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Friday, March 16, 2007
Remembrance Prayer for the 4th week of Lent (C)
Remembrance for the 4th week of Lent (C)
Text: I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers." Luke 15: 18-19)
Meditation: We, too, need to get up and go back the Father and say to him, “ we have sinned against heaven and against you…”
Text: I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers." Luke 15: 18-19)
Meditation: We, too, need to get up and go back the Father and say to him, “ we have sinned against heaven and against you…”
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Superiors-General Call Religious to Pray for Peace...
ROME, MARCH 14, 2007 - Superiors-general of religious institutes are calling on congregations to observe March 30 as a day of prayer and fasting for peace.
The International Union of Superiors General made the appeal "to participate in a day of prayer and fasting for an end to violence and war in Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Northern Uganda, Nepal, Colombia, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and any place in the world where discord and division reign."
The convocation uses words from Pope John Paul II's 2002 Message for World Day of Peace: "Precisely for this reason, prayer for peace is not an afterthought to the work of peace. It is the very essence of building the peace of order, justice and freedom."
The superiors-general add: "We think that setting aside one day during Lent to pray together, as members of religious congregations, for peace on earth could have a powerful effect on our world.
(Source: Zenit News)
The International Union of Superiors General made the appeal "to participate in a day of prayer and fasting for an end to violence and war in Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Northern Uganda, Nepal, Colombia, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and any place in the world where discord and division reign."
The convocation uses words from Pope John Paul II's 2002 Message for World Day of Peace: "Precisely for this reason, prayer for peace is not an afterthought to the work of peace. It is the very essence of building the peace of order, justice and freedom."
The superiors-general add: "We think that setting aside one day during Lent to pray together, as members of religious congregations, for peace on earth could have a powerful effect on our world.
(Source: Zenit News)
Friday, March 02, 2007
Dhikr for the 2nd week of Lent (C)
Text: “Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘this is my chosen Son; listen to him’.” (Luke 9: 35)
Meditation: Lent is a season to experience our own transfiguration and to believe and hear the words that we, too, are God’s beloved sons and daughters…
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
Meditation: Lent is a season to experience our own transfiguration and to believe and hear the words that we, too, are God’s beloved sons and daughters…
DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:
1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!
It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…
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