September Badaliyya Study and Prayer

Badaliyya Philippines #004

Dear Friends of the Badaliyya,

In the quiet of this intimate sacred space we remember the work in Syria on Muslim-Christian relations before the War.

We focus on an article by Fr. Paolo Dall'Oglio, SJ called In Praise of Syncretism: A message to Jesuits involved in Muslim-Christian Relations".

Paolo Dall'Oglio is an Italian Jesuit who lived in the Christian community and monastery of Deir Mar Musa near Damascus in Syria, a place that he considered as Christian as it was Muslim.

At one time before the present War in Syria, the members of this community intended "to reinvent the positive relationship that existed between the first Muslims and the {Christian} monks on the borders of the Arabian desert".

He also wrote in the article: "Do I consider myself personally a Muslim? I think so, through evangelical grace and obedience. I am a Muslim because of the love of God for Muslims and Islam. I cannot but be a Muslim by way of the Spirit and not the letter. In the same way, like Jesus and the apostles, I am Jewish by way of the Spirit". This article can be found at http://justgoodcompany.com/1.2/dallogliotext.htm

We look forward to sharing our reflections and experience of this prayer as we deepen our commitment to open our hearts to be able to "cross over to the other" in compassion and hospitality.
I have consulted with Bro. Nelson, FMS on the next Badaliyya Study and Prayer … and he told me that the FMS would be free on the 29^th of September.  Wpuld the OMIs and the OND would also be free on the said date…?
I
f so… We  can have our Badaliyya Study and Prayer Session on September 29^th, Thursday, at the Divine Mercy Spiritual Center  (Tamontaka) from 2: 30 pm to 4:30 pm.

Pace e Bene!
Bapa Jun Mercado, OMI
Cotabato City

Our Remembrance of God...

May my heart and eyes open wide the wide world…

May my gaze not soil the one it touches, may it not disturbs…

May my life not be captive of things that glitters…

In the Context of…

1. Hostility
2. Prejudices
3. Lack of trust
4. Violence
5. Fundamentalism and fanaticism.

Let my Responses be…

1. Call to creative patience
2. Call to listen with empathy
3. Call to understand
4. Call to trust
5. Call to building relationship…

Re-visitng the Caves in Upper Egypt with GREAT NOSTALGIA!

Journey down the memory lane.... Remembering with gratefulness and great nostalgia...
My sojourn in Egypt... the time when I ventured into the caves of the desert of Upper Egypt.. touching the very stones of the hermits and our fathers who began it all in the desert of Egypt...

WAITING

WAITING

At a superficial level, we experience this in the amount of time we spend waiting at check-out counters, in airports, for buses, for somebody to arrive, etc.

More important is the fact that almost all the time we are waiting for a fuller season for our lives. Rarely do we have what Nouwen calls “a fully pregnant moment”, namely, a moment when we can say to ourselves: “Right now, I don’t want to be any other place, with any other persons, doing anything else, than what I am doing right now!”

From infancy onwards, we are nearly always waiting for something else to happen: As a baby, every time our mother leaves the room we wait anxiously for her to return. As a child, we wait for those special moments of play and celebration – when will Gramma come? When will I get my treat?

This changes somewhat during pre-adolescence. The years between starting school and puberty are perhaps the one time in life when we are more satisfied with the present moment.

Then at puberty, the awakening of sexuality arouses within us a restlessness which makes the rest of our lives one painful exercise in waiting. From that moment onwards, every hormone in us longs for a consummation that, even if it is ever attained, is had only for the briefest of moments.

For awhile, this is a waiting that consumes the mind: We want to meet the right person, fall in love, get married, have children, achieve something significant, create something lasting, gain the respect of family and peers, create some independence, and acquire the good things of life.

Isn’t there something fundamentally wrong here? Isn’t the task of life precisely that of making the present moment enough? Doesn’t the wisdom of the ages tell us to seize the day?

Karl Jung said that life is a journey between the paradise of the womb and the paradise of heaven. Jesus said that while on earth we are on pilgrimage. Is it any wonder then that at a certain point in life we begin to realize that everything is a variant of, or a substitute for, waiting?

To read more click here
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23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Short Reflection for the 23^rd Sunday in ordinary time (C) 

Readings: Wisdom 9: 13-18;Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14: 25-33

Selected Passage:  “In the same way, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14: 33) 

Meditation:  The text warns us about our possessions. Often they become our idols – the silver and gold – the work of our human hands.  As the Psalm 115 remind us, they speak not, hear not and see not. Those who worship gold, positions and fame become like them.  Do we bow over our possession, that is, serving mammon or do we serve God alone? Cuidate!  Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

South Sudan Women Vulnerable in Refugees' Camps

South Sudan Women are Vulnerable in the Refugees’ Camps…

Mahasa (not her real name) sits in the dust outside the hut she built herself, holding her youngest son in her arms.

The 29-year-old mother of four knows how vulnerable she is. "I'm scared," she said.

Mahasa is one of many women who have fled, unaccompanied by their husbands, to Maban County in South Sudan's Upper Nile State, escaping the fighting in Sudan's Blue Nile State between government forces and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North. Mahasa’s husband is still in Blue Nile, fighting alongside the rebels.

She now lives in Doro camp, which houses more than 44,000 refugees. There, she - like other female refugees - faces daily threats of harassment, exploitation and violence, and the persistent fear that, as a woman, she will be unable to provide for her family.

Harassment

The fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, which started in June 2011, has so far displaced more than 112,000 civilians to South Sudan. Humanitarians say they were "overwhelmed" during the rainy season in the second half of 2012, as tens of thousands of refugees, most of them women and children, came pouring across the border from Blue Nile State. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and its partners scrambled to meet the basic needs of the new arrivals, who initially slept under trees and survived on fruit and stagnant groundwater.

Now, six months later, fighting continues across the border, but the rate of arrivals has eased and aid agencies are transitioning from emergency response mode to meeting the longer-term needs of the refugee population.

More than 80 percent of the refugees are women and children, says Myrat Muradov, a protection officer with UNHCR. The agency has begun to look at the particular vulnerabilities of this group, many of whom are completely dependent on food rations.

"Widows and pregnant women need much help," he said.

Because the camps are spread out across large areas, women often have to walk very long distances to reach food distributions points, and then they must carry the heavy ration bags back with them.

Mahasa, for example, walks half an hour in each direction to collect the food she needs to feed her children.

Aid workers say that on these collection journeys, single women and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, sometimes being forced to part with a portion of their ration in exchange for assistance transporting it.

However, this is not the crime Mahasa fears most. One of the most difficult things she and other women must do is collect firewood from the bush surrounding the camp; not only is it hard work, it is also "dangerous," she says, because members of the host community often approach and harass female refugees. "They hit us," Mahasa says. “They also take the axe from us."

Tensions between the refugees and the host community have been mounting, largely over increasingly limited resources.

Maple*, an older woman in the camp, and Talitha*, her adult daughter, express similar fears, reporting that both men and women from the host community have hit them with sticks and chased them away as they tried to collect firewood.

"The only way to get the firewood is to hide yourself in order to protect yourself from the host community," Maple said.

Sexual violence

The issue is of growing concern for protection officers working in the four refugees camps of Maban County. Firewood collection "exposes women to humungous risks in terms of sexual violence," one officer working in the camps told IRIN. (Source: IRIN) 

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Short Reflection for the 22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) 

Readings: Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a; Luke 14:1, 7-14.

Selected Passage:  "When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” (Luke 14: 12-13) 

Meditation:  The Gospel is a strong challenge to us and a reminder that the poor and the hungry must have places at our table else we are NO different from the Scribes and the Pharisees. .  If we invite only friends and kinfolks and the wealth and the powerful, we have already received our rewards. So next time we throw a party, we simply ask whether the poor and the crippled are also fed else Cuidate (BEWARE)! Cf. www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD... 

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

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

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

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) - The Narrow Gate

Short Reflection for the 21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Readings: Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30.

Selected Passage: “Someone asked him, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?" He answered them, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” (Luke 13: 23-24)

Meditation:  To enter the Kingdom of God is not a question of strength and merit.  No one is strong enough and neither anyone is meritorious enough to win the Kingdom! It is a GIFT.  But walking along the path of Jesus means to bear fruits. And fruits associated to the lives of Christians are – justice, charity and mercy! So pray for these fruits. Remember that the Kingdom is God’s gratuitous offer to all! Cf. www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

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

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

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

Bapa Jun Mercado, omi

Badaliyya - Philippines

20th Sunday in Ordinary nTime (C)

Short Reflection for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) 

Readings: Jeremiah 38: 4-6, 8-10; Hebrew 12: 1-4; Luke 12: 49-53

Gospel Passage:  "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! (Luke 12: 49-50) 

Meditation:  Jesus spoke of his own Baptism of fire – his suffering, death and resurrection that others may have life.   It is the fire that burns yet purify.  The fire in our life is always the symbol of energy and zeal.  This is our zeal for the kingdom of God manifest in our love of God and Love of neighbors, especially the least. Hold on to that fire else we become a walking dead.  Cf. www.badaliyya.blogspot.com    

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Short Reflection for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Readings: Wisdom 18: 6-9; Hebrew 11: 1-2. 1-12; Luke 12: 32-48

Gospel Passage: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” (Luke 12: 32-34)

Meditation:  The kingdom is given to us for FREE! The gospel’s challenge to us is show that we, truly, treasure the kingdom both in our words and deeds. Our deeds reveal the real treasure in our heart. Work for the treasure that does NOT wear out and NO thief can reach nor moth destroy. cf. www.badaliyya.blogspot.com