Badaliyya

2012-01-25T05:49:00.001+08:00

Folks,
Some time back, I was officiating at the funeral of a young man who had been killed, while drunk, in a motor accident. During the last few years of his life he had been away from the church and had been living, unmarried, with his girl friend. This young man had come from a good and faith-filled family who, despite the fact that his last years had been filled with turbulence and immaturity, loved him very deeply.

Ron Rolheiser, OMI

FALLING INTO GOD'S ARMS

Looking at faces at that funeral, it was evident that there was more than sorrow in them. Fear was present, real fear that this young man whom we all knew, loved, understood, and knew to have a good heart was somehow going to be excluded from heaven and condemned to hell because he had, for a few brief years of adolescence, been mixed up and somewhat irresponsible. Strange and sad that we should be worried that God did not understand. We, with our limited minds and limited hearts, understood. We, with all the fogginess that clouds our understanding, knew that, beneath it all, despite the circumstance of his life and death, he had a good heart, a warm heart, a loving heart that needed just a bit more time and love to burst into charity, chastity and faith.

God is a God of infinite compassion. Even more than this young man's parents, God understood the goodness of this young man's heart. If we, with our limits, can see beyond wound and struggle to a goodness that lies still deeper within a human heart, how much more does God see our goodness, understand our struggles and forgive our weaknesses? If we could believe this, then we would let God walk with us through all the patches of our lives, however dark and perverse. Not believing it leads us to the worst religious mistake of all: We run away from God whenever we need him the most. It is precisely at those times when we have fallen, when we are morally impotent, bankrupt, struggling, and stand, unclean, with our sin on our hands, that we most, like a wounded child need the embrace of a mother or father.

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

2012-01-21T23:02:00.001+08:00

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time  (B)

Readings: Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

Passage: Jesus said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of people." (Mk.1:17)

Reflection: Jesus is inviting us to become his companions and co-workers in building God’s kingdom… Are we willing to pay the prize of discipleship, that is, abandon everything… and heed his call?

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…

2011-12-17T14:19:00.002+08:00

Dhikr for the 4th Week of Advent (B)

Gospel Text: ‘And the angel said to Mary in reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God”. (Luke 1: 35)

Reflection: Jesus comes to us anew through the power of the Holy Spirit… and like Mary, our mother, in events we least expect…

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…

2011-12-10T06:19:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for 3rd Sunday of Advent (B)

Readings: Is. 61: 1-2. 10-11; 1Thes. 5: 16-24; Jn. 1: 6-8. 19-28

Text: He said: "I am 'the voice of one crying out in the desert, "Make straight the way of the Lord,"' * as Isaiah the prophet said." (John 1: 23)

Meditation: The call is to ‘make straight the way of the Lord’. Often, we miss the coming of the Lord into our lives, because of the ‘hardness’ of our hearts… TAKE HEED…!
------

Third Sunday of Advent (B)

Is 61:1-2a, 10-11; 1 Thes 5:16-24; Jn 1:6-8, 19-28

Curiously, like the Synoptic gospel of Mark, the identity of John the Baptizer is established with an attribution to Isaiah. "'I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said" (v.23). Like Mark this appropriation shifts attention from place to person. The passage in Second Isaiah deals not with the identity of the voice but with the significance of the wilderness: "A voice cries out: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God'" (40:3). However in the fourth gospel John the Baptist claims for himself, in the first person, this role of herald in a manner that suggests fulfillment consistent with a more ancient provenance.

Dhikr Prayer 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 2nd Sunday of Advent (B)

2011-12-03T17:44:00.000+08:00

Dhikr for the 2nd Sunday of Advent (B)

(The readings - Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8)

Text: A voice of one crying out in the desert: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'" John (the) Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1: 3-4)

Meditation: Like John the Baptizer we prepare for the coming of the Lord. He comes in events and moments we least expect… And how do we prepare for his coming into our lives…?

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:

• Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
• Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
• 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…

Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

2011-12-03T09:04:00.001+08:00

“Come, Lord Jesus” is a leap into the kind of freedom and surrender that is rightly called the virtue of hope. The theological virtue of hope is the patient and trustful willingness to live without closure, without resolution, and still be content and even happy because our Satisfaction is now at another level, and our Source is beyond ourselves.

We are able to trust that the Lord will come again, just as Jesus has come into our past, into our private dilemmas, and into our suffering world. Our Christian past then becomes our Christian prologue, and “Come, Lord Jesus” is not a cry of desperation but an assured shout of cosmic hope!

Adapted from Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr, p. 5

Advent Longing...

2011-11-30T04:43:00.001+08:00

ADVENT LONGING

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once suggested that peace and justice will come to us when we reach a high enough psychic temperature so as to burn away the things that still hold us apart. In saying this, he was drawing upon a principle in chemistry: Sometimes two elements will simply lie side by side inside a test-tube and not unite until sufficient heat is applied so as to bring them to a high enough temperature where unity can take place. That's wonderful metaphor for advent.

What is advent?  Advent is about getting in touch with our longing. It's about letting our yearnings raise our psychic temperatures so that we are pushed to eventually let down our guard, hope in new ways, and risk intimacy.   John of the Cross has a similar image: Intimacy with God and with each other will only take place, he says, when we reach a certain kindling temperature. For too much of our lives, he suggests, we lie around as damp, green logs inside the fire of love, waiting to come to flame but never bursting into flame because of our dampness.

Before we can burst into flame, we must first dry out and come to kindling temperature. We do that, as does a damp log inside a fire, by first sizzling for a long time in the flames so as to dry out.   

How do we sizzle psychologically and spiritually? For John of the Cross, we do that through the pain of loneliness, restlessness, disquiet, anxiety, frustration, and unrequited desire. In the torment of incompleteness our psychic temperature rises so that eventually we come to kindling temperature and, there, we finally open ourselves to union in new ways. That too is an image for advent.  

Advent is all about loneliness, but loneliness is a complex thing.  Nobel Prize winning author, Toni Morrison describes it this way:  "There is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up, holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship's, smoothes and contains the rocker. It's an inside kind - wrapped tight like skin. Then there is a loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive, on its own. A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one's own feet going seems to come from a far-off place."  

All of us know exactly what she is describing, especially the latter type, the roaming kind of loneliness that haunts the soul and makes us, all too often, too restless to sleep at night and too uncomfortable to be inside our own skins during the day.  And what's the lesson in this? What we learn from loneliness is that we are more than any moment in our lives, more than any situation we are in, more than any humiliation we have experienced, more than any rejection we have endured, and more than all the limits within which we find ourselves. Loneliness and longing take us beyond ourselves.

How?  Thomas Aquinas once taught that we can attain something in one of two ways: through possession or through desire. We like to possess what we love, but that isn't often possible and it has an underside.  Possession is limited, desire is infinite. Possession sets up fences, desire takes down fences. To quote Karl Rahner, only in the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable do we know that we are more than the limits of our bodies, our present relationships, our jobs, our achievements, and the concrete situations within which we live, work, and die.   

Loneliness and longing let us touch, through desire, God's ultimate design for us. In our longing, the mystics tell us, we intuit the kingdom of God. What that means is that in our desires we sense the deeper blueprint for things. And what is that?  

Scripture tells us that the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, of simple bodily pleasure, but a coming together in justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, that is what we ache for in our loneliness and longing: consummation, oneness, intimacy, completeness, harmony, peace, and justice.

Sometimes, of course, in our fantasies and daydreams that isn't so evident. God's kingdom seems something much loftier and more holy than what we often long for - sex, revenge, fame, power, glory, pleasure. However even in these fantasies, be they ever so crass, there is present always a deeper desire, for justice, for peace, for joy, for oneness in Christ.   

Our loneliness and longing are a hunger and an energy that drive us, always, beyond the present moment. In them we do intuit the kingdom of God.  Advent is about longing, about getting in touch with it, about heightening it, about letting it raise our psychic temperatures, about sizzling as damp, green logs inside the fires of intimacy, about intuiting the kingdom of God by seeing, through desire, what the world might look like if a Messiah were to come and, with us, establish justice, peace, and unity on this earth.   
(Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI)

The Feast of Christ the King (A)

2011-11-19T17:24:00.000+08:00

Dhikr for the Feast of Christ the King Sunday (A)

Text: 37Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” 40And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,* you did it to me.” (Matthew 25: 37-40)

Meditation: The final judgment in Matthew is based on what we have done or what we have failed to do for one another, especially to one of the least of these who are members of my family. CUIDATE!

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.

Finding our loved ones after their deaths...

2011-11-04T11:48:00.000+08:00

FINDING OUR LOVED ONES AFTER THEIR DEATHS

2004-11-21

As Christians, we believe in the "communion of saints". We believe that those who have died are not only still alive but that they are, as well, still in a real relationship with us.

But how? How do we find our loved ones after they have died?

It is interesting to note that Christianity, unlike some other religions, has never had a significant cult around dead bodies or cemeteries. We respect them, reverence them, but we do not try to mummify our dead (as the ancient Egyptians did) nor do we have much in the way of special ceremonies or religious rituals around cemeteries. There's a reason for that.

On Easter Sunday morning, Mary Magdala and some other women, armed with spices in view of embalming his dead body, went Jesus' grave. But they didn't find him there, instead they found an angel who (in effect) asked them: "Why are you looking in a cemetery for someone who is alive?" "He's not here," the angel added, "go instead to Galilee and he will meet you there."

That instruction is still valid today: When we are looking to meet our loved ones who have died we will find them in "Galilee" more so than in any cemetery. Where and what is "Galilee"?

Galilee, for Mary Magdala and the contemporaries of Jesus, was more than a place on a map, the Northern-part of Israel. It was also, and especially, the place where Jesus' spirit had flourished, the place they had first met him, the place of his key miracles, and the place where their own spirits had been stretched, enlarged, and warmed by contact with him. Galilee represented the place of their innocence, their first fervour, their initial learning, their first falling in love. Now, after Jesus' death, they were being asked to go back to that place as the privileged spot where Jesus would meet them again.

And our faith says the same thing to us: Like Mary Magdala and the early Christian believers, we can meet our deceased loved ones by going back to "Galilee", namely, by going to those places where their spirits flourished and where our own spirits were instructed, stretched, and warmed by contact with them. What, practically, does that mean? Allow me an example:

My own parents died thirty years ago and are now buried, side by side, in a little cemetery in the rural countryside where I grew up. Sometimes when I'm home, I visit their graves, say a few prayers there, and remind myself of what each of them gave me. It's nice, but it's not where I really meet my mother and father. I meet them, more deeply, in "Galilee", that is, in those places where their souls most flourished and where they took God's boundless, beautiful, colourful, life-giving energy and enfleshed it.

For example: My mother was a woman of great generosity, kind- hearted and selfless to a fault. When I go to that place, when I'm generous and kind-hearted, I feel my mother's laugh, sense her consolation, and find myself again warmed by her warmth. Conversely, at those times when I'm petty and selfish it does me little good to adorn her grave with flowers or prayers. She's there too, of course, like God's presence, faithful when we're unfaithful, but, when I'm not in her "Galilee", it's harder for her to meet me and give me what she once gave me as my mother.

It's the same with my father: His great quality was his integrity, his moral stubbornness, his refusal to compromise, his unrelenting insistence that one should always take the high road, the one less- travelled. When I prove myself his son in this, I feel his presence, his humour, his intelligence, his solid hand on my shoulder, his trustworthiness. Conversely, when I make moral compromises, he's still present, but his humour, intelligence, and trustworthy hand, can no longer nurture me in the same way.

There's both a deep truth and deep challenge in the words the angel spoke to Mary Magdala on Easter morning: "Why are you looking for a living person in a cemetery. He's not here. Go instead to Galilee and he will meet you there."

Where do we find our loved ones after they have died? Where will others find us after we have died? In "Galilee", in those places where we most give our own unique expression to God's boundless energy.

We should honour our dead and honour the cemeteries where their bodies now rest, but we meet our deceased in "Galilee", in those places where their spirits flourished and where our own souls were stretched and instructed and warmed in our contact with them. More than honouring their graves, we need to honour their lives, we need to honour the wonderful energy that they uniquely incarnated and which, in turn, nurtured, instructed, stretched, cajoled, consoled, warmed, teased, humoured, steadied, and blessed us.

When we do that our relationship with them does not just continue, it deepens.

(Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI)

Communion of Saints

2011-10-30T09:17:00.000+08:00

PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS

One of our wonderful Christian doctrines is our belief in the communion of the saints. To believe in the communion of saints is to believe that we can still tend to unfinished business in our relationships, even after death. We can still talk to those who have died and say the words of love, forgiveness, gratitude, and regret that ideally we should have spoken earlier.

All of us have experienced situations where, inside of a family, a friendship circle, community, or group of colleagues, a bitter difference grows up and festers so that eventually there is an unresolvable tension. Things have happened that can no longer be undone. Then someone in the family or community dies and that death changes everything.

In a strange way the death brings with it a peace, a clarity, and a charity which, prior to it, were not possible. Why is this? It's not simply because the death has changed the chemistry of the group or because, the source of the tension or bitterness has died. It happens because, as Luke teaches in his Passion narrative, death can wash things clean. Death releases forgiveness, in the same way as Jesus forgave the good thief upon the cross as he died.   

This can be an immense consolation to us. What we can't bring to wholeness in this life can, if we are attentive to the communion of saints, be completed afterwards. We still have communication, privileged communication, with our loved ones after death. Among the marvels of that lies the fact that we still have a chance to fix the things, after death, that we were powerless to mend before death took a loved one away.

(Source: Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI)

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

2011-10-22T10:21:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 30th Sunday of the Ordinary Time (A)

Text: "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:36-40)

Meditation: The Love of God and Love of Neighbor remain the basic ethical measure of our words, thoughts and actions. We should not behave and think like the Pharisees and Scribes who multiply laws yet are lacking in the real measure that counts…

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

Dhikr is an Arabic word which means REMEMBRANCE.
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.

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

2011-10-15T16:45:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 29th Sunday of the Ordinary Time (A)

Text: He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?" They replied, "Caesar's." At that he said to them, "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." (Matthew 22: 20-21)

Meditation: The usual distinction of what is God’s and Caesar’s usually comes to mind with the above passages. But the real challenge posed by the Gospel is to discern God’s will in our life and act truthfully according to His will…

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

Dhikr is an Arabic word which means REMEMBRANCE.
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.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

2011-10-08T07:28:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 28th Sunday of the Ordinary Time (A)

Text: 'The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.' (Matthew 22: 8-9)

Meditation: The Parable tells us of God’s invitation to ALL! One caveat though… we are so busy with so many things thus finding ourselves NOT WORTHY TO COME… BEWARE!

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

Dhikr is an Arabic word which means REMEMBRANCE.
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.

A Prodigal God

2011-10-08T06:44:00.001+08:00

A PRODIGAL GOD
by Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
2006-04-30

A couple of years ago, Barbara Kingsolver wrote a book entitled Prodigal Summer. It tells the story of young woman who got pregnant during a summer within which everything seemed to be dangerously fertile. From the plants, through the insects, through the animals, to the people, everything seemed to be teeming with fecundity, overactive, overabundant in seed. Life seemed to be bursting forth everywhere. The title of the book is good metaphor for what she describes, a summer overabundant in fertility.

Nature is like that, teeming with everything, prodigal, fertile, overabundant, wasteful. Why else do we have 90% more brain cells than we need and why else is nature scattering billions of seeds, of virtually everything, all over the planet every second?

And if life is so prodigal, what does this say about God, its author?

God, as we see in both nature and in scripture (and know from experience), is over-generous, over-lavish, over-extravagant, over- prodigious, over-rich, and over-patient. If nature, scripture, and experience are to be believed, God is the absolute antithesis of everything that is stingy, miserly, frugal, narrowly calculating, or sparing in what it doles out. God is prodigal.

Dictionaries define "prodigal" as "wastefully extravagant and lavishly abundant." That certainly describes the God that Jesus incarnates and reveals.

We see this in the parable of the Sower. God, the sower, goes out to sow and he scatters his seed generously, almost wastefully, everywhere - on the road, among the rocks, among the thorns, on bad soil, and on rich soil. No farmer would ever do this. Who would waste seed on soil that can never produce a harvest? God, it seems, doesn't ask that question but simply keeps scattering his seed everywhere, over-generously, without calculating whether it is a good investment or not in terms of return. And, it seems, God has an infinite number of seeds to scatter, perpetually, everywhere. God is prodigious beyond imagination.

Among other things, this speaks of God's infinite riches, love, and patience. For us, there is both a huge challenge and a huge consolation in that. The challenge, of course, is to respond to the infinite number of invitations that God scatters on our path from minute to minute. The consolation is that, no matter how many of God's invitations we ignore, there will always be an infinite number of others. No matter how many we've already ignored or turned down, there are new ones awaiting us each minute. When we've gone through 39 days of lent without praying or changing our lives, there's still a 40th day to respond. When we've ignored a thousand invitations, there's still another one waiting. God is prodigal, so are the chances God gives us.

Sr. Margaret Halaska once captured this wonderfully in a poem she entitled, Covenant:

The Father knocks at my door, seeking a home for his son:
Rent is cheap, I say
I don't want to rent. I want to buy, says God.
I'm not sure I want to sell,
but you might come in to look around.
I think I will, says God.
I might let you have a room or two.
I like it, says God. I'll take the two.
You might decide to give me more some day.
I can wait, says God.
I'd like to give you more,
but it's a bit difficult. I need some space for me.
I know, says God, but I'll wait. I like what I see.
Hm, maybe I can let you have another room.
I really don't need that much.
Thanks, says God, I'll take it. I like what I see.
I'd like to give you the whole house
but I'm not sure -
Think on it, says God. I wouldn't put you out.
Your house would be mine and my son would live in it.
You'd have more space than you'd ever had before.
I don't understand at all.
I know, says God, but I can't tell you about that.
You'll have to discover it for yourself.
That can only happen if you let him have the whole house.
A bit risky, I say.
Yes, says God, but try me.

I'm not sure -
I'll let you know.

I can wait, says God. I like what I see.

If we look back on our lives and are truly honest, we have to admit that of all the invitations that God has sent us, we've probably accepted and acted on only a fraction of them. There have been countless times we've turned away from an invitation. For every invitation to maturity we've accepted, we've probably turned down a hundred. But that's the beauty and wonder of God's richness. God is not a petty creator and creation, itself, is not a cheap machine with barely enough energy and resources to keep it going. God and nature are prodigal. That's plain everywhere. Millions and millions of life-giving seeds blow everywhere in the world and we need only to pick up a few to become pregnant, fecund, capable of newness, maturity, and of producing life.

The God who embraced me...

2011-09-05T05:44:00.000+08:00

The God Who Embraced Me
by John W. Fountain

“It wasn't until many years later, standing over my father's grave for a long overdue conversation, that my tears flowed. I told him about the man I had become.”

I believe in God. Not that cosmic, intangible spirit-in-the-sky that Mama told me as a little boy "always was and always will be." But the God who embraced me when Daddy disappeared from our lives -- from my life at age four -- the night police led him away from our front door, down the stairs in handcuffs.

The God who warmed me when we could see our breath inside our freezing apartment, where the gas was disconnected in the dead of another wind-whipped Chicago winter, and there was no food, little hope and no hot water.

The God who held my hand when I witnessed boys in my 'hood swallowed by the elements, by death and by hopelessness; who claimed me when I felt like "no-man's son," amid the absence of any man to wrap his arms around me and tell me, "everything's going to be okay," to speak proudly of me, to call me son.

I believe in God, God the Father, embodied in his Son Jesus Christ. The God who allowed me to feel His presence -- whether by the warmth that filled my belly like hot chocolate on a cold afternoon, or that voice, whenever I found myself in the tempest of life's storms, telling me (even when I was told I was "nothing") that I was something, that I was His, and that even amid the desertion of the man who gave me his name and DNA and little else, I might find in Him sustenance.

I believe in God, the God who I have come to know as father, as Abba -- Daddy.
I always envied boys I saw walking hand-in-hand with their fathers. I thirsted for the conversations fathers and sons have about the birds and the bees, or about nothing at all -- simply feeling his breath, heartbeat, presence. As a boy, I used to sit on the front porch watching the cars roll by, imagining that one day one would park and the man getting out would be my daddy. But it never happened.

When I was 18, I could find no tears that Alabama winter's evening in January 1979 as I stood finally -- face to face -- with my father lying cold in a casket, his eyes sealed, his heart no longer beating, his breath forever stilled. Killed in a car accident, he died drunk, leaving me hobbled by the sorrow of years of fatherlessness.

By then, it had been years since Mama had summoned the police to our apartment that night, fearing that Daddy might hurt her -- hit her -- again. Finally, his alcoholism consumed what good there was of him until it swallowed him whole.

It wasn't until many years later, standing over my father's grave for a long overdue conversation, that my tears flowed. I told him about the man I had become. I told him about how much I wished he had been in my life. And I realized fully that in his absence, I had found another. Or that He -- God, the Father, God, my Father -- had found me.

(From: All Things Considered, November 28, 2005)

A Consistent Ethic of Life

2011-08-01T17:34:00.001+08:00

A CONSISTENT ETHIC OF LIFE

The late Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago was the first to publicly call for a “consistent ethic of life” in the late 1970s. He made it clear that until the church starts being honest and defending all life from beginning to end, it cannot call itself “pro-life.” Otherwise, the very moral principle falls apart. All policies that needlessly destroy life—abortion, war, capital punishment, euthanasia, and the selfish destruction of the earth and its creatures—are all anti-life and against the fifth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.”

As you can see, we have a lot of time to make up for, and a lot of moral maturing to do before we can match the clear nonviolent teaching and example of Jesus himself (see Matthew 5:38-48).

So we not only need to be consistent between individual morality and social morality, but we need to be consistent between all of the various life issues. It is a “seamless garment,” as Cardinal Bernardin brilliantly called it. Such a theology has teeth and real authority behind it and does not just pander to the cultural values of either the Left or the Right. Like the Gospel itself, it challenges both sides and pleases nobody.

(Adapted from Richard Rohr's Spiral of Violence: The World, the Flesh, and the Devil)

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

2011-07-30T08:00:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Text: “There is no need for them to disperse. Give them something to eat yourselves.” (Mt. 14: 16)

Meditation: CHARITY AND SHARING ARE NOT CARRIED OUT BY PROXY. WE LIVE & DO THEM OURSELVES…

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.

‘Hanggang sorry na lang ba ’yan?’

2011-07-15T18:17:00.000+08:00

‘Hanggang sorry na lang ba ’yan?’

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

2011-07-02T08:57:00.000+08:00

Dhikr for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Text: “… hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children." (Mt. 11 25)

Meditation: The knowledge and the experience of God are gifts… We continue to pray for this gift…

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
1st step: Write the Dhikr in your heart.
2nd step: Let the Dhikr remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the dihkr silently as often as possible...
3rd step: Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the Dhikr in your life.

The Feast of Corpus Christi

2011-06-26T07:10:00.001+08:00

What signs would convince other people that we are the Body of Christ? St. Paul speaks of we becoming “one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread" (1 Corinthians 10:17).

When the rich are not sharing with the poor, nor are the vulnerable being assisted. The deepest meaning of the Eucharist is denied!

St. Paul challenges us to become the food we partake: the Body of Christ.

The Risen Lord Breathes on the Disciples...

2011-06-12T03:11:00.001+08:00

The Risen Lord breathes on them...

The Gospel of John (19:20-23) describes another way the Holy Spirit is given to the apostles: the risen Jesus breathing on the apostles to impart the Holy Spirit.

The power of the Spirit not only authorizes, but also empowers the apostles to forgive and to retain sins.

Jesus formally sends out to the world his apostles, as he had been sent to the world by the Father.

Jesus' breathing on the apostles huddled in the Upper Room recalls Genesis 2:7, where God breathed on the first man and gave him life; just as Adam's life came from God, so now the disciples' new spiritual life comes from Jesus.

(Source: Fr. Rosica, CSB)

The God who embraced me...

2011-06-10T16:32:00.001+08:00

Folks,
Peace!
Simply sharing this short story below as we prepare for the Feast of Pentecost,...
Jun Mercado, OMI
----
The God Who Embraced Me
by John W. Fountain

“It wasn't until many years later, standing over my father's grave for a long overdue conversation that my tears flowed. I told him about the man I had become.”

I believe in God. Not that cosmic, intangible spirit-in-the-sky that Mama told me as a little boy "always was and always will be." But the God who embraced me when Daddy disappeared from our lives -- from my life at age four -- the night police led him away from our front door, down the stairs in handcuffs.

The God who warmed me when we could see our breath inside our freezing apartment, where the gas was disconnected in the dead of another wind-whipped Chicago winter, and there was no food, little hope and no hot water.

The God who held my hand when I witnessed boys in my 'hood swallowed by the elements, by death and by hopelessness; who claimed me when I felt like "no-man's son," amid the absence of any man to wrap his arms around me and tell me, "everything's going to be okay," to speak proudly of me, to call me son.

I believe in God, God the Father, embodied in his Son Jesus Christ. The God who allowed me to feel His presence -- whether by the warmth that filled my belly like hot chocolate on a cold afternoon, or that voice, whenever I found myself in the tempest of life's storms, telling me (even when I was told I was "nothing") that I was something, that I was His, and that even amid the desertion of the man who gave me his name and DNA and little else, I might find in Him sustenance.

I believe in God, the God who I have come to know as father, as Abba -- Daddy.
I always envied boys I saw walking hand-in-hand with their fathers. I thirsted for the conversations fathers and sons have about the birds and the bees, or about nothing at all -- simply feeling his breath, heartbeat, presence. As a boy, I used to sit on the front porch watching the cars roll by, imagining that one day one would park and the man getting out would be my daddy. But it never happened.

When I was 18, I could find no tears that Alabama winter's evening in January 1979 as I stood finally -- face to face -- with my father lying cold in a casket, his eyes sealed, his heart no longer beating, his breath forever stilled. Killed in a car accident, he died drunk, leaving me hobbled by the sorrow of years of fatherlessness.

By then, it had been years since Mama had summoned the police to our apartment that night, fearing that Daddy might hurt her -- hit her -- again. Finally, his alcoholism consumed what good there was of him until it swallowed him whole.

It wasn't until many years later, standing over my father's grave for a long overdue conversation that my tears flowed. I told him about the man I had become. I told him about how much I wished he had been in my life. And I realized fully that in his absence, I had found another. Or that He -- God, the Father, God, my Father -- had found me.

Source: All Things Considered, November 28, 2005

The Feast of the Pentecost

2011-06-10T15:27:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for Pentecost Sunday (B)

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 that makes us sons and daughters of God and empowers us to call God – Abba!

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 Cosmic Christ

2011-06-06T11:31:00.000+08:00

THE COSMIC CHRIST

Christ is not Jesus’ last name. Christ is a much more inclusive title, which we so consistently tack onto the name Jesus that we think Jesus Christ is his full name! There is a wonderful and correct phraseology in Peter's first sermon after the Pentecost event; he says "God has made this Jesus whom you crucified into the Christ" (Acts 2:36). That would probably be the correct way of starting to understand what we mean by the Cosmic Christ. Most of us have believed in Jesus, but we have not necessarily believed in Christ.

When we believe in Jesus CHRIST, we believe in something much bigger than just the historical Jesus. The entire sweep of meaning of “The Christ” includes ourselves as the Body of Christ, and all of creation too (Ephesians 1:10, Colossians 1:16). Many people have a personal relationship with Jesus, but have almost no relationship with what we had relationship with—which is the full Christ Mystery! Maybe this is the major reason that so much Christianity is so individualistic and sometimes even petty. We know and love Jesus but not Christ.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, OFM' s The Cosmic Christ (CD/MP3)

6th Sunday in Easter (B)

2011-05-28T15:41:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 6th Sunday of Easter (B)

[The readings for the 6th Sunday of Easter are Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21]

Text: "If you love me you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever" (John 14:15).

Meditation: Jesus identifies the new Advocate (paraclete) as the Spirit of truth, unknown to the world but an abiding presence within the disciples (John 14:17). This then is the foundation of our trust in the guidance of the Spirit.Visit www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

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 Good Shepherd

2011-05-14T11:39:00.000+08:00

Dhikr for the 4th Sunday of Easter (B)

Text: “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)

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

Visit www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

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…

3rd Sunday of Easter (B)

2011-05-06T10:17:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 3rd Sunday of Easter (B)

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: 45-48)

Meditation: We are, indeed, witnesses of repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of the Risen Lord. Two words to characterize our life: MERCY and COMPASSION!

Visit www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

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…

Blessed John Paul II

2011-04-30T13:50:00.001+08:00

Blessed John Paul II
by Fr. Jun Mercado, OMI

On May 1st, the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Pope Benedict XVI presides at the Beatification of his predecessor, Karol Józef Wojtyła, also known as John Paul II since his October 1978 election to the papacy.

I was a young priest in the year 1978 when over the radio I heard the election of the first non-Italian pope since the Dutch Pope Adrian VI who died in 1523. I thought that it was a miracle to have a Pope from the area in Eastern Europe that was previously known as behind the ‘Iron Curtain’.

I had my studies in Rome and I had quite a number of Polish schoolmates and friends. My close associations with Poles made me look at the ‘miracle’ with a guarded welcome. The Polish students at the Gregorian University were noted for being ultra conservatives and anti anything that was of ‘red’ or even slightly red color. To make me really fearful, the man was a graduate of the next-door university, the Angelicum – the ‘bastion’ of Thomism in Rome.

Yet, Pope John Paul II also attracted me immensely to the chagrin of my many confreres. Personally, I found the man’s powerful attraction irresistible! He was like a magnet that drew people to him notwithstanding your disagreement with the man and his views.

I was in Rome for three periods of my life and the two periods belonged to the Pontificate of John Paul II. I was drawn to the services he publicly celebrated, particularly Christmas and Holy Week celebrations including the Station of the Cross at the Coliseum. The celebrations were like ‘magic’ and people remained glued to the magnet to the end of the ceremonies. This alone was a miracle, at least, for me that looked at long rituals in Rome with Federico Fellini’s eyes for the ‘hilarious’ the ‘irony’ and the ‘comedy’.

I was on my way home from classes riding in an overcrowded autobus no. 64 towards the Vatican when the news that Pope John Paul II was shot at St. Peter’s Square on the 13th May 1981 (the feast of Our lady of Fatima). The crowd was all over the streets and the sirens were howling no end as the pope was rushed to the hospital.

The people were stunned and speechless and the traffic stopped! I got out and walked towards St. Peter's Square where a good crowd was praying for the safety of the Pope. Then the crowd moved to the Gemelli Hospital where they stood in prayers and vigil while the doctors operated on the Pope. This was his second miracle. I had witnessed it and I believed!

There were many things that I had disagreed passionately with Pope John Paul II. But there were also many things that endeared him to me in a very special way.

The first was his contagious passion for inter-religious dialogue putting emphasis on prayers. In 1986, he invited all religious leaders to come to Assisi and pray for peace and harmony among the followers and leaders of world’s religions. I thought then that this initiative was either ‘Quixotic’ or ‘earthshaking’ since the call to dialogue and prayer was given in the context of growing fissures between and among religions and their followers.

Pope John Paul with no embarrassment and fear visited and prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. His many visits to synagogues and mosques as well as Cathedrals and churches of Orthodox Christianity and other Christian communities not aligned with Rome showed the passion of the man for dialogue, peace and harmony.

Towards the end of his life, he visited Syria in 2001 where he went to the great Ummayyad Mosque and said: "For all the times that Muslims and Christians have offended one another, we need to seek forgiveness from the Almighty and to offer each other forgiveness." His dream was to see leaders of religions lead all believers, especially the youth, towards partnership in building a new humanity and a new world for all. For believers, he said: “peace is NOT an option but a duty”.

Pope John Paul II was also known for his moving social encyclicals (the ‘Catholic Church’s best kept secrets’).

His experiential knowledge of Marxism made him capture the contemporary understanding of human work. The encyclical, ‘Laborem Exercens’ (on Human Work) was issued as early as 1981 on the 90th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (the 1st social encyclical that dealt on the relations of labor and capital and the rights of workers).

Then in 1987, he issued yet another social encyclical, Solicitudo Rei Socialis (on Social Concerns celebrating the 20th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s Populorum Progressio expounding on the social concerns of the Church through SOLIDARITY among peoples and nations in forging new social order).

Then on Labor Day (May 1st) 1991, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Pope John Paul II issued his 3rd social encyclical entitled Centesimus Annus (the hundredth year of celebrating labor, the rights of workers and their dignity as sons and daughters of God).

Many times, I was asked in Rome, why I was attracted to Pope John Paul II. I usually gave three answers: first was JP II’s passion for dialogue and peace among leaders of religions and all believers; 2nd, JP II’s appreciation and love for the poor and labor; and 3rd, for JP’s passion for the youth – the FUTURE of humankind.

Pope John Paul II began the World Youth Day in 1984. Though world youth day is celebrated annually, the ‘big bang’ happens every four years. This passion brought him to the Philippines for the second time.

In 1995, the Manila World Youth Day gathered a crowd of over five million people – by far the largest gathering of Christians in the World. The Pope danced, prayed and sang with millions in a festival of faith and love.

To many Filipinos, this singular event is, forever, etched in their minds and memory. In a very special way, for the millions of Filipino devotees, Pope JP II was ‘beatified’ on that day at the Luneta.

The 3rd period of my stay in Rome was when Pope John Paul II was aged and sick (2003-2006). The man was frail, sickly and slow in his speech. It was difficult to follow the man as he continued to keep his schedule. Yet, Pope JP II remained a magnet to the very end. His drawing power and the force of his will were undiminished notwithstanding the many ‘fumblings’ of the body and the tongue. He was, to the end, a towering witness of belief and trust in God.

The long vigils at St. Peter’s Square as the lamp burned in his private apartment while he waited for the final call was a moving testimony (not seen before) of people who believed in the man for who he was and for what he did. And when he breathed his last, the people also breathed with relief as the man of God returned to his maker.

May 1st, 2011, barely six years after his death, the Catholic Church, in a special ceremony at St. Peter’s, publicly acclaims Pope John Paul II BLESSED! MABUHAY!

Easter Sunday (B)

2011-04-23T16:19:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for Easter Sunday (B)

"Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth. who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him." (Mark 16: 6)

Jesus is, truly, Risen! Alleluia! With Jesus' resurrection we have the guarantee that, in the end, good shall prevail over evil; life over death; and grace over sin!

Easter Blessings to one and all!

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…

Jesus is, truly, RISEN! Alleluia!

2011-04-23T13:29:00.000+08:00

In Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection, our God is revealed…

Our God is NOT the all powerful one, but the God who loves and who is willing to pay the price that we may have life.

Our God is NOT the all victorious one, but the God who is courageous to rise up in every fall and always ready to pick up the pieces and begin anew.

Our God is the bread broken and shared and the blood shed to free us from the tyranny of sin and the evil in our heart.

Our God brings to fulfillment the covenant established with us… God’s fidelity endues for thousands of generations.

Go and tell the whole world, the Good News that Jesus who died for us is truly RISEN! Alleluia!

Happy Easter to one and all!!!

The Crucified Lord

2011-04-19T13:35:00.001+08:00

God in Jesus became the crucified so we would stop crucifying. He became the crucified, who refused to crucify back, and thus stopped the universal pattern of death.

As Sebastian Moore said many years ago, “the crucified Jesus is no stranger,” he is no stranger to anyone who has lived and loved, no stranger to the universal experience of suffering, despair, and loneliness. In that, he saves us.

(Adated fromHope Against Darkness, p. 37)

The Passion of Christ

2011-04-17T04:43:00.001+08:00

The suffering of Jesus shows us that God is not distanced from humanity’s trials. Our Creator does not heal our suffering from afar but participates with us in it. In fact, the great revelation signified in Jesus is not only that God participates in our suffering, but also that our suffering has life-giving elements for the good of humanity (Ephesians 4:23-24).

The primary story line of history has been one of “redemptive violence”; the killing of others would supposedly save and protect us. Jesus introduced and lived a new story line of “redemptive suffering”; our suffering for others and for the world makes a difference in the greater scheme. No love is lost in the universe, but it is building up and helping to re-create the world.

(Adapted from Richard Rohr's On the Threshold of Transformation: Daily Meditations for Men,
p. 351, day 340)

Passion Sunday (A)

2011-04-16T13:49:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for Palm Sunday (A): The Passion according to Matthew

Text: Then one of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over. (Matthew 26: 14-16)

Meditation: The drama of the Passion raises several questions for our reflection… One is the betrayal of Jesus by his friend, Judas Iscariot. We, too, have betrayed the Lord… and often for less than 30 pieces of silver…!

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.

Spirituality of Subtraction

2011-04-12T04:59:00.000+08:00

The notion of a spirituality of subtraction comes from Meister Eckhart (c.1260 -1327), the medieval Dominican mystic. He said the spiritual life has much more to do with subtraction than it does with addition. Yet I think most believers today are involved in great part in a spirituality of addition.

We add more things to our life as we grow older... A good rule to follow is to divest yourself of anything (like clothing, boxes and even jewelry and other decorations) that is NOT in use for at least two years.

Give them away and share them with people who can still use them!

Next time you open your closet, stock rooms and office tables, remember that the simple mathematics in Spirituality is SUBTRACTION!

Wisdom as we grow in years....

2011-04-11T19:49:00.000+08:00

As we grow in years, we should become more nuanced and subtle. We learn how to recognize our own demons. We don’t let them fool us anymore about what’s going on. We also learn to trust our own angels, and allow them to lead, and heal, and guide.

Inner experience and inner authority begin to balance out an exclusive reliance upon what the Spirit tells us. God does not want robots, but free and conscious lovers.

(Adapted from On the Threshold of Transformation: Daily Meditations for Men, p. 299, day 290)

5th Sunday of Lent (A)

2011-04-09T06:04:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 5th Sunday of Lent (A): The Raising of Lazarus

Text: And when Jesus had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" (John 11: 43)

Meditation: The drama of raising Lazarus from the dead confronts us anew of the same question asked of Marta and Mary… "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

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.

Falling Upward

2011-04-05T09:53:00.001+08:00

FALLING UPWARD

The soul has many secrets. They are only revealed to those who want them, and are never completely forced upon us. One of the best-kept secrets, and yet one hidden in plain sight, is that the way up is the way down. Or, if you prefer, the way down is the way up….

In Scripture, we see that the wrestling and wounding of Jacob are necessary for Jacob to become Israel (Genesis 32:26-32), and the death and resurrection of Jesus are necessary to create Christianity. The loss and renewal pattern is so constant and ubiquitous that it should hardly be called a secret at all.

Yet it is still a secret, probably because we do not want to see it. We do not want to embark on a further journey [the second half of life] if it feels like going down, especially after having put so much sound and fury into going up [the first half of life]. This is surely the first and primary reason why many people never get to the fullness of their own lives.

(From Richard Rohr, OFM's Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life pp. xviii-xix)

God's Presence

2011-04-02T16:24:00.000+08:00

When we go into the Presence, we find someone not against us, but someone who is definitely for us! The saints report, “Someone else is holding me.” “Someone is believing in me.” That’s what people who pray always say. “Someone is for me more than I am for myself.” “Someone is with me more than I am with myself.” Meister Eckhart, the medieval Dominican mystic (c. 1260-1327) says, “God is closer to me than I am to myself.” The great ones are in agreement: the mystical Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Hindus—at that level the language is the same. God is a lover.

Prayer is being loved at a deep, sweet level. I hope you have felt such intimacy alone with God. I promise it is available to you. Maybe a lot of us just need to be told that it is what we should expect and seek. We’re afraid to ask for it; we’re afraid to seek. It feels presumptuous. We can’t trust that such a love exists. But it does!

(From Everything Belongs, pp. 134-135)

4th Sunday in Lent (A)

2011-04-02T11:24:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 4th Sunday of Lent (A): The Blind Man of Siloam

Text: Then Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind." (John 9: 39)

Meditation: Jesus Christ becomes the lens for seeing and not seeing… Through him we do see/not see the poor, the needy, and the injustice and the wrong against neighbors. Lent is a season for seeing…

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.

A Quest for God and Identity...

2011-03-26T15:57:00.000+08:00

We can begin to understand the bigger story we are a part of when we engage with the unique Christian sense of time, process, and journey. This perception is presented beautifully in the Grail quest; it’s the story of a young man searching for God and himself. Through ongoing trials and temptations, the young man pushes toward God, almost without knowing it. God leads him forward through family, failure, violence, visitors, betrayal, sexuality, nature, shadow, and vision. God comes to him “disguised as his life” [as Paula D’Arcy likes to say].

Everything on this journey is necessary and grace-filled. For the man on the quest, the universe becomes enchanting—an effect that good religion accomplishes. There are no dead ends, no wasted time, no useless characters or meaningless happenings. All has meaning, and God is in all things waiting to speak and to bless. Everything belongs once we are on our real quest and asking the right questions.

(Adapted from Richard Rohr's On the Threshold of Transformation, p. 9, day 7)

3rd Sunday of Lent (A)

2011-03-26T15:27:00.000+08:00

Dhikr for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (A): The Samaritan Woman

Text: "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4: 13-14)

Meditation: We have drunk of the well of Jesus… We shall never be thirsty again and that water in us will become a spring welling up to eternal life!

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.

Grace is Everywhere

2011-03-22T22:52:00.000+08:00

According to a certain theology, when we sin we are punished, and when we are good we are rewarded. This makes sense. But it isn’t what the sages, saints, or Scriptures tell us about God. This “theology” is designed to urge us to save ourselves, and unfortunately this is the theology that many people live by: we get back as good as we give to God. This means that our salvation depends totally on us and on our ability to become perfect, or at least good. Thank God, it’s not true.

This is not what Jesus teaches us. It’s much truer to say that our weakness and brokenness bring us to God—exactly the opposite of what most of us believe. It can take a lifetime, even with grace, to accept such a paradox. Grace creates the very emptiness that grace alone can fill.

St. Paul stated this with elegant concision: “’For power is made perfect in weakness.’. . . For whenever I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Adapted from Richard Rohr, OFM's On the Threshold of Transformation, p. 235, day 226

2nd Sunday of Lent (A)

2011-03-19T14:24:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 2nd Sunday of Lent (A): Jesus is transfigured!

Text: “And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.’ (Matthew 17: 2-3)

Meditation: In the following of Jesus, we, too, are called to be transfigured… NOT as dramatic as Jesus… but equally true – lives transformed unto the image and likeness of God!

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.

9th Sunday inOrdinary Time (A)

2011-03-05T11:33:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 9th Sunday in the Ordinary Time (A)

Text: Jesus said to his disciples: ‘not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father in heaven’. (Mt. 7: 21)

Meditation: Our deeds proclaim our values! We build life on rock meaning to base life and hope on things that are solid, and enduring. We build our house on values and things that will not be carried away with the winds of the times.

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.

An Invitation to a further journey...

2011-02-26T19:49:00.001+08:00

No one goes into their spiritual maturity completely of their own accord, or by a totally free choice. We are led by Mystery, which religious people rightly call grace. Most of us have to be cajoled, seduced, or fall into it by some kind of “transgression,” believe it or not, like Jacob finding his birthright through cunning, and Esau losing his by failure (Genesis 27).

If one walks the full and entire journey, such people are considered “called” or “chosen” in the Bible, perhaps “fated” or “destined” in world mythology and literature. But always they are the ones who have heard some deep invitation to “something more,” and who have set out to find it by both grace and daring. Most get little reassurance from others, or even have full confidence that they are totally right. Setting out is always a leap of faith, a risk in the deepest sense of the term, and yet an adventure, too.

(From Richard Rohr, OFM. Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, pp. xvii, xviii, xix)

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

2011-02-26T08:49:00.000+08:00

Dhikr for the 8th Sunday in the Ordinary Time (A)

Text: "Consider the sparrow, they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds. Consider the lilies how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these" (Mt. 6: 27-28).

Meditation: If God takes such care of the birds in the air, and ensures their feeding, and sees to it that the lilies of the field are magnificently adorned, how much more then will our heavenly Father take pains to see that the disciples shall not go wanting, since they are more precious in the divine sight than the birds of air and the flowers of the field? 

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.

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

2011-02-18T18:37:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 7th Sunday in the ordinary Time (A)

Text: “If you love those who love you, what merit is there in that? Do not tax collectors do as much? And if you greet your brothers only, what is so praiseworthy about that? Do not pagans do as much?” (Mt. 5: 46-47)

Meditation: The Christian discipleship consists in doing more… in walking the extra mile and in giving not only our shirt but our cloak as well!

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.

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

2011-02-12T21:06:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 6th Sunday in the Ordinary Time (A)

Text: "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment" (Matthew 5:21-22).

Meditation: The Christian disciple consists in the victory over anger, resentment and ill will. The challenge is to go beyond the prescription of the letters of the law, among which is that of not killing.

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.

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

2011-02-05T13:14:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 5th Sunday in the ordinary Time (A)

Text: "You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Mt. 5: 13)

Meditation: The gospel passage reminds us that we are called to give TASTE and flavor to the lives of others. We bring joy and good news to the world and our concrete community and family.

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.

Peaceful Relations with those of other Faith Traditions

2011-01-31T20:58:00.000+08:00

Louis Massignon’s clear message that to effect peaceful relations and reconciliation with those of other faith traditions we must begin by opening our own minds and hearts to conquer our fear of differences. He spoke often of the need to “cross over” to the “other”, to learn their language, study their beliefs, practices and culture as the beginning of mutual respect and understanding. In the process of learning to truly know others, from the inside out so to speak, we find that our own values and belief systems become more defined and clear. Our faith experience is enhanced rather than diminished. The goal of “substutionary prayer”, of “Badaliya”, is to see the face of Christ in every human person and learn to love them as Christ loves us.

As Christians we are challenged to overcome centuries of misinformation and prejudice that we have sometimes even unconsciously absorbed. In one of his books the Fransiscan Fr. Giulio Basetti-Sani writes about his own journey of studying the condemning writings of the scholars of his time about Islam and Muhammad and approaching Louis Massignon with those ideas. He wrote:

“Once, when Professor Massignon was in Cairo, I went to see him at the French Institute of Oriental Archeology.... Only someone who has known Massignon can fully imagine his reaction to my ideas. His usual grave expression changed to a smile like the lighting of a lamp and his eyes twinkled. He said, ‘The medieval world taught that Muhammad was a messenger of Satan and that the Allah of the Qur’an was not the God of Abraham. We should not do to others what we would not have them do to us’.

Basetti-Sani quotes much more than this as he describes how, following Massignon’s advice, he began to move in a totally different direction in what became years of Islamic studies. He wrote: “Islam is a mystery linked with the blessing obtained by Abraham from God for his son Ishmael and Ishmael’s progeny. This line of thought, derived from the Bible, is the one to take in order to grasp the significance of Islam.... Before we parted, Massignon gave me two thoughts meant as guidelines in my reorientation, one from St. Augustine, ‘ Love sees with new eyes.’ and the other from St. John of the Cross, ‘ Where there is no love put love, and you will find Love Himself’. It was true, my eyes had seen badly... Later, when my eyes were to see clearly, I would discover in Islam and the Muslims the reflections of the infinite goodness of God”. (From Basetti-Sani.1977. “The Koran In the Light of Christ”)

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

2011-01-29T16:25:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 4th Sunday in the ordinary time (A)

Text: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

Meditation: The Beatitudes, strangely enough, remind us of the real keys to happiness… Yes, BLESSED are the poor; those who mourn; the meek; they who thirst for righteousness; the merciful; the clean of heart; the peacemakers; and they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness… they have the kingdom of God!

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.

The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

2011-01-25T08:50:00.001+08:00

OPENING OUR EYES TO ST. PAUL

Paul’s conversion was a classic and authentic religious conversion. It was an inner and authoritative experience, not just an idea, not hearsay, not textbook knowledge nor some secondhand information given to him. Afterwards, he knew. God has no grandchildren, only children.

Every person has to come to the God experience on their own. Conversion is a foundational change in life position and perspective and, finally, one’s very identity. After the transformation God is not out there any more. You don’t look at God as a separate identity; you look out from God who lives in you and through you and with you. That is a major shift, probably the most major shift possible for humans.

Like Paul, a converted person becomes convinced that they are participating in something bigger than themselves. After conversion you know you are being used, you know you are being led, and above all you realize your life is not all about you! You are about life! It is happening inside of you and all God needs is your “yes” and your participation. It is likely the hardest yes you will ever utter, because your years of habit will all shout “not possible,” “not me,” and “not worthy.”

(Adapted from Richard Rohr, OFM - The Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation)

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

2011-01-22T15:57:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 3rd Sunday of the ordinary time (A)

Text: "Land of Zebulon and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen." (Matthew 4: 14-16)

Meditation: Jesus’ presence, words and deeds are life and light to people who sit in darkness and dwell in the land overshadowed by death. As Jesus’ disciples, we, too, are called to give hope and light to others by our presence, words and deeds.

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.

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

2011-01-15T11:27:00.000+08:00

Dhikr for the 2nd Sunday of the ordinary time (A)

Text: “Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God." (John 1: 34)

Meditation: 3 years ago (Jan. 15, 2008), a martyred Oblate priest, Fr. Rey Roda of the Philippines, testified with his blood that Jesus is the Son of God… His life, work and his brutal murder in that God-forsaken island of Tabawan in Tawi Tawi (Philippines) pointed to Jesus who taught us that ‘greater love than this no one has than to lay down one’s life for friends…’ Jesus is our FRIEND… and we are invited to be a friend to one another.

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.

The Feast of the Lord's Baptism (A)

2011-01-08T23:25:00.000+08:00

Dhikr for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (A)

Text: “After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened (for him), and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove (and) coming upon him.” (Matthew 3: 16)

Meditation: We, too, at our baptism were filled with the Holy Spirit and we have become “Spirit-filled persons”. Let us, then, honor the HS in us and at work in our lives…

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.

The Feast of Christmas

2010-12-26T05:18:00.001+08:00

Feast of the Incarnation

On this Christmas Day, let me begin with a quote from the twentieth-century writer G. K. Chesterton: “When a person has found something which he prefers to life itself, he [sic] for the first time has begun to live.”

Jesus in his proclamation of the kingdom told us what we could prefer to life itself. The Bible ends by telling us we are called to be a people who could say, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20), who could welcome something more than business as usual and live in God’s Big Picture.

We all have to ask for the grace to prefer something to our small life because we have been offered the Shared Life, the One Life, the Eternal Life, God’s Life that became visible for us in this world as Jesus.

What we are all searching for is Someone to surrender to, something we can prefer to life itself. Well here is the wonderful surprise: God is the only one we can surrender to without losing ourselves. The irony is that we actually and finally find ourselves, but now in a whole new and much larger field of meaning.

(Adapted from Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr, pp. 45, 71-73)

Feast of Christ the King (C)

2010-11-20T10:13:00.000+08:00

Dhikr for the Feast of Christ the King (C)

Text: “The people stood by and watched; the rulers, meanwhile, sneered at him and said, "He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Messiah of God.” (Luke 23: 35)

Meditation: Christ the King is crucified for us as our RANSON that we may have life to the full… We do NOT simply stand and watch… We believe in this life-giving SACRIFICE and WITNESS and we are invited to do likewise...

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.

The 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

2010-09-25T08:11:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 26th Sunday in ordinary time (C)

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... Cuidate!

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.

The 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

2010-09-11T14:34:00.000+08:00

Dhikr for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
The Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Prodigal Son
(Luke 15: 1-32

Text: “So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.” (Luke 15: 20)

Meditation: The Father shows COMPASSION … RUNS TO MEET THE ERRING SON, EMBRACES HIM AND KISSES HIM… No question asked and NO recrimination and condemnation!

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.

Parable of the Turtles

2010-09-05T05:17:00.001+08:00

THE TURTLES

A turtle family decided to go on a picnic. The turtles, being naturally slow about things, took seven years to prepare for their outing. Finally the turtle family left home looking for a suitable place. During the second year of their journey they found a place ideal for them at last!

For about six months they cleaned the area, unpacked the picnic basket, and completed the arrangements. Then they discovered they had forgotten the salt. A picnic without salt would be a disaster, they all agreed.

Three years passed and the little turtle had not returned. Five years...six years... then on the seventh year of his absence, the oldest turtle could no longer contain his hunger. He announced that he was going to eat and begun to unwrap a sandwich. At that point the little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree shouting, 'See! I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to go get the salt.'

After a lengthy discussion, the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the salt from home. Although he was the fastest of the slow moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and wobbled in his shell. He agreed to go on one condition: that no one would eat until he returned. The family consented and the little turtle left.

----..
Lesson:
Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up to our expectations. We are so concerned about what others are doing that we don't do anything ourselves.

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

2010-09-04T09:53:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 23rd Sunday in ordinary time (C)

Text: “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. They speak not, hear not and see not… Those who worship them become like them… as Ps. 115: 4-8 tells us. Cuidate!

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.

The 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

2010-08-28T17:53:00.000+08:00

Dhikr for the 22nd Sunday in ordinary time (C)

Text: "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 Sunday Gospel is a strong challenge and a reminder to us that the poor and the hungry do have places at our table… else we are no different from the Pharisees and the Scribes!

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.

Vatican's Message to Muslims at the end of Ramadan

2010-08-28T13:30:00.000+08:00

Vatican Message to Muslims for Ramadan

"Christians Are Spiritually Close to You During These Days"

Christians and Muslims:
Together in overcoming violence among followers of different religions

Dear Muslim Friends,

1. 'Id Al-Fitr, which concludes Ramadan, presents, once again, a favorable occasion to convey to you the heartfelt wishes of serenity and joy on behalf of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

Throughout this month, you have committed yourselves to prayer, fasting, helping the neediest and strengthening relations of family and friendship. God will not fail to reward these efforts!

2. I am delighted to note that believers of other religions, especially Christians, are spiritually close to you during these days, as is testified by the various friendly meetings which often lead to exchanges of a religious nature. It is pleasing to me also to think that this Message could be a positive contribution to your reflections.

3. The theme proposed this year by the Pontifical Council, Christians and Muslims: Together in overcoming violence among followers of different religions, is, unfortunately, a pressing subject, at least in certain areas of the world. The Joint Committee for Dialogue instituted by the Pontifical Council and al-Azhar Permanent Committee for Dialogue among the Monotheistic Religions had also chosen this topic as a subject of study, reflection and exchange during its last annual meeting (Cairo, 23 - February 24, 2010). Permit me to share with you some of the conclusions published at the end of this meeting.

4. There are many causes for violence among believers of different religious traditions, including: the manipulation of the religion for political or other ends; discrimination based on ethnicity or religious identity; divisions and social tensions. Ignorance, poverty, underdevelopment are also direct or indirect sources of violence among as well as within religious communities. May the civil and religious authorities offer their contributions in order to remedy so many situations for the sake of the common good of all society! May the civil authorities safeguard the primacy of the law by ensuring true justice to put a stop to the authors and promoters of violence!

5. There are important recommendations also given in the above mentioned text: to open our hearts to mutual forgiveness and reconciliation, for a peaceful and fruitful coexistence; to recognize what we have in common and to respect differences, as a basis for a culture of dialogue; to recognize and respect the dignity and the rights of each human being without any bias related to ethnicity or religious affiliation; necessity to promulgate just laws which guarantee the fundamental equality of all; to recall the importance of education towards respect, dialogue and fraternity in the various educational arenas: at home, in the school, in churches and mosques. Thus we will be able to oppose violence among followers of different religions and promote peace and harmony among the various religious communities. Teaching by religious leaders, as well as school books which present religions in an objective way, have, along with teaching in general, a decisive impact on the education and the formation of younger generations.

6. I hope that these considerations, as well as the responses which they elicit within your communities, and with your Christian friends, will contribute to the continuation of a dialogue, growing in respect and serenity, upon which I call the blessings of God!

Jean-Louis Cardinal Tauran
President

Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata
Secretary

The Feast of the Assumption of the BVM

2010-08-14T14:10:00.000+08:00

Solemnity of the Assumption of the BVM

Text: “And how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." (Luke 1: 43-45)

Meditation: The Feast of the Assumption invites us to reflect on the extraordinary story of two women sharing their faith, hope, and happiness as they prepare for motherhood - Elizabeth, who is old and barren, and Mary, a young betrothed virgin. In both stories the two women believed –and God causes life to surge forth from barren wombs and empty tombs.

Or

Dhikr for the 20th Sunday in ordinary time (C)

Text: "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 other may have life… It is the fire that burns yet purifies. The fire in our life is always the symbol of energy and zeal. Hold on to that fire else we become a walking dead…

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.

How can suffering be redemptive?

2010-08-08T20:18:00.000+08:00

The Gospel was first heard by people who were longing and thirsty, who were poor and oppressed in one sense or another. They knew their need and their emptiness. So we must go to the same place within ourselves to hear the Gospel. We must find the rejected and fearful parts within each of us and try to live there, if life has not yet put us there. That should allow us a deeper communion with the oppressed of the world, who are by far the majority of the human race since the beginnings of humanity.

If we wish to enter more deeply into this mystery of redemptive suffering—which also means somehow entering more deeply into the heart of God—we have to ask God to allow us to feel some of their pain and loneliness, not just to know it intellectually. It is what we feel that we finally act on. Knowing is often just that, and nothing more.

(Adapted from Richard Rohr's Job and the Mystery of Suffering, p. 15)

The 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

2010-08-07T17:42:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Text: “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 challenge to us is show that that we, truly, treasure the kingdom…in our words and deeds.

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.

Our Father Sunday

2010-07-24T11:40:00.001+08:00

Dhikr for the 17th Sunday in the ordinary time (C): Our Father Sunday

Text: "And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11: 9-10)

Meditation: We need to hold on to our belief… they are the basis of our HOPE and do not tire in praying, asking, seeking and knocking…

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…

Loving one's enemies...

2010-07-21T06:59:00.001+08:00

Do we really want our leaders to love our enemies?

The greatest and the summit of Jesus' commandments and the most radical of all of his teachings is, “You must love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44). How many of us love other people who kick us around or those who make it hard for us? Do we even know how to do this? Is it something we desire to do? Let’s admit that our culture sees this as weak, capitulating, soft, dangerous, and “effeminate” for men—and is even seen this way by many women. Christian countries have never been known for obeying this commandment, to my knowledge. In fact, you would never be elected or admired if you even talked this way. We have a problem here.

We do not really like or understand love as Jesus teaches it. As Fr. Zossima says in Dostoevsky’s, The Brothers Karamazov: “Love in practice is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams. It may very well kill you.”

(Richard Rohr,OFM - June 2010)

Loving one's enemies...

2010-07-21T06:56:00.000+08:00

Remembering the 30th Anniversary of Archbishop's Romero's Martyrdom...

2010-04-05T13:04:00.001+08:00

Remembering a Martyr’s 30th anniversary…

On Monday, March 24th, 1980, Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez, Archbishop of San Salvador, was assassinated while giving a mass in the chapel of the Divina Providencia Hospital. He was gunned down by a professional sniper who fired a single caliber 22 shot from a red vehicle parked outside the small church.

Monsignor Romero had become a recognized critic of violence and injustice. He was perceived as a dangerous enemy by certain military and right wing civil groups. Monsignor Romero’s homilies, which constantly focused on human rights violations, profoundly irritated these factions.
Monsignor Romero’s own words still resound today and serve as a testimony of his struggle for justice. Below are some powerful excerpts from his now famous homilies.

“Peace is not the absence of war. Peace is not an equilibrium of two opposing forces in a struggle. Peace above all is not reached by repressing until death those who are not allowed to speak… True peace is based on justice and equality.” (August 14th, 1977)

“I denounce above all the absolute control of wealth. This is the root of all evil in El Salvador: wealth and private property as an untouchable absolutism, as a high voltage cable that will burn down whoever dares even touch it! It is not fair that few have it all… while the vast marginalized majority starves to death.” (August 12th, 1979)

“[Economic indexes of] progress are not the solution in this country. It is necessary that progress is based on the foundations of justice. If not, national security will become the personal security of those few who are rich, and progress will always benefit a minority.” (November 19th, 1978)

“I do not know why, in a civilized country, we still discriminate women. Why will a woman not earn as much as a man if she works just as hard?” (July 8th, 1979)

“Development demands audacious and profoundly innovative transformations. We must embark on urgent reforms without any further delay. Each one of us must generously accept their role; above all, those who have a greater possibility of action due to their education, financial situation and status. (January 5th, 1978)

“The oligarchy is the cause of all our misfortunes. This small nucleus of families does not care if the rest of the people starve to death. In fact, they need these conditions to have abundant cheap labor available to them for the picking and exporting of their harvests.” (February 15th, 1980)

“Why is there an income available to the poor peasant majority only during the sowing and harvesting of coffee, cotton and sugar cane? Why does this society need to have unemployed peasant farmers, an underpaid working class, and unfair salaries? These mechanisms must be analyzed not from the eyes of an economist or a sociologist, but from a Christian point of view so as not to be an accomplice to this machinery that continually makes people poorer, marginalized, homeless.” (December 16th, 1979)

“It is a shame to have a mass media that is completely sold out. It is a shame not to be able to trust the information from the newspapers or the television or the radio because everything has been bought off and the truth is not divulged.” (April 2nd, 1978)

“So much violence in the country deeply worries me. But what worries me the most is that the people’s capacity to react, condemn, and protest, in general, has decreased significantly. This has allowed the continuation of repression in a shameless manner with complete liberty.” (March 2nd, 1980)

“Until when are we to endure these crimes without any vindication of justice? Where is this justice in our country? Where is the Supreme Court of Justice? Where is the honor in our democracy if people are to die in this way, like dogs, and their deaths are never investigated?” (June 21st, 1979)

“I want to make a special request to the men in the armed forces: brothers, we are from the same country, yet you continually kill your peasant brothers. Before any order given by a man, the law of God must prevail: ‘You shall not kill’… No person should have to follow an immoral law.” (March 23rd, 1980. One day before his assassination)

“We want the Government to be aware that blood-stained reforms are completely worthless. In the name of God, well, and in the name of the Salvadorian people who have suffered enormously and whose wails rise each day higher and higher towards the sky, I beg you, I beseech you, I order you in the name of God: stop de repression!” (March 23rd, 1980. One day before his assassination)

To read more, simply click the website indicated below…
http://www.mimundo-photoessays.org/2010/03/may-my-blood-be-seed-of-liberty.html

Easter Sunday

2010-04-03T16:51:00.000+08:00

The Dhikr for1st Easter Sunday

Text: “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. They did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” (John 20: 8-9)

Reflection: We do see like Peter and John, the empty tomb… yet do we believe…? Jesus is, truly, RISEN! He is with the living. This tells us that in the end, it is the victory of good over evil; grace over sin; and life over death.

DHIKR PRAYER 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…

Palm Sunday (C)

2010-03-27T16:31:00.000+08:00

The Dhikr for Palm Sunday (C)

Text: Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23: 42-43)

Reflection: The Palm of Triumph

The peaceful figure of Jesus rises above the hostility and anger of the crowds and the legal process. Jesus remains a true model of reconciliation, forgiveness and peace. In the midst of his own agony and trial, we realize the depths of Jesus' passion for unity: He is capable of uniting even Pilate and Herod together in friendship (23:12). From the cross, Luke presents Jesus forgiving his persecutors (23:34) and the dying Jesus allows even a thief to steal paradise! (23:43).

DHIKR PRAYER 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…

5th Sunday in Lent (C)

2010-03-20T19:50:00.001+08:00

The Dhikr for the 5th Sunday in 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)

Reflection: The gospel tells us that God does not condemn us… in fact gives us the grace not only to free us from our past but the opportunity begin anew… Such is the LOVE of God that he offered his only begotten Son that we may have new LIFE!

DHIKR PRAYER 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…

4th Sunday in Lent (C)

2010-03-13T06:28:00.000+08:00

The Dhikr for the 4th Sunday in Lent (C)

Text: “Coming to his senses he thought, 'How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. 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: 17-19)

Reflection: The season of Lent is an invitation to come back to our senses. Like the Prodigal Son, we need only to recognize our sins and go back to the Father. The compassion of the Father knows NO end. He is there waiting for us with neither condemnation nor judgment. He is merciful and full of compassion!

DHIKR PRAYER 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…

How can forgiveness help me to see in a new way?

2010-03-02T13:43:00.000+08:00

How can forgiveness help me to see in a new way?

As long as you can deal with evil by some other means than forgiveness, you will never experience the real meaning of evil and sin. You will keep projecting it over there, fearing it over there and attacking it over there, instead of “gazing” on it within yourself and “weeping” over it within all of us (see Zechariah 12:10).

The longer you gaze, the more you will see your own complicity in and profit from the sin of others, even if it is the satisfaction of feeling you are on higher moral ground than other people.

Forgiveness is probably the only human action that demands three new “seeings” at the same time:

I must see God in the other who has offended me,
I must access God in myself to forgive major grievances, and
I must meet God in a very new way that is larger than as an enforcer or a judge.

(Adapted from Richard Rohr, OFM. Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, p. 194)

Short Reflection for the 1st Sunday in Lent (C)

2010-02-20T14:55:00.000+08:00

The Dhikr for the 1st Sunday in Lent (C)

Text: (4) "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.” (8) "It is written: 'You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.'" (12) "It also says, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'" (Luke 4: verses 4, 8, and 12)

Reflection: Each one is invited to reflect on Jesus’ responses (the above verses) to the three temptations confronting him as he began his public ministry - Bread, Wealth and Power! Do we easily succumb to the temptations…?

DHIKR PRAYER 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 NOW...

2010-02-02T06:01:00.001+08:00

Where and when is transformation possible?

How different Jesus’ Kingdom of God is from our later notion of salvation, which pushed the entire issue into the future and largely became a reward and punishment system. How different from Jesus’ “the Kingdom of Heaven is in your midst” (Luke 17:21) or Paul’s “now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Healthy religion is always about seeing and knowing something now, which demands a transformation of consciousness on my part today, not moral gymnastics or heroic willpower to earn a prize later.

(Richard Rohr, OFM)

How do I define my life?

2010-01-29T18:02:00.000+08:00

Brothers and sisters, remember that your life situation will not last. It is only that which you fall through so that you can fall into your actual Life, and that Big Life ironically includes death (which is the falling). For Paul the word for that Life Force field is “Christ.” Yes it is personified and summed up in Jesus, but he also says it is everywhere and always available to all who “fall through” (read “are transformed”).

Everybody takes their present life’s situation as if it is their one and only life. It is not! So wait for those moments when you fall through your life’s situations into your real life, which is Christ, or Christ Consciousness (1 Corinthians 2:16), if you prefer. What you are doing in prayer is consciously choosing to let go of your grasping mind and its identification with passing life situations so that you can fall into your Real Life which is always much bigger and better than you, and shared by all. It is the Eternal Life of Christ.

(Richard Rohr, OFM)

True Love...

2010-01-05T08:09:00.001+08:00

True Love...

The many odes written about true love... Clergy, ulama and other guru try to define it... Yet, only those consumed by it truly understand what it is all about...!

Dante wrote in The Divine Comedy: ‘The day that man allows true love to appear, those things which are will made will fall into confusion and will overturn everything we believe to be right and true.’

Paolo Coelho wrote in The Zahir: ‘Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.’

‘This force is on earth to make us happy, to bring us closer to God and to our neighbour, and yet, given the way that we love now, we enjoy one hour of anxiety for every minute of peace.’

Cradle of Love by Rassouli

2010-01-03T11:24:00.002+08:00

Jelaluddin Rumi, "Cry out in Your Weakness"

2010-01-03T11:17:00.001+08:00

Cry Out in Your Weakness

A dragon was pulling a bear into its terrible mouth.

A courageous man went and rescued the bear.
There are such helpers in the world, who rush to save
anyone who cries out. Like Mercy itself,
they run toward the screaming.

And they can’t be bought off.
If you were to ask one of those, "Why did you come
so quickly?" he or she would say, "Because I heard
your helplessness."
Where lowland is,
that’s where water goes. All medicine wants
is pain to cure.
And don’t just ask for one mercy.
Let them flood in. Let the sky open under your feet.
Take the cotton out of your ears, the cotton
of consolations, so you can hear the sphere-music.

Push the hair out of your eyes.
Blow the phlegm from your nose,
and from your brain.

Let the wind breeze through.
Leave no residue in yourself from that bilious fever.
Take the cure for impotence,
that your manhood may shoot forth,
and a hundred new beings come of your coming.

Tear the binding from around the foot
of your soul, and let it race around the track
in front of the crowd. Loosen the knot of greed
so tight on your neck. Accept your new good luck.

Give your weakness
to one who helps.

Crying out loud and weeping are great resources.
A nursing mother, all she does
is wait to hear her child.

Just a little beginning-whimper,
and she’s there.

God created the child, that is your wanting,
so that it might cry out, so that milk might come.

Cry out! Don’t be stolid and silent
with your pain. Lament! And let the milk
of loving flow into you.

The hard rain and wind
are ways the cloud has
to take care of us.

Be patient.
Respond to every call
that excites your spirit.

Ignore those that make you fearful
and sad, that degrade you
back toward disease and death.
________________________________________
Jelaluddin Rumi, "Cry out in Your Weakness." The Essential Rumi. Trans. Coleman Barks, with John Moyne, A. J. Arberry, and Reynold Nicholson. Edison, New Jersey: Castle, 1997, pp. 156-157.

The Beatitudes....

2009-09-12T09:03:00.001+08:00

The Beatitudes as inspired by the original Aramaic
(Matthew 5: 3-12)

(Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven)
Fulfilled are those who devote themselves to the link of Spirit;
the design of the universe is rendered through them

(Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted)
Healed are those who weep for their frustrated desire,
they shall see the face of fulfillment in a new form.

(Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth)
Healthy are they who have softened what is rigid within,
they shall be open to receive the splendour of earth’s fruits.

(Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied)
Happy are they who long deeply for a world of right relationships,
they shall be encircled by the birth of a new society.

(Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy)
Healthy are they who from the inner womb birth forth compassion,
they shall feel its warm arms embracing them.

(Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God)
Happy are they whose passion radiates with deep abiding purpose,
they shall envision the furthest extent of life’s wealth.

(Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons and daughters of God)
Healed are those who bear the fruit of sympathy and safety for all,
they shall hasten the coming of God’s new creation.

(Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven)
Healing to those who have been shattered within – from seeking wholesome rest,
theirs is the ruling principle of the Cosmos.

(Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you)

Blessed are you when you are reproached and driven away by the clamour of evil on all sides, for my sake. Know deep joy even in your loss for this is the secret for claiming your expanded home in the universe; it is a sign of the prophets and prophetesses to feel the disunity around them intensely.

(D. O'Murchu based on Neil Douglas-Klotz, Prayers of the Cosmos, HarperSanFrancisco, 1990,pp.44-76)

Rey Roda, OMI - God's Witness in the Archipelago of Tawi-Tawi

2009-08-30T17:02:00.002+08:00

We have three cases of bloody murder in the Vicariate of Jolo within the last ten years. The Vicar, Bishop Benjamin de Jesus on February 4, 1997, OMI, Fr. Benjamin Inocencio, OMI on December 28, 2000 and Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda, OMI on January 15, 2008. To the eyes of the world, these deaths may appear senseless and incomprehensible. But to people who believe in the ministry of presence, the lives and deaths of these three missionaries are, indeed, not in vain and without meaning.

Linguistically speaking, presence is a noun, not a verb. It connotes a state of being, not doing. States of being are not highly valued in a culture which places a high priority on doing. Yet, true presence or ‘being with’ another person carries with it a silent power, that is, to bear witness to a passage, to help carry an emotional burden or to begin a healing process. In it, there is an intimate connection with another that is perhaps too seldom felt in a society that strives for ever-faster ‘connectivity’.

To the three OMI martyrs of the Vicariate of Jolo, it was not their ‘doing’ that had, in a sense, precipitated their murders in the hands of the lawless elements of the Provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. It was their ‘being with’ their people and communities that had become a powerful witnessing beyond words and actions. Bishop Ben in the whole Vicariate of Jolo, Fr. Benjie in the islands of Mapun and Jolo and Fr. Rey in Tabawan journeyed with their people with endearing smile, innocence and passionate love. Often these values were clearly revealed in their testimony of fidelity to their religious call that is often translated in simply “just go, just be there and just live with your people”.

For Rey, the journey of presence began in the Archipelago of Tawi-Tawi in the southernmost part of the Philippines. It started in the island of Batu-Batu and would end in the island of Tabawan. It was a presence among the poor Sama people. Often, it was a powerless presence with his community for whom he could “do” nothing.

He walked, sat and ate with friends. There were times that he was pulled by the urge to do more than be, yet repeatedly struck by the lack of resources. Paradoxically, it was during these times of powerlessness that he discovered the healing power of connection created by being fully there in the quiet understanding of another. In it, no one is truly alone.

Every night, he sat in the small chapel of the rectory and felt the presence of him who had called him to become a priest and a missionary. There, too, in the presence of the Lord, he journeyed and sat with his confreres, particularly missionaries living alone in the other islands of the Archipelago of Tawi Tawi and Sulu. In that silent and lonely island, Fr. Rey painstakingly discovered the power of presence that was not a one-way street, not only something missionaries give to others.

It is said by the old missionaries in the Archipelago that the islands and the communities always change them, and always for the better. In Tabawan, there are two powerful witnesses of this mutual transformation and enrichment. The first was the ‘Bapa’ of Tabawan, Fr. Leopold Gregoire, OMI who lived and journeyed with the Sama people for nearly 20 years and second was Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda, OMI who walked and sat with his Sama friends for nearly ten years. Both missionaries were changed and definitely, it was for the better.

The life of Fr. Rey amid the Sama people was a witness of being with the weak, the poor and the marginalized. He found this the hard way, often, in turmoil questioning over and over again why the poor continue to suffer not only of man-made disasters but also natural ones. Why the poor are often the victims of almost total neglect by the ‘powerful’ and by seemingly endless calamities? Their anguish and the cry of the poor DO NOT reach God!

In a mysterious way, it was in the isolation and poverty that have always characterized Tabawan that led to a disclosure that God is NOT the all powerful one that he was taught from catechism to the liturgies. The God revealed to him in the island, especially in the night of his murder, was all weak, so helpless and so poor.

But was this not message both of the manger and the cross? Yes, God is not only so poor and weak, but also a suffering one and dying on the cross. Is this not the real meaning of Emmanuel - his presence, God’s birth into the world? God is NOT the all powerful one! Much less is He the all TRANSCENDENT One. Definitely, the God revealed by Jesus in the Manger and the Cross is NOT a sort of a SUPERNATURAL DEITY!

It was a tragedy that raised hard question in the mind of many missionaries similarly situated about the rationale of missionary presence and work in those remote and very isolated places in the Vicariate. Yet, everyone knows that there are no answers to that question. And there is no understanding that would come either by way of theology or any other way.

There were few times, that men in the OMI Philippine Province challenged the Provincial Superior and the Bishop of the Vicariate on the question of the rationale of the missionary presence in those remote and seemingly ‘God forsaken’ islands in the Vicariate. Since in the economy of God’s salvation, all are saved by God’s mercy and compassion!

Yet what the mind cannot fathom, the heart can understand. Only in faith, hope and great love, can people begin to understand such presence, such heroism and even such senseless death. Rey, Ben, Benjie and the rest of the OMI colleagues in the same mission have that faith, hope and great love!

Such presence and ministry elude understanding when approached through the mind. In fact, they are senseless! That kind of life and ministry can only be approached through the heart. Akin to a mystery, it can only be understood in faith hope and love!

Rey was a friend and a comrade in the struggle during the dark years Marcos Dictatorship. Yet, deep beneath was the real Rey formed by the faith of his mother and father - a simple and trusting faith that gave meaning not only to his priesthood and religious life, but also to his presence and work in Tabawan.

Though painful and sorrowful, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate take pride in the OMI Philippine Province because in her womb have emerged people like Bishop Ben de Jesus, Fr. Benjie Inocencio and now Fr. Rey Roda who paid the ultimate price for the values and beliefs close to their hearts. They were not brave men, but because of the love for their people and the trust in God, they were able to muster enough courage to silence the fears in their hearts.

There rises from deep beneath the heart of people who heard the tragic news a shout of anger for this madness. Yet it is an anger that is easily consumed by the fire of love that urges each OMI to hold his head high. BELIEVE and continue that kind of presence and ministry even without understanding yet clinging to hope that they have NOT died in vain and that their lives do MAKE sense!!!

We remember Rey and his tragic death, yet we have hope in our hearts that one day the whole community of Tabawan, the whole Vicariate of Jolo, nay the whole creation shall all be re-united with the ‘fallen’ in God’s kingdom. Only in God‘s kingdom shall we see the sense f all these tragedies. It remains a mystery in the midst of God’s great love shown in the martyrdom of his only begotten Son as paralleled by the great generosity of spirit of the slain. (Jun Mercado, OMI)

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

2009-07-18T10:25:00.000+08:00

Dhikr for the 16th week of the Ordinary Time (B)

“When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6: 34)

Jesus’ challenge to us, today, is to do likewise… to have compassion for the people we are sent to minister…

Visit
www.gmanews.tv/jun-mercado
www.omigen.org/ipid
www.omigen.org/jpic

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…

Dhikr for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

2009-06-27T07:30:00.002+08:00

“She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and
touched his cloak. She said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I shall be
cured.’ Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body
that she was healed of her affliction.” (Mark 5: 27-29)

In our journey through life, we, too, have experiences of healing
touches… Like the woman in the gospel, we do say… ‘if but touch his
clothes, I shall be cured.’ And healing begins…!
----------
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…!

Dhikr for the Trinity Sunday (B)

2009-06-05T10:39:00.000+08:00

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 19-20)

Trinity Sunday reminds us that we are “sealed” by our baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This “seal” is manifested in our common FELLOWSHIP and COMMUNION by our baptism – regardless of color, race, belief, language and gender.

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:

Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
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…

Benedict XVI's Farewell Address to Palestinian Authority

2009-05-14T10:35:00.000+08:00

"It Is Necessary to Remove the Walls That We Build Around our Hearts"

Mr. President,

Dear Friends,

I thank you for the great kindness you have shown me throughout this day that I have spent in your company, here in the Palestinian Territories. I am grateful to the President, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, for his hospitality and his gracious words. It was deeply moving for me to listen also to the testimonies of the residents who have spoken to us about the conditions of life here on the West Bank and in Gaza. I assure all of you that I hold you in my heart and I long to see peace and reconciliation throughout these tormented lands.

It has truly been a most memorable day. Since arriving in Bethlehem this morning, I have had the joy of celebrating Mass together with a great multitude of the faithful in the place where Jesus Christ, light of the nations and hope of the world, was born. I have seen the care taken of today's infants in the Caritas Baby Hospital. With anguish, I have witnessed the situation of refugees who, like the Holy Family, have had to flee their homes. And I have seen, adjoining the camp and overshadowing much of Bethlehem, the wall that intrudes into your territories, separating neighbors and dividing families.

Although walls can easily be built, we all know that they do not last forever. They can be taken down. First, though, it is necessary to remove the walls that we build around our hearts, the barriers that we set up against our neighbors. That is why, in my parting words, I want to make a renewed plea for openness and generosity of spirit, for an end to intolerance and exclusion. No matter how intractable and deeply entrenched a conflict may appear to be, there are always grounds to hope that it can be resolved, that the patient and persevering efforts of those who work for peace and reconciliation will bear fruit in the end. My earnest wish for you, the people of Palestine, is that this will happen soon, and that you will at last be able to enjoy the peace, freedom and stability that have eluded you for so long.

Be assured that I will continue to take every opportunity to urge those involved in peace negotiations to work towards a just solution that respects the legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike. As an important step in this direction, the Holy See looks forward to establishing shortly, in conjunction with the Palestinian Authority, the Bilateral Permanent Working Commission that was envisioned in the Basic Agreement, signed in the Vatican on 15 February 2000 (cf. Basic Agreement between the Holy See and the Palestine Liberation Organization, art. 9).

Mr. President, dear friends, I thank you once again and I commend all of you to the protection of the Almighty. May God look down in love upon each one of you, upon your families and all who are dear to you. And may he bless the Palestinian people with peace.

Benedict XVI

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

The Triduum Meditation: The Scapegoat!

2009-04-08T08:27:00.000+08:00

On the Day of Atonement (see Leviticus 16:21 – 22) a goat was brought into the sanctuary. The high priest would lay his hands on the goat and all the sins and failures of the people were ceremonially laid on the goat, and the goat was sent out into the desert to die.

What immediately follows from the scapegoat story of Leviticus 16 is what is called “The Law of Holiness” (Leviticus 17 – 27), which largely defines holiness as separation from evil—which is exactly what they had just ritualized.

Three thousand years later human consciousness hasn’t moved a great deal beyond that, despite the message of the cross. Jesus does not define holiness as separation from evil as much as absorption and transformation of it, where in I pay the price instead of always asking others to pay the price.

We, who worship the scapegoat, Jesus, became many times in history the primary scapegoaters ourselves: Jews, heretics, sinners, witches, homosexuals, the poor, other denominations, other religions.

The pattern of exporting our evil elsewhere, and righteously hating it there, is in the hardwiring of all peoples. After all, our task is to separate from evil, isn’t it? That is the lie! Any exclusionary process of thinking, any exclusively dualistic thinking, will always create violent people on some level. That I state as an absolute, and precisely because the cross revealed it to me.

The crucifixion scene is our standing icon stating both the problem and the solution for all of history.

We would all agree that evil is to be rejected and overcome; the only question is, how? How can we stand against evil without becoming a mirror—but denied—image of the same? That is often the heart of the matter, and in my experience is resolved successfully by a very small portion of people, even though it is quite clearly resolved in the life, death and teaching of Jesus.

[Jesus gives us] a totally different way of dealing with evil—absorbing it in God (which is the real meaning of the suffering body of Jesus) instead of attacking it outside. It is undoubtedly the most counterintuitive theme of the entire Bible.

What has happened in human history is this. We have always needed to find a way to deal with human anxiety and evil by some means—and it was invariably some “technology” other than forgiveness.

We usually dealt with human anxiety and evil by sacrificial systems, and that has largely continued to this day.

Historically, we at least moved from human sacrifice to animal sacrifice, to various modes of seeming self-sacrifice. Unfortunately it was not usually the ego self that we sacrificed, but most often the body self as its vicarious substitute. In forgiveness, it is precisely my ego self that has to die, my need to be right, to be in control, to be superior. Very few want to go there, but that is exactly what Jesus emphasized and taught. I am told that forgiveness is at least implied in two-thirds of his teaching!

As long as you can deal with evil by some other means than forgiveness, you will never experience the real meaning of evil and sin. You will keep projecting it over there, fearing it over there and attacking it over there, instead of “gazing” on it within and “weeping” over it within all of us.

The longer you gaze, the more you will see your own complicity in and profitability from the sin of others, even if it is the satisfaction of feeling you are on higher moral ground.

Forgiveness is probably the only human action that demands three new “seeings” at the same time: I must see God in the other, I must access God in myself, and I must see God in a new way that is larger than “an Enforcer.”

[Christianity] is the only religion in the world that worships the scapegoat as God.
In worshiping the scapegoat, we should gradually learn to stop scapegoating, because we also could be utterly wrong, just as “church” and state, high priest and king, Jerusalem and Rome, the highest levels of discernment were utterly wrong in the death of Jesus. He was the very one that many of us call the most perfect man who ever lived!

If power itself can be that wrong, then be careful whom you decide to hate, kill and execute. Power and authority are not good guides, if we are to judge by history. For many, if not most people, authority takes away all of their anxiety, and often their own responsibility to form a mature conscience.

(Richard Rohr, OFM from Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, p.194 )

Passion (Palm) Sunday

2009-04-04T11:09:00.000+08:00

Holy Week begins on "Passion (or Palm) Sunday" which joins the foretelling of Christ's regal triumph and the proclamation of the passion. The connection between both aspects of the Paschal Mystery is shown beginning from the commemoration of the entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem to his journey to the Calvary where Jesus willing assumed to be the ransom for our sins.

According to ancient custom, the celebration of Palm Sunday begins with a solemn procession, in which the faithful in song and gesture imitate the Hebrew children who went to meet the Lord singing "Hosanna."

The palms or olive branches are blessed so that they can be carried in the procession. Then the faithful bring home the palms where they serve as a reminder of the victory of Christ which they celebrated in the procession.

The second drama of the celebration is the proclamation of the passion of the Lord. The passion narrative occupies a special place in the liturgical celebration. This is the first proclamation of the Lord’s passion in the Liturgy thus the name Passion Sunday.

The triumphant entry to Jerusalem is contrasted to the journey to Calvary. Both journeys show the character of the crowd which in many ways represents, too, our own fickleness and flaws. The former is presented as a triumph where the crowd and children sang “Hosanna” acclaiming Jesus as Messiah and Lord. The latter shows the same crowd shouting “Crucify him” and dissociating themselves from him who offered his own life and dying in the cross in ignominy.

In similar vein, the challenge today to all Christians this Holy Week is to locate themselves between the two contrasting dramas unfolding in Jerusalem. Definitely, there is a clear disconnect between the celebration of the Lord’s triumphant entry to Jerusalem and the proclamation of the Lord’s passion that ends on Good Friday. But the same disconnect is, often, echoed in our confession of faith and the concrete witness of our actions vis-à-vis the same faith.

But when everything is said and done, we simply stand in awe at the beauty of the Passion Sunday celebration. It proclaims that Jesus died for us while we were still sinners. His passion and death assumed our sins and has opened the mystery of God’s incomprehensible mercy and pardon. Jesus’ self-expenditure in the Cross has become the powerful symbol of God’s love and compassion. God has not spared his only begotten Son that we may have life and life to the full. (Editorial, Mindanao Cross, 04 April 2009)

The Spiritual Journey in the Writings of Christian de Chergé

2009-03-10T10:13:00.002+08:00

An appreciation of other religion through the eyes of a friend…
The particular insight of the spiritual journey undertaken by the monks of the Atlas region lies in the innovative and likely to be of interest to the whole Church in the matter of approach to interreligious dialogue.

It is not surprising that “a spirituality of the meeting of religions” should have emerged from the context of monastic life, because interreligious dialogue has its origin in spirituality.

With regard to dialogue, Christian de Chergé relies on the vision of John-Paul II. How can we appreciate the Pope’s thought, his daring? Where does it come from? We must know that John-Paul II lost his best female friend in a concentration camp; this explains how his urge towards interreligious dialogue begins in his own flesh.

As regards Christian de Chergé, the meeting with Mohammed, his friend (an Algerian field-guard) is at the basis of his thought. Christian had developed a friendship with Mohammed and committed himself to a deep relationship based on faith. Christian will state, “Mohammed brought freedom to my faith.” During an altercation in the street Mohammed tried to protect Christian, his friend, and to calm the aggressors.

The next day he was found assassinated. Christian understood this “event” as a sign from God, and this painful episode will never be forgotten. Christian comes back to it over the following years. “I know at least one much loved brother, a convinced Muslim, who gave his life out of love for another, concretely, by shedding his blood. It is an irrefutable testimony that I welcome as an incredible opportunity.

From that time on, in fact, I have been able to place, within my hope for the communion of all the chosen with Christ, that friend who lived, to the point of death, the one commandment” (in Journées Romaines: Chrétiens et Musulmans, pour un projet commun de société, 1989). Several years later, when preaching on the martyrdom of love (31st March 1994), he will say again, “I cannot forget Mohammed who one day saved my life by risking his own, and who was assassinated by his brothers because he refused to betray his friends into their hands. He did not want to choose between these and those. Ubi caritas … Deus ibi est!” (in L’invincible espérance, p. 203)

For Christian, the gift of Mohammed’s life led to the discovery of the Eucharist. The Eucharist means receiving one’s life from another. That is the meaning of the sacrifice: one cannot receive one’s life without giving one’s life. In Christian theology, Eucharist means receiving in order to give, but in the mind of Christian, there is a reversal of the meaning of sacrifice: to give in order to receive. His calling is profoundly Eucharistic, it is essential to him and is deeply embedded in him.

For Christian, “Mohammed gave his life as did Christ. . . . Each Eucharist makes him infinitely present to me in the Glorified Body, for he lived the Eucharist to the end.” And if there is one text of this sort there are many. “The Eucharist is for all people, this very day,” and not just when all mankind will have become Catholic. Christian knew that Mohammed was in danger, and Mohammed, knowing he was threatened, accepted that Christian should pray for him, but he added, “I know you will pray for me . . . but you, Christians, don’t know how to pray.”

We need to discover, in the actual life of those Muslims whom we know, the “Eucharistic signs.” The vocation of Christian is, from this time on, to be Eucharistic, praying among others who are praying, in Algeria which is “That land where the love granted was the greatest.” He wed this land, its people. Once when he visited his mother, she told him, “My son, flowers do not move about to find the sun; it is the sun which comes to visit them.” All this will provide the basis of his Spirituality.

From this time onwards he understands that the vow of stability means stability within a people: to take up stability in the land of Algeria and therefore to be closely tied to the local Church.

Fifteen years later, on 1 October 1976, he made his solemn profession and in his request, drawn up on September 14 of that year, he wrote, “I wish that my brothers who have taken the vow of stability in the Atlas should accept me permanently into their company, in the very name of that continuity, allowing me to live in PRAYER, in the service of the Church of Algeria, listening to the Muslim soul, if it please God, right to the final gift of my death ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus!” The Father Abbot Visitor and the Father Immediate, Abbot of Aiguebelle, wrote to the Abbot General, “. . . and I see in this solemn profession . . . and in the choice of those who have not yet taken the vow of stability to indeed undertake this vow in Algeria, as a conscious response made by the whole community to this action of God” (Report, 2 November, 1976).

A second key event, which took place in 1975, one year before his vows, (recounted in “Nuit de feu” , in L'invincible espérance, p. 33 f.) occurs while Christian is praying in the church during the night. Christian feels that someone is drawing close to him and saying “Pray for me”; and they start praying together the Our Father, the Magnificat, the fatihâ, prayers of praise, of thanks. Then, together with the Christian friend who had come with the Muslim, they pray for three hours. They will not see each other again. But before leaving, the Muslim goes round the monastery four times, dancing, and singing, he is so happy! Christian will not speak of this until his vows; then he will say “this event was not a dream, it is a fact”; it will be the affirmation of his vocation. Concerning this night Christian will say later, “These three hours made me live what my faith, for centuries and centuries, had known was possible.” The issue of hope is found there. The “theology of the meeting of religions” is based on eschatology; it is a matter of rethinking the theology of hope.

In 1979, he experiences a crisis (was he disappointed with the community?) and leaves for Assekrem for three months; he reads and prays a great deal on the Qur’an. By the time he comes back, the Rabat es-Salâm (the Link of Peace) has been founded by Claude Rault: prayer, sharing on themes with a Sufi community, “our Alawiya brothers of Médéa.”

Those are the key moments in the life of Christian de Chergé; we will constantly go from one to the other: from theological reflection to the key elements and vice versa.

2. How does Christian understand dialogue?

In his address given at the Journées Romaines Dominicaines, Christian recounted the following anecdote about his relationship with Mohammed, who used to come regularly to talk with him. One day the latter reproached him for his absence: “It’s a long time since we dug our well together,” to which Christian replied somewhat teasingly, “And what do we find at the bottom of the well, Christian water or Muslim water?” Mohammed replied, “Really, after all the time we have been travelling together, you don’t know? What we find is the water of God.”

Dialogue for Christian is an exodus, an Easter road, a hegira. It is not an activity, a debating circle; it is an interior path, a deep spiritual attitude, and therefore for him dialogue is above all not “theological.” He cannot stand the useless and narrow-minded jousting. He does not reject the four “typical” forms of dialogue mentioned in the Roman documents “Dialogue and Mission” and “Dialogue and Proclamation,” but for Christian it is something else; it goes further than this typology. (Fr. Christian Salenson Bulletin 76, January 2006)

The “What” of Dialogue

Dialogue is a necessity based on the spiritual bonds that draw us together. It is spiritual unity that brings us together. Dialogue is based on the unity which exists between us. It is from this unity that we proceed; from what we have in common, and not from what makes us different.

Dialogue is not “political,” it is “theological” in its scope, in the sense that its purpose is not peace, or agreement. Peace is a result, peace is a gift; it is not a goal. (These days there is a risk of turning dialogue into a tool.) Peace, clear agreement: these are not the purposes of dialogue.

There is a theological necessity of moving towards the other if one wishes to come to God. “To draw close to the other and to draw close to God: these are one and the same,” Christian says. The first step: it is God who takes it towards us. (cf. Ecclesiam Suam, 70-80). We must show the same generosity in this matter; it is not the others who have “taken the first step.”

Dialogue also has the effect of taking us out of our securities, of “emptying our hands”; it is the work of emptying so as to allow Christ to fill. Dialogue strips us of our certainties. We do not know what to expect from dialogue (we risk remaining with the understanding we already have of the truth, locked in the truth). Dialogue is an exodus, a discovery of Christ; it is a matter of “losing what I know about Christ so as to rediscover him in the light of Easter.”

Dialogue, for Christian, is profoundly existential, deriving from a long “living together” and from shared concerns (life, working with neighbors, cooperative action, all done on an equal bias and therefore with people). Tibhirine refuses to tackle social issues; they do not wish to be “bosses” precisely because dialogue means staying on an equal footing. This form of dialogue consists of trivial sharing and of exchanges based on faith and prayer; dialogue is nourished by prayer (the Brothers had lent a room in the monastery to the Muslims). The monastery bell and the call of the muezzin are part of this dialogue, both of them dialoguing, so to speak! On the other hand, dialogue does not mean leaving the monastery; dialogue can be experienced by those who never meet a Buddhist or a Hindu. No, dialogue is an interior attitude; it is a manner of being: one thinks, one prays in a dialogical context, for “the barriers of our closed minds have given way.”

Dhikr for the 3rd Sunday of Advent (B)

2008-12-13T09:09:00.000+08:00

Readings: Is. 61: 1-2. 10-11; 1Thes. 5: 16-24; Jn. 1: 6-8. 19-28
Text: He said: "I am 'the voice of one crying out in the desert, "Make straight the way of the Lord,"' * as Isaiah the prophet said." (John 1: 23)

Meditation: The call is to ‘make straight the way of the Lord’. Often, we miss the coming of the Lord into our lives, because of the ‘hardness’ of our hearts…

Dhikr Prayer 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…

Advent Reflection on John the Baptist

2008-12-11T09:02:00.000+08:00

The Church is like John the Baptizer; it’s like the body of Jesus. The body of Jesus had to die for the coming of the Kingdom; John the Baptizer had to point beyond himself to the Kingdom. The Church is not an end in itself; the Church is a means. The Kingdom is the end. And whenever we make the means into the end, we have created an idol. It is the major sin in the Bible—maybe the only one. (Richard Rohr, OFM)

Cultural & Religious Dialogue

2008-12-10T08:55:00.000+08:00

Papal Message on Cultural and Religious Dialogue
"Address the Great Challenges That Mark the Post-Modern Age"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 9, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the message Benedict XVI sent to the presidents of the pontifical councils for interreligious dialogue and culture on the occasion of the Dec. 4 study day on "Cultures and Religions in Dialogue." The Holy See published the message today.

* * *
To Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran
President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue
And
Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi
President of the Pontifical Council for Culture

I desire first of all to express my heartfelt satisfaction for the joint initiative of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Pontifical Council for Culture, which organized a Day of Study dedicated to the theme: "Cultures and Religions in Dialogue," as the Holy See's participation in the European Union's initiative, approved in December 2006, to declare 2008 "European Year of Intercultural Dialogue." Together with the presidents of the aforementioned pontifical councils, I cordially greet the cardinals, my venerated brothers in the episcopate, the most excellent members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, as well as the representatives of the various religions participants in this significant meeting.

For many years now Europe has been conscious of its essential cultural unity, despite the constellation of national cultures that have shaped it. It is good to underline: Contemporary Europe, peering into the third millennium, is the fruit of two millennia of civilization. The latter sinks its roots both in the enormous and ancient patrimony of Athens and Rome, as well as above all in the fruitful terrain of Christianity, which has revealed itself capable of creating new cultural patrimonies receiving the original contribution of each civilization.

The new humanism, which arose from the spread of the evangelical message, exalts all the elements worthy of the human person and his transcendent vocation, purifying them from the dross that obfuscates the genuine face of mankind created in the image and likeness of God. Thus, Europe appears to us today as a precious fabric, whose weave is made up of the principles and values of the Gospel, while the national cultures have been able to address an immense variety of perspectives which manifest the religious, intellectual, technical, scientific and artistic capacities of "Homo Europeus." In this connection, we can state that Europe has had and still has a cultural influence on the totality of the human species, and cannot fail to feel particularly responsible not only for its own future, but also that of the whole of humanity.

In the present context, in which ever more frequently our contemporaries ask themselves essential questions on the meaning of life and its value, it seems more important than ever to reflect on the ancient roots from which has flowed an abundant sap for centuries. Intercultural and interreligious dialogue emerges as a priority for the European Union and is of interest transversally to the sectors of culture and communication, of education and science, of migrations and minorities, youth and labor.

Once diversity is received as a positive fact, it is necessary to make persons accept not only the existence of the other's culture, but also the desire to be enriched with it. Addressing Catholics, my predecessor, the Servant of God Paul VI, enunciated his profound conviction in these terms: "The Church must enter into dialogue with the world in which she lives. The Church becomes world, the Church becomes message, the Church becomes conversation" ("Ecclesiam Suam," No. 67).

We live in what is usually called a "plural world," characterized by the speed of communications, the mobility of peoples and their economic, political and cultural interdependence. Precisely in this, perhaps dramatic hour, though unfortunately many Europeans seem to forget Europe's Christian roots, the latter are alive and should trace the path and nourish the hope of millions of citizens who share the same values.

Believers should always be willing to promote initiatives of intercultural and interreligious dialogue, to stimulate collaboration on topics of mutual interest, such as the dignity of the human person, the quest for the common good, the building of peace and development. With this intention, the Holy See wished to give particular relevance to its own participation in high-level dialogue on understanding between religions and cultures and on cooperation for peace, in the framework of the 62nd U.N. General Assembly (Oct. 4-5, 2007). To be authentic, dialogue must avoid yielding to relativism and syncretism and be animated by sincere respect for others and by a generous spirit of reconciliation and fraternity.

I encourage all those dedicated to the building of a friendly and sympathetic Europe ever more faithful to its roots and, in particular, I exhort believers to contribute not only to zealously protecting the cultural and spiritual heritage that distinguishes them and forms an integral part of their history, but also to commit themselves increasingly to seek new ways to adequately address the great challenges that mark the post-modern age. Among these, I limit myself to mention the defense of man's life in all its phases, the safeguarding of all the rights of the person and the family, the construction of a just and sympathetic world, respect of creation, and intercultural and interreligious dialogue. In this perspective, I wish for the success of the study day planned and invoke on all the participants the abundant blessings of God.

In the Vatican, Dec. 3, 2008
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

The Language of Power vs. the Language of Dialogue...

2008-12-06T11:39:00.001+08:00

The world speaks a language that often characterized by power relations and domination. This language divides, separates, discriminates and oppresses peoples. There is, yet another language that people now long to speak. This is the language of dialogue. Here we are speaking of specific dialogue, an inter-religious dialogue where we come and meet as persons of faith and identified with a religious community. Inter-religious dialogue is relatively new in our contemporary world. There are no ready-made rules on how to conduct this kind of dialogue yet there are experiences that may guide and help us as we continue to journey on this unfamiliar and still largely un-charted road.

The first lesson in inter-religious dialogue is the honest and sincere openness to understand and grow in our perception of realities and the “other” and then the willingness to act accordingly. Often time, we were schooled to define realties and the “other” on our terms and language. We engage in an inter-religious dialogue so that we can learn, grow and understand what my dialogue partner believes and cherishes - their fears and aspirations.

The second lesson is the recognition and respect that each partner in dialogue shows in the articulation and self-definition as well as the meaning of belonging to a faith-community.

The communication and self-revelation take place in an environment of TRUST and genuine search for common grounds of fellowship while respecting our diversities and integrity of our faith traditions.

These common grounds are discovered in our faith commitments resulting from our critique of the earth and the relationships between and among peoples, communities and nations. Partners in dialogue become aware of being “stakeholders” as well as participants in the drama and tragedies of communities that we are. In other circle, this level of dialogue is called “dialogue of action”.

(Eliseo “Jun” Mercado, OMI – Badaliyya Philippines)

Dhikr for the 2nd Sunday of Advent (B)

2008-12-06T05:56:00.001+08:00

(The readings - Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8)

Text: A voice of one crying out in the desert: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'" John (the) Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1: 3-4)

Like John the Baptizer we prepare for the coming of the Lord. He comes in events and moments we least expect… And how do we prepare for his coming into our lives…?

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:
Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ.
Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
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…

Herald of the Messiah

2008-12-05T06:38:00.000+08:00

Always pointing beyond himself, ready to get out of the way, finally beheaded by the powers that be, John the Baptizer represents the kind of liberation and the kind of prophecy that we need in our affluent culture.

He is not just free from the system, he is amazingly free from himself. These are the only prophets God can use, the only prophets we can trust.

John the Baptizer seems to tell us that the desert is the only place bare enough, empty enough to mirror our own motives and disguises.

The desert is the prophet to the prophet.

(Richard Rohr, OFM)

The Heart of the Soul

2008-12-03T19:31:00.001+08:00

by Dorothy C. Buck

In 858 A.D. the Sufi mystic al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj was born in Persia. In 922 A.D. he was accused of violating Islamic law and, after imprisonment and torture, he was executed for blasphemy. The legend of this mystic/martyr of Islam has been kept alive throughout the Muslim world in ritual and prayer. Persian and Turkish mystical poets have told and re-told his story in diverse literary forms and the poet Rumi used the Hallajian themes. Members of Sufi orders today refer to al-Hallaj as a true disciple of divine love.

In his travels as a mendicant preacher and spiritual master, al-Hallaj tried to lead his followers ever more deeply into the reality of the human soul toward ultimate unity with the divine. His writings passionately described divine love as he sought to lose himself in God (Massignon 1983, 2:198): You infuse my heart with consciousness as You infuse bodies with souls.

One of the most compelling themes from al-Hallaj's devotional doctrine is that of the Virgin Heart, which refers to the secret place in the center of the human soul where God alone has access. Al-Hallaj stated (Massignon 1989, 133): Our hearts are one single Virgin, which the dream of no dreamer can penetrate ... which only the presence of the Lord penetrates in order to be conceived therein.

In 1907 Louis Massignon, a young Frenchman, became interested in the life of al-Hallaj, traveling to Iraq as an archeologist, in pursuit of the Hallajian legend. Al-Hallaj soon became the subject of Massignon's doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Massignon's passionate search for sources on al-Hallaj's life, doctrine, and legend led him on a fifty-year journey of research and writing. Most profound, however, was his own experience of al-Hallaj, which Massignon felt contributed to his own spiritual conversion to Catholicism. Massignon (1883-1962) was a renowned Orientalist of his time. Not only was he a distinguished professor at the prestigious College de France, but he also served as the French cultural ambassador to the Near East. An advocate of Islamic-Christian dialogue, he ultimately became a Catholic priest of the Melkite Rite, even as his life work was focused on the life and teachings of al-Hallaj, the mystic martyr of Islam.

Massignon's conversion experience, from modern secular intellectual to devout seeker of the divine, took place in Baghdad in 1908. The unique nature of his experience was that his call to Christianity took place in the Muslim world and that he was convinced that it happened through the intercession of the tenth century mystic of Islam, al-Hallaj.

Massignon's reflections on al-Hallaj's Virgin Heart, or le point Vierge, were incorporated in his major writings, lectures, and extensive correspondence, and became an integral part of his ongoing spiritual conversion. He conceived of this theme as a connecting link between his growing conviction of the need for interreligious dialogue and understanding and his belief in the need for hospitality, humility, and compassion for all of humanity. Massignon wrote (Massignon 1989, 133):Introspection must guide us to tear through the concentric "veils" which ensheathe the heart, and hide from us the virginal point, the secret (sirr) wherein God manifests himself.

Massignon leads me to reflect deeply on the layers of meaning evoked by this image of the Virgin Heart at the center of the human soul. Here he is suggesting that my heart is "ensheathed," covered over by "veils" of illusions, assumptions, judgments, and attachments that prevent me from even imagining a place for the divine within me. This blindness prevents me from recognizing the same virginal point in the souls of others.

In 1959 the Trappist monk Thomas Merton began a correspondence with Massignon. Both men were seekers of the mystical aspects of diverse religious traditions. Merton was drawn to Massignon's increasing activism as a witness against war, specifically the Algerian-French crisis, and was intrigued by the theme of the Virgin Heart. In a letter to Massignon on July 20, 1960, he wrote (Merton 1994, 278):

Louis, one thing strikes me and moves me most of all. It is the idea of the "point vierge, ou le désespoir accule le coeur de l'excommunié" ["the virginal point, the center of the soul, where despair corners the heart of the outsider"] ... We in our turn have to reach that same "point vierge" in a kind of despair at the hypocrisy of our own world.

One day Thomas Merton was standing at the corner of an intersection in the heart of a busy shopping district. He wrote (Merton 1965, 156-57):

I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness ... This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud ... I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

Merton's epiphanous moment reminds me of al-Hallaj, who, in his passion for God, came to see the Divine everywhere and in everyone. In this vision there is a recognition of the Virgin Heart, a momentary joy at knowing what is hidden from most of us by our own despair and inability to open our hearts to others in true hospitality, especially those who are strangers, who practice other religions, or whospeak other languages.

I am afraid to experience the sacred in others. It would require me to risk being touched by the Spirit, as Massignon was, and to experience my own conversion. My heart would be transformed by the presence of the divine seeking hospitality in the depth of my soul. Yet, despite my fear of changing my habitual way of seeing the world, of making artificial distinctions between people of different nationalities, races, or beliefs, the unexpected visitor awakens me and arouses my desire for communion, for connection, and love itself transforms my vision. Then I must see people "walking around shining like the sun". Then I can no longer pass by the homeless people as if they did not exist, nor can I make any distinction between those who have wealth, education, or position, and those who do not. I can no longer deny that I too am homeless, a refugee, a victim of social and political injustice. I must speak out with al-Hallaj, Massignon, and Merton, who wrote (Merton 1965, 158):

At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God ... this little point ... is the pure glory of God in us ... It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody.

I understand this "point of pure truth" to mean that I must be capable of recognizing the sacred in everyone, as al-Hallaj did. To believe in the mystery of the Virgin Heart is to believe in a secret place in every human soul where the sacred is given to us despite our unworthiness, failures, and human limitations. That place cannot be touched by anything I do, and yet it calls me to transcend myself, to see all others as they are -- sacred. Only then can I say with Hallaj (Massignon 1983, 426):

My soul is mixed and joined together with your soul and every accident that injures you injures me.

References
Massignon, Louis. 1983. The Passion of al-Hallaj: Mystic and Martyr. Vol. 2. Translated by H. Mason. Princeton, N.J.: princeton University Press.
Massignon, Louis. 1989. Testimonies and Reflections: Essays of Louis Massignon. Selected and introduced by H. Mason. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.
Merton, Thomas. 1965. Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. New York: Image Books, Doubleday.
Merton, Thomas. 1994. Witness to Freedom: The Letters of Thomas Merton in Times of Crsis. Selected and edited by W. H. Shannon. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.

The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus

2008-11-30T12:28:00.000+08:00

The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus – A common Muslim-Christian Heritage
Sts. Constantin, Maximilien, Martinien, Denis, Jean, Sarapion, and Malch

1. The Importance of the Site in Ephesus

The name Ephesus evokes the ancient Greek city in Asia Minor where the cult of Artemis (Diane), which preceded Christianity, manifested itself by a temple classed among the seven marvels of the world. But it is also inseparable from Saint Paul who preached at the agora in the year 57 of the Christian era, or from Saint John, who lived there (where the Basilica containing his tomb has been found ), and of the third Ecumenical Council when the Mother of Christ was proclaimed Theotokos (Mother of God) in 431 of the Christian era.

Placed under the protection of Saint John, the Virgin would have accompanied him to Ephesus during his apostolate. It is likely that he settled her outside the ancient city on a neighboring hill where it is believed that her house was discovered. It is known today by the name Panaya Kapulu (that is to say, the "Port of All Saints").

In fact it is not on the edge of the shore, but well into the mountain that it is necessary to search for traces of the past. (The sea has receded from what was one of the biggest ports in antiquity). Not far from the building called Panaya Kapulu on the side of another hill, beside the tomb presumed to have been that of Mary Magdalene, one finds a sepulcher known by the name of the Cave of the Seven Sleepers.

2. The Origins of the Devotion to the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus

In 1926, research by the Austrian Archeological Institute uncovered the ruins of the basilica of the Seven Sleepers (built above the cave) which permitted them to specify the date. It dates back to the middle of the 5th century. Archeology was able to confirm implicitly the epoch evoked by an ancient writing that we can thus summarize. Seven young people from Ephesus were buried alive in a cave for having refused to deny their faith in God during the persecutions ordered by the Emperor Décius; they woke up after a long sleep of several hundred years and died several hours later after having testified to their experience.

They were seen collectively by the inhabitants who decided afterwards to build a sanctuary dedicated to them. The historian, Honigmann, established that this tradition was common to Melkite, Nestorian, and Jacobite Christians, and therefore precedes their division (5th and 6th centuries). As for the liturgical names of the seven saints, they were already reported in 530 by a Latin pilgrim from North Africa, Theodosis, in a Jacobite list in Nubia. In its liturgical calendar the Eastern Church celebrates the Seven Sleepers twice: October 22nd (Common of prayers to the Martyrs), and August 4th (the traditional feast day), while the Latin Occident celebrates them on July 27th.

But, what is more remarkable, the example of these martyrs for the faith is venerated beyond the limits of Christianity. In fact, Sura XVIII of the Qur'an read every Friday in the Mosques (and thus preceding the death of Muhammed in 632) is entitled al-Kahf, that is to say, the Cave. This Sura exalts the abandonment to God of these seven young Ephesians buried alive, describing their witness to fidelity in the face of an impious demand, then their ‘dormition' which it states was 309 years. Sura XVIII could be considered as the Apocalypse of Islam; not only does it magnify the attitude of the seven martyrs for their faith by their anticipated resurrection, but it also presents the announcement of the Last Judgement.

Muslims make exception for the Seven Sleepers and tolerate the building of sanctuaries to these martyrs because their temporary resurrection made them precursory witnesses of the Last Judgement, saints of the End Time. Shustari, one of the most interesting commentators on the Qur'an, said that, "All Saints lose their normal sleep and enter into the sleep of the Seven Sleepers". (Geneviève Massignon Ph. D)

Badaliyya Philippines Advent Session

2008-11-30T11:23:00.002+08:00

Dear Friends,

Peace!

The present ambiguities in Southern Philippines and in the world, have become a source of an extra push to begin anew the Badaliyya Prayer Session on each last Friday of the month.

We began the Advent Session with a lesson on the Dhikr Prayer. This was followed with updates on the many peace initiatives following the resurgence of war in Central Mindanao. Then we went to the OMI Chapel to sit in silence and prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. We concluded the session with a light snack and to continue our traditional "kumustahan".

In this first session, we reflected on the call to “substitutionary prayer” following Louis Massignon’s own suggestion to turn to Charles de Foucauld and Saint Francis for inspiration and enlightenment.

At Tamanrasset in the southern Algerian desert Foucauld realized that he needed to know and understand theTouareg people in order to truly live with them. In fact he wanted to assimilate himself into their way of life, in a sense to “become Touareg”. Not only did he allow himself to eat what those to whom he dedicated his life ate but he learned their language as intimately as they knew it, as well as their history, traditions, folklore, poetry and beliefs. “To make oneself understand is the beginning of everything, in order to do something good”, he wrote. “It isn’t enough to pray for the salvation of others, nor even to lovingingly give oneself to them, but to offer oneself body and soul for their souls”.

Peace to you.
Eliseo “Jun” Mercado, OMI

Reflection for the 1st Sunday of Advent (B)

2008-11-29T14:05:00.000+08:00

Dhikr for the 1st Sunday of Advent (B)

Text: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” (Mk. 13: 33)

Meditation: Take heed… Jesus comes in moments and in the events we least expect…

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…