#14 - November 7, 2004

Dear Friends of the Badaliya,

Our Boston Badaliya Prayer group will meet at 3pm in the Catholic Chapel on the Brandeis University campus on Sunday, November 7,2004. Please join us in person or in spirit as we pray for peace and reconciliation in the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East.

Our theme this month is "compassion" since it was so key to Massignon's understanding of the Badaliya and substitution as a call to intercessory prayer, action and inter-religious relationship. In his twenties, in 1908, Massignon had a profound experience of what he later described as "God breaking into his life" and as his "conversion experience". From this beginning he recognized the compassionate caring and prayer for him by others, including Charles de Foucauld and the Muslim Alussy family in Baghdad. Deeply affected by his correspondence with Foucauld, his understanding of compassion became a center piece of his spirituality and a vital component of his experience of authentic relationship with God and others. As we explore the meaning of compassion in our lives, and pray with and for those suffering in our world, hear the words of Louis Massignon:

"As long as God leaves us absorbed in our own suffering we remain sterile, nailed to ourselves. As soon as compassion brings us beyond, to another's suffering other than our own, we enter into the science of compassion experientially, we discover wisdom in it; in the immortal company of all creatures purified by angelic and human trial we glimpse the joy of tomorrow through the pain of today".

Friday, November 5th is the First Friday of the month for those who wish to join in solidarity with the worldwide Union of Charles de Foucauld by fasting and praying for World Peace.

Many Blessings and Peace to you.
Dorothy