November 16, 2008
Dear Friends,
On Sunday November 16, 2008 from 1:30pm-3:30pm the Badaliya prayer group at
St. Paul's Church in Cambridge, MA, USA will co-sponsor a special presentation
by the President and co-founder of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation,
Sir Rateb Rabie,KCHS entitled, "The Living Stones; Palestinian Christians, Witnesses
of Christ in the Holy Land". Please join us in person or in spirit as we learn
about the many programs offered through the HCEF that are designed to help Americans
establish relationships with the Palestinians struggling to survive in the Holy
Land and as we continue to pray for peace and reconciliation throughout the
Middle East.
In his letters to members of the Badaliya prayer community Louis Massignon (1883-1962)
often mentions a young Melkite Carmelite nun known as "The Little Arab".
Sister Mariam of Jesus Crucified lived from 1846 to 1878. She died at the age
of 33 in the Carmelite Monastery in Bethlehem. On November 13, 1983 she was
beatified, the first step in the process of officially being named a saint by
the Roman Catholic Church. In his letters Massignon refers to Mariam Baouardy
as the "little Arab Carmelite of Bethlehem" and saw her future beatification
as a mission and means to assuring the safety of the holy sites in the Holy
Land.
.(Taken from Sufi, Issue 62, Summer 2004 Louis Massignon and Mariam Baouardy(Blessed
Mary of Jesus Crucified):A Palestinian Saint for Our Time by Dorothy C.
Buck available at www.dcbuck.com)
When the Badaliya prayer movement was recreated in December 2002 we adopted
Blessed Mariam of Jesus Crucified as the Patroness of our Badaliya USA along
with the patroness of Massignon's original Badaliya,Our Lady of Pokrov, also
known as Our Lady of the Veil. Blessed Mariam was the founder of the Carmelite
Monastery in Bethlehem. She was born in Ibillin, Galilee where in recent times
the well known Melkite Priest, Elias Chacour founded a kindergarten in her name
followed by primary, secondary and technical schools open to all faith traditions,
Muslims, Jews, Christians and Druze. A University is now being established there.
As a Palestinian citizen of Israel Fr. Chacour's efforts have required overcoming
many obstacles.
(See www.pilgrimsofibillin.org,
read Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour, University of Notre Dame Press
2001,2007)
Massignon's concern about the welfare of the Holy Land and for the need for
all three Abrahamic faith traditions to maintain an equal presence there is
clear in his writings about Palestine and Jerusalem. In 1948 he wrote:
"Every attempt to divide the Holy Land between rivals, and also every attempt
of abandonment of this unique symbol of the future Union of humanity in Israel
alone, by excluding Christianity or Islam, is not realisable."
"The salvation of the world depends more and more on Israel, of the character
that it imprints by its return to the country.It will only be able to stay if
it accepts, with a supreme international control, to live in equality, with
the Muslims (in which Jerusalem is the first and the last "qibla") and with
the Christians who are all natives born in Nazareth, through the Marian"fiat'
of the Annunciation"
(Louis Massignon Ce qu'est la terre Sainte pour les communautes humaines
qui demandent Justice 1948 (p.288, 489) in Opera Minora vol III textes recueillis,
classes et presentes avec une bibliographie par Y. Moubarac Dar Al-Maaref Liban.
1963).
As we gather together to further Massignon's vision of justice, equality and
spiritual presence in the Holy Lands that ground our faith traditions in spirit
and place, I invite you to pray the closing prayer of the Badaliya USA's monthly
gatherings with us:
The Prayer of the Badaliya USA (anonymous circa.1975)
I pray for you.... that does not mean that from time to time I pronounce certain
words while thinking of you. It means that I feel responsible for you in my
flesh and in my soul, that I carry you with me as a mother carries her child;
That I wish to share, I wish to draw entirely upon myself all the harm and all
the suffering that menaces you. And I offer to God all my darkness so that He
may return it to you in light.
Amen
Peace to you.
Dorothy