January 16, 2011.
Dear Friends,
We will gather together for our Badaliya Prayer on Sunday, January 16, 2011
from 3 pm to 4:30 pm at St. Pauls Church in Cambridge, in the small chapel located
in the Parish Center. Please join us in person or in spirit as we pray for peace
and reconciliation in the Middle East and especially in the Holy Land.
It seems fitting at the start of this New Year 2011 that we be reminded of some
of the original goals for the establishment of the Badaliya in Egypt in 1934,
and the means by which Louis Massignon suggested they be fulfilled. In the Statutes
that were written in 1947 Massignon describes both the plight of Christians
living in Muslim countries and his understanding of their role in salvation
history. Given the tragic news of a recent attack on a Coptic Church in Alexandria
on New Years Day 2011 and the difficulties facing the survival of our Christian
brothers and sisters in Egypt and throughout the Middle East, Massignon's
prayer and his guidance encourages us to remain faithful to the call to Badaliya
and through it, to our faith in the God of Abraham and Our Lord and brother
Jesus Christ.
The Original Goals (1947)
1. The Badaliya is addressed to Christians in the East.
2. It comes from the awareness of a particular responsibility of these Christians
towards their Muslim brothers among whom they live. They have a providential
mission in relation to them
and would like to fulfill it.
3. Moreover having suffered and suffering still through them, they wish to practice
the highest Christian charity towards them following the precept of our Lord,”To
love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you”. (Mt.5:44) and
according to His example:
“When we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him by the death
of his Son...”. (Rom.5:10)
4. Thus, counting on divine grace, these Christians wish to consecrate themselves
to the salvation of their brothers, and in this hope of salvation, to give faith,
adoration and love to Jesus Christ in the name of their brothers, whose imperfect
knowledge of the Gospels prevents them from giving it themselves.
Salvation does not necessarily mean exterior conversion. It is already gaining
a lot that a greater number belonging to the soul of the Church (members of
the Badaliya) live and die in a state of grace........
Means:
6. There are three means: prayer, charity, and personal holiness as a witness.
7. Prayer: without any strict obligation the members of the Badaliya offer the
three Angelus and their Friday Communion for their brothers.
8. Charity: Charity consists of an attitude entirely kind, affectionate, considerate,
and truly fraternal, as much as prudence permits, in relation to the souls that
Providence puts on the path of each one.
9. Personal Holiness does not consist of any particular means, but it must tend
to make the members of the Badaliya living Gospels, in order that Jesus Christ
manifests himself through them and that they give witness to Jesus Christ by
their lives and, if God wills, by their death.
10. While the Badaliya does not propose exterior action, its members always
look for ways to devote themselves to their Muslim brothers and they will volontarily
enter into active organizations that are able to animate the spirit of the Badaliya.
I was reminded by one of our members, our dear friend Father Maurice Borrmans,
that we have to be faithful to the three daily Angelus as Massignon suggested.
Massignon wrote a series of meditations over some years on the three prayers
of Abraham for Sodom, Ishmael and Isaac that he related to the custom in Europe
in his time of praying the Angelus at the sound of the church bells calling
the faithful to this prayer three times a day. He saw it as a way to pray for
all three Abrahamic faith traditions through the intercession of the Virgin
Mary. The famous painting by Jean François-Millet of a farming couple
standing with heads bowed in prayer in the fields is an image that reminds us
to pray throughout the day, along with our Muslim brothers and sisters who stop
to Praise Allah five times a day. I have included the Angelus below for your
own meditation.
Father Maurice Borrmans is Emeritus professor of the Pontifical Institute for
Arabic and Islamic Studies in Rome (professeur émérite du Pontificio
Istituto di Studi Arabi e d'Islamistica de Rome) and the editor, along with
Françoise Jacquin, of the French edition of Louis Massignon's letters
written to members of the Badaliya from 1947-1962 , a publication by Editions
CERF that is appearing this month in France.
Peace to you in this New Year 2011.
Dorothy
The Angelus
Verse: The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary,
Response: And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Verse: Hail Mary, Full of Grace!
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus!
Response: Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Verse: I am the servant of the Lord,
Response: Let it be done to me according to Your word.
Verse: Hail Mary........
Response: Holy Mary.....
Verse: And the Word became flesh
Response: and dwelt among us.
Verse: Hail Mary.....
Response: Holy Mary.....
Verse: Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God,
Response: that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray.
Pour forth we beseech Thee O Lord, thy grace into our hearts,
that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ Your Son was made
known by the message of an angel, may, by His suffering and
death be led to the glory of His resurrection.
Amen.