True Love in Jesus Christ...

True Love in Jesus Christ..

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  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.’

We profess that God is LOVE! And that LOVE is the one revealed by Jeus Christ – the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger; and and the man hanging on the Cross at Calvary!

A Blessed Christmas!

Fr. Jun Mercado, OMI

Jonglei: We have always been at War...

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW REPORT South Sudan: Jonglei – “We Have Always Been at War South Sudan’s Jonglei state is emblematic of the regional, national and local challenges to peace and of the limitations of trying to resolve a conflict by engaging only two of the nearly two-dozen armed groups in the country. Despite eleven months of peace talks mediated by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), South Sudan’s civil war threatens to intensify in the coming weeks. Most of the nearly two dozen armed groups in South Sudan are, at least nominally, allied with President Salva Kiir’s Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) or former Vice President Riek Machar’s SPLA-in-Opposition (SPLA-IO). Yet most of these groups are not battling for control of the central government and their casus belli is different from that of Kiir or Machar. Some groups are fighting over land and representation in state and local governments, while others are caught in cycles of revenge attacks that began with atrocities against members of their community. Crisis Group’s latest report, South Sudan: Jonglei – “We Have Always Been at War”, calls for IGAD to enhance its political presence in South Sudan, to better engage with armed groups and to ensure talks in Addis Ababa reflect the diversity of armed interests on the ground. The report’s major findings and recommendations are: Jonglei state’s mix of violent ethnic militias, armed political opposition, intercommunal clashes and dysfunctional governance were part of the tinder that led to the outbreak of South Sudan’s civil war a year ago. Today, civilians are displaced and starving, and a return to war is all but guaranteed. While the government has the upper hand militarily, interminable rebellion and continuing regional interference point to a turbulent future. The trajectory of the war in Jonglei demonstrates the dangers of limiting IGAD’s peace process to only the government and Riek Machar’s SPLM/A-IO (Sudanese Peoples’ Liberation Movement/Army-In Opposition). IGAD should expand its political presence in South Sudan to engage more directly with the various armed groups – including non-South Sudanese ones – and the communities that support them. Engaging these groups is critical to building support for a future peace agreement and to ensuring that Salva Kiir and Riek Machar cannot use these armed groups to undermine talks or an agreement. The multiplicity of armed groups and their independent nature suggest that far more effort should be dedicated to discussions about security arrangements that go beyond the government and the SPLA-IO. Much of the political work should be done in South Sudan, not Addis Ababa, and IGAD should carefully assess which conflicts require resolution at the national level and which should be addressed at the local level. Engagement with armed groups will lay the groundwork for the national political processes and transitional arrangements that are needed for a sustainable peace once a deal is reached in Addis Ababa. “This war cannot be resolved by engaging only two of the nearly two-dozen armed groups in the country and ignoring those that have not yet entered into the fight”, says Casie Copeland, South Sudan Analyst. “IGAD should enhance its approach, which already includes regional and national tracks, with strengthened engagement with armed groups to move the peace process forward”. “As the case of Jonglei illustrates, armed groups continuously assess their alliances, make and break them frequently, and will do the same with respect to the benefit or detriment they perceive from a peace agreement”, says Cedric Barnes, Horn of Africa Project Director. “Kiir and Machar have built their coalitions on these shifting sands and any deal between the two could fall apart if their constituent groups don’t see an advantage for themselves. This calls for more systematic engagement at the community level”.

4th Sunday of Advent (B)

Short Reflection for the 4th Week of Advent (B)

Readings: 2 Samuel 7: 1-5. 8-12; Romans 16: 25-27; Luke 1: 26-38

Selected Gospel Passage: 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. What is important is our generosity and readiness to respond, like Mary, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word’.

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 Advent (B)

Short Reflection for 3rd Sunday of Advent (B)

Readings: Isaiah 61: 1-2. 10-11; 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24; John. 1: 6-8. 19-28

Selected Passage: 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’ or the ‘crookedness’ of our hearts. John the Baptist reminds us that if we truly want to feel and see the coming of the Lord into our lives, we need to have a change of heart… a true conversion.

Visit: www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

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. Recite the passage as often possible… sometimes with the use of beads

4. 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…