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Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Yesterday, 17th October 2005 we celebrated the world day against exclusion and for the eradication of poverty. In Switzerland, the "poor" gathered at La Place Saint François and remained there the whole day, ready to share their thinking, their experiences of exclusion and poverty with friends and with passers by.  It was a workday, so friends were few and those who could come only arrived in the late evening; the passers by were many, but most of them hurried on to "get on with their job" but also to avoid, I presume, these strange and awkward looking people: "the Swiss Poor". Switzerland is a rich country? Tourists may have that impression... What does it mean for the 800 000 poor or more, ashamed to show themselves unless it be on a day like this. And even so, the poorest stayed at home. Hiding! Ashamed to be one of them in public! I can't claim to be poor, since I have what I need as a Sister! But I came and tried just "to be with them", to listen to their few words of sadness, of anger also to see so much wealth all around and to be deprived of life's necessities. We talked to each other of very concrete things: how do we make a nourishing vegetable soup for instance! I saw and met three Sisters of Charity, no one else from our churches! Yes, our fragmented world is very sick. Globalisation, whatever that may mean for those in power, means, for small people: globalisation of poverty ! Jesus is one of the small people on our earth. He said in his own land, and continues to say today: "ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE"… but not without our struggle, our energy, our hope, our tears! The struggle has to continue unabated even though it be on the ashes of our dreams, we build on and on and on. So we promise each time we say the Our Father as he taught us and which we say in our own words and with his spirit!  Prayer for Justice God Our Father Open our Eyes just as Jesus restored the blind man's sight. May we have clear vision to create structures of justice that include all Your people. Heal us of our blindness of our own assumptions Release us from our clouded perceptions. Make our hearts and minds clear that we may see the world as you see it and work for justice for all. Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Apocalypse day after day…  When a beloved friend dies beside you, and oh! you're totally helpless, no word can surge from the depth of suffering. You just suffer! Raw suffering! A muted cry no one ever will hear! You die with your beloved! A long long silence, darkness… you let go. You suffer. No more anger, no more revolt… you let go, you die as the hours slowly keep falling into nothingness. You're numb. You are suffering. Dead! Nothing else. Then something happens and you do not know what, nor how… the beloved has reached HOME whence he came! You know! Oh! bliss! In His creator's heart, he lives, gloriously free, and breathes into you, little bereft creature left behind on this earth, he breathes a breath of his own vibrant life! It's like emerging from a cruel nightmare, it's like an energy puts you on your feet… and you know, you've got to walk on the long long way, doing good along the road, and then, reach HOME calling you: come! Our creator, our loving ABBA's most tender smile tells you: see, we're all together, for more adventures, for on going life…  You may have died in a jail, in a Pakistan's earthquake, in New Orleans, in Guatemala's hurricane, in a lonely old age home, in an accident… one thing is sure: we all go home, HOME whence we came just to pass through this vale of tears sometimes doubting the use of the passing, yet plodding along to God! Nevertheless, facing my creator and your creator, my eyes in his, I shall ask him: Abba, why suffering? WHY? Then I shall know! Saturday, October 01, 2005
Dear friends, you could believe Katutura is about to vanish! Of course not! I have been loaded with piles of texts to translate and this job demanded all my leisure time and concentration! Now the job is done and I find my friends again through the gracious service this old computer which is gettting slower and slower. May be that's just as well in a world of rush and races and stress! I have the blissful feeling of crossing a desert inhabited by multitudes of people singing, remember? People People who need people Are the luckiest people in the world We're children needing other children And yet, letting our grown up pride Hide all the need inside Acting more like children than children People God's children Were born to be free To love All people have a dream For peace, for security Let the world fall in love again Please, please, let our lives not be in vain  Lovers are very special people They're the luckiest people in the world With one person One very special person A feeling deep in your soul says You were half, now you're whole No more hunger and thirst But first be a person who needs people People who need people Are the luckiest people in the world Jule Styne/Bob Merrill well this is just how I feel: I need you, you need me we're lucky, arent'we? |