Nun killed in backlash over Regensburg declared a martyr

Nun killed in backlash over Regensburg declared a martyr

Nun who died in backlash over Benedict XVI’s Regensburg address declared martyr

(Belated!) Ramadan kareem!

Next Sunday marks Eid al'Fitr which is the end of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan. Before it ends take the opportunity to wish your Muslim neighbours and colleagues "Ramadan kareem!"  that they may receive the many blessings of Allah the Compassionate during this time.

On Sunday and Monday you can wish them "Eid mubarak!"

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad according to Islamic belief. This annual observance is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The month lasts 29–30 days based on the visual sightings of the crescent moon, according to numerous biographical accounts compiled in the hadiths.

The word Ramadan comes from the Arabic root ramiḍa or ar-ramaḍ, which means scorching heat or dryness. Fasting is fardh (obligatory) for adult Muslims, except those who are suffering from an illness, travelling, are elderly, pregnant, breastfeeding, diabetic or going through menstrual bleeding. Fasting the month of Ramadan was made obligatory (wājib) during the month of Sha'aban, in the second year after the Muslims migrated from Mecca to Medina. Fatwas have been issued declaring that Muslims who live in regions with natural phenomenon such as the midnight sun or polar night should follow the timetable of Mecca.

While fasting from dawn until sunset, Muslims refrain from consuming food, drinking liquids, smoking, and engaging in sexual relations. Muslims are also instructed to refrain from sinful behaviour that may negate the reward of fasting, such as false speech (insulting, backbiting, cursing, lying, etc.) and fighting. Food and drink is served daily, before dawn and after sunset. Spiritual rewards (thawab) for fasting are also believed to be multiplied within the month of Ramadan. Fasting for Muslims during Ramadan typically includes the increased offering of salat (prayers) and recitation of the Quran.

Bishop Brendan Leahy visited the Limerick Islamic Centre in Dooradoyle on June 19th to bring the greetings of the Limerick diocese to our Muslim brothers and sisters during the season of Ramadan. 

Imam Khalid Ghafour & Bishop Brendan Leahy with some of the Limerick Muslim community at the mosque

Pope Francis, meeting a delegation of British Muslims last April in Rome, advised religious leaders: "The most important work we must do today among ourselves and with humanity is the work of 'the ear': listening. ... Religious people must listen to one another and speak to each other as brothers and sisters", he said. “Listen and speak softly, peacefully, seeking the path together.”

Ramadan Kareem

As the crescent moon rises over Ireland tonight, our Muslim neighbours and colleagues enter into the holy month of Ramadan. May they received the many blessings of Allah the Compassionate during this time.

If you have Muslim neighbours or colleagues, wish them Ramadan Karim!

************

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad according to Islamic belief. This annual observance is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The month lasts 29–30 days based on the visual sightings of the crescent moon, according to numerous biographical accounts compiled in the hadiths.

The word Ramadan comes from the Arabic root ramiḍa or ar-ramaḍ, which means scorching heat or dryness. Fasting is fardh (obligatory) for adult Muslims, except those who are suffering from an illness, travelling, are elderly, pregnant, breastfeeding, diabetic or going through menstrual bleeding. Fasting the month of Ramadan was made obligatory (wājib) during the month of Sha'aban, in the second year after the Muslims migrated from Mecca to Medina. Fatwas have been issued declaring that Muslims who live in regions with natural phenomenon such as the midnight sun or polar night should follow the timetable of Mecca.

While fasting from dawn until sunset, Muslims refrain from consuming food, drinking liquids, smoking, and engaging in sexual relations. Muslims are also instructed to refrain from sinful behaviour that may negate the reward of fasting, such as false speech (insulting, backbiting, cursing, lying, etc.) and fighting. Food and drink is served daily, before dawn and after sunset. Spiritual rewards (thawab) for fasting are also believed to be multiplied within the month of Ramadan. Fasting for Muslims during Ramadan typically includes the increased offering of salat (prayers) and recitation of the Quran.

Limerick Synod 2016 - First Muslim scholar ever to address an Irish Synod

Shaykh Umar Al-Qadri created history today by being the first Muslim scholar to address a synod in Ireland! Thought provoking few words and great to see him there!

 

Addressed a Synod as 1st Muslim scholar in Irish history. #synod16 #Synod2016 @ChrisMusForum Bishop Brendan Leahy pic.twitter.com/ncauZZhf8U

— Shaykh Umar Al-Qadri (@DrUmarAlQadri) April 9, 2016

Remembering the Monks of Tiberine 20 years later

On this weekend when we have such horrors inflicted by terrorists supposedly acting in the name of Islam we remember the Trappist monks of Tiberine in Algeria. Twenty years ago the monks were kidnapped by a terrorist organization called the Armed Islamic Group and beheaded after being held for 2 months. Only their heads were found

Vatican Radio - Interview with Dom Eamon Fitzgerald, Abbot General of the Trappists (former abbot of Mount Mellerary) - 20 years later: legacy of 7 murdered Trappists in Algeria is to build authentic community 

Previous posts on SS102fm here

“Allahu akbar” was never meant to be a call to kill, destroy, mame and cause untold havoc and terror".

 

From Salt + Light:

The tragic, violent events of the past days in Beirut and Paris, as well as the recent downing of a Russian plane fill us all with rage, horror and fear and cause many of us to ask: ‘Is there still space for dialogue with Muslims?’. The answer is: yes, now more than ever.

When I returned to Canada in 1994 after having spent the final four years of my graduate studies in Sacred Scripture in Jerusalem, I was certain of one thing: Islam was becoming a growing, global concern and a great pastoral challenge for the Catholic church. Not many people believed me when I shared this with them! Though my biblical studies were at the French Dominican-run Ecole Biblique de Jérusalem and at the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, I lived in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. Many of my neighbors and friends were Muslims. I learned Arabic, studied the Koran, and delighted in the Middle Eastern hospitality that the Palestinian people offered so graciously.

In my visits and lecturing in the neighboring Arab lands of Palestine, Jordan, the Sinai and Egypt, I was very struck by the image of believers in Allah who, without caring about time or place, fell to their knees in prayer several times each day. I did not see such scenes in the great Christian cathedrals of Europe, which in many cases had become museums for throngs of paying tourists. I learned that Islam has a total organization of life that is completely different from the Catholic one: Islam embraces everything. The Muslim call to prayer: “Allahu akbar” was never meant to be a call to kill, destroy, mame and cause untold havoc and terror.

Continue reading HERE.

Pope expresses sorrow over execution of 30 Christians by the Islamic State



28 Ethiopians reportedly killed in new Islamic State massacre

Islamic State terrorists in Libya apparently killed 28 Ethiopian Christians, describing them as representatives of the “enemy Ethiopian Church,” in a new massacre.

A video that showed the beheading of 12 men and the shooting of 16 others was released on April 19. The beheadings occurred on a beach, while the 16 men were shot in the head in what appeared to be a desert location. The killings were grotesquely similar to the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in another video made public in February.

In the new video, a spokesman for the Islamic State said that the victims were “followers of the cross,” representing “the nation of the cross.” The video also showed images of the destruction of Christian churches and cemeteries, and included a warning for Christians to convert to Islam or face a similar fate.

A spokesman for the Coptic Catholic Church, Bishop Antonios Aziz Mina of Guizeh, told the Fides news service that the timing of the video’s release suggests that Islamic State leaders are very conscious of relations among the Christian churches in the Middle East. Patriarch Mathias I, the leaders of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, had been scheduled to meet with the Coptic Orthodox leader, Pope Tawadros II. (That meeting was cancelled in the wake of the killings, as the Ethiopian prelate chose to remain with his grieving people.) In the February video, the Islamic State had identified the Coptic Church as its enemy in Libya.

In both massacres, the victims were migrant workers—first from Egypt, then from Ethiopia—who had been living in Libya. Christians living in Libya have been in danger since the Islamic State established a powerful presence there, after the collapse of the Qaddafi regime.

“The chain of martyrs has not finished,” Bishop Mina observed. The Church has never complained of martyrdom, but has always celebrated martyrs as those in whom, while they are being killed, the great and consoling victory of Christ shines.”

Ethiopian Christians shot, beheaded and filmed by Islamic State 

Coptic Bishop Antonios Aziz Mina on Ethiopian Christians massacred: the martyrs are those in whom the great and consoling victory of Christ shines

ISIS slaughters 30 Christians on beach in Libya 

The Christian tragedy in the Middle East did not begin with Isis

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Pope's Message to His Holiness Abuna Matthias Patriarch of 

the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church

With great distress and sadness I learn of the further shocking violence perpetrated against innocent Christians in Lybia. I know that Your Holiness is suffering deeply in heart and mind at the sight of your faithful children being killed for the sole reason that they are followers of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I reach out to you in heartfelt spiritual solidarity to assure you of my closeness in prayer at the continuing martyrdom being so cruelly inflicted on Christians in Africa, the Middle East and some parts of Asia. 

It makes no difference whether the victims are Catholic, Copt, Orthodox or Protestant. Their blood is one and the same in their confession of Christ! The blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out to be heard by everyone who can still distinguish between good and evil. All the more this cry must be heard by those who have the destiny of peoples in their hands. 

At this time we are filled with the Easter joy of the disciples to whom the women had brought the news that “Christ has risen from the dead”. This year, that joy – which never fades – is tinged with profound sorrow. Yet we know that the life we live in God’s merciful love is stronger than the pain all Christians feel, a pain shared by men and women of good will in all religious traditions. 

With heartfelt condolences I exchange with Your Holiness the embrace of peace in Christ Our Lord. 

From the Vatican, 20 April 2015

The People of the Cross

The icon here depicts the Coptic martyrs of Libya and was created by Egyptian American artist Tony Rezk. It appears on the website for the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles. 

A sermon preached on Ash Wednesday at Caravita, Rome 
by the Revd Marcus Walker, Associate Director of the Anglican Centre, Rome


The people of the cross.

Twenty-one young men, kneeling in the sand, facing the Mediterranean Sea.

Twenty-one young men, wearing orange jump-suits, each with a black-clad butcher behind him.

Twenty-one young men, all about to have their heads sawn off.

And, superimposed over this footage – professionally produced, it seems – are the words “The people of the cross – the followers of the hostile Egyptian church.”

I have not seen this footage. Those who have, talk of the terrible moment when all twenty-one start to be killed, simultaneously. There are hideous screams. This is not a clean death. This is not a quick death. But rising over the screams of pain are the cries of “Ya rabbi Yasou”, “My Lord Jesus.”

The people of the cross.

How true. How sickeningly, gruesomely, true.

Meant as an insult, like the inscription above the cross of Christ, it revealed a truth well beyond the meaning, and the understanding, of the murderers.

The people of the cross.

Not for them a cross of ash on their forehead, but the Way of the Cross itself.

Not for them the solemn reminder that they are dust and to dust they shall return; that reminder was dealt to them by a sword on a beach.

The reality of death; the reality of the cross: that is what today is about.

Remember O Adam, dust you were and to dust you shall return.

Those words will be used on us as we go up to be marked with our ashen cross. As we get marked as People of the Cross. As we thank God that we live this side of the Mediterranean Sea, where the greatest threat we face, today, is that someone might tell us later that we have a mark on our forehead.

We stand here today, possibly hungry after a bit of a fast, or gearing ourselves up for forty days without chocolates or cigarettes or being rude to the mother-in-law. Or maybe we’ve decided to “take something up” for Lent, being nice or going to the gym.

And we call this a season of fasting, and mark ourselves with an ashen cross, and remember that we are but dust, and… go on with our lives almost unchanged from last week.

We are people of the cross, but the cross is a more distant cross for us.

And yet, however weakly, we are indeed people of the cross.

But the cross, of course, is not just a symbol of death, but also the tree of life. When we’re marked with the sign of death and the dust of the grave, we are also being marked with the cross of the resurrection and the cross of our transformation.

This is the remarkable thing about today, and, indeed, the remarkable thing about our faith. We stand, on Ash Wednesday, at the foot of the grave, peering in and seeing our mortality, but from the very dust of that grave we have inscribed on our heads the hope of our immortality.

And the irony is, on this day of fasting and ashing, our readings very clearly flash up the warning signs that this is not enough. Not by any stretch. Rend your hearts and not your garments. Don’t prance about with ash on your heads looking miserable because you’re hungry.

No.

Repent.

That’s the message of today. Turn around.

Because the message of the cross, which seems foolishness to the Jihadists, is not one of death but one of transformed life. To turn, and be turned, slowly into the person God has called us to be; to turn and be turned, slowly, into the nature of God himself – into the nature of Love.

To forgive, and in forgiving, find forgiveness.

Because that is what we are, my friends: forgiving, forgiven, sinners.

And that is where the pain comes for us: to know the times we have wounded others, and to forgive, from the bottom of our hearts, the wounds we have received.

To turn ourselves to face Christ and to turn our hearts to forgive each other. This is the martyr’s crown that we seek to win, as Saint Augustine said to his flock when they expressed disappointment that the age of martyrdom was over. “Your feast day is not indeed in the calendar, but your crown is ready waiting for you”.

This might seem a little weak in the face of the real crowns won by real martyrs in Nigeria and Iraq and Libya and Syria and all across the world.

But this is what they have died for.

When those men cried our “Ya rabbi Yasou”, they were calling to the God of Love; the god of Forgiveness. Calling out because their journey of forgiving and being forgiven, of turning back to their Lord, was transcended by their terrible but heroic end.

Those men on that beach in Libya were not there for war or to convert others, but for jobs. Ordinary economic migrants hoping for a slightly better life, sending money back to their families at home. On that beach, however, they revealed themselves to be extraordinary for not being willing to renounce the God whom they love.

We are asked to open our hearts and let them be torn, but so often that is the harder task.

As we approach the ash today, let us lay in the grave our anger and resentments and feuds and jealousies, and raise from the grave a transformed nature: forgiven, forgiving, and facing Christ.

Amen.

Holy Martyrs of Egypt, pray for us and for your ISIS killers

“The blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out to be heard,” said Pope [Francis] . It makes no difference whether they be Catholics, Orthodox, Copts or Protestants. They are Christians! Their blood is one and the same. Their blood confesses Christ.''

 As the world struggles to once more comprehend the savagery being inflicted on people through out the Middle East by people with a very warped understanding of the Islamic faith, Pope Francis reminds us all once more of the ecumenism of blood. No matter what our denomination those who die in odium fidei are witnesses for Christ - martyrs in the oldest understanding of the term.
 
Over at Patheos, Elizabeth Scalia names the martyrs who have been killed in the most recent tragedy. The naming and recollection of our martyrs goes right back to the beginning of the church with the account of the martyrdom of St Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles. The recollection of names ensures their memory and that their sacrifice and witness is not forgotten.  
 
Let us ask these new martyrs for their prayers:

+Holy Martyr Milad Makeen Zaky, pray for us, and for the whole world,
+Holy Martyr Abanub Ayad Atiya, pray for your ISIS murderers,
+Holy Martyr Maged Solaimain Shehata, pray for their salvation,
+Holy Martyr Yusuf Shukry Yunan, pray for the release of their all their captives,
+Holy Martyr Kirollos Shokry Fawzy, pray for all in the path of ISIS,
+Holy Martyr Bishoy Astafanus Kamel, pray for the displaced, for those made refugees by ISIS,
+Holy Martyr Somaily Astafanus Kamel, pray for the protection of our Holy Lands and our history,
+Holy Martyr Malak Ibrahim Sinweet, pray for those who act now in resistance against ISIS,
+Holy Martyr Tawadros Yusuf Tawadros, pray for those in immediate danger from forces of evil,
+Holy Martyr Girgis Milad Sinweet, pray for those infected with the virus of hatred and extremism,
+Holy Martyr Mina Fayez Aziz, pray for families being challenged, throughtout the world, by ISIS,
+Holy Martyr Hany Abdelmesih Salib, pray aid workers may draw together, unmolested, to give assistance,
+Holy Martyr Bishoy Adel Khalaf, pray for the targeted clergy and religious of the Near East churches,
+Holy Martyr Samuel Alham Wilson, pray for all people of good will, in every religion, every nation,
+Holy Martyr Whose name we do not know — you “Worker from Awr village” — pray for those in leadership, whose names we know all too well, that their motives may be purified of political intrigue, and for their salvation,
+Holy Martyr Ezat Bishri Naseef, pray for Jews, throughout the world, chosen of God and so despised,
+Holy Martyr Loqa Nagaty, pray for the “two lungs” of Christianity, East and West, to breath together,
+Holy Martyr Gaber Munir Adly, pray for the illumination of that which is All-Good,
+Holy Martyr Esam Badir Samir, pray that in beholding it, we will wish to serve it,
+Holy Martyr Malak Farag Abram, pray for the generation in power, that their egos may be put aside and their hearts might be opened to the Way, the Truth and the Life,
+Holy Martyr Sameh Salah Faruq, pray for the generations to come. 

O New Martyrs, through a malevolent force as old as Eden you now number among the ancient holy ones; keep us particularly in your prayers, as once again we are focused on the mysterious lands where humanity first came into being, and into knowing, and where all will finally be revealed. Pray that we may put aside all that is irrelevant to the moment and, looking forever to the East, prepare our spirits for the engagements into which we may be called, whether we live amid these places of ancient roads and portals, or in the most modern of dwellings. 

Mary, the God-bearer, pray for us,
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us,
Saint John the Forerunner, pray for us,
All Holy Men and Women, pray for us.
Amen, Amen.

But it is not just these 21, we should remember all those both Christian and non-Christian who have died in this conflict.

ICN - Pope offers Mass for martyred Coptic Christians, condemns arms trade
Vatican Radio - Pope at Santa Marta: Slain because they were Christian
Vatican Radio - Egypt mourns Coptic Christians beheaded in Libya
Vatican Radio - Bishop Martinelli vows to stay in Libya with his flock
The Catholic Herald - After beheading Coptic Christians, Islamists say they will ‘conquer Rome’ next
The Daily Telegraph - The Middle East is red with the blood of Christians
Washington Post - Pope Francis denounces ISIS beheadings: ‘Their blood confesses Christ’
Aleteia - "Their Blood Cries Out To The Lord," Says Pope Francis of Beheaded Copts
The Independent - Egypt's Coptic Christians: Who are they – and why have then been targeted by Isis in beheading video?

Some web browsing.........

Our weekly round up of items from across the blogosphere in the last few days!
First off of course is the news that Pope Benedict is to raise John Paul II to the honour of the alters and beatify him on May 1st 2011. One hostelry of my acquaintance in Rome was booked out in half an hour of the news being released!

• The full text of the decree signed by Pope Benedict XVI
• Rocco has a couple of posts over at Whispers in the Loggia
• Is the Vatican rushing the process for JPII? Some views here and here
• The Catholic Herald has a number of links and articles here and some other details including - where despite his final wishes in his will to remain in the earth - the new blessed's remains will be moved up into St Peters Basilica to the Chapel of St Sebastian.
• Other reports from the New York Times and National Catholic Reporter.

A quick summary of the records of John Paul II from RomeReports

Continuing with the annual important speeches and talks that the Pope gives at this time of the year on January 10th we had the annual address of the Pope to the diplomats who are accredited to the Holy See (the Vatican City State does not accredit ambassadors despite the incorrect usage of terminology by the media). The annual address is like a "State of the World" address seen from the vantage point of the Chair of St Peter and this year it was a very precise address setting out the concerns of the Holy See about the safety of our fellow Christians of all denominations around the world both in countries such as Pakistan (which was directly named) where you can be put to death for converting to Christianity to Europe and the western world where despite the claims to free speech and openness and tolerance there is an increasing effort to drive the role of religion from the public square. Pope Benedict reminded his listeners that "Christians are original and authentic citizens” in the Middle East, Benedict said, quoting the concluding message from the recent Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, who should “enjoy all the rights of freedom of conscience, freedom of worship and freedom of education, teaching and the use of the mass media.”



The full text of the address can be read here. Some reaction and analysis to the Pope's address can be read at NCR, Inside Catholic. Sandro Magister has the text of the speech but also links to other important addresses of the Pope which can you some context to the whole debate.

Although there was various reactions to the Pope's support for Copts in Egypt after the attack on them while praying in church - some disapproving Muslims and some showing that we can't tar all followers of the Prophet with the same brush.


Of course during the week, we had some more movements on the creation of the Anglican Ordinature which is to provide a structure of Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church and still maintain some of their Anglican traditions and patrimony. Some of the best coverage is from the Catholic Herald in the UK which has a whole page dedicated to it on their website. Take a visit over and have a look, an interesting piece to look at is the statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the establishment of the Ordinature which is dedicated under the patronage of Our Lady of Walsingham.

There was an interesting talk from Pope Benedict on how purgatory is a process, not a place.


The last week has been Vocations Awareness week in the USA where there is a strong effort on promoting vocations to the priesthood and religious life. The Anchoress has a list of uplifting and encouraging stories about people who have followed the call, inspiring and hope giving especially for us in Ireland. Also a reminder that all Christians are called to take part in helping to grow vocations to the priesthood - when was the last time you prayed for vocations personally or encouraged someone you know to consider a call?


This week saw the beginning of the Visitation in the archdiocese of Armagh with public meetings with Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor - coverage here, here and here.


Ever wonder what the Church thinks of meditation and yoga and other practises from Eastern Religions?

"In 1989 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith delivered a Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation. In Section V of that document, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) wrote: "Just as ‘the Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in [the great religions]' neither should these ways be rejected out of hand simply because they are not Christian. On the contrary, one can take from them what is useful so long as the Christian conception of prayer, its logic and requirements are never obscured."

Over at Patheos they are beginning a series of reflections starting with "Pose by Pose: Amen and Om" by Mary DeTurris Poust.


Across Europe there is an increasing level of people choosing de-baptism, but can you really become de-baptised? Pat Gohn reflects on the meaning of baptism. 


The blog called The New Liturgical Movement has an interesting article focusing on a reflection from Dom Columba Marmion OSBInterior and Exterior Dimensions of Divine Worship; a topic which is going to come more and more to the fore as we move towards Advent 2011 and the introduction of a new missal in English speaking countries to replace the one we currently use to say Mass with.

What a blind monk sees - a reflection to cause you to pause.


A couple of interesting articles and reflections which you might like to ponder and read over:

• When atheists are angry at God
• God isn't big enough for some people
• Children need more meditation and less stimulation - A remote diocese in Australia is leading the way by allowing regular periods of silent meditation in the classroom

"Does the fact that we can no longer see the stars have anything to do with our loss of wonder? These things, the stars, and all creation – they are more splendid, perfect, beautiful and lasting than anything man can create or even conceive. It seems like when we were more aware of milky ways and horizons, it was easier to believe.........We have obliterated the stars with our artificial light – but perhaps we’ve blinded ourselves, too. Without the wonder, the greatness of the galaxies in our sight, we’ve lost the ability to believe in, or expect, miracles."

Continue reading here.

"Back in the 1970s, when there was a lot of liturgical innovation going on, Dorothy Day invited a young priest to celebrate mass at the Catholic Worker. He decided to do something that he thought was relevant and hip. He asked Dorothy if she had a coffee cup he could borrow. She found one in the kitchen and brought it to him. And, he took that cup and used it as the chalice to celebrate mass. When it was over, Dorothy picked up the cup, found a small gardening tool, and went to the backyard. She knelt down, dug a hole, kissed the coffee cup, and buried it in the earth. With that simple gesture, Dorothy Day showed that she understood something that so many of us today don’t: she knew that Christ was truly present in something as ordinary as a ceramic cup. And that it could never be just a coffee cup again".

Continue reading here.

Some web browsing.......

Well now that the New Year has finally arrived and people are settling back into their usual routines, it is time to get back to our normal routine here at Sacred Space 102fm. Given that Ireland still celebrates Epiphany on January 6th we will have some posts later in the week around it, including the Epiphany Announcement and some thoughts and reflections for you to have a look at.

To start off the New Year we begin with a round up of some interesting links and reads we came across over the Christmas and thought you might like to have a look at:

First off we have the links to the various talks and messages of Pope Benedict XVI during the various celebrations:

• One of the things that grabbed media attention was Pope Benedict XVI's participation with BBC 4 on their "Thought for the Day" programme. You can find the text here or listen to the recording here.
• Homily for Midnight Mass - "The King embodies hope"
• Urbi et Orbi message (you can see the video and read the various languages!)
• "Love is the force that changes the world" - The Popes Christmas Day lunch with the poor of Rome at the Vatican
• And finally Pope Benedict XVI's message for the Celebration of World Day for Peace 2011.

There is a lot to think and reflect on in these messages if you have the time.

For those of us in Ireland, we have had a stressful bit of time during the last few weeks with excessive snow and ice and now water supply problems; but Nonie over at Hope in a time of worry has some interesting thoughts about the whole issue of having hope. Take a run over and have a look, bounce her stats and say hi from us.

Eric Sammons has a big challenge for us - Read the Bible and Catechism this year. St Jerome said that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ and in an age when people think they know what the Church teaches about various things but more often then not have it wrong, maybe we should dip in and out of the Catechism and see what is actually taught! Eric provides a link to a guide to take you through the year if you are interested.

In case you hadn't noticed, some of us here on Sacred Space 102fm are big fans of Elizabeth Scalia over at First Things who blogs as the Anchoress. We don't always agree with her by the way and some times her pieces have a very USA focus - but heck that is only natural, she is from the USA - but she had some interesting pieces during the Christmas including Surrender unto surrender

There was an interesting liturgical review from of all places the Washington Post during the Christmas focusing on the different styles of liturgy under the last two papal masters of ceremony with some reaction around the blogosphere with an interesting one from Tim Muldoon about the role of tradition. Given the whole issue of the new translation of the Mass into English and the role of liturgy, it is something which we will discuss again here in 2011.

Tim also blogs over at Patheos.com and notes that "Underneath the multiple layers of cultural memory associated with the Christmas season lies a striking theological claim. The author of the gospel of Matthew writes it this way: "They shall name him Emmanuel, which means 'God is with us'" (1:23). What does this claim mean today?" Continue reading here.

Again we have had another attack on our fellow Christians in a predominantly Muslim country by extremists. Fr Stephan Wang has various links to the story over the Christmas including to Aid to the Church in Need. At the same time, Rome Reports has a short piece about the 23 missionaries who died under violent circumstances in 2010. Please pray for all persecuted Christians who are in fear of their lives for their faith around the world and pray for missionaries who daily risk their lives to proclaim the gospel.

The issue of time and creating space to be with God was taken up by a few bloggers around New Years day:

• Time, Eternity and a Blessed New Year
• For 2011, unwrap the silence
• A Sanctuary in Time
• The videos on Youtube of the BBC series "The Big Silence" from Worth Abbey
• And an interesting look at the role of prayer beads across all the major world religions.

 For those of you that might be looking for some spiritual reading into the new year, the 2011 Letter from Taize.

The blog Clerical Whispers has posted an interesting article from "The Furrow" about a young priests view of the life of the church in Ireland.

The Irish Catholic newspaper makes the point that despite all their moral superiority over all corners of Irish society, the Irish media also suffers from its own form of clericalism.

An entertaining and challenging piece: 12 Things I Wish I Knew at 25: Spiritual Learning's on My 50th Birthday.

Did you discern a New Years resolution?

It is not all doom and gloom when it comes to the issue of religiosity and its role in society, but it also poses new challenges.

And finally some more good news from the Irish Dominican Province to start off the New Year with three diaconal ordinations.

UPDATED Of Gods and Men - A Martyrs testament

The Community at Tibhirine

On the night of 26-27 March 1996, seven monks from the monastery of Tibhirine in Algeria, belonging to the Trappist Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (O.C.S.O.), were kidnapped in the Algerian Civil War. They were held for two months, and were found dead on 21 May 1996. The circumstances of their kidnapping and death remain controversial.

At about 1:15 AM on 27 March 1996, about twenty armed men came to the monastery of Tibhirine and kidnapped seven monks. Two others, in separate rooms, escaped the kidnappers' notice. After the kidnappers left, the remaining monks attempted to contact the police, but found that the phone lines had been cut. Because of the curfew in force, they had to wait until morning to drive to the police station in Medea. On 18 April, the Armed Islamic Group's communique no. 43 demanded the release of Abdelhak Layada as the price of the monks' lives. On 30 April, a tape with the voices of the kidnapped monks, recorded on 20 April, was delivered to the French Embassy. On 23 May, the Armed Islamic Group's communique no. 44 reported that the Armed Islamic Group had killed the monks on 21 May. The Algerian government announced that their heads had been discovered on May 31; their bodies' whereabouts are unknown. Their funeral Mass was celebrated in the Catholic Cathedral of Algiers on Sunday, June 2. They were buried in the cemetery of their monastery at Tibhirine on June 4, 1996.

The surviving monks of Tibhirine left Algeria, and have set up a monastery near Midelt in Morocco with help from other Trappist monks.

All seven monks killed were of French nationality. They were: Dom Christian de Chergé, Brother Luc Dochier, Father Christophe Lebreton, Brother Michel Fleury, Father Bruno Lemarchand, Father Célestin Ringeard, and Brother Paul Favre-Miville.

Of Gods and Men is a 2010 French drama film directed by Xavier Beauvois, starring Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale. The original French title is Des hommes et des dieux, which means "Of Men and Gods". It centers around the monastery of Tibhirine, where the Trappist monks lived in harmony with the largely Muslim population of Algeria, until seven of them were beheaded in a still unclear incident in 1996. The screenplay focuses on the time leading up to their death.



In the months leading up to their deaths, Dom Christian de Chérge wrote a brief testament, a single sheet written on both sides which was opened on Pentecost Sunday 26th May 1996. It reads as follows:

Dom Chritian de Chérge

Facing a GOODBYE.

If it should happen one day—and it could be today— that I become a victim of the terrorism which now seems ready to engulf all the foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church, my family, to remember that my life was GIVEN to God and to this country. I ask them to accept that the Sole Master of all life was not a stranger to this brutal departure. I ask them to pray for me— for how could I be found worthy of such an offering? I ask them to be able to link this death with the many other deaths which were just as violent, but forgotten through indifference and anonymity. My life has no more value than any other. Nor any less value.


In any case it has not the innocence of childhood. I have lived long enough to know that I am an accomplice in the evil which seems, alas, to prevail in the world, even in that which would strike me blindly.


I should like, when the time comes, to have the moment of lucidity which would allow me to beg forgiveness of God and of my fellow human beings, and at the same time to forgive with all my heart the one who would strike me down.


I could not desire such a death. It seems important to state this. I do not see, in fact, how I could rejoice if the people I love were to be accused indiscriminately of my murder. To owe it to an Algerian, whoever he may be, would be too high a price to pay for what will, perhaps, be called, the “grace of martyrdom,” especially if he says he is acting in fidelity to what he believes to be Islam. I am aware of the scorn which can be heaped on Algerians indiscriminately. I am also aware of the caricatures of Islam which a certain Islamism encourages. It is too easy to salve one’s conscience. By identifying this religious way with the fundamentalist ideologies of the extremists.


For me, Algeria and Islam are something different: they are a body and a soul. I have proclaimed this often enough, I believe, in the sure knowledge of what I have received from it, finding there so often that true strand of the Gospel, learnt at my mother’s knee, my very first Church, already in Algeria itself, in the respect of believing Muslims.


My death, clearly, will appear to justify those who hastily judged me naïve, or idealistic: “Let him tell us now what he thinks of it!” But these people must realize that my avid curiosity will then be satisfied. This is what I shall be able to do, if God wills — immerse my gaze in that of the Father, and contemplate with him his children of Islam just as he sees them, all shining with the glory of Christ, the fruit of His Passion, and filled with the Gift of the Spirit, whose secret joy will always be to establish communion and to refashion the likeness, playfully delighting in the differences.


For this life lost, totally mine and totally theirs, I thank God who seems to have willed it entirely for the sake of that joy in everything and in spite of everything. In this THANK YOU, which sums up my whole life to this moment, I certainly include you, friends of yesterday and today, and you, my friends of this place, along with my mother and father, my sisters and brothers and their families, the hundredfold granted as was promised!And also you, the friend of my final moment, who would not be aware of what you were doing. Yes, I also say this THANK YOU and this A-DIEU to you, in whom I see the face of God.

And may we find each other, happy good thieves, in Paradise, if it pleases God, the Father of us both.


AMEN. IN SHA ‘ALLAH.


Algiers, December 1, 1993 – Tibhirine, January 1, 1994.


UPDATE: Further information about the martyrs of Atlas can be found here.

UPDATE 2: The Irish Times review.