April 7, Good Friday

 Words of the day are from reflection fro Richar Rohr and his Daily Contemplations.  These “eloquent” words are from Thomas Merton and Rachel Scrubus:

“Even our mistakes are eloquent, more than we know.” [1] Thomas Merton

“A sense of sacred irony, of eloquent mistakes, has for centuries enabled Christians to call the Friday of Jesus’ tortuous execution “good.” This is not a matter of putting a happy spin on a grisly, unjust tragedy. Good Friday, and all Christian life, is about embracing paradox.“

So, how do I, we as a world justify the paradox of Israeli soldiers beating Muslims in their place of worship during their most holy month of Ramadan?  How do we justify rich countries treating their immigrants like cattle?  But wait, they aren’t “their” or “our”.  They are the “other.” So England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 can place them on barges  as they await shipping them, “the other” back to Rwanda 🇷🇼.  How can Italy 🇮🇹, the home of our Pope, and all of the EU 🇪🇺 allow migrants to die every day at sea? Surely, they know these people can’t walk on water 💧.  How can the United States 🇺🇸 allow such torture to exist, literally the fires 🔥 of hell in the detention centers and wars around the world 🌍; and the slaughtering of our youth on a near daily basis.

These are small examples of the paradoxes we face every day. And what do WE do?  We offer our thoughts and prayers. A paradox in itself, because Jesus was a man of action.  Today, I will be embarking on the walking stations of the cross We will traverse West Central, what used to be the poorest district in the state.  But we are now being gentrified due to our proximity to the river, and what used to be low home prices. Paradoxical

Jesus on the cross, 

Sagrada Familia 

      A small chapel near Manresa, our last Camino walk

           Basilica in Loyola, 1st day of our journey

Jesus falls, again and again……Manresa

Passover, coinciding with Holy Week, begins on Wednesday.  Last supper Passover was on Thursday.

Manresa, everywhere you go, hate still rears its ugly head, reminding us of how very far we have to go for peace and reconciliation!

The holy month of Ramadan also coincided with Holy Week.  And images of Jewish soldiers pulling Muslims out of their most holy site, Al-Asqa Mosque, was truly a moment of sadness for our world.

Prayer is 5 times a day.  While in Marrakech, I was up with the sunrise every day to share in the prayer of Fajr 

The Oman at mosques throughout the city would pray over loudspeakers for all to hear and reflect!

Jesus walking with Ignatius, chapel at Manresa 

notice they share a third eye, reminding us that we must become one with our creator, whoever, whatever that is

The pilgrims, last day of prayer at Sagrada Familia 

And Eileen and I, the night before the journey began!

 

             The RISEN JOYOUS LORD, Manresa

              Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed!

         Jeez Louise!  Amen! Alleluia! Alleluia!