Middle East Situation

In a few more days I'll be offline until the 3rd of October and so it's hard to know what to post on before I go- Uppermost in my thoughts is the situation in the Middle East and it's hard keeping up to speed with the news and digesting it, so I've just picked out a few recent articles that caught my eye which are not too lengthy.

Fr. Thomas Reese S.J has a balanced and well informed post here with inputs from a selection of moral theologians on whether military intervention is the right way to proceed.

Click here to read how the U.S. Strike In Syria Could Unleash More Turmoil, according to the UN Chief Ban Ki Moon

CNN correspondents and experts explain the different positions of some key nations involved in preparing for -- or warning against -- international military attacks on Syria in this fine and thankfully brief article - Click here.

PBS also have a brief video discussion below...

Caritas Internationalis talked about the situation in Syria, and about the situation of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries, in its annual report published last July.

It also issued a statement last Friday calling for dialogue as the only possible solution to the Syrian crisis, and warning against military intervention.

It says that the ongoing civil war in Syria can only be resolved through inclusive peace talks. The alleged use of chemical weapons in Damascus has highlighted how catastrophic the humanitarian situation has become for millions of people in Syria.

The use of chemical weapons is an horrific crime.Caritas condemns all attacks against civilians. The combatants have a duty under international law to protect civilian lives.

Caritas says the international community has an obligation to find an end to the suffering of the Syrian people, and that can only be achieve through broad dialogue.

Caritas Internationalis Secretary general Michel Roy said, “The Syrian people don’t need more bloodshed, they need a quick end to it. They need an immediate truce.

Scaling up military intervention by foreign powers will simply widen the war and increase the suffering.

“The last decade bears witness to the tragic consequences of military intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
“Caritas believes that the only humanitarian solution is a negotiated one. Dialogue can end the war in Syria, safeguard the lives of the people and build a viable future for everyone.

The priority must be to reinvigorate talks in Geneva as the first step towards a ceasefire and a peace deal. A Syrian peace conference is planned to take place in Geneva this year.

Caritas Syria and other Church partners continue to provide humanitarian assistance to people, without regard to their religious or political beliefs. Caritas says all sides must ensure that humanitarian staff can reach those in need.

Patrick Nicholson, Head of Communications for Caritas Internationalis in Rome, spoke to Giulia Cirillo about the detrimental effects of life on the front line, and about Caritas’ efforts to support Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Listen to the full interview here by clicking on the links:

From here from the Vatican Radio website

and

The UN refugee head Antonio Guterres tells Newsday's Shaimaa Khalil. But "there is no humanitarian solution to the problem, the solution is political", he says.

Click here to listen to his interview from BBC World Service.

Click here for Catholic World Report which has a letter from Cistercian nuns who moved their monastery to Azeir, in Northern Syria, back in 2005 and their message to President Obama is Send Us Your Prayers, Not Your Missiles.

The pope recommenced his early morning Masses for Vatican employees and guests yesterday after a two-month-long summer hiatus.

On Sep. 3rd he reflected on St. Paul's words to the Thessalonians when the apostle said, "For all of you are children of the light" and not children "of the night or of darkness."

While reflecting on the day's Gospel reading from St. Luke when Jesus commands a demon to leave a possessed man, the pope said, "Jesus doesn't need an army to chase away the demons, he doesn't need arrogance, force or pride."

He rids the world of evil with his "humble, meek" and loving word.

Humility, meekness, love and the experience of the Cross are the means with which the Lord defeats evil. And the light that Jesus brought into the world dispels the blindness of human beings who are all too often dazzled by the false light of the world that is brighter but misleading. It is up to us to discern which light comes from God. This is the essence of the reflection given by Pope Francis this morning.

Full text of the Pope's address can be read here.

With more than 2 million people fleeing the Syrian war, camps like ‪#‎Zaatari‬ in Jordan are struggling to cope.

You can explore the camp with this BBC interactive guide.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/69618000/jpg/_69618234_syria_children_numbers_976.jpg

Franciscan Friars Join Pope Francis' Call to Pray For Peace here

The Cry of Prayer Throughout The World

Click here for previous post on Pope Francis heartfelt plea for peace

Photo: Get the word out: pray for peace.

“I have decided to proclaim for the whole Church... a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East, and throughout the world, and I also invite each person, including our fellow Christians, followers of other religions and all men of good will, to participate, in whatever way they can, in this initiative.”
—Pope Francis

Read more: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/angelus/2013/documents/papa-francesco_angelus_20130901_en.html

Image source

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More from Seamus Heaney

“History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime,
The longest-for tidal wave of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea change
On the far side of revenge
Believe in miracles....”

“The aim of poetry and the poet is finally to be of service, to ply the effort of the individual into the larger work of the community as a whole.” ―

“I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.”

and five more......

On his inspiration: 'The completely solitary self: that's where poetry comes from, and it gets isolated by crisis”

On which animal he'd prefer to be: "I might enjoy being an albatross, being able to glide for days and daydream for hundreds of miles along the thermals. And then being able to hang like an affliction round some people's necks."

On fame: "The gift of writing is to be self-forgetful, to get a surge of inner life or inner supply or unexpected sense of empowerment, to be afloat, to be out of yourself. The prizes can’t help you at all.”

On becoming a poet: "My quest for precision and definition, while it may lead backward, is conducted in the living speech of a landscape and a language that I was born with. If you like, I began as a poet when my roots were crossed with my reading."

On authority "At home in Ireland, there's a habit of avoidance, an ironical attitude towards the authority figure. "

Easter Hope All Year Round

Celestial spirit that doth roll
The heart's sepulchral stone away,
Be this our resurrection day,
The singing Easter of the soul -
O gentle Master of the Wise,
Teach us to say: "I will arise." ~
Richard Le Gallienne

"The great gift of Easter is hope - Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake."
-- Basil C. Hume

Celtic Christianity may offer us a lifeline in the form of an approach to faith which is rooted in the imagination...[Celts] excelled at expressing their faith in symbols, metaphors and images, both visual and poetic.
They had the ability to invest the ordinary and commonplace with sacramental significance, to find glimpses of God’s glory throughout creation and to paint pictures in words, signs and music that acted as icons opening windows on heaven and pathways to eternity
Ian Bradley The Celtic Way

Favourite Quotes from Pope Francis

“Thanks to magnanimity, we can always look at the horizon from the position where we are. That means being able to do the little things of every day with a big heart open to God and to others. That means being able to appreciate the small things inside large horizons, those of the kingdom of God.

This offers parameters to assume a correct position for discernment, in order to hear the things of God from God’s ‘point of view.’ … However the risk in seeking and finding God in all things, then, is the willingness to explain too much, to say with human certainty and arrogance: ‘God is here.’ We will find only a god that fits our measure. The correct attitude is that of St. Augustine: seek God to find him, and find God to keep searching for God forever.”

-- Pope Francis

Carlo Caretto's Love Letter to His Church

How much I much criticise you my church and yet how much I love you !

You have made me suffer more than anyone and yet I owe you more than I owe anyone. I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence.

You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand holiness. Never in the world have I seen anything more obscurantist, more compromised, more false, yet never have I touched anything more pure, more generous or more beautiful.

Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face – and yet, every night, I have prayed that I might die in your arms!

No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you, even if not completely you.
Then too – where should I go? To build another church?

But I cannot build another church without the same defects, for they are my own defects. And again, if I were to build another church, it would be my church, not Christ’s church. No, I am old enough. I know better!"

Did the Woman Say ?

Great Quotes

A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.

Sidney Sheldon

There are things you can’t reach. But
you can reach out to them, and all day long.
The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of God.
And it can keep you as busy as anything else, and happier.

Mary Oliver

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but, unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person."

~Rumer Godden, A House with Four Rooms, 1989

“And

"
"You can get all A's and still flunk life."

"Lost in the mystery of finding myself alive."

Walker Percy

"The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”

A tough life needs a tough language-and that's what poetry is. That's what literature offers- a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn't a hiding place. It is a finding place.
Jeanette Winterson

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “All right, then, have it your way.”

- C.S. Lewis

The independent hearts of Celtic descendents everywhere still yearn for the solitary place, still rejoice in the goodness of creation, still see the Lord beside them as they walk, still see Him in the face of friend and stranger. The gospel light with its eastern fire still gleams. The truth still lingers in the heart.
Pat Robson – The Celtic Heart

People are itchy and lost and bored and quick to jump at any fix. Why is there such a vast self-help industry in this country? Why do all these selves need help?

They have been deprived of something by our psychological culture. They have been deprived of the sense that there is something else in life, some purpose that has come with them into the world."

-- James Hillman

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government only when it deserves it.
--Mark Twain

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
--George Orwell

We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice: - we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
-- George Orwell

Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your own experience or convictions.
--Dag Hammarskjöld

If you want to build a ship don't herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery

For what are we, without hope in our hearts, that someday we'll drink from God's blessed waters?"
-Bruce Springsteen

"Sometimes grace works like waterwings when you feel you are sinking."
-Anne Lamott

"A prayer may be a wordless inner longing, a sudden outpouring of love, a yearning within the soul to be for a moment united within the infinite and the good, a humbleness that needs no abasement or speech to express it, a cry in the darkness for help when all seems lost, a song, a poem, a kind deed, a reaching for beauty, or the strong, quiet inner reaffirmation of faith. A prayer in fact can be anything that is created by God that turns to God."

Paul Gallico

"God does not die when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason."

Dag Hammarskjold

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.”

― Paul Hawken

The greatest religious challenge of our age is to hold together social action and spiritual disciplines. This is not just a theological necessity, dictated by the need to integrate all of life around the reality of the living God. It is a matter of sheer survival. The evils we confront are so massive, so inhuman, so impervious to appeals and dead to compassion, that those who struggle against them face the real possibility of being overwhelmed by them.”

~ Theologian Walter Wink

One day you will ask me which is more important? My life or yours?
I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.

~ Khalil Gibran

Blue Eyed Ennis

Middle East Situation

Click here to read how the U.S. Strike In Syria Could Unleash More Turmoil, according to the UN Chief Ban Ki Moon

CNN correspondents and experts explain the different positions of some key nations involved in preparing for -- or warning against -- international military attacks on Syria in this fine and thankfully brief article - Click here.

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Middle East Situation

Click here to read how the U.S. Strike In Syria Could Unleash More Turmoil, according to the UN Chief Ban Ki Moon

CNN correspondents and experts explain the different positions of some key nations involved in preparing for -- or warning against -- international military attacks on Syria in this fine and thankfully brief article - Click here.

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