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آمين‎ and Amen

23 Oct

The message was one of HOPE. The prayer was for PEACE.

This time the children of our Catholic school at St. Andrew-Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton prayed the rosary not just “for” our sisters and brothers in the Holy Land. They prayed “with” their brothers and sisters of the Holy Land, during the visit of four Palestinian teachers from the Holy Land.

Each decade of the rosary on the wall and in their hands was a different color. For each decade there was a different intention and reflection. 

The first mystery of the five decade rosary was the “Visit of the Magi.” The color was green. The symbol was hope. The language was English.

The second mystery was “Jesus Speaks with the Samaritan Woman.” Appropriately, it was prayed in Arabic by the teacher from Nablus, the site of Jacob’s well, from which the teacher and her students still drink. The symbol was peace and unity; the color was blue.

Back to English, the third mystery, “Jesus Cures the Centurion’s Servant,” with white being the color, carried with it a message of healing, light and understanding.

The teacher from Beit Jala (Bethlehem) led the fourth mystery, “Jesus Sends Out His Disciples,” with its symbol of the Holy Spirit and its color of red.

The children finished with the fifth mystery in English, “The Conversion of Paul.” The yellow beads of the decade brought with them thoughts of optimism and joy.

At the end of each Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be there was an Amen, heard in English and in Arabic. The sound of “Amen” in English is not much different from the sound of “Ameen” in Arabic. In the praying, the children realized that the teachers from the Holy Land were not much different from the teachers in their own classrooms. The visiting teachers probably saw in the faces and voices of our students the hopes and dreams of their own students back home in Nablus and Beit Jala.  

آمين‎ and Amen.

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Consider This Clermont: Palestinian Educators

23 Oct

Thank you, Theresa, Kellie and John!

Our local “Milford-Miami Advertiser” reported twice, with photos, on the visit of the Palestinian Educators to Milford. Enough thanks cannot be given to Theresa Herron, editor, and to reporters Kellie Geist-May and John Seney. They and their Community Press could not have done more.  

photo: John Seney/The Community Press

“Palestinian educators share experiences” by John Seney was published on October 13, with accompanying photos of the children and classrooms of the St. Andrew campus of SASEAS school. Take a look and read by clicking on the title.

 photo: John Seney/The Community Press

“Palestinian educators to partner with Milford, Cincinnati teachers” was published on September 23. Clicking on the headline will take you to Kellie Geist-May’s article.

photo: John Seney/The Community Press

If you want to express your appreciation, here are their email addresses: therron@communitypress.com
(Theresa Herron), kmay@communitypress.com (Kellie Geist-May) and jseney@communitypress.com
(John Seney).

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Christians 750, Samaritans 700, Muslims 344,550

7 Oct

photo credit: Mark Bowen/HOPE

They begin their presentation about their Catholic school by saying that there are 650 students, including 61 Christians and 4 Samaritans. “What? There are Samaritans in your school? … and only 61 of the 650 children in your school are Christians? … and it’s a Catholic school?” They have our attention.

The two Palestinian educators, the principal and an English teacher to 1st and 6th graders, are from Nablus in the West Bank. Nablus is the home of Jacob’s well. Remember Jacob’s well, where Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink? Miss Abeer and Miss Ruya, and the people of Nablus, still drink water from that well. And there are still Samaritans in their town, 700 of them, which is almost all of the Samaritans left in the whole world. In a total population of 346,000 that is not a big number, but neither is the number of Christians: 750. Christians and Samaritans are obviously in the minority among the majority, the people of the Muslim faith.

There are four priests in Nablus: Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic and Anglican. The fact that there are four churches is an indication that once there were many Christians in Nablus.

Nablus is known in the West Bank for its sweets and its soap. The Catholic school at which Miss Abeer is the principal and at which Miss Ruya is a teacher is also well-known for the excellent education it provides for all the children, Catholic, Muslim and Samaritan, who come through its doors and into its classrooms, whether or not their families have the money to pay the tuition.

Along with an olive wood cross with images of the Stations of the Cross, Miss Abeer and Miss Ruya brought me a box locally made soap. The sweets will be waiting for me when I make a return visit to their homes, their school and their city of Nablus in Palestine.

photo credit: Mark Bowen/HOPE

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Nothing as Sacred as Home

6 Oct

photo credit: Mark Bowen/HOPE

After our visit with Archbishop Dennis Schnurr and two of his office directors, Dr. Mike Gable (Missions) and Dr. Jim Rigg (Education), to thank the bishop and to receive his blessing, we went to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. It took visitors from 6,000 miles away to take me to a museum in my hometown. 

photo credit: Mark Bowen/HOPE

Sitting on a bench with real-life Palestinians “in the home” of a “slave,” as an actress, playing the part, welcomed us into her home for a rest from our journey and told us her story, I was wondering whether or not my guests were hearing their story in hers. Her advice to us was remarkably applicable to them, “You’re on a journey – and you’ll get there. You hold on to family! This is my home. This is my home. There is nothing in the whole world as sacred as home. It’s time for you to go home now.”

After the presentation, we snapped a photo of three women – the “slave” and two Palestinians, one from Nazareth carrying an Israeli passport and the other from the West Bank carrying a Palestinian passport. Three women, on a journey toward rights and freedom, holding on to family, with nothing as sacred as home – how alike they were!

photo credit: Mark Bowen/HOPE

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Shokran … Afwan

5 Oct

photo credit: Mark Bowen/HOPE

A lot of Arabic was heard in our classrooms and hallways today at St. Andrew-St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School. “Marhaba (hello) … Shokran (thank you) … Afwan (you’re welcome),” were coming from all our K-8 students, punctuated with grins and hugs.

Our visitors were teachers from Catholic schools in Beit Jala and Nablus in the West Bank. Guided through our school by our principal, the Christian teachers glided into rooms of children, as if they were walking in on groups of their own students back home in Palestine.

The children were all eyes and ears, as they learned that, yes, in the Catholic schools in the Holy Land, children wear uniforms and play soccer, that they go to school on Saturday, but not on Friday and Sunday, and that many of their classmates are Muslims.

After being asked by Miss Abeer and Miss Ruya whether they knew the Bible story about the Good Samaritan, and about Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and giving her a drink, the children seemed amused that people in Nablus still drink from the same Jacob’s well and that there are six Samaritan children in the Catholic school.   

The children were impressed when Miss Eman and Mr. Waseim told them that Beit Jala was right next to Bethlehem, and that they lived where Jesus was born. But they did not like hearing that the students in Beit Jala could not go on field trips because of a high wall that has been built around their town to keep them in. They were puzzled when they heard that, if the first Christmas took place today, Mary and Joseph wouldn’t be able to get into Bethlehem because 0f that high wall.

photo credit: Mark Bowen/HOPE

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Halo Around the Moon

4 Oct

photo credit: Mark Bowen/HOPE

During the preparation of the gifts at Sunday Mass at St. Andrew, our music director, Dovile, came down from the choir loft to take Hala by the hand. Like sisters, they walked, hand in hand, to the piano upstairs. Hala, a school counselor in Nazareth, sat down and played a calming and peaceful melody, as her Jordanian and Palestinian colleagues in the front pews of our church sang a song in Arabic. They told us it translates into something like, “God, come to us. Make your home in us, in our hearts. Stay with us.”

Hala’s name means, “halo around the moon.” Because of her visit with us and the melody she played in our church and the song she left in our heart, the moon itself will now be more lovely in Milford.

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Suheil Carries His Cross

3 Oct

photo credit: Mark Bowen/HOPE

Suheil was standing out. In the East believers stand at some times during the Mass when we in the West normally kneel. At the Mass at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity he was standing up and standing out.

Notice what is above him. It is the second of the Stations of the Cross: Jesus carries his cross.

Living in the small town of Zababdeh in the West Bank, Suheil, his family and his students carry the cross in a way that those of us who live in Milford find difficult to imagine. “These people carry the cross,” is often the response of those who meet and speak with the Christians who live their faith in the Holy Land.

Suheil and his people are at Station II. We can only hope to lift them up, as they meet us at Station V. Like Jesus, they carry the cross. Like Simon of Cyrene, at least with our affection and attention, we can help them.

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Ut Cognoscant Te

2 Oct

photo credit: Mark Bowen/HOPE

It was part of the prayer of Jesus: “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3).

The teachers and administrators from Jordan (Yousef, Suha and Suhail) presented to Nancy Hemminger a banner bearing the motto of the Latin Patriarchate Schools: “Ut Cognoscant Te.”

“That They Might Know You” is the mission and goal of all who teach and pass on the faith. It is the mission and goal of every Christian household. It is the goal and mission of every Catholic school and every Catholic parish throughout the Holy Land and, yes, in Milford, too: that all will know the only true God and his Son, Jesus Christ.

“That they might know you” is why Yousef, Suha and Suhail teach their students.

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“Faithful” and “Handsome”

1 Oct

photo credit: Mark Bowen/HOPE

Iman teaches Arabic to her second and third graders. Waseim is the technology teacher for the school. They are from the Latin Patriarchate School in Beit Jala, in the Bethlehem area of the West Bank. They are Palestinians. They are Christians. They are Catholic: Iman is Greek Melkite Catholic; Waseim is Roman Catholic.

Tomorrow Iman and Waseim will come to St. Andrew, with the other nine teachers from the Holy Land, to the 11:00 a.m. Sunday Mass, and will give a presentation after Mass during a luncheon in their honor. On Wednesday, they will come to our St. Andrew-St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School to meet all of our students and teachers, and to take some steps toward creating a partnership between our two schools, joining the little town of Bethlehem with the little town of Milford.

We already have a history with the Catholic School in Beit Jala. In 2003 Issa, Mary, Ranim, Tamer and Tamara came as 8th graders from that school to spend six weeks studying in our school and living with our parish families.

Iman told me that her name means “faith,” as in “faithful to God.” I could see her name in her. But then, with an impish grin, Waseim said that his name means “handsome.” We laughed together as I said that, in his case, something obviously gets lost in translation.

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Keep Walking

30 Sep

photo credit: Mark Bowen/HOPE

Nancy waited at the airport for the arrival of our guests from Jordan, Galilee and the West Bank. The “LPS” on the sign she held welcomed the educators from the Latin Patriarchate Schools (LPS), the Roman Catholic schools of the Holy Land.

By accident, coincidence or divine desire the Transportation Security Administration sign also greets them with, “Keep walking … Do not stop or turn back.”

All teachers and administrators can become discouraged, weary or disheartened. In their lands, in which Christians are in the minority, and where the presence of violence or the threat of violence or the tendency toward violence or the call for violence can distract or even appeal to their students, these teachers from the Holy Land can have additional challenges, with the accompanying additional opportunities, of course.

Dear friends from the Holy Land, keep walking, do not stop or turn back. Keep walking …  in hope. Do not stop … trusting. Do not turn back … from your dreams. Do not turn back … from your peaceful and non-violent ways. “Keep walking … Do not stop or turn back.”

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