Tag Archives: Christians in the Holy Land

17 say “yes” for the children

20 Feb

 

Photos by Mark Bowen/HOPE

Since the initial planning of a working-pilgrimage of teachers from schools in our archdiocese to the Holy Land, situations in the Middle East have worsened, particularly in Syria and in relation to Iran.

In the midst of a flurry of emails with information, questions and concerns, a few (4) pilgrim-teachers have decided to delay their visit until 2013. But the majority has recommitted themselves to make the trip. The educators, under the auspices of HOPE (Holy Land Outreach to Palestinian Educators) will spend a significant amount of time learning with teachers from Catholic schools in the Holy Land, in addition to visiting the holy sites.

In renewing her decision, one of our pilgrims spoke for herself and another, “We figure we should make our decision based on the reality of today and not on what might or might not happen in the future. We will trust that, if God wants us to go, He’ll provide the safe path for us to travel.”

HOPE leaders and participants have believed, since the beginning of the project, that “it’s God’s project” and “it’s for the children.” It will be an honor for me to be with them as their chaplain. 

 Photos by Mark Bowen/HOPE

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C-D at BU

31 Jan

During a Holy Land pilgrimage with a group of 50 archdiocesan priests Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of New York visited Bethlehem University.

Catholic News Service reports the visit in their online “New York cardinal-designate: Bethlehem U. helps build culture of peace.”

While at the university, the priests met with students who told about their experiences as Palestinians.

“Opportunities for work in Palestine are very limited,” noted third-year accounting and business administration student Christina Jueejet, 20, of Beit Sahour, West Bank. “There are a lot of educated people, but not enough jobs. We can only look for jobs in a limited area, in the West Bank, not even in Jerusalem.”

Father Andrew Carrozza of St. Ann’s Parish in Yonkers, New York, said he was humbled listening to the students’ experiences and struggles to receive an education, including having to go through checkpoints and border crossings to get to school. It made the priests take stock of everything they had taken for granted during their own college studies, he said.

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at station #5 and #12

23 Jan

In honor of our partnership with the Holy Land, our St. Andrew Welcome Connection – the committee of parishioners who welcome new parishioners – gives to every new member an olive wood rosary. In our partnership and in our prayer we hope to help the Christians in the Holy Land, so that they will know that they do not carry their cross all by themselves.

This message is with the rosary:

This rosary was made by the Rosary Makers of St. Andrew Parish using olivewood beads from the Holy Land.  The beads were shaped by Palestinian hands in and around Bethlehem.  The knots tied in the cord were made by the hands of a member of St. Andrew who lives in or around Milford.  This rosary is a symbol of the partnership between the Christians of St. Andrew Parish in Milford and the Christians of Annunciation Parish in Beit Jala, Palestine.

We hope that every time you use this rosary, you say a prayer for our Christian brothers and sisters in Beit Jala.

“We notice around your church the Stations of the Cross…You are at station number 12 – you are being crucified with Christ.  We are at station number 5 – we can be Simon of Cyrene for you to help you carry your cross” (from a homily given by Father Rob Waller at Annunciation Church, Beit Jala, Palestine, July 18, 2005).

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the “we” will mean something different

11 Jan

At the end of our first two-hour session, with our minds on our June 2012 Pilgrimage of Hope to the Holy Land, we sang “The Servant Song.” We will sing this hymn often, as we continue to prepare “for” pilgrimage together in June, and as we remember that we are already “on” pilgrimage together right now. 

When we arrive in the Holy Land, we will sing this hymn with our brother and sister Christians in Jordan, Israel and Palestine. Imagine the feel of the words, as we alternate verses between the Americans and the Arabs. The “we” will mean something different to us then. The hymn will take on new meaning.   

Will you let me be your servant?
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I may have the grace,
To let you be my servant, too.

We are pilgrims on a journey,
We are brothers on the road.
We are here to help each other,
Walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ light for you,
In the night-time of your fear.
I will hold my hand out to you,
Speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping,
When you laugh I’ll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow,
Till we’ve seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven,
We shall find such harmony.
Born of all we’ve known together,
Of Christ’s love and agony.

Will you let me be your servant?
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I may have the grace,
To let you be my servant, too.

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to Our Lady of Palestine

10 Jan

The preparations for the next HOPE (Holy Land Outreach to Palestinian Educators) pilgrimage have begun. Twenty-two of us, more than half of them teachers themselves, will visit and interact with teachers and administrators in the Latin Patriarchate schools in Jordan, Israel and Palestine.

This pilgrimage is the third step in what is hoped will be a lasting relationship. American teachers have been to the Holy Land. Holy Land teachers have been to America. With this pilgrimage, the partnership in learning continues: another group of American teachers will be on their way to the Holy Land in June 2012.

At the very beginning of our preparation, we prayed a “Prayer to Our Lady of Palestine.”

O Mary Immaculate,
gracious Queen of Heaven and of Earth,
behold us prostrate before thy exalted throne.
Full of confidence in thy goodness
and in thy boundless power,
we beseech thee to turn a pitying glance upon Palestine,
which more than any other country belongs to thee,
since thou hast graced it with thy birth,
thy virtues and thy sorrows,
and from there hast given the Redeemer to the world.

Remember that there especially
thou wert constituted our tender Mother,
the dispenser of graces.
Watch, therefore, with special protection
over thy native country,
scatter from it the shades of error,
for it was there the Sun of Eternal Justice shone.

Bring about the speedy fulfillment of the promise,
which issued from the lips of Thy Divine Son,
that there should be one fold and one Shepherd.

Obtain for us all that we may serve the Lord
in sanctity and justice during the days of our life,
so that, by the merits of Jesus
and with thy motherly aid,
we may pass at last from this earthly Jerusalem
to the splendors of the heavenly one.

Amen.

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“You read it in the Enquirer”

30 Dec

Pat Davis of Hebron, Kentucly, is the wife of U.S. Representative Geoff Davis, R-Kentucky. Her guest column, Shock, inspiration in Holy Land, appeared in the online version of the Cincinnati Enquirer at 1:31 PM, Dec. 28, 2011.

Gary Greenberg, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, responded with his guest column, Israel’s many peace efforts thwarted, at 9:22 AM, Dec. 29, 2011.

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See how they shove one another

29 Dec

There was a “fight” between the Greek Orthodox and the Armenians in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on December 28. Some 50-60 priests and monks were swinging broomsticks at each other, until Palestinian police came in to break it up.

The fight started while they were cleaning the church. It often happens between the three religious denominations that have rights and services within the church. There is a principle that asserts that “if you clean it, it must be yours.” The Greeks and the Armenians have certain sections of the church that are under their authority. Apparently, someone was sweeping a spot that belonged to the other, or at least so it must have been charged. 

Fortunately, from the Catholic point of view, the Franciscans were not involved in this one.

Father James Martin, S.J. cleverly commented, “See how they shove one another.”

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the Joy and Hope of being Remembered

28 Dec

Mr. Waseim, the computer teacher at the Latin Patriarchate School in Beit Jala (Bethlehem) had visited with us in November, along with other teachers and school personnel from the West Bank (Palestine), Israel and Jordan.

At Christmas he sent to us a photo of the candles that he lighted in Bethlehem. The first one (in the photo above) is for “Father Rob” and the fourth is for “St. Andrew parish.” The fifth one is for our school and his school. The last one is in thankful memory of all the people he met in the USA. Candle two and three are for Nancy and JoAnne, two of our parishioners here at St. Andrew who spent a great deal of love – and sweat and blood – preparing for the visit of the teachers and dealing with all the intricacies and details during their days with us.

At Midnight Mass here at St. Andrew we lighted a peace candle for them. I had purchased the peace-dove at the Catholic parish in Taybeh in the West Bank, and brought it back with me for this purpose on this night.

Our hope is that it was as good for our friends in the Holy Land to know that we remembered them as it was for us to know that they remembered us in the very town where Jesus was born on the very night on which we celebrate his birth.

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Bethlehem: “Let us tear down the walls”

26 Dec

Below are excerpts of the 2011 Christmas homily of His Beatitude Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, close to the Holy Grotto where the Virgin Mary swaddled her son and laid him in a manger. The full text is on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

– The song of the angels in the sky above Bethlehem more than two thousand years ago still echoes: “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth.”

– If we glorify God, we shall enjoy his peace. If we glorify ourselves, we shall be denied this peace.

– Among all the continents and countries of the world, God chose Palestine, our beloved land, to be the homeland of the Saviour … and so, we are duty-bound to follow the host of angels in forever repeating: “Glory to God in the highest”.

– We are one with our people, for their suffering … their hopes are our own.

– We hope that, with the grace of God and with the support of people of goodwill, the physical and psychological walls that men build around themselves may disappear. God wants bridges that unite rather than walls that separate that which God has united. Dear brothers and sisters let us tear down the walls of our hearts in order to tear down walls of concrete!

– We ask that the road travelled by our ancestors – the Magi and the shepherds – to Bethlehem should remain open, without barriers or hindrance, open to the pilgrims of the whole world, including the Arab world.

– And on this holy night, the children of the Holy Land, fellow citizens of the Infant Jesus, beg us: “Let us grow up as normal children, grant us the time to play in the squares and market places of our towns and villages far from political intrigue.”

– O Child of Bethlehem, in this New Year, we place in your hands this troubled Middle East and, above all, our youth full of legitimate aspirations, who are frustrated by the economic and political situation, and in search of a better future. We implore you to grant their wishes and fill their hearts with courage and wisdom together with a spirit of responsibility.

+ Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem

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U.S. Bishops Express Solidarity with the Church of the Holy Land

23 Dec

In a letter sent to His Beatitude Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed solidarity and ecclesial communion with the Church of the Holy Land.

December 22, 2011

Your Beatitude:

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, the great Feast of the Incarnation of our God into human history, our thoughts turn to Bethlehem as did the shepherds and wise men of two millennia ago. A vulnerable Child was born in a stable, a Child whose death was sought by King Herod. In a special way, the Christ Child symbolizes the vulnerable community of today that bears His Name.

Our Conference of Bishops is acutely aware that the Churches of the Middle East are caught in situations of conflict and violence that have put enormous strains on the ancient Christian presence there.

As you have frequently affirmed, the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict needs a two-state solution: a recognized and secure Israel living alongside a viable and independent Palestinian state. We are also mindful of the suffering of the Church in Iraq where Christians are disproportionately represented among refugees, persons displaced from their homes, as well as victims of violence. We are anxious too for Christians who are being threatened in Egypt and other countries of the region and our world.

Please be assured as the Church in the United States celebrates the birth of Emmanuel, God with us, that we are with you. Our prayerful solidarity extends to all persecuted persons throughout the world, but in a particular way to our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering in the region of our Savior’s birth.

With hope born of faith as we approach the Christmas Season,

Fraternally in Christ,

Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Most Reverend Richard E. Pates
Bishop of Des Moines
Chairman, International Justice and Peace

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