”One in the Spirit” om monastisk spiritualitet

”One in the Spirit”  Johannesakademins internationella konferens om monastisk spiritualitet 29 -31 jan på Bjärka Säby

Johannesakademins preses prof. Samuel Rubenson  The Desert of Today – Monastic Spirituality in our time

Abouna Maximos munk från Antoniusklostret  i Egypten.

http://www.stanthonysmonastery.org/index.php

Fader Paolo SJ andlig ledare för klostret Mar Musa i Syrien (i dialog med muslimer)

The monk and The Other

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery_of_Saint_Moses_the_Abyssinian

Broder Guido Dotti subprior  från Bose ekumeniska kloster i Italien

A  vision for Contemporary Monastic Spirituality

http://www-1.monasterodibose.it/index.php?lang=en
Sr Katarina OSB subpriorinna i Heliga Hjärtas Kloster-  Omberg

See how the Lord in His Love shows us the way of Life

http://kallelse.rkkweb.nu/Mariadottrarna.htm

// Irène

PS  En mycket intressant konferens var det kan jag säga.

Om en och samma Ande som kommer till uttryck på olika sätt.

Om gästfrihet och mötet med den Andre.

De olika klosterföreträdarna goda förebilder för detta.

Här nedan Broder Guido Dottis predikan i söndagsmässan som han gav mig  tillstånd att publicera på KV blogg.

I sin predikan tog broder Guido  oss med till Fårporten i Jerusalem där det fanns en damm som heter Betesda, vilket på hebreiska betyder Barmhärtighetens Hus och  som  hade fem pelargångar  symboliserande  Torah, de 5 Moseböckerna.

“Guds ord är verkligen ett hus av barmhärtighet  Men något blockerar denna barmhärtighet och som inte desto mindre  hindras att nå alla.” Där vid Betesdadammen  ”lågo många sjuka, blinda, halta, förtvinade. Där fanns nu en man som hade varit sjuk i trettioåtta år. Då Jesus fick se denne, där han låg, och fick veta att han redan lång tid hade varit sjuk, sade han till honom: ”Vill du bliva frisk?” Den sjuke svarade honom: ”Herre, jag har ingen som hjälper mig ned i dammen, när vattnet har kommit i rörelse; och så stiger en annan dit ned före mig, medan jag ännu är på väg.” Jesus sade till honom: ”Stå upp, tag din säng och gå.”

JOHN 5, 1-9

Isaiah 40, 26-31  James 5, 13-16

“Comfort, o comfort my people!” This word of mercy comes to us during this celebration, because whenever we gather as disciples of Christ to celebrate the new covenant in His name, we make experience of His compassion, we take part in the mystery of His love, we share the joy and peace of being reconciled with  God and with one another.

In fact, our gathering does not depend on our planning, is not a question of organization, but it springs from God’s heart and will: His word is calling us and transforming us in His people, the people beloved by God.

So, we are with Jesus in Jerusalem, during a sabbath, a festival of the Jews, a day in which the covenant is renewed, becoming the love of God not there and in the past but here and now. John in this passage says nothing about the disciples, suggesting that we ourselves can be the disciples able to see what is happening and to decide how to react to Jesus’ deeds. We are nearby the Temple, at this pool at the Sheep Gate, the place where animals for the sacrifices in the Temple are gathered. Only sheets without any defect could be used for the sacrifice, so in this marginal place, a crowd of defected human beings stands, with no possibility to enter the Temple. But the name of this pool is Bet-zatha that means “house of mercy” , a house with five porticoes, like the five books of the Torah: the Word of God is indeed a house of mercy.

Nevertheless something blocks this mercy and impeaches it to join everybody. A man, excluded among the excluded, lays down without hope to change this situation since 38 years, the time of Israel wandering in the desert, waiting for entering the Promise Land. We do not know exactly what is this impeachment: the Gospel seems to suggest that the true paralysis is the lack of sympathy and solidarity among this crowd of poor and sick people. Closing our eyes in front of our brothers and sisters in humanity always means creating an obstacle to the stream of life, peace and joy.

But Jesus’ loving gaze discerns this man in the crowd, discerns his disease and the paralysis that keeps him outside the Promise Land of health and dignity.

The tragic, unbearable paralysis is when we desire to do something but we can’t because nobody takes care of us, nobody assumes our weakness, nobody looks at us with love, nobody enters in the solitude of our suffering nor discerns that the paralysis of a member is the paralysis of the whole body of the human community.

So, if we do not recognize our brother’s paralysis, the five porticoes lead nowhere: the Promise Land of communion with God and with one another remains a mirage in the desert.

But a simple word of Jesus is enough for opening a totally new world: “Stand up! Rise from the dead! Take your mat and walk!” . The paralytic is restored in his dignity of son of God, able to stand up in front of the Son of Man, ready to walk his path. The man now is cured but ignores who cured him: Jesus acted as an anonymous benefactor. Also in our own days Jesus is walking anonymous among humankind: he makes so many good things, he looks with love to so many suffering people and we do not know that it is He who is doing that. Only in the last day we shall discover that He was leading the history, our personal story and the history of the whole world.

Meanwhile we can try to keep our eyes skinned so to discern the presence of Our Lord among us, to discern the life that flows incessantly from His Resurrection.

Guido Dotti Monastero di Bose