Peace & Justice

Content about Peace & Justice

A Meditator's Efforts at Peacemaking in Afghanistan

 

 

It seems the only news from Afghanistan is bleak, so it's not surpising we ask the question, is their any hope for this country?

Australian Christian Meditator and peace activist, Donna Mulhearn visited Afghanistan last year at the invitation of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, an amazing group of young people exploring nonviolent solutions to the situation around them in the spirit of Gandhi and Jesus.

She shares her experience in the blog. www.pilgriminkabul.wordpress.com  

For further information on the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers or to join in their monthly Global Day of Listening Skype calls see

www.ourjourneytosmile.com Read more »

Spirituality and Social Justice: A Dialogue Two monks from different traditiohs, JMS 2012 presenter, Frei Betto, and Dada Maheshanandauss discuss social issues from a spiritual perspective.

Frei Betto is a one of the major voices for social justice in Latin America. A Dominican friar from Brazil, he has been a political prisoner and lived as an activist with the poorest of the poor. He is the author of 34 books, some of which have become bestsellers in Brazil and other countries of South America. He has been chosen Intellectual of the Year by the Brazilian Writers Union and won the national literary Jabuti Award. This dialogue with Dada Maheshananda, a yoga monk, was held in the Dominican Seminary in Sao Paulo.

DADA: Your role in the Catholic Church is a bit unusual. You trained as a priest, but decided not to take the vows and have instead remained as a friar, a monk. What is your perspective about your role?

 FREI BETTO: I think that my role is to help people awaken to a holisitic spirituality that does not separate the body from the spirit, a kind of political spirituality. I also like to work with cultural groups and to write. What about you? Are you celibate or can you marry? Read more »

A Meditator's Essay on Victimhood, Guilt, and Love as Rescue

 

 

I read Father Laurence’s March 2012 essay in The Tablet (http://www.wccm.org/content/tablet-march-2012) about the Polish Catholic man (Bogdan Blalek) who was instrumental in (and deeply moved by) the construction of the Kielce Menorah in Poland, a Holocaust memorial, and I emailed Father Laurence to share my thoughts. In consideration of Father Laurence’s suggestion that my perspective may be helpful for this community, I would like to share my thoughts on victimhood, guilt, and love as a form of rescue. Read more »

Tribute to a Peacemaker

 

Jesuit Fr. Daniel Berrigan (Patricia Lefevere)

NEW YORK -- The man who for decades has stood against the powers that be needed the arm of his niece Frida Berrigan to steady him in the front-row pew of the Church of St. Joseph in Greenwich Village, and he needed help from sister-in-law Elizabeth McAlister to get to the pulpit, but once there, the power of his words filled the assembly.

Almost 91, Jesuit Fr. Daniel Berrigan -- author of 50 books, 18 of them volumes of poetry, and more than double that number of arrests for civil disobedience -- looked frail and walked haltingly, but he still commanded attention from the more than 200 people gathered here Jan. 29 for a tribute to his life and work.

The event was organized by Pax Christi Metro New York. Berrigan’s brief remarks followed a host of speakers who remembered his life in words. They were mostly his words during a two-hour tribute that included segments of his poems, essays, sermons and court testimony. Read more »

Peace and Justice Pages adds focus on Sustainability by Janet O’Sullivan

 

IIn this 20th Anniversary year for the WCCM, the peace and justice pages of the web site will be undergoing a new phase and we invite your participation/contribution.  Meditatio is bringing a new stage of outreach to the community and we would like to highlight some the fruits of meditation which meditators are bringing to the work of peace and justice in the world through  practical works of compassion and prophecy.

When we actually experience our interconnectedness ,first with the divine within , and then with all creation, we can   come to a new understanding of our potential, as channels of God’s love, to take part in the self healing of the world. As John Main said “We find Christ in our hearts and then we find ourselves in  Him, and in Him, in all creation”  Read more »

A WCCM Oblate's Call for Peacemakers

 BECOMING PEACEMAKERS

Quoting that most wonderful Hindu-Christian Mystic,  Mohandas Gandhi ,  “Peace has to be the path to peace. Violence will never be the path to peace”.   Jesus said   “ Love thine  enemy! “. And The Compassionate Buddha said that hatred will never put an end to hatred. Only love and nonhatred can stop the violence and greed both in our own hearts and in those of others.

Read more »

Dr. Pierre Takes Meditation to the Poor in Haiti

Tablet - November 2011

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This year in my role in The World Community for Christian Meditation I have been meeting with our national coordinators in six regions of the globe. We began with South East Asia and the Pacific in January followed by meetings in  three European regions. We have just finished the regional meeting with N. America, Mexico, Haiti  and the Caribbean countries and I move on now to the last of this series in S. America.
There are meetings. And there are meetings.

Read more »

CHRISTIAN MEDITATION For Vulnerable Communities

 

Offering Christian Meditation in a Way that is Inclusive of those with Addictions and Mental Illness

Collaboratively written by:

Kathy Coyne, Canada

Terry Doyle, UK

Jeff Ewener, Canada

Pat McSherry, Canada

Michele O’Brien. Ireland

 

Increasingly, addiction recovery programs and mental health counsellors are encouraging people in recovery to try daily meditation as a way to maintain balance and calmness under sometimes chaotic conditions. Christian Meditation offers a meaningful option for Christians who want to meditate in a way that resonates with their own faith tradition.

However, meditation groups are not always well prepared to "welcome the stranger,’ especially someone whose life circumstance may be different than theirs. Some of us who run groups for people with mental illness and addictions have come up with a list of tips to help you make your groups a comfortable place for everyone. Read more »

Veterans' Day 2011-- A note from Pax Christi USA

Greetings!

Most celebrate November 11th as Veteran's Day, but it is also the feast of St Martin of Tours. This fourth-century bishop is often touted as a patron of warriors, but his actions tell a different story. Two years after his baptism, Martin, a Roman cavalryman, had an epiphany before a battle: "I am a soldier of Christ," he said, "I cannot fight." He was jailed for his objection, even though he volunteered to go to the front lines naked to prove his devotion.

In many periods, this saint's history has been remolded to glorify the soldier's role in the Christian state, most prominently in France during 19th and 20th century Republican campaigns. But this Veteran's Day, Pax Christi USA points to Veterans for Peace and their much closer likeness to the conscientious, unpopular peace witness of St Martin. Read more »

LOVE AND COMPASSION IN ISLAM

‘ Compassion’ is the most frequently occurring word in the Qur’an. Each of its 114 chapters, with the exception of the 9th, begins with the invocation ‘In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful…’ yet a great deal of the escalating violence and terrorism that we are living with today can be attributed to Muslims. How can we come to terms with this obvious contradiction? Read more »

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