Bonjour les freres et soeurs ,

2 mois d'absence de ma part, un site qui s'est endormi, une longue route et quelque ampoules aux pieds plus tard, nous repartons sur le chemin de la rencontre de notre createur avec pour commencer aujourd'hui l'ouverture d'un sujet qui nous fera faire un tour du monde des news religieuses.

Premier arret: YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio



Closed churches find second life as breweries :

Ira Gerhart finally found a place last year to fulfill his yearslong dream of opening a brewery: a 1923 Presbyterian church. It was cheap, charming and just blocks from downtown Youngstown.

But soon after Gerhart announced his plans, residents and a minister at a Baptist church a block away complained about alcohol being served in the former house of worship.

“I get it, you know, just the idea of putting a bar in God’s house,” Gerhart said. “If we didn’t choose to do this, most likely, it’d fall down or get torn down. I told them we’re not going to be a rowdy college bar.”



With stained glass, brick walls and large sanctuaries ideal for holding vats and lots of drinkers, churches renovated into breweries attract beer lovers but can grate on the spiritual sensibilities of clergy and worshippers.

At least 10 new breweries have opened in old churches across the country since 2011, and at least four more are slated to open in the next year. The trend started after the 2007 recession as churches merged or closed because of dwindling membership.

Sex abuse settlements by the Roman Catholic Church starting in the mid-2000s were not a factor because those payments were largely covered by insurers, according to Terrence Donilon, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston.

Gerhart’s is scheduled to open this month after winning over skeptics like the Baptist minister and obtaining a liquor license.

“We don’t want (churches) to become a liquor store,” said Michael Schafer, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, which has imposed restrictions on turning closed churches into beer halls. “We don’t think that’s appropriate for a house of worship.”



At the Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh, an early church-turned-brewery that opened in 1996, patrons slide into booths crafted from pews. Towering steel and copper vats sit on the church’s former altar. Yellow flags line the sanctuary emblazoned with the brewery’s motto: “ON THE EIGHTH DAY. MAN CREATED BEER.”

Owner Sean Casey bought the former church because it was cheap and reminded him of beer halls he used to frequent in Munich. Aficionados cite its rustic decor as a major draw.

“It’s got that ‘wow’ factor,” said Jesse Anderson-Lehnan, 27. “But it still feels like a normal place, it doesn’t feel weird to come and sit at the bar and talk for a few hours.”

When St. John the Baptist Church was desanctified and sold to Casey, Roman Catholics in the diocese voiced their opposition, leading to the deed restrictions to stop other closed churches from becoming bars and clubs.

While the Diocese of Cincinnati also has imposed such restrictions, it’s unclear how much company it and Youngstown have. Limits also exist in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Pa., while the Boston Archdiocese says it solicits proposals from potential buyers and screens them to make sure they’re in line with Catholic values.

Churches are uniquely difficult to renovate, preservationists say. Large stained windows and cavernous sanctuaries are tough to partition into condominiums. Historic landmark protections can bar new owners from knocking down some churches, leading them to sit empty and decay.

But the same vaulted ceilings that keep housing developers away from churches also lend them an old-world air hard to replicate elsewhere, making former houses of worship particularly suitable as dignified beer halls.

There, even clergy members sometimes aren’t so opposed to quaffing a pint. Some are regulars at the Church Brew Works, Casey said, where they can order Pipe Organ pale ale or Pious Monk dark lager.

Cincinnati’s Taft’s Ale House kicked off its grand opening in the 167-year-old St. Paul’s Evangelical Protestant Church with a “blessing of the beers.” A television report at the time shows the Rev. John Kroeger, a Catholic priest, giving the blessing.

“God of all creation, you gift us with friends, and food and drink,” he said, eyes cast upward. “Bless these kegs, and every keg that will be brewed here. Bless all those freshened here, and all those gathered in the days, and months, and years to come!”


Traduction francaise a venir .

Traduction pour les francophones.



Ira Gerhart a finalement trouvé un terrain l'annee derniere, afin de réaliser son rêve d'ouvrir une brasserie: ce lieu n'est autre qu'une église presbytérienne datant de 1923. C'était bon marché, charmant et à quelques rues du centre-ville de Youngstown.

Mais peu de temps après que Gerhart eut annoncé son intention d'utiliser cette eglise , les résidents anisi que les responsable religieux de l' église baptiste du quartier se sont plaint que de l'alcool ne devrait pas etre servi dans un endroit qui fut a l'origine une maison de culte .

"Je comprends, vous savez, juste l'idée de mettre un bar dans la maison de Dieu..", a déclaré Gerhart. "Si nous n'avions pas choisi de le faire, l'eglise aurait probablement du etre demoli.. Je leur ai dit que nous ne serions pas un bar de mauvaise frequentation. "

Avec des vitraux, des murs de briques et de large espace pour stocker l'alcool et accueillir de nombreux buveurs, les églises rénovées en brasseries attirent les amateurs de biere, mais peuvent aussi toucher les sensibilités spirituelles du clergé et des fidèles.

Au moins 10 nouvelles brasseries ont ouvert dans d'anciennes eglises a travers le pays depuis 2011, et au moins quatre autres devraient ouvrir leur portes l'année prochaine. La tendance a commencé après la récession de 2007 lorsque les églises ont fusionné ou fermé en raison de la diminution des membres.

Selon Terrence Donilon , porte-parole de l'archidiocèse de Boston, les abus sexuels commis par l'Eglise catholique romaine au milieu des années 2000 ne constituaient pas un facteur determinant.

Gerhart devrait ouvrir ses portes ce mois-ci après avoir gagne contre les sceptiques de l'eglise baptiste en obtenant un permis d'alcool.

« Nous ne voulons pas que les églises deviennent des magasins d'alcool », a déclaré Michael Schafer, porte-parole de l'archidiocèse de Cincinnati, qui a imposé des restrictions aux églises fermées voulant se transformer en salles de bière. "Nous ne pensons pas que cela soit approprié pour une maison de culte."

A l'église Brew Works à Pittsburgh, l'un des premieres église devenu brasserie en 1996, les clients trouvent place autour de tables et chaises fabriquees a partir des anciens bancs de l'eglise . Des cuves d'acier et de cuivre se dressent sur l'ancien autel. Des drapeaux jaunes bordent le sanctuaire arborant la devise de la brasserie: "LE HUITIÈME JOUR. l'homme creea la biere.

Le propriétaire Sean Casey a acheté l'ancienne église parce que c'était bon marché et qu'elle lui rappelait les brasseries qu'il fréquentait à Munich. Les habitues citent son décor rustique comme principal attraction.

"Ca a ce coté " wouah ", a déclaré Jesse Anderson-Lehnan, 27 ans." Mais ca reste un endroit comme les autres, cela ne semble pas etrange de venir s'asseoir au bar et discuter pendant quelques heures. "

Lorsque l'église Saint-Jean-Baptiste a été désanctifiée et vendue à Casey, les catholiques romains du diocèse ont exprimé leur opposition, conduisant à la mise en place de restrictions ayant pour but d' empêcher d'autres églises fermées de devenir des bars et des clubs.

Bien que le diocèse de Cincinnati ait lui aussi imposé de telles restrictions, on ne sait pas a l'heure actuelle combien d'autre suivent le mouvement et si Youngstown en compte parmis elle. Ces restrictions existent également dans le diocèse d'Altoona-Johnstown, en Pennsylvanie, tandis que l'archidiocèse de Boston lui, dit qu'il sollicite des propositions d'acheteurs potentiels en les choisissant specialement pour s'assurer qu'elles sont conformes aux valeurs catholiques.

Les églises sont particulièrement difficiles à rénover, disent les conservateurs. Les grandes vitraux et les sanctuaires caverneux sont difficiles à diviser en copropriétés. Des mesures de preservations historiques peuvent empêcher les nouveaux propriétaires d'abattre certaines églises, amenant ainsi l'abandon et le delabrement.

Mais les mêmes plafonds voûtés qui repoussent les promoteurs immobiliers des églises leur donne aussi un air d'antan difficile à reproduire ailleurs,ce qui rend les anciens lieux de culte particulièrement appropriés comme brasseries.


Même les membres du clergé ne sont parfois pas aussi opposés à aller boire une biere dans ces lieux. Certains sont des habitués de l'église Brew Works, dit Casey, où ils peuvent commander '' Pipe Organ pale ale'' ou ''Pious Monk dark lager.''

La Taft's Ale House de Cincinnati a inaugure l'église évangélique protestante St. Paul's vieille de 167 ans, avec une «bénédiction des bières». Un reportage télévisé montre le révérend John Kroeger, prêtre catholique, donner la bénédiction.

«Dieu de toute la création, tu nous comble d' amis, de nourriture et de boissons», dit-il, les yeux rivés vers le ciel. "Bénis ces fûts de bieres, et tous les fûts qui seront brassés ici. Bénis tous ceux qui se sont desaltere ici, et tous ceux qui seront réunis ici dans les prochains jours, mois et années à venir !

Calgary- CANADA

Un imam de Calgary avertit les jeunes de se méfier de l'influence d'ISIS .




L'adolescent grand et mince pose une question qui est present dans l'esprit de beaucoup de jeunes rassemblés autour des tables recouvertes de tissu, dans une petite salle de réunion dans une mosquée du nord-est de Calgary.

"Si quelqu'un d'ISIS ou d'ISIL s'approche de toi, comment doit-on reagir pour ne pas être sollicité et attaqué davantage?" demande Zubair Tariq, 16 ans.

«S'ils approchent, vous devriez être assez intelligents pour savoir que l'ISIL / ISIS sont de très grands criminels aux yeux de la religion», répond l'imam Syed Soharwardy, fondateur de ''Muslim Against Terrorism'' et du ''Conseil suprême islamique du Canada''.

«Ces personnes nous atteignent par l'intermédiaire d'Internet, elles nous atteignent à travers la communauté locale.Vous devez comprendre que ce ne sont pas des gentils musulmans, des bons musulmans, des vrai musulman. Ce sont des gens deguisé en musulman. L'ISIL est déguisé en musulman.

"Ils disent qu'ils sont de bons musulmans, mais pour nous, ils sont une bande de voyous et de criminels", poursuit-il. "Ce sont des terroristes."

Soharwardy a rencontré récemment 30 jeunes musulmans à la mosquée Jamia Masjid Gunbad-e-Khizra. C'était une des nombreuses réunions qu'il organise regulierement pour lutter contre la radicalisation des jeunes musulmans canadiens.

Soharwardy a décidé d'organiser une autre réunion après une attaque plus tôt ce mois-ci qui a blessé un policier et des civils à Edmonton. Un homme a poignardé un officier en train de faire le contrôle de la circulation à l'extérieur d'un match de football, puis a propulse son camion dans une rue pietonne. Cinq personnes ont été blessées. La police a déclaré avoir saisi un drapeau de l'ISIL comme preuve.


Tariq dit qu'il n'a pas été contacté directement par des membres de l'ISIL recruteur de jeunes musulmans canadiens, mais il s'inquiète.

«Un de mes amis a été approché ... et il a le même âge que moi», dit l'adolescent. «C'est effrayant, si quelqu'un s'approche de toi, tu ne sais pas comment réagir correctement à moins d'en parler avec tes ainés de la communauté.

Le jeune Hassaan Rizvi dit que les recrutements par L'ISIS se font par les médias sociaux.

«Nous étions assis dans ma classe de mathématiques et deux de mes amis ont reçu un lien WhatsApp», dit Rizvi, se référant au populaire programme de messagerie mobile. "Quand il l'a ouvert, c'était pour le recrutement pour ISIS. Il y avait leur drapeau et il etait ecrit qu'ils etaient en train de recruter.

"J'ai dit:« Ce n'est pas quelque chose de bien, alors nous devrions le fermer. C'est vraiment arrivé, ils recrutent toujours.

Soharwardy revient sur l'attaque qui a eu lieu a Edmonton.
"Quand vous entendez ... un officier de police blessé et un drapeau ISIS trouvé, qu'est-ce que vous ressentez?" Soharwardy demande.

"de la colère", dit un jeune homme.

"Embarrassé", dit un autre.

Un rapport de l'an dernier sur la menace terroriste au Canada indiquait qu'au début de 2014, plus de 130 Canadiens vivant à l'étranger etaient soupçonnés d'activités liées au terrorisme. À la fin de 2015, le nombre était passé à environ 180 et le gouvernement connaissait une soixantaine d'extrémistes qui étaient rentrés au Canada.

Parmis les participants à la réunion, certains expriment leur colère face aux réactions qu'ils subissent chaque fois qu'une attaque terroriste se produit dans le monde.

"Je ne comprends pas pourquoi le mot terroriste ou terrorisme est rattaché au mot musulman ou au nom de l'islam. Le terrorisme est une attaque contre nimporte qui ", explique Shahwali Hameed.
"Le terrorisme n'a pas de religion".

Aysha Ali croit qu'un manque de compréhension amène les gens à croire que les musulmans sont des terroristes chaque fois qu'une attaque se produit.

"Cela ne fait qu'empirer. Les gens ne stygmatiserez pas les musulmans si ca n'arrivait qu'une seule fois , mais ces crimes se reproduisent plusieurs fois par Des membres de ISIS et l'ISIL et ils disent le faire au nom de la religion ".

Ibrahim Khan dit qu'il semble y avoir un double standard. Il souligne que personne n'appelle l'auteur du massacre de Las Vegas '' un terroriste.''

"Il est soit mentalement derangé, soit ils disent que c'est juste un tireur. Personne ne l'appelle '' terroriste'', parce qu'il n'a pas une longue barbe."

Soharwardy dit qu'il croit qu'il y a encore des recruteurs et des sympathisants d'ISIS qui travaillent au Canada et il avertit que cela se poursuivra jusqu'à ce que leur revenus financier s'assèche.

Il dit aux étudiants que quiconque encourage la haine ou commet des actes violents, ne suit pas la foi musulmane.

«Si vous voyez quelqu'un, assurez-vous d'en faire le signalement à vos parents, à votre professeur, à moi», dit-il.

"Faites-le nous savoir tout de suite, car nous devons nous défendre et rester des citoyens fidèles, fidèles et respectueux des lois de ce pays".

india - October 2017


Les trois maux, selon le bouddhisme


Qu'est-ce que le mal? Est-ce une force qui est a l'exterieur de nous et nous attire ou bien est-ce quelque chose que nous créons nous-mêmes? Sommes-nous intrinsèquement bons ou mauvais? Il y a beaucoup de questions philosophiques dont certaines réponses prennent forme a l'issue de débats. En ce qui concerne les enseignements de bouddha, il est dit que ce ne sont pas les gens qui sont bons ou mauvais, moralement juste ou injuste, mais seulement certains traits de notre personnalite que nous créons en nous-mêmes. Et, ces traits particuliers, nous sommes les seuls a pouvoir les défaire.

«Par nous-même, le mal est fait, par nous-même nous sommes souillé, en sois-même le mal est défait, en soi-même est la purification , la pureté et l'impureté dépendent de soi, nul ne purifie un autre.
Bouddha


Le concept d'origine dependante:
Bouddha a prêché le concept d '«origine dépendante» qui signifie essentiellement l'interdépendance de tout et de tout le monde, des lors cela pose la question de notre rapport a l'autre.
Si tout est interconnecte et interdependant, comment donc un individu pourrait-il se considérer supérieur à un autre? Ce qui sont a l'exterieur sont-ils intrinsèquement mauvais et/ou inferieurs? Les enseignements de Bouddha ouvrent l'esprit et nous examinons ici ce que sont, selon ces enseignements, les trois maux capitaux.


La cupidité: La cupidité peut exister de multiples manieres car elle inclut les péchés liés à désirer quelque chose en excès. Cela peut etre lié à l'argent, au désir, à la luxure, à la nourriture, et à l'incapacité de lacher prise et laisser aller les choses facilement. Parmi les sept péchés capitaux qui sont souvent evoques dans les ecriture bibliques, la cupidité, la gourmandise et la convoitise selon Bouddha, relèvent du mal de la «cupidité» seul .

la pratique du controle de soi comme horizon:
Selon les enseignements de Bouddha, la cupidité se definit comme l'abandon de soi dans les griffes de la servitude, être vulnérable vis a vis d'un manque. L'homme doit donc pratiquer le control de soi pour eviter d'etre esclave du monde materiel, et ainsi atteindre un sentiment de satisfaction .






La haine : La haine est une émotion très puissante, parfois meme plus puissante que l'amour. C'est une émotion destructrice qui conduit à la colère, la fureur et la destruction, tant physique que mentale. Donner de la haine, cela revient a se mettre a genoux devant son propre ennemi.On retrouve ces peches capitaux dans les ecritures bibliques sous les noms de ''la colère'' et de ''l'envie.''

La pratique de l'effort sur soi comme remede:
Annihiler la haine se fait par la pratique du pardon, de l'amour et de l'acceptation des autres tels qu'ils sont.







L'ignorance: L'ignorance se rapporte essentiellement a l'illusion, de sois-meme mais aussi de ceux qui nous entourent. Elle peut conduire à l'arrogance, la paresse ou bien encore l'envie; les ecritures bibliques elles, englobent encore d'autres émotions telles que l'aveuglement et la folie.

Se connecter a la vrai nature de ceux qui nous entourent:
Selon les enseignements du boudda, il ne faut pas tirer de conclusions hative sur les personnes et les choses de notre environnement. Au contraire il faut prendre le temps d'observer les relations de cause et d'effet de chaques choses et de chaques situations. Se connecter avec la véritable essence de ceux qui nous entourent permet d'etablir un reel lien avec l'idee d'une «origine dépendante». ceci etant la seul voie menant au salut.

world - 14 novembre 2017

Muslim and Jewish views of Jesus as 'Son of God'
Rabbi Allen S. Maller


Traduction francaise a venir


Jesus was a young rabbi/teacher who was accused by the Roman rulers of being 'The King of the Jews' (Mark 15:2 & 18, Matthew 27:11, Luke 23:3, and John 18:33 & 19:21) and proclaimed by some of his followers to be 'The Son of God'.

Jews and Muslims are frequently asked by Christians why they do not believe that Jesus was The Son of God. As a rabbi I would like to share with you how I answer this question; but first I must tell you something about myself:

I am a Reform Rabbi who first became interested in Islam 55 years ago, when I studied Islam at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. I have continued my study of Islam off and on since that time. I now consider myself to be a Reform Rabbi and a Muslim Jew. Actually I am a Muslim Jew i.e. a faithful Jew submitting to the will of God, because I am a Reform Rabbi.

As a Rabbi I am faithful to the covenant that God made with Abraham -– the first Muslim Jew -- and I submit to the commandments of the Torah covenant that God made with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai.

A Muslim is one who submits to the will of God and believes that God has sent many different prophets to the many peoples of the world. As a Reform Rabbi I believe that Muhammad was the Prophet sent to the Arab people. I believe that the Qur’an is as true for Muslims as the Torah is true for Jews.

Indeed, I love the Hadith also narrated by Abu Huraira that says:

"The people of the Book 1 used to read the Torah in Hebrew and then explain it in Arabic to the Muslims. God's Apostle said (to the Muslims). 'Do not believe the people of the Book, nor disbelieve them, but say, 'We believe in God, and whatever is revealed to us, and whatever was revealed to you'."

Following Muhammad’s teaching I too neither believe nor disbelieve in the Qur’an. If I believed in the Qur'an I would be a member of the Muslim community. If I disbelieved in the Qur'an I would be a member of the atheist community or of one of those religious communities that think that only their religion is the one true religion.

I do respect the Qur’an very much as a kindred revelation given in a kindred language, to the descendants of a kindred people, In fact, the people, the language and the theology are closer to my own people, language and theology than that of any other on earth.

Of course, more than 80% of Muslims in the world today are not of Arab descent. 2 But Arabic is their sacred language and the tradition that Arabs and Jews are cousins is widely accepted.

As a Rabbi who is a student of both the Torah and the Qur'an I sometimes begin my answer by pointing out that according to the Gospels themselves, Jesus almost always referred to himself not as the 'Son of God'; but as 'The Son of Man'.

The expression "the Son of man" occurs 81 times in the Greek text of the four gospels and only very rarely do even the Gospels claim Jesus directly called himself the 'Son of God'.

The gospel writers and many of the people in the New Testament, including one possessed by evil spirits (Mark 5:2-7), did call Jesus the 'Son of God'; but Jesus himself strongly preferred the term 'Son of Man', although he often did refer metaphorically to God as his father.

The Qur'an states:

“Allah is only One God. Far be it removed from His transcendent majesty that He should have a son. All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth is His. Allah is sufficient as a Defender.” (Qur'an 4:171)

Both Jews and Muslims agree that the One God is sufficient to provide suitable religious guidance to each and every people on earth without help from anyone else; including a son.

The Qur'an also states:

“It is not suitable for Allah, Glory be to Him, that He should take unto Himself a son. When He decrees a thing, He only says to it: Be! and it is.” (Qur'an 19:35)

When Allah created Adam, Adam did not become the 'Son of God'.

God says:

“Lo! the likeness of Jesus with Allah is as the likeness of Adam. He created him from dust, then he said to him: Be! and he is.” (3:59)

No one thinks Adam is the Son of God'.

It is true that Jesus often did refer metaphorically to God as his father. He did this in accord with the metaphorical style of the Torah. He never expected that any Jew who heard him speak about God as his father would take his words literally.

As the Qur'an states:

"It is not (possible) for any human being to whom Allah had given Scripture, wisdom and prophethood, that he should afterwards have said to mankind: Be slaves of me instead of Allah; but (he said): Be ye faithful servants of the Lord by virtue of your constant teaching of Scripture and your constant study of it." (Qur'an 3:79)

Jews and Muslims agree that in the years after his death, some of Jesus' followers began to believe and teach that the close connection Jesus felt to his father in heaven meant he was not just the 'Son of Man” as he so often stated, but also literally the 'Son of God'. This new interpretation by some of his apostles of the metaphors 'father' and 'child of God', was a major mistake that Jesus did not foresee.

The Torah does refer both to the whole People of Israel metaphorically as God's first born son. (Exodus 4:22) and also refers to all those who are duty bound to act, even when mourning, as God commands us; as sons/children of God:

“You (Plural) are Children of the LORD your God.” (Deuteronomy 14:1)

Does this mean that Jews either as individuals or as a people are Divine? Of course not. No Rabbi from the most Orthodox to the most Reform has ever taken these verses of the Torah literally. The term son/child of God should never be taken literally. It is a metaphor. It must be interpreted just as we interpret all the other verses in the Bible.

To say that every verse of Sacred Scripture must be interpreted is not being disrespectful. To the contrary. It means that we have to give some thought and study to each verse in a Divine text. We cannot read Torah the way we read an ordinary book.

Jews dialogue with Torah. She challenges, inspires and questions us, and we examine and embrace her. The Jewish mystics asserted that each verse in the Torah is capable of being interpreted in seventy different ways.

Throughout the generations Rabbis have offered different meanings and views of Torah verses. But according to the Talmud, God said,

“Both these (views) and those (views) are the words of the living God.

God lives for us through the ongoing interaction between the Divine revelation and its adherents. 3 Without this dialogue the text would be a dead letter text and we would lack spiritual vitality and growth.

Divine revelation should always be taken seriously. Divine revelation should never be taken literally, in a simplistic way that contradicts reason, morality or other sacred texts.

Some verses were meant for special historical circumstances or conditions. Some verses have to be understood in the light of other verses. And all verses have to be interpreted with the guidance and insight of the many generations of commentators who have preceded us, as well as the best understandings of our own age.

Here are some examples of Midrash (the interpretive process at work) for “sons of God:”

The Hebrew word translated as sons does sometimes mean sons. But usually it means children. Women can be as close to God as men, or closer.

Children indicates a very close loving relationship unlike that of King and subject. Millions of people can love a King but a King can’t love millions of people. God can.

First-born son indicates that God will send prophets to other nations in later generations.

First-born refers to the historical fact that Israel's Torah is the oldest of the living holy books that have come down to us. The older Epic of Gilgamesh text that mentions the man in the ark (Noah) has been dead for more than 15 centuries. The younger Gospels and Qur'an are still alive.
The Torah says Israel is God’s first-born son. The Torah does not say God’s only son. Just as parents love all their children; so too does God love all nations and religions.

Just as parents can have many children who look different one from the other, so too does God’s revelation appear in different forms in different religions, and within each religion there are different interpretations of God’s revelation.

The first born is unique but that entails extra responsibilities; not extra privileges.

“For you alone have I cared among all the nations of the world, therefore I will castigate you for all your iniquities.” (Amos 3:2)

Israel can not have any other Father except the One God of Israel; but God can and does redeem other nations.

“Are not Israelites like Ethiopians to me? Says the Lord. Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Crete and the Arameans from Kir?” (Amos 9:7)

In the Messianic Age, the one and only God, who should not be represented by any image or incarnation; will be invoked by all humanity, even while each people still retains its own religion and its own name or term for God.

“In days to come ... All peoples will walk, each in the name of their God, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.” (Micah 4:5)

Israel -decembre 2017-

Christians revive the language of Jesus


In the hills of the Galilee, the lush region in the Holy Land where it’s said that Jesus Christ grew up, residents of the town of Jish are preparing to celebrate Christmas Mass in the language Jesus spoke.

A handful of people from Jish are at the centre of an effort to revive the Aramaic language — centuries after it all but disappeared from the Middle East.

“It moves me very much when I hear Aramaic,” said kindergarten teacher Neveen Elias. “When I pray in Aramaic, I am feel I am so near Jesus.”

Maronite Christians in Jish celebrate part of their liturgies in Aramaic during services at St. Maroun Church, which takes its name from the fifth-century monk who founded the Maronite movement, which is still active in the Middle East, mainly in Lebanon and Syria.

Jish, which sits just a few kilometres south of Israel's border with Lebanon, is a mixed town where 60 per cent of residents are Christian. The rest are Muslim.

'We still pray in it'

Shadi Khalloul is the man behind the revival of Aramaic. While he remembers hearing the language in childhood, Khalloul said he didn't really take notice of it until he was studying Bible literature at the University of Las Vegas.

"My instructor was a Catholic instructor, and he said to us as students, 'Don't think that Jesus spoke Spanish or English or French or Latin … he spoke Aramaic, a language that disappeared," Khalloul said.

"So I felt offended. I immediately raised my hand and said, 'Excuse me, instructor, but the language still exists. We still speak it, we still pray in it.'"

Khalloul said he did not blame his instructor for thinking Aramaic was dead, adding that it's "the fault of the people who still carry this language" for not letting the world know Aramaic is still alive and well.

That set Khalloul on his mission — now a decade old — to raise the profile of Aramaic.

The school in Jish is the only place in Israel where students are taught in Aramaic. Khalloul established the language training in the school, where about 120 children receive several hours of language instruction every week.

"We are also doing a Sunday school. We have Aramaic summer camps, and we also help do recitals or concerts in Syriac Aramaic," said Khalloul, a former Israeli army captain who founded the Israeli Christian Aramaic Association.



The Maronites hail from Mount Lebanon. After world powers carved up the Middle East in the aftermath of the First World War, Maronites were meant to be given a homeland in modern-day Lebanon. But civil war and sectarianism have spread adherents around the world, with large communities of Maronites now calling Brazil, Argentina and even Canada home.

About 11,000 Maronites live in Israel.

While Khalloul estimates that only two families in Jish — his and his brother's — speak Aramaic as a first language, what he really wants is to establish a town in Israel populated solely by Aramaic speakers.

That would help, he said, deal with a dark chapter in the community's past.

Many Maronites living in the Holy Land called the village of Biram home. But they were displaced by the Israeli army during the country's war of independence in 1948. The military ordered residents to leave Biram, telling them they could return in two weeks.

Unable to return home

That never happened. Many resettled in the nearby Arab town of Jish.

But Khalloul said he's optimistic the Israeli government will give the go ahead for a new village, where they can "preserve their language and their identity."

The more immediate focus in Jish is getting ready for Christmas.

The church is decorated with a glowing tree that towers over the town, where streets are lit up in festive colours at night. On the main road there's a thriving Christmas store — a rare sight in Israel and the Palestinian territories, outside of Bethlehem.

Neveen Elias has been practising her Aramaic, as she'll be singing in the church choir during the Christmas mass. At home, she leads her three children in traditional Aramaic songs.

"It's the language of Jesus, and it makes the prayers so special," she said.

'Language is also culture'

Shadi Khalloul and his children, wife and parents will also attend midnight mass at St. Maroun Church this year.

He'll be looking up at the dome, where the Lord's Prayer is inscribed in Aramaic — a reminder of the accomplishments of the people from his town.

"Language is not only a way of communicating with others," he said. "Language is also culture, it's identity. If I don't preserve my language and don't respect it, how you would be able to respect me?"

Je ferai une traduction francaise complete des articles ci dessus/dessous quand j'aurai un peu de temps, tres difficile en ce moment. En attendant perfectionnez votre anglais ou utilisez google translate ;].
Les Themes I et II se poursuivront aussi dans quelques temps. La vie est pleine de surprise et nous manquons de temps pour realiser tous nos projets, le site a de beau jour devant lui.
Joyeux noel a tous et passez un bon reveillon.
Nos souhaits les plus chaleureux pour la nouvelle annee qui arrive :)



Algonquin, Canada -- 27 decembre 2017-


About 500 Muslims gathered at the Algonquin Commons Theatre Dec. 16 to commemorate and celebrate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.

Speakers and volunteers covered many international issues facing the Muslim community today, including the Jerusalem conflict and terrorism.

“This is a defining moment in the world and history will bear witness,” said speaker and AICP member, Imam Walid Saad.

The Association of Islamic Charitable Projects organized a grand celebration to honour the most prominent prophet in Islam.

The AICP is an international non-profit organization run by Muslims with the objective to spread correct knowledge on the religion by holding events and celebrations. Their goal is to teach both Muslims and non-Muslims about the history and traditions of Islam.

The event itself was warm and welcoming regardless of the cold and snowy weather.



Quranic recitations, melodious chants and religious hymns played throughout the theatre. Men, women and children all sang, clapped and followed along with the theatre-style event.

Event goers were amused and entertained with skits, speeches and performances throughout the two and a half hour event.

Although it was a night of celebration, that didn’t stop speakers and volunteers from touching on important and serious subjects regarding the Muslim community.

Saad was referring to President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel instead of Palestine.

“The AICP says, the holy city of Jerusalem has been and will continue to be the Arab capital of our beloved Palestine,” said Saad.

The crowd was brought to their feet as they cheered, clapped and whistled in excitement and agreement as he repeated, “Jerusalem is Palestine’s capital, Jerusalem is Palestine’s capital, Jerusalem is Palestine’s capital.”

He continued on by saying; “We call on all our political parties and our Arab allies to set aside their differences and help prevent the destabilization in the Middle-East by denouncing this plan.”

Saad also took the opportunity to denounce the reoccurring attacks made by terrorist extremists, groups and organizations hiding under the banner of Islam.

“The terror attacks committed in many places in the world such as Paris, Madrid, Bali, Manchester, Nigeria and most recently in Egypt are all an attack on regional stability and society at large, including Muslims.” said Saad.

According to the AICP website; one of the main goals of the organization is to “rid the Muslim community of vile innovations and prevailing deviations whose proponents call for terrorism and violence”.

The values of the Prophet Muhammad, who was known as the prophet of peace and fairness, sync-up well with the objective of the AICP; which made the event all the more effective and coherent.

Abed Saab, AICP volunteer and event organizer, said that it’s events like these that give Muslims the opportunity to spread religious education. He also said that holding the event at Algonquin specifically was an advantage to the organization,

“The area is very popular, there’s a lot of Muslim students, so this was a good opportunity to interact with the youth and meet them and hopefully have them join our programs.”

MOSUL, Iraq -4 January 2018-


Muslims and Christians together for Christmas


Cries of joy and seasonal hymns once again filled St. Paul Cathedral in Mosul as Christmas Mass was celebrated there for the first time in three and a half years, following the northern Iraqi city's liberation from Islamic State militants.

The Iraqi national anthem opened the Mass as women wailed with emotion. Armored police outside protected the worshippers.

Led by Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad, Christians and Muslims attended the Christmas Mass Dec. 24 in a display of unity.

"My message is to our brothers the Muslims," said Patriarch Sako. "I ask them to change their way of thinking; you should know Christianity better. In the past, Christians were the majority in Iraq; today we are minority, but without us, Mosul will never be the same."

He urged the faithful to pray for "peace and stability to reign in Mosul, Iraq and the world."

Underscoring Christ's message of love and peace, he urged displaced Christians to return home and participate in its reconstruction.

"They are not going back because their houses are destroyed or burned, and the church is restoring all of the houses," Patriarch Sako said. "We are hopeful that many, many Christians will be back."

Islamic State militants had seized and terrorized Mosul and the surrounding areas in 2014, sending most of its Christian population of 200,000 into flight. The militants threatened the Christians, telling them to convert to Islam, pay protection tax, die or flee.

Last July, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the expulsion of Islamic State from Mosul after a fierce, nine-month military campaign.

When Islamic State militants invaded Mosul, they prohibited public Christian worship services and began systematically destroying churches. St. Paul Cathedral reportedly was used as a prison by the militants, the damaged interior walls reflecting some of the destruction.



"With this celebration, we tell them that residents of Mosul are all brothers, whatever their religion or ethnicity, and despite all the damage and suffering," Christian worshipper Farqad Malko said of the message to the militants.

Meanwhile, in the Ninevah Plain town of Telaskov, Christians celebrated Christmas by gathering for Mass at the newly renovated Church of St. George. In church, children dressed in Santa Claus costumes sang "Jingle Bells" in Aramaic, the language of Jesus.

Twenty miles north of Mosul, Telaskov is one of the oldest continuing Christian communities in the world.

St. Petersburg - Russia -7 Janvier 2018-


Putin : 'Eternal Christian Values' of Orthodox

Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Orthodox Christians and all Russians on Christmas celebrated according to the Julian calendar on January 7.

A Kremlin press service statement quoted Putin as saying that Christmas "gives millions of believers joy and hope."

Putin said the holiday accustoms Orthodox Christians to "spiritual origins and fatherly traditions, and unites them around eternal Christian values" and the "centuries-old historic and cultural heritage of our people."



Putin also said the Orthodox Christian Church has "made a significant contribution to strengthening high moral ideals in society, educating the growing generation, and solving vital social problems."

Putin attended Orthodox Christmas services at the Church of saints Simeon and Ann in St. Petersburg as the clock turned to January 7.

Meanwhile, Russian state television channels showed a live broadcast of the Christmas Eve midnight Mass from Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral.

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill conducted the ceremonies at the Moscow site before hundreds of worshippers, including several Russian government and parliamentary officials.

Orthodox Christians in Russia and most other Orthodox countries celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar on January 7, two weeks after most Western Christian churches that use the Gregorian calendar.

January 7 is a national holiday in Russia, as well as in Belarus, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, and Ukraine. The Armenian Orthodox Church celebrated on January 6.

In Bethlehem, Palestinians Christians -- angry with church land sales to Israelis -- scuffled with Palestinian police, as they attempted to block the arrival of the Holy Land's Greek Orthodox patriarch for Christmas celebrations.

Demonstrators banged on the sides of police escort vehicles, but Patriarch Theophilos III managed to safely move in his limousine to the Church of the Nativity for the traditional Orthodox Christmas eve observance.

In Istanbul, the Greek Orthodox Christian community celebrated Epiphany with the blessing of the waters.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians around the world and the archbishop of Constantinople, led the liturgy at the Patriarchal Church of St. George.

The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates Jesus' baptism on Epiphany. Most Christian religions observe Epiphany to recall the three wise men who followed a star to find the baby Jesus.

In Egypt, President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi attended an Orthodox Christmas service at a new church in a symbolic act of solidarity with his country's embattled Christian community, the Copts.

Sisi, a Muslim, told the packed cathedral outside of Cairo on the Orthodox Christmas Eve that "you are our family. We are one and no one can divide us."

His appearance at the cathedral along with Coptic Pope Tawadros II came as tens of thousands of soldiers and police were deployed outside churches in Egypt to secure against attacks by Islamic militants, who have targeted Christians for the past two years in bomb attacks that have killed about 100 people.

Virginie, USA -7 janvier 2018-


Who is a Christian?


C.S. Lewis noted “If Christianity is true, why are not all Christians obviously nicer than all non-Christians?”

For those of us who profess to be Christians, this question should make us think. What does it mean to be nice? Within the context of being a Christian, I believe it means to be a person who is loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and one who practices self control.

Yet, how many of us truly display these virtues as we go about our daily lives? Sadly, being a Christian has become more about just doing the “Christian thing” – going to church, attending prayer meetings, intellectually engaging in bible studies, etc. It has become a show of superficial self-righteousness through works, while the hearts remain hardened.



These works are not without merit, but they should be a manifestation of a life being lived in a relationship with Christ.

The virtues listed above are the fruit of the indwelling Spirit that comes to dwell in the heart of all those who have chosen to submit to the Lordship of Christ, to be transformed into His likeness. Before we lay claim to be Christians, let us examine ourselves, and make sure we are walking worthy of our calling. It is not enough to profess with our mouths that we have accepted Christ as our Savior, and then go about business as usual – with no change of heart.

There is a difference between an emotional conversion and a true conversion. Regrettably, many who “give their lives to Christ” at altar calls and revival meetings, do so, being caught up in the brief moments of an emotional high. There is no lasting change evident in the person’s life. True conversion results in a changed lifestyle – one becomes a new creature in Christ, and that is what makes the Christian “nice”.

So why are not all Christians nicer than all non-Christians? I believe it is because not all who call themselves Christians, are Christians. A tree is known by its fruit. So if the Christian is not bearing the fruit of the Spirit, then there is reason to doubt that person is truly a Christian. Why may this be so? Perhaps it is a limited understanding of what salvation is, or the unwillingness of the Christian to go beyond “being saved”.

They think it is a done deal when they have accepted Christ as their Savior and they either give in to licentiousness, doing whatever they want since their sins are forgiven, or try hard in their own strength to live a godly life, both of which are futile and cast a doubt on a person’s true salvation. What is often missed is the fact that if one is truly saved and has been born of the Spirit, one has to submit to the sanctifying power of the Spirit.

It is the process of sanctification that molds, shapes and prunes us into the image of the Creator, through trials, tribulations, and testing of the faith. It has been said that God is more interested in our holiness than in our happiness.

But man seeks happiness buying into the gospel of prosperity for example. When the going gets tough, that is when the truth is revealed, and one is faced with the choice of turning to the faith or away from it. It is the choice made then, that bears witness to the true nature of the person. If the tree is good and firmly rooted in good soil, it will bear good fruit.

Let us therefore examine ourselves before we walk out in the world claiming to be Christians. If we do not bear the good fruit, but strut around in self-righteous pride, our misconduct will drive non-believers away from Christ.

Such hypocrisy is a most effective tool in the hands of the devil to lead us and others away from God. May we ever seek to be holy as He is holy, drawing others into His fold.

God bless.

Huanchaco, Peru, Jan 20, 2018 -


In a homily Saturday, Pope Francis spoke about the natural disasters Peru experienced over the last year, praising the way in which Peruvians joined together to help one another during these difficult moments.

“I know that, in the time of darkness, when you felt the brunt of the [storm], these lands kept moving forward,” the Pope said during Mass near Trujillo, Peru Jan. 20.

Like the five wise virgins in the parable in the day's Gospel, the people of Peru were prepared with “the oil needed to go out to help one another like true brothers and sisters,” he continued. “You had the oil of solidarity and generosity that stirred you to action, and you went out to meet the Lord with countless concrete gestures of support.”

The Mass, which took place in Huanchaco, a beach town outside the city of Trujillo, was part of Pope Francis’ Jan. 18-21 visit to Peru.

In his homily he referred to the “Niño,” or “Coastal El Niño,” the name given to a weather phenomenon off the coast of Peru and Ecuador, which began in December 2016.

The pattern caused warmer-than-usual water temperatures off the coasts of the two countries, which in turn triggered heavy rainfalls in the mountains.

The excess run-off from the rains caused severe flooding and mudslides, devastating parts of Peru, particularly in the north. Trujillo, Peru’s third most populated city, was one of the worst hit after a period of heavy rains last March caused mudslides and flooding directly affecting around 800,000 people and killing almost 100.

Francis encouraged Peruvians not to lose heart during these times of trials, but to use this Eucharistic celebration as an opportunity to unite their suffering to Christ’s suffering on the cross.

“These times of being ‘buffeted,’” he said, “call into question and challenge our strength of spirit and our deepest convictions. They make us realize how important it is to stand united, not alone, and to be filled with that unity which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.”

Many people are still suffering from the damage caused by “Coastal El Niño,” the Pope noted. And it’s possible these difficulties have caused their faith to waver.

If this is the case, “we want to unite ourselves to Jesus,” he said, because “[Jesus] knows our pain and our trials; he endured the greatest of sufferings in order to accompany us in our own trials. The crucified Jesus wants to be close to us in every painful situation, to give us a hand and to help lift us up.”

Like the story of the ten virgins in the Gospel reading, who were surprised by the bridegroom’s arrival in the middle of the night, the storms of life – both the physical storms as well as other difficulties – can catch us off-guard.

In the passage, we learn that five of the virgins were prepared with oil for their lamps and five were not. “At the appointed time, each of them showed what they had filled their life with,” Francis noted, and “the same thing happens to us.”





“There are times when we realize what we have filled our lives with. How important it is to fill our lives with the oil that lets us light our lamps in situations of darkness and to find the paths to move forward!”

He commended the Peruvians for being well-prepared with the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that “in the midst of darkness, you, together with so many others, were like living candles that lighted up the path with open hands, ready to help soothe the pain and share what you had, from your poverty, with others.”

“Fill your lives always with the Gospel,” he concluded. “I want to encourage you to be a community that lets itself be anointed by the Lord with the oil of the Spirit. He transforms, renews and strengthens everything.”

Usa - 1 Fevrier 2018
Matt Walsh blog-


''Satan’s tactic for Christian America''


I was recently invited to attend and give a reflection at a prayer vigil for persecuted Christians, hosted by a church in Maryland. The church was hoping that 150 congregants would come. They got about three.

To be fair, there was some bad weather that afternoon. And it was on a Friday night, when most people would rather be relaxing on the couch or going out to a nice dinner with their spouse. There are a million reasons — a few of them even legitimate — why you might not show up to something like this. But it was sad, all the same, to see the bare pews, and to hear a couple of speakers deliver beautiful and impassioned pleas to an empty church. At the end they collected donations for a Christian school in Iraq, but nobody was there to give anything.

Before the vigil, I remember saying to my wife that every church in the country ought to do something like this at least once a month. Now I know why they don’t.

I reflected on this when I read a report that Christian persecution and genocide is worse now than it has ever been in history. Christians in Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, North Korea, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Egypt, and many other countries, are regularly imprisoned, tortured, beaten, raped, and martyred. Their churches are destroyed. Their houses burned. They meet and worship in secret, risking their lives in the process. They live every moment in constant danger.

About 215 million Christians face what is called “extreme persecution” for their faith. It’s estimated that around a million have been slaughtered since 2005. There is no way to know exactly how many. What we do know is that Christianity has been dramatically reduced in parts of the world where it had existed for nearly 2,000 years.





Tradition tells us that St. Mark brought Christianity to Egypt in the early part of the first century. Today, the seed he planted has been ripped up. Two churches in the country were attacked and 44 Christians massacred on Palm Sunday last year. In the same year, 28 Christian pilgrims were martyred while en route to a monastery. This sort of thing is a regular occurrence in Egypt and in several other nations across the globe.

But what do we care?

There are other things to worry about here. Hollywood sex scandals. Twitter disputes. Whatever controversial thing Trump said this week. So on and so on. We — myself included — spend far more time, and spill far more ink, on these issues than we ever have on the coordinated genocide of our fellow believers in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Why?

I have come to believe that our disinterest stems not only from the general apathy that defines western society and the western church, but from moral cowardice. To face the plight of our brothers and sisters is to face ourselves. To see these Christians who would rather be shot dead in the desert than renounce their faith is to see our own faith as a shabby, pitiful, hollow imitation. To see Christians who would risk their very lives to go to church and preach the Gospel is to question why we will do neither of those things, even though we are perfectly free and able. We cannot confront these truths of ourselves, so we will not confront the truth of Christian persecution.

Christians in the East forfeit their lives rather than forfeit their souls, and we forfeit our souls even though we could quite easily retain both. The Church overseas has been under violent assault, yet the enemies of Christ have not won. They have diminished the Church in numbers by killing its members, but it is strong and resilient where it still stands. Our situation is exactly the reverse.

We have submitted to the forces of darkness. We have bent our knees in homage to Satan, and the enemies of the faith haven’t even fired a shot to induce our surrender. Satan does not beat us with a stick; he dangles a carrot. He lulls us to sleep. He distracts us. He tempts us. Kill us? Why would he do that? We are no threat to him. A Christian in Afghanistan is a threat. He must be destroyed. It's the only way. But a lazy, soft, equivocating Christian in the West? There is no need to persecute him. He is not worthy of it. Just give him a television and the internet and let him damn himself.

Satan’s legions in America — to include his agents within the church, of which there are many — have figured out the secret. Don’t put a gun to their heads and tell them to stop being Christian. Instead, just give them something else to do. Whatever you do, never make them afraid, because if you do that you may accidentally awaken their courage. And then your plan is in trouble.

Indeed, if your persecution produces a bunch of passionate, courageous Christians, you better go and execute every last one of them. Leave even one alive, let even one slip through the cracks, and you’re doomed. A Christian like that — one who cannot be shamed into silence, cannot be intimidated, cannot be made to conform, cannot be controlled by Earthly forces — is powerful beyond all imagining. All you can do with him is kill him. He’s too dangerous. Your tricks won’t work on him. He has the grace of God and you have nothing better to offer him.

From the Devil's perspective, this is not ideal. Murdering such a Christian means sending him straight to Heaven, which is why the mass slaughter of Christians is a bittersweet sight in Hell. On one hand, the demons enjoy such immense suffering. On the other, they are losing souls forever into the arms of the Almighty. Satan surely prefers the situation here in the West. We believe we are blessed to be free from the trials inflicted upon our brothers and sisters, but he knows better. We kick back and relax in our false sense of security while he licks his lips and prepares to feast upon us.

He knows that we have become numb in our comforts. Our faith is stagnant and stale. We don't cling desperately to God. We cling to other things: our jobs, our relationships, our ambitions, our friends, our hobbies, our phones, our pets. We don't even think of Him most of the time. We make no attempt to conform our lives to His commandments or to walk the narrow path that Christ forged for us. We are too busy for all that, we say, and it's inconvenient. Christ says, "Pick up your cross and follow," but we take this as an optional suggestion. We leave our crosses on the side of the road and head back inside where it's warm and there's a new Netflix show to binge. We tell ourselves that we'll be fine in the end because we are decent people, and we are leading normal lives, and, sure, we believe in Jesus or whatever.

And Satan laughs.

He does not want us to be jolted out of this stupor, and he has no doubt instructed his legions accordingly. The persecutors of the church in America have quite an easy job. For them, the strategy is clear: Put down the gun. Drop the machete. Don't scare these people. Don't make martyrs of them. Don't give them any hint that there is a war going on and the fate of their souls lies in the balance. Let them be arrogant and self-assured. Let them push out any thought of their own mortality. Let them dismiss everything I'm saying right now as "pessimistic" and "negative." Let them enjoy themselves. Let them have their spiritual indifference and let them dress it up as "positivity" and "hopefulness." Let them have it all. Fluff their pillow for them, even. Turn on the TV and hand them the remote. Feed them. Pamper them. Pleasure them. Give them everything their hearts desire. Don’t appeal to their fear; appeal to their lust, their laziness, their gluttony, their vanity, their pride, their boredom.

And watch them drop like flies.

Israel- Fevrier 2018


Young Jews and Bedouin Plant Hope Together



“When Jewish and Bedouin children plant together, it proves that we can have a good future of peace between us all.” - Ibrahim Ziadna, aged 12, from Rahat

During the week of Tu BiShvat some 2,000 young Jews and Bedouin planted around 1,000 saplings in Mishmar HaNegev Forest, which was dubbed The Forest of Hope in honor of the event. JNF Canada has adopted Mishmar HaNegev Forest, and it supported the planting initiative all the way from the land-preparation stage to the event itself and the tree aftercare. The ceremony was attended by senior officials from Israel’s Ministry of Education, by residents of local communities and by KKL-JNF staff members.

“You are our hope for good neighborly relations and for conserving the unique character of each one of us,” Simon Elbaz, Deputy Director of KKL-JNF’s Education Division, told the youngsters. “Could anything be more unifying than planting a tree in the soil of the Land of Israel, where we all live together?”

JNF Canada, which has adopted Mishmar HaNegev Forest, supported the planting all the way from preparation of the ground to the planting stage and subsequent care of the trees. The planting activities reached their climax precisely on Tu BiShvat with the participation of hundreds of schoolchildren from all over the Negev, including the Bedouin communities of Rahat, Lakiya and Tarabin and the Jewish cities of Ashkelon, Ashdod and Netivot.

This planting ceremony was the high point of the Planting Israeli Hope initiative organized jointly by Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund and Israel’s Ministry of Education, in which different groups from the Negev met up for Tu BiShvat planting events. The project was designed to present the broad spectrum of Israeli society, strengthen the connection between the various different population groups, to help them to get to know one another better, promote tolerance and shared living, and deepen their sense of solidarity and national pride.

“Planting trees gives you a good feeling, because trees give life to people and their surroundings,” explained 12-year-old Ibrahim Ziadna, a seventh-grade student at Rahat’s Al-Razi School. “When Jewish and Bedouin children plant together, it proves that we can have a good future of peace between us all.” As Ibrahim plunged his hands into the soil to plant his sapling, he was glad to feel that the ground was damp. “It’s great to see that a lot of rain has fallen, and that’s a hopeful sign, too,” he concluded.



Rahat’s Al-Razi School and Ashkelon’s Comprehensive School 4 are both taking part in an educational initiative for partnership and cooperation in which pupils and teaching staff hold a variety of meetings and shared activities, and on this occasion the youngsters planted trees together.

“We believe in living in partnership in the Negev and throughout the country,” said Sheli Zorovsky of Ashkelon Comprehensive 4. “Today, together, we planted a hope for a shared life in our country.”

Planting in Mishmar HaNegev Forest began in the 1980s, and today this woodland extends over an area of around 17,000 dunam (approx. 4,250 acres). The schoolchildren planted a variety of fruit trees, including fig, carob and mulberry, inside limans, i.e., small pools dug into the gullies to allow water to collect and enable full advantage to be taken of every precious drop of rain that falls in this arid desert region.

“Together we all have to plant and build,” said Musaleh Abu Asa, CEO of Al-Kasum Regional Council. “These schoolchildren are our future.”
Nasser Shibli, principal of the Tarabin Primary School, made an emotional appeal to KKL-JNF staff: “Please keep on making the Negev green!”

KKL-JNF’s Southern Region Education Director Hagit Ohana and Itzik Ross, who heads the Ministry of Education’s Shelach (a Hebrew acronym for “Field Study, Nation and Education”) program in southern Israel, presided over the ceremony. “Our generation’s task is to continue to plant, to strengthen Israeli society and to invest in education, especially in the Negev and elsewhere in the periphery,” said Hagit Ohana. Jewish and Bedouin students read poems together in Hebrew and Arabic, in celebration of the trees.

Eli Sheetrit, Director of Youth and Society in the Southern Region for the Ministry of Education, represented the ministry at the event. “Learning to live together in a society that raises the flag of tolerance and peace is the vision we all share,” he said.

The day’s events concluded with dialogue circles in which the students discussed nature, the environment and coexistence. “Nature can unite us all, Jews and Bedouin alike,” concluded 16-year-old Yiska Haddad of Netivot. Her friend Adi Haniya agreed: “Today’s activities are proof that we can communicate with one another, and they teach us how good and right it is for us to live here together.”

Stockholm, Suede - 5 Mars 2018 -


Swedish church outraged as nude club opens down the road


A church in central Stockholm, Sweden has expressed outrage after a nude night club opened up down the road.

Klubb Naket encourages guests to 'come naked, come as you are', and if guests leave all their clothes in the cloak room, entry is free.

The concept has upset a church located just a few hundred yards down the road, with the church pastor declaring the pro-nudity event 'a hotbed of depression'.

Klubb Naket's organisers describe their weekly club event as 'an electronic club aimed at the queer and fetish community where openness and sexual freedom is part of our manifesto.

'It is a plus if you come naked - if you take your clothes off in the cloak room = free entry.


'At Klubb Naket there are dark corners and hideaways - or 'make out rooms' as we call them - where you and your friends can do what you feel like there and then...

'We serve up the best music for you, you feel at home and let what happens happens. Come naked. Come as you are. Do what you want. It all stays here. '

Klubb Naket's manager David Cakir told local newspapers that Saturday's launch night had been 'a full house, around 400 people'.

'There was a nice level of nudity over all, but clearly it got more and more naked the later the hour. It got pretty hot in there as well,' Mr Cakir told StockholmDirekt with a laugh.



However, the nearby Sodermalmskyrkan were not as pleased with the sell-out success of the nude night club on their doorstep.

‘What is happening now on Sodermalm can have serious consequences, the club becomes a hotbed of depression and humans having their souls broken down,' Pastor Lennart Torebring told the website.

'Everyone knows children need boundaries, doing what you want is not good for you. We don't need less boundaries just because we get older.'

Representatives for Klubb Naket said security and 'safe zone guards' circulate the club throughout the evening, adding that they actively work to prevent sexism, and have a 'zero tolerance' policy against racism and harassment.

Italie - Vatican, 1 april


Power of love renew the world



Easter makes it clear that in the life of Jesus, but also in the lives of modern men and women, “death, solitude and fear” do not have the last word, Pope Francis said before giving his Easter blessing.

“The words heard by the women at the tomb are also addressed to us: ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen,'” the pope said as he prepared April 1 to give his Easter blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world).

“By the power of God’s love,” Jesus’ victory over death “dispels wickedness, washes faults away, restores innocence to the fallen and joy to mourners, drives out hatred, fosters concord and brings down the mighty,” the pope said, quoting the formal Easter proclamation.

Standing on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica after having celebrated a morning Mass in the square, Pope Francis focused on how Jesus foretold his death and resurrection using the image of the grain of wheat, which bears no fruit unless it is put into the ground.

“This is precisely what happened: Jesus, the grain of wheat sowed by God in the furrows of the earth, died, killed by the sin of the world,” the pope said. “He remained two days in the tomb; but his death contained God’s love in all its power, released and made manifest on the third day, the day we celebrate today: the Easter of Christ the Lord.”

After a stormy Holy Saturday with rain beating down throughout the night, Easter morning dawned bright and sunny at the Vatican, highlighting the thousands of flowers, trees and bushes donated by flower growers in the Netherlands.

The garden created on the steps of St. Peter’s Square included 20,000 tulips in yellow, red, pink, white and orange. Some 13,500 daffodils and more than 3,500 roses also were part of the scene, but the flower-growers association drew special attention to close to 1,000 cymbidium, also known as boat orchids. The orchids closest to the altar were green, the color of hope. Others were yellow, speckled with red, reminiscent of drops of Christ’s blood, according to the press release from the flower growers.

Pope Francis gave a brief homily during the Mass, speaking without a prepared text about how God’s actions throughout history to save his people have been acts that surprised them, touched their hearts and prompted them to rush to share the news with others.

“The women who had gone to anoint the Lord’s body found themselves before a surprise” when they reached the empty tomb, he said. “God’s announcements are always a surprise, because our God is a God of surprises.”

That surprise caused the women to rush back to the other disciples to share the news, he said, just like the shepherds rushed when they heard the angels announce Jesus’ birth and like Peter and John ran to tell others when they found the teacher and master they had been seeking.

“Those people left what they were doing; housewives left their potatoes in the pan — they would find them burned later — but what is important is to go, run to see the surprise” that was announced, Pope Francis said.

On Easter, he said, Christians should ask themselves if they have hearts open to being surprised by God and if they feel a need to rush to share with others the good news of God’s saving acts.





After the Mass and after greeting each of the cardinals and many of the bishops and monsignors present near the altar, Pope Francis climbed into the popemobile for a quick trip around St. Peter’s Square and part of the way down the main boulevard leading to the square. He then went up to the balcony to give his formal Easter blessing.

In his remarks to the tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis insisted Jesus’ power over death continues today and can bring peace to the world’s most serious situations of conflict, including in Syria, the Holy Land, Yemen, Congo, South Sudan, Ukraine, the Korean peninsula and Venezuela.

“We Christians believe and know that Christ’s resurrection is the true hope of the world, the hope that does not disappoint,” the pope said. “It is the power of the grain of wheat, the power of that love which humbles itself and gives itself to the very end, and thus truly renews the world.”

In all the “furrows of our history, marked by so many acts of injustice and violence,” he said, the power of the Resurrection and the acts it inspires in believers “bears fruits of hope and dignity where there are deprivation and exclusion, hunger and unemployment, where there are migrants and refugees — so often rejected by today’s culture of waste — and victims of the drug trade, human trafficking and contemporary forms of slavery.”

Pope Francis included special prayers for “those children who, as a result of wars and hunger, grow up without hope, lacking education and health care; and to those elderly persons who are cast off by a selfish culture that ostracizes those who are not ‘productive.'”

Montreal, Canada - May 18, 2018


Ramadan in Montreal can be a time to build bridges:


Cutting up fresh fruit every evening, rolling spring rolls with my Mom, stuffing samosas and setting the table for the breaking of the fast — those are some of my beautiful childhood memories of Ramadan. The holiest month of the Islamic calendar began this week. It is a month when observant Muslims refrain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset.

It can be physically fatiguing to fast for nearly 17 hours a day, as is the case for Canadian Muslims when the holiday falls at this time of year. It is, however, spiritually uplifting and invigorating.

As a child, I remember being woken up before the crack of dawn to the scent of fresh roti being made in the kitchen. We’d sleepily wander over to the kitchen table and eat and drink mostly in silence, fuelling our bodies for the day. The days were much shorter then. Fasting in the winter months mostly just meant not eating or drinking while at school. As the lunar calendar moves forward by 10 days every year, the days have gotten hotter and are longer now.

My kids ask to fast, but it’s not necessary for them to do so, as they’re still young. The same goes for anyone who is pregnant, nursing, travelling, elderly or sick.

Every family celebrates Ramadan differently, with different foods, drinks and traditions. In our home, we love to take advantage of the warm weather for an Iftarbecue (combining our breaking of the fast meal, Iftar, with a barbecue). It’s an excellent opportunity to get together with friends and family, invite over neighbours, and all eat together.

It seems that on a more formal level, Ramadan in Montreal is also being seen as a fitting occasion for interfaith dialogue initiatives, which happily appear to be proliferating. There are Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups participating in events that bring different communities together for breaking of the fast activities across the city this year.





Ramadan is an essential time for giving charity, as well. This can mean making donations, participating in food drives, helping the homeless. I remember volunteering in the kitchen of Sabariah Hussein during my days at Concordia University. I didn’t know how to cook very much back then, but I have vivid memories of her putting the dozens of volunteers to work. We’d peel potatoes, chop vegetables and stir industrial-sized pots and pans while she’d walk around making sure the hundreds of meals she prepared every day were ready for university students, the homeless, people who attended soup kitchens at local churches and anyone else she heard needed a warm meal. It was who she was and how she operated. It didn’t matter what you looked like, what you believed, where you came from or why you were there, she fed everyone indiscriminately.

Nearly 15 years later, many things have changed, but the work of Sister Sabria (as she is commonly known) has remained the same. From her apartment kitchen, she has served more than 650,000 meals and has raised over $1.1 million for humanitarian causes. The food she makes is incredible, and the love with which it is made is palpable.

She has just received the Order of Montreal. She is also to be honoured Sunday at an event at St. George’s Anglican Church. As one of the thousands of people who have met and worked with Sister Sabria, I would be hard-pressed to think of anyone more deserving. Her passion for feeding others, giving of herself and building bridges between people through food have been an inspiration to me my entire adult life.

While the tummies of Montreal’s Muslim community may be empty over the next month, our spirits are fuelled by celebrating our differences, honouring one another and working with our neighbours to build bridges of understanding and acceptance.


Fariha Naqvi-Mohamed

America , 14 Aout 2018


Politics Is the Religion of the Devil


Sometimes your humble servant says that politics is the religion of Satan. That’s hyperbole, of course. But hyperbole, properly administered, should jar the hearer or reader to an underlying sober reality.

Our Lord is the greatest hyperbolist of all, telling us such things as: “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.” (Matthew 5:29-30)



What this means, of course, is that nothing, even the things that we hold most dear, should stand in the way of obtaining salvation. But Jesus’s way of putting it drives the point home with far more impact than the mere recitation of that truth.

Of course, my poor offering pales in comparison with our Lord’s pithy wit. And for that reason it might not be entirely clear what I’m trying to convey by it. That means I have to explain it, and this I will now endeavor to do.

What I mean when I say that politics is the religion of Satan is that it causes people to behave badly. At the top of the list is war, of course. People often accuse religion of causing wars, but we have seen how when politics and religion are separated, religion becomes rather non-threatening whereas politics continues with the bloodshed apace. The United States can’t seem to stop fighting wars, although it has a Constitutional provision keeping religion out of its government. Meanwhile, the Methodists and Unitarians manage to stay fairly non-threatening. It turns out that religion is violent only when it is co-opted by politics, and it is politics that is the actual culprit.

Now the reason why politics makes people behave badly is that politics is, at bottom, about allocation of resources. That’s why interest groups try to funnel money to politicians, so that politicians will reward such efforts with legislation that will assist those interest groups in gaining control of resources. And gaining control of resources is approached as a zero-sum game. Some interests succeed in getting control of resources, and others get screwed. Those who succeed in getting control of resources are call the “rich.” Those who get screwed are called the “poor.” The rich are able to redirect the resources they have gained back to the politicians, who reward them with yet more resources. The poor have no resources to donate, and thus continue to get screwed.

Enter the Catholic Church.

The Church is not, contrary to the fond wishes of some, supposed to stay out of politics. On the contrary, the Church’s mission in politics is to provide as much weight as is possible on the side of the poor, without losing sight of the fact that the rich are also created in the image of God. The position of the Church is basically this: Stop screwing people, whether they be unborn infants, working people, the impoverished, children, women, racial minorities, or immigrants; treat others as you would like to be treated; treat every human being as an end in himself or herself, even those who don’t conform to Catholic morality.

Politics can’t imagine such a thing. With politics, somebody has to get screwed; and that is why, with politics, somebody has always gotten screwed. It’s not surprising, therefore, that political argumentation tends to be so vituperative and irrational. People are arguing over who is going to control resources, and who is going to get screwed.


Catholics are, or ought to be, out of place in discussions of this kind. Our proper posture toward it all is to try to slay the monster insisting that someone get screwed. Unfortunately, we too often get swallowed by the monster instead. The result is that the world gets treated to the spectacle of Catholics arguing over whose political party is more Catholic, with the side effect of us minimizing the decidedly un-Catholic positions of our parties. And these arguments contain no less venom than those involving people who come from a purely secular perspective.

That interferes with evangelization, of course. Someone witnessing exchanges of this kind are justified in saying, “Who wants to belong to a religion like that?” And, yes, we should be concerned about that. It is of paramount importance.




But there’s no ambiguity about what we should be doing. We are supposed to be the “salt of the earth,” the “light of the world.” What that means in this context is that we should be trying to transform the parties wherein we find ourselves into parties that seek the good of all, instead of letting the parties transform us. Democrat or Republican, we should all be seeking an end to the harm done to flesh and blood human beings by politics. We should be working to abolish the notion of acceptable casualties. And in discussing these issues with each other we should be following the admonition of St. Paul:

“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.

“So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.” (Ephesians 4:30-5:2)

Nothing more need be said on that point.

ici 10 Janvier 2019 ,


foietreligion.forumactif.com 2.0


Le site etait devenu inactif , due principalement a certaines activites extraprofessionelle, il redevient actif des ce mois ci. ;)

Bonne année et meilleurs voeux.

Jerusalem , January 2019 .


'' a Cure for Cancer ''





A small team of Israeli scientists think they might have found the first complete cure for cancer.

“We believe we will offer in a year’s time a complete cure for cancer,” said Dan Aridor, of a new treatment being developed by his company, Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd. (AEBi), which was founded in 2000 in the ITEK incubator in the Weizmann Science Park. AEBi developed the SoAP platform, which provides functional leads to very difficult targets.


“Our cancer cure will be effective from day one, will last a duration of a few weeks and will have no or minimal side-effects at a much lower cost than most other treatments on the market,” Aridor said. “Our solution will be both generic and personal.”


It sounds fantastical, especially considering that an estimated 18.1 million new cancer cases are diagnosed worldwide each year, according to reports by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Further, every sixth death in the world is due to cancer, making it the second leading cause of death (second only to cardiovascular disease).

Aridor, chairman of the board of AEBi and CEO Dr. Ilan Morad, say their treatment, which they call MuTaTo (multi-target toxin) is essentially on the scale of a cancer antibiotic – a disruption technology of the highest order.

The potentially game-changing anti-cancer drug is based on SoAP technology, which belongs to the phage display group of technologies. It involves the introduction of DNA coding for a protein, such as an antibody, into a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria. That protein is then displayed on the surface of the phage. Researchers can use these protein-displaying phages to screen for interactions with other proteins, DNA sequences and small molecules.

In 2018, a team of scientists won the Nobel Prize for their work on phage display in the directed evolution of new proteins – in particular, for the production of antibody therapeutics.

AEBi is doing something similar but with peptides, compounds of two or more amino acids linked in a chain. According to Morad, peptides have several advantages over antibodies, including that they are smaller, cheaper, and easier to produce and regulate.

When the company first started, Morad said, “We were doing what everyone else was doing, trying to discover individual novel peptides for specific cancers.” But shortly thereafter, Morad and his colleague, Dr. Hanan Itzhaki, decided they wanted to do something bigger.

To get started, Morad said they had to identify why other cancer-killing drugs and treatments don’t work or eventually fail. Then, they found a way to counter that effect.

For starters, most anti-cancer drugs attack a specific target on or in the cancer cell, he explained. Inhibiting the target usually affects a physiological pathway that promotes cancer. Mutations in the targets – or downstream in their physiological pathways – could make the targets not relevant to the cancer nature of the cell, and hence the drug attacking it is rendered ineffective.

In contrast, MuTaTo is using a combination of several cancer-targeting peptides for each cancer cell at the same time, combined with a strong peptide toxin that would kill cancer cells specifically. By using at least three targeting peptides on the same structure with a strong toxin, Morad said, “we made sure that the treatment will not be affected by mutations; cancer cells can mutate in such a way that targeted receptors are dropped by the cancer.”





“The probability of having multiple mutations that would modify all targeted receptors simultaneously decreases dramatically with the number of targets used,” Morad continued. “Instead of attacking receptors one at a time, we attack receptors three at a time – not even cancer can mutate three receptors at the same time.”

Furthermore, many cancer cells activate detoxification mechanisms when in stress from drugs. The cells pump out the drugs or modify them to be non-functional. But Morad said detoxification takes time. When the toxin is strong, it has a high probability of killing the cancer cell before detoxification occurs, which is what he is banking on.


Many cytotoxic anticancer treatments aim at fast-growing cells. But cancer stem cells are not fast growing, and they can escape these treatments. Then, when the treatment is over, they can generate cancer again.

“If it does not completely annihilate the cancer, the remaining cells can start to get mutations again, and then the cancer comes back, but this time it is drug resistant,” Morad said.

He explained that because cancer cells are born out of mutations that occur in cancer stem cells, most of the overexpressed proteins which are targeted on the cancer cell exist in the cancer stem cells. MuTaTo’s multiple-target attack ensures that they will be destroyed as well.

Finally, some cancer tumors erect shields which create access problems to large molecules, such as antibodies. MuTaTo acts like an octopus or a piece of spaghetti and can sneak into places where other large molecules cannot reach. Morad said the peptide parts of MuTaTo are very small (12 amino acids long) and lack a rigid structure.

“This should make the whole molecule non-immunogenic in most cases and would enable repeated administration of the drug,” he said.

Morad said their discovery could also reduce the sickening side-effects of most cancer treatments, which stem from drug treatments interacting with the wrong or additional targets, or the correct targets but on non-cancerous cells. He said MuTaTo’s having a combination of several highly specific cancer-targeting peptides on one scaffold for each type of cancer cell would increase the specificity to the cancer cell due to the avidity effect. In addition, in most cases, the non-cancer cells that have a protein in common with the cancer cells do not overexpress it.

“This makes a great difference between the two kinds of cells and should decrease the side effects dramatically,” Morad said.

He equated the concept of MuTaTo to the triple drug cocktail that has helped change AIDS from being an automatic death sentence to a chronic – but often manageable – disease.

Today, AIDS patients take protease inhibitors in combination with two other drugs called reverse transcriptase inhibitors. The drug combination disrupts HIV at different stages in its replication, restrains an enzyme crucial to an early stage of HIV duplication and holds back another enzyme that functions near the end of the HIV replication process.

“We used to give AIDS patients several drugs, but we would administer them one at a time,” Morad explained. “During the course of treatment, the virus mutated, and the AIDS started attacking again. Only when patients started using a cocktail, were they able to stop the disease.”

Now, he said, people with AIDS are HIV carriers, but they are not sick anymore.

The MuTaTo cancer treatment will eventually be personalized. Each patient will provide a piece of his biopsy to the lab, which would then analyze it to know which receptors are overexpressed. The individual would then be administered exactly the molecule cocktail needed to cure his disease.
However, unlike in the case of AIDS, where patients must take the cocktail throughout their lives, in the case of MuTaTo, the cells would be killed, and the patient could likely stop treatment after only a few weeks.

The company is now writing patents on specific peptides, which will be a large bank of targeting toxin peptides wholly owned and hard to break, said Aridor.

Morad said that so far, the company has concluded its first exploratory mice experiment, which inhibited human cancer cell growth and had no effect at all on healthy mice cells, in addition to several in-vitro trials. AEBi is on the cusp of beginning a round of clinical trials which could be completed within a few years and would make the treatment available in specific cases.
Aridor added: “Our results are consistent and repeatable.”

Kyoto, Japan . March 2019


Rise of the Machines: Ancient Japanese Shrine Debuts Buddhist Robot


Kyoto, Japan’s ancient former capital, is home to temples, shrines, and imperial gardens. As the birthplace of Japanese tradition, the city attracts some 53 million tourists every year.

Recently, the famed 400-year old Kodaiji Temple in Kyoto unveiled a modern makeover. The world’s first sutra-chanting android deity, modelled after Kannon the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, was introduced to the public last week. Kannon is worshiped by thousands of temples in Japan as a deity who helps people in distress; now the country’s fascination with robotics has made its way into that worship.





Kodaiji Temple Administrator Tensho Goto wanted to spread the word of Buddhism to a younger generation losing touch with the tradition. He enlisted the help of pioneer Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, head of intelligent robotics at Osaka University, who has made a name for himself in robotic research on the world stage.


The resulting android version of Kannon, named “Mindar,” stands on a pedestal at 195 centimeters tall (6 feet, 4 inches), weighs 60 kilograms, and is made with silicon and aluminum. Like many of Ishiguro’s popular telenoid robots, Mindar takes a gender-neutral human form. The appearance is kept to a bare minimum — almost like a naked robot. But as an android embodying the Goddess of Mercy, Mindar had special features designed to evoke both feminine and masculine qualities. With an open head of exposed aluminum wires and a mechanical lower half, Mindar might not be how some would picture a robotic Kannon. However, the plain facial features give room for visitors to use their own imagination in how they’d like the deity to appear.


Kohei Ogawa is Associate Professor of Intelligent Robotics at the University of Osaka and worked on the inception of Mindar with Ishiguro. He says the images of deities that we see from relics and statues today have been set in stone by the imagination of different generations of monks in the past. But a new generation of monks sees robotics as a way to diversify how people see and worship these household deities.

“Everything depends on the person who is watching the robot,” Ogawa explains. “If someone wants to treat the android as a man, there will be some elements that represent a male form and vice versa.”





Ogawa says an android deity isn’t a normal experience for the Japanese and is still an alien concept. But Japanese people don’t carry stereotypical thinking when it comes to robots and don’t hold any prejudices. “They just think ‘oh, what’s happened here’ and then just accept it,” he laughs.

The unique joint collaboration cost a cool 100 million yen ($909,090). Ogawa says not everyone high up within the Kodaiji Temple ranks approves of the latest technology. Nonetheless, monks gathered at the opening ceremony to introduce android Kannon to the media with a traditional ceremony of chanting, bowing, drumming, and the ringing of bells.

To imitate a “natural” dialogue Mindar can move its eyes, hands, and torso, make human-like gestures during its speech, and bring its hands together in prayer. A camera implanted in the left eye to focus on a subject gives the impression of eye contact.

Mindar’s 25 minute pre-programmed sermon is based on the deeply philosophical religious text called the Heart Sutra, which is well known in Japan and Asia. But Ogawa says the meaning behind the important text is barely understood by anyone; even monks merely chant and recite the sutra without engaging in its contents. “Monks don’t discuss the true meaning of the Heart Sutra to worshippers; they just read it like poetry,” he says. “But this doesn’t work. The monks are like robots.”

The project has adopted for the first time an interactive 3D projection mapping, where visitors in the room are projected in 3D through an omnidirectional projector. On the wall behind Mindar, a projected pre-programmed person asks the android questions about the Heart Sutra text. Mindar answers in simple and plain Japanese, with English and Chinese subtitles displayed on the wall.

The “Kannon android can convey very complicated messages to visitors, which makes it easier for them to listen to the message,” Ogawa explains. “Visitors feel as if the robot and the person projected on the screen are making a real-time interaction.”

“The Heart Sutra should encourage people to solve problems on their own and give people the opportunity to think about what the problem is. We can give visitors the chance to start reflecting on themselves,” he adds

Mindar is not open to the public until March 8. The android is being displayed on a trial run until May, when Ogawa will analyze data to tweak any necessary updates. Already there are ambitions to enhance Mindar to be able to respond to visitors’ questions and diverse personal problems.

April 2019 - U.S.A


The Satanic Temple is a real religion, says the IRS.


The Satanic Temple has been officially recognized as a church by the Internal Revenue Service, three months after taking Sundance by storm as the subject of the documentary “Hail Satan?” According to an announcement from “Hail Satan?” distributor Magnolia Pictures, the temple is now eligible for the tax-exempt status given to other religious institutions.

The latest documentary by Penny Lane, “Hail Satan?” follows the history of the Satanic Temple and its colorful protests in the name of religious freedom and separation of church and state, including a push to have a Baphomet statue placed on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol next to a proposed statue of The Ten Commandments.

“In light of theocratic assaults upon the Separation of Church and State in the legislative efforts to establish a codified place of privilege for one religious viewpoint, we feel that accepting religious tax-exemption — rather than renouncing it in protest — can help us to better assert our claims to equal access and exemption while laying to rest any suspicion that we don’t meet the qualifications of a true religious organization,” said Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves in a statement. “Satanism is here to stay.”



A statement on the temple’s web site said that the organization had recently received notice from the IRS affirming its status.

A spokesperson for the IRS was unable to confirm the recognition to TheWrap, citing regulations.

For years, The Satanic Temple vocally opposed tax exemption for religious institutions; but Greaves said its stance changed after Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring the Department of the Treasury to not take any “adverse action” against religious institutions, including tax penalties and denying them tax-exempt status.

“It appears that now is a time in which a more principled stand is to meet our opponent on equal footing, so to as balance, as best we can, what has been a frighteningly asymmetrical battle,” wrote Greaves in May 2017.

“With the religio-political landscape suddenly so grotesquely deformed from what we previously recognized, it seems reasonable that non-believers should adjust their language accordingly, and insist that atheistic and secular non-profits, advancing a distinct religious opinion and/or opinion upon religion, are themselves rightful beneficiaries of religious tax exemption as well,” Greaves added.

July 2019 , USA .

Gay Man Finds Jesus, then Marries a Woman


A man who was formerly involved in a homosexual lifestyle has spoken openly of his miraculous conversion. Incredibly, after he found Christ, Brian Wheelock was taken on a miraculous journey of renewal and, eventually, ended up marrying a woman.

Speaking to a crowd at the Freedom March in Washington D.C., Wheelock talked candidly about his former life, declaring that Christ set him free from sexual sin in a profound and powerful way.

“I lived that life for at least ten years, and it was a crazy time in my life,” he said of his former life embroiled in homosexual relationships. “Those feelings were real. I spent a lot of time in relationships and you know what, that’s who I was, it was my identity.”



Speaking with great courage, Wheelock said that he “thought he was free” at the time. Soon, however, he realized that was becoming increasingly depressed and was overcome with a dreadful sense of emptiness.

“The more immersed, and the more I lived that life, to me it was empty, and just began to be a place of depression for me – where I just wasn’t fulfilled,” he said, according to the Christian Institute.

It was only when Brian traveled to the United Kingdom that he was confronted with his need to change. Sinking into a pit of depression and despair, he sought God. “I felt God was telling me ‘Brian, this is not my best for you. Brian, I have better for you,’” Wheelock explained.

Then, Wheelock, who was at the time still involved in homosexual relationships, began to experience vivid dreams about meeting a woman who would at some stage become his wife. Brian recorded the experience in a powerful journal entry:

“Last night I had a dream- a vision from God. I dreamt that I got married (to a girl!) who has a medium build with long brown hair. She was beautiful. Together we had 3 or 4 kids…it was hard to tell. But I could clearly see the oldest. A girl- a beautiful girl- with long brown hair. She was twirling and spinning with flowers in her hair and the biggest smile on her face,” he wrote, according to LifeSite News.

He felt like it was God speaking to him about his sexual orientation.

So, upon returning to the United States and still wildly conflicted, Brian decided to set foot in a church. “I just literally went to a church and just started hearing the word of God, and something about the word of God began to change me from the inside out,” he said.

However, with the self-awareness to know that he was not beyond the perils of temptation, Wheelock then did something absolutely extraordinary – he wrote up a covenant between him and God, promising not to dwell on sinful thoughts. He would sign it twice daily as a reminder that he could win the battle over sin.

While many would criticize this as legalism, Brian was simply following the crucial scripture found in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that instructs us to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Gradually, as he practiced obedience to Jesus, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, something began to shift in his life.

“I didn’t pray in the name of Jesus that he would make me straight,” Wheelock explained. “I prayed I would die to myself and I would become a follower of Jesus Christ. And God is faithful to that.”



After a period of continued healing, Brian went to meet his future wife, Pam. Incredibly, the couple now has three children together and a blessed family life.

“I look at my girls and sometimes cry,” Wheelock said. “If I didn’t yield myself to the Lord and follow His lead, these little munchkins wouldn’t even exist! It overwhelms me to think that an entire generation—my kids, their kids and onward—wouldn’t have even been possible if I didn’t embrace the plan that Jesus was showing me.”

World - August 2019

Muslims worldwide celebrate Eid al-Adha


Millions of Muslims around the world celebrating the Feast of Sacrifice or Eid al Adha, evoking the Quranic account of Prophet Abraham’s trial, in which he was ordered by God to sacrifice his most beloved possession, his son Ishmael.
Abraham, whose name etymologically means the father of nations, would have slaughtered his son following God’s command without question, but in the face of the Prophet’s sheer determination and strength of faith, God swapped Ishmael with a ram and Abraham slaughtered it instead.

Since the Prophet Mohammed’s era, Muslims have marked the incident by sacrificing animals.

After the sacrifice, Muslims share meat with the needy, who might not eat meat often, and their relatives, fulfilling God’s vision of brotherly relations.

They also visit each other to tighten their friendships and to heal old wounds.



(Moro Muslims arrive to perform the Eid-Al-Adha prayer in Bangsamoro, Cotabato, Philippines)



How Islam explains Abraham’s trial

The Quran recounts the incident in a chapter called Saffat (The Aligners).

It first talks of Abraham’s happiness having received a “righteous [son]” but when the boy is of working age, the patriarch receives a vision commanding him to sacrifice his son on God’s orders.

“Now see what is thy view!” Abraham asked the son to which he responds: "O my father! Do as thou art commanded.”

During the run up to the sacrifice, Abraham is tested by Satan who tries to convince him to ignore God’s command by appealing to his ego, that of his wife, and that of his son.

With the help of the angel Gabriel, Abraham forces Satan away by pelting him with stones.

Muslims symbolically reenact the incident during the Hajj pilgrimage by pelting three pillars marking where Satan stood in his encounter with Abraham.



(Muslims gather to perform the Eid al-Adha prayer, led by Grand Mufti of Kyrgyzstan Maksatbek Toktomushev, outside the Prime Ministry building in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)



The ritual known as the ‘Stoning of the Devil’ takes place in the neighbourhood of Mina close to Mecca.

According to Islamic tradition, Abraham brought his second wife, Hagar, and his son Ishmael, to Mecca, near to where the sacrifice was to happen.

There he rebuilt the Kaaba, the central fixture of worship for Muslims, which represents the oneness of God.

Afterwards, Abraham and Ishmael went to Mount Arafat, which is also located close to Mecca, to implement the divine order.

According to the Quran, at Mount Arafat, Abraham “had laid him [Ishmael] prostrate on his forehead [for sacrifice].”



(Muslims greet each others after offering Eid al Adha prayers at Kashmiri Mosque in Kathmandu, Nepal )


But God suddenly intervened, declaring: "Thou hast already fulfilled the vision!"

An animal, which was a ram in the opinion of many Muslim scholars, appeared to replace Ishmael and the sacrifice was fulfilled by slaughtering it, the Quran says.

Abraham’s steadfast stance in implementing God’s wish earned him divine praise, and his emotionally powerful experience is marked today in the Feast of Sacrifice and celebrated by more than 1.8 billion Muslims globally.

“We left [this blessing] for him among generations [to come] in later times: ‘Peace and salutation to Abraham!’” The Quran says about a figure honoured by Muslims, Jews, and Christians.



(Muslims gather to perform the Eid Al Adha prayer at Zagreb Mosque in Croatia )

India , September 2019

'' We are not all the same, and in our difference we are divine ''


I spend a lot of time in interfaith, multicultural and racial justice spaces because I think that bridging divides is a critical issue of our time.

There’s a lot to love in these worlds. I’m especially moved by the spirit and passion of those who work in these worlds and the feeling of being a part of a rich lineage with people I admire.

There’s also much we can improve. I’m a firm believer that there’s always room for improvement: There always has been and there always will be. It’s not an indictment to point out flaws. I mean this in the spirit of growth and progress.

One of the issues I think we can improve is how those of us who care about these efforts think about human difference. It’s not uncommon to hear people in these spaces make the case for this work by simply saying, “We’re all the same.”

I realize people mean well with this truism, and I understand what they’re trying to say. But I don’t think it accomplishes what they want it to.

“We’re all the same” is a problematic outlook because it ignores our differences instead of honoring and celebrating them. For many people, the aspects that distinguish us from our peers are deeply important to us and are an important part of our self-identity.

When someone says, “We’re all the same,” I feel unseen, as if they are looking past the complexities of who I am as a person and my unique life experiences.

Simply ignoring our differences — especially when they are formative to who we are as people — does not give us a deeper appreciation for one another. It just enables us to tolerate one another. To me, that’s not good enough. We need a model that helps us create deeper and more meaningful connections.



(A Sikh family in front of the golden temple)

In the spirit of sharing, I want to offer a window into the unique logic of Sikh wisdom, which I believe offers us a model for thinking about diversity in a way that is substantive and powerful.

Sikhi teaches that people can achieve enlightenment from different religious paths, so long as the approach is grounded in love and oneness.

The Sikh Gurus themselves compiled the Guru Granth Sahib (the Sikh scriptural canon), and in addition to their own writings, they included compositions of spiritually enlightened figures from other religious traditions, including Hinduism and Islam. Sikhs refer to these poet-saints as bhagats and consider them to have been spiritual exemplars.

The idea of pluralism is so deeply embedded within the Sikh psyche that it makes its way into Sikh architecture. Darbar Sahib of Amritsar — also known as the Golden Temple — is the most historically significant site for the Sikh community. Guru Arjan, the fifth Sikh guru, designed the gurdwara, and his design captures the Sikh spirit of pluralism. It has entrances on each of its four different sides, representing that anyone and everyone is welcome. Yet it has a single walkway to the center.

Seeing oneness in diversity is central to Sikh theology. The core idea is that divinity permeates absolutely every aspect of our world. Difference is real and it is to be celebrated — not denigrated — because everything and everyone is a manifestation of divinity.

In a liturgical prayer that Sikhs have been reciting nightly for centuries, Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhi, writes: “There are countless seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months. There is one sun, yet many seasons. O Nanak, the Creator has many forms!”

We break down time into various components. And although each of these components is objectively distinct, all of them are mediated by a single source. The seasons are similar in this regard. In addition to being another way of breaking down time, seasons also offer a more sensory example of how such diversity is connected by the sun.

Similarly, Guru Nanak points out, divinity takes on diverse forms. This is how Sikhi teaches me to see oneness in plurality.

The logic of embracing and celebrating difference as divine seems absent from our world today. The constant portrayal of the self as superior and otherness as inferior has come to plague our society. This is the logic of supremacy. This is the logic that fueled and sustained colonialism.

It’s a logic that continues to cause immense violence in our world today. And until we find and accept an alternative way of viewing the world, we will continue in our cycles of oppression, repression and depression.

Seeing oneness in difference. Connecting through diversity. This, to me, is the way of progress. It’s the only way I know for us to move beyond our supremacies and to begin seeing and treating one another as equals.

Simran Jeet Singh.

Cyprus , October 2019


Court blocks construction of petrol station above church


The administrative court on Thursday cancelled the town planning permit for the construction of a petrol station above the Church ‘Our Lady of the Golden Cave’ in Kato Deftera, vindicating residents who had staged protests against the planned construction.

The bells of the church, which is housed in a cave and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, rang out to announce the good news on Thursday (31).



The priest of the church and others had contested the town planning permit that was issued in 2016 in court. The permit had initially been refused but was later approved after an appeal. When construction work got underway, vibrations from the use of a road roller machine led to soil falling within the cave.

Concerned that the historic cave would collapse, residents and priests staged protests and the issue even went to parliament where MPs urged the construction company to put a halt to the project.

The church is believed to date back to the early Christian period. The shape of this small church inside a cave is very rare in Cyprus.

The decorated walls of the cave have suffered great damage and the frescoes are no longer visible, but a large religious festival is held on August 15, the day of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.

About 10 years ago, support work was carried out by the Antiquities Department, with grants from the Leventis Foundation and the late former president Tassos Papadopoulos.

Canada, Sudbury - November 2019


Look for where God might be leading you


From time to time, I’ve been invited to sing with a Finnish choir, but turn them down again and again. One reason for this is that; to say my command of the Finnish language is poor, would be a vast overstatement of my ability with this language.

Yes, I know a couple of words here and there, my pronunciations of names are now acceptable (or at least recognizable), thanks to the tirelessly dedicated patience shown by the teachers at the Finnish Language School, but I still have very little grasp of what it is to speak Finnish.

Needless to say, it’s not an easy language to pick up. And yet I still received the invitations to sing.

What is pointed out to me time and time again, is that you don’t need to actually know Finnish to sing in Finnish. All you need is some understanding of how each letter is sounded, and just pronounce the words as you see them. There are no silent letters, there are no combinations that sound like something otherworldly and there are few tricky configurations that might throw you off. Just say what you see (or in this case, sing what you see) and you, too, can perform.

One choir is rather proud to have members whose knowledge of Finnish is slightly better than mine, yet they sing admirably. Of course, one may have little or no idea what they are singing about, but with a choir, it is the overall performance that counts and practise improves every performance.

All this gets me thinking about how often we may feel like we don’t belong somewhere because we don’t know enough, or feel we aren’t very capable of learning or accomplishing something.



In those times, when we face what appears to be incredible odds, how often do we face the temptation to just give in? The Bible is filled with stories of people who faced long odds at accomplishing what they set out to do, or major setbacks that would seem to have put their lives to ruin and yet they succeeded in the end. If we feel that we are in a similar situation, we might ask how did they do it?

The common denominator for all those people from the past was their faith in God, that God would pull them through, sometimes through some rather unusual means. This didn’t mean that they just sat back and expected God to just take care of it all for them though. Faith was what gave them their determination to continue onward in spite of the odds against them.

But their journeys weren’t always a straight line either. Sometimes they had to change course, sometimes they had to backtrack, sometimes they had to impatiently wait for the right timing. Their faith gave them a willingness to learn new things, to instigate relationships that otherwise wouldn’t have happened, to seek out answers through prayer, through human conversation, through observation of events around them.

And in the process, they discovered that it was very important to constantly be looking for where God might be leading them. They also discovered that they were capable of more than they might have imagined. An old man became the father of a nation. A shepherd boy became a king. A pregnant teen became the mother of the messiah.

That isn’t to say that it was an easy journey. Following God’s path will mean that we struggle, that things may not come easily to us, or that we have to put plans on hold for a while until the timing is right. While we may struggle with what to do about our future, the stories of faith remind us that it can still be as basic as learning to sing in Finnish.

By Rev. Charles Nolting is based at New Hope Lutheran Church in Sudbury.

Poland, December 2019

''Christmas in Poland ''

In Poland, Advent is the beginning of Christmas Time. It's a time when people try to be peaceful and remember the real reason for Christmas. People try not to have excess of anything. Some people give up their favorite foods or drinks and parties and discos are not widely held. Some people also go to Church quite frequently. There is the tradition of the 'roraty', special masses (or communion services) held at dawn and dedicated to Mary for receiving the good news from the angel Gabriel.

During Advent, people also prepare their houses for Christmas. There's lots of cleaning and people wash their windows and clean their carpets very thoroughly. Everything must be clean for Christmas day!

Before Christmas, children in schools and preschools take part in "Jasełka" (Nativity Plays). They are very popular and often more secular than religious. The Christmas story is also sometime put into modern times.

The smell of tangerines in schools or workplaces is widely thought to mean that Christmas time is about to start!

Poland is a largely catholic country and Christmas Eve is a very important and busy day. It's now often the most important day over Christmas - even though it's not a holiday but Christmas and the 26th December are holidays! Traditionally it was day of fasting and abstinence (not eating anything) and meat is not normally allowed to be eaten in any form.

Christmas Eve is known as Wigilia (pronounced vee-GHEE-lee-uh). Traditionally, the house is also cleaned and everyone wore their best festive clothes. The main Christmas meal is eaten in the evening and is called "Kolacja wigilijna" (Christmas Eve supper). It's traditional that no food is eaten (or sometimes the first present opened) until the first star is seen in the sky! So children look at the night sky to spot the first star! Looking for the first star is also a reminder of the Wisemen who followed a star to visit Jesus.

On the table there are 12 dishes - they are meant to give you good luck for the next 12 months. The meal is traditionally meat free, this is to remember the animals who took take of the baby Jesus in the manger. Everyone has to eat or at least try some of each dish. For catholics the 12 dishes symbolize Jesus's 12 disciples. Like in many Catholic countries, Christmas Eve is often a 'fasting day' meaning that some people don't eat anything until after sunset (when the Church day officially ends). Some people in central Poland say that at midnight the animals can talk (but I don't think that's very likely)!



One of the most important dishes is "barszcz" (beetroot soup) and it's obligatory to have it. If you really hate it, you can eat mushroom soup instead! The barszcz may be eaten with "uszka" (little dumplings with mushrooms) or "krokiety" (pancakes with mushrooms or/and cabbage, in breadcrumbs, fried on oil or butter).

Carp is often the main dish of the meal. The fish itself is traditionally bought a few days earlier alive and it swims in the bath until it's killed by the lady of the house! Now most people just buy a fillet of carp instead (especially if you only have a shower and not a bath in your house!). The carp's scales are said to bring luck and fortune and by some are kept for the whole year (e.g. in wallets). Traditionally, some older ladies put them in their bras for the time of the supper and give them next day to the guest for good luck!!!

"Bigos" is a dish which can be eaten either hot or cold. It's made of cabbage, bacon, sometimes dried plums - so it is saved for Christmas day or the 26th as it has meat in it. It is made about a week or so before Christmas Eve, because with each day it gets better.

Herrings are very popular and usually are served is several ways: in oil, in cream, in jelly. Each household has their own recipe that that say is 'the best in the whole wide world'!

In most houses there is also "kompot z suszu" that is drink made by boiling dried fruits and fresh apples.

The most popular desserts at Kolacja wigilijna are "makowiec", a poppy seed roll made of sweet yeast bread, "kutia" mixed dried fruits and nuts with wheat seeds, "piernik" a moist cake made with honey (that's like gingerbread) and gingerbreads (which are usually dry and very hard).

At the beginning of the meal, a large wafer biscuit called an 'Oplatek', which has a picture of Mary, Joseph and Jesus on it, is passed around the table and everyone breaks a piece off and eats it. Sometimes a small piece may be given to any farm animals or pets that the family may have. A place is often left empty at the meal table, for an unexpected guest. Polish people say that no one should be alone or hungry, therefore if someone unexpectedly knocks on the door they are welcomed. In some houses, the empty place is to commemorate a dead relative or for a family member who couldn't come to the meal.

Sometimes straw is put on the floor of the room, or under the table cloth, to remind people that Jesus was born in a stable or cow shed. An extra empty place is normally left at the Christmas table for a 'Niespodziewany Gość' - an unexpected visitor.

The worst part about the Christmas Eve supper is that you can't open the presents before it has finished! Older members of the family (who traditionally begin and end this meal) always make it last a long time. In most houses, before the presents are opened, the family sings carols together. Children really want to open the present and sometimes more carols are sung just to tease the children!

There are very many carols sung in Poland and each region has own carols. The most popular ones are "Wśród nocnej ciszy" (Within nights silence), "Bóg się rodzi" (God is born), "Lulajże Jezuniu" (Sleep baby Jesus) and "Dzisiaj w Betlejem" (Today in Bethlehem). The oldest carols are from medieval times, but the most popular ones are from the baroque period.

Presents are brought by "Święty Mikołaj" (St Nicholas/Santa Claus), but in some parts of Poland there are different present bringers (because during the 19th century the borders of Poland were different, so people had different traditions). In the east (Podlasie) there is "Dziadek Mróz" (Ded Moroz), in western and northern Poland "Gwiazdor", the Starman. The starman is not always all-good - if someone was bad, he can give him "rózga", a birch-rod that should be used on bad person!




The Christmas tree is also often bought in and decorated on Christmas Eve. It is decorated with a star on the top (to represent the Star of Bethlehem), gingerbreads, lights (previously candles) and "bombki" which are baubles and glass ornaments in different shapes (though most often they are spheres). They are usually hand-made, painted or decorated in other way. In the east of Poland the decorations are traditionally made of straw and are very beautiful. In some parts of Poland tress will also have an artificial spider's web as a decoration because of the story of The Christmas Spider. In some houses there is also a custom of breaking one of the Christmas Tree decorations (e.g. breaking a glass bauble) to scare the evil out of the house for the whole next year!

Christmas Eve is finished by going to Church for a Midnight Mass service.

A very popular film to watch in Poland over Christmas in 'Home Alone'! In Poland it's called 'Kevin Sam w Domu' which means 'Kevin Alone in the House'. In 2010 it wasn't going to be shown, but so many people complained that it was put back on TV!

The days after Christmas are often spent with family and friends.

People in Poland also like kissing under the mistletoe!

In Polish Happy/Merry Christmas is 'Wesołych Świąt'.
Polish Children also often get dressed up and go carol singing on Epiphany, January 6th.


(a Anais C.K. joyeux noel)

Usa, January 31 2020

God gives us second chances


The one and only time I ever played golf was with my Uncle Frank.

I was 21 years old.

Uncle Frank and Aunt Helen had come to see my folks in Sidney.

One morning, Uncle Frank decided he wanted to play golf at the local course. He invited me to go along.

We reached the course which offered a nice, widespread green view.

My uncle, who’d worked as a postal carrier, walked at a fast pace. I didn’t walk so quickly, especially since I’d been assigned to carry the golf clubs, but I was enthusiastic.

I love my Uncle Frank and this was a fun chance to be with him.

Now, I’d seen golf played on TV and I think my uncle might have tried to teach me a couple of things, but hitting a little white ball with a medal club proved harder than I’d thought.

I kept missing the ball and hitting the grass.

Actually, I dug up the grass.

I made what they call “divots” — chunks of turf cut out of the soil by a golfer.

Even now, I pity the poor greenskeeper. I dug up so much ground, he probably wondered if I was trying to play golf or plant a garden.

OK. It wasn’t that bad.

I’m just glad I never saw a poster with my photograph and the words:

“Wanted: Young woman who turned the 8th hole into a chopped salad. $250 reward for the capture of a college student posing as a golfer.”

I obviously didn’t have a future as a pro golfer, but my good-natured uncle didn’t seem to mind. He cheerfully finished his game and we went back to my house.

Years later, I still don’t know if I’d want to try golf again.

But recently, I heard a golf term I really like.

It’s called a “mulligan” and it’s basically a second chance, usually granted after the golfer has blundered the first one.

I heard the term while listening to the Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in California, who wrote the book “The Purpose Driven Life.”

Rick was talking about mulligans, because that’s what God gave Jonah.

The Old Testament prophet got a mulligan — or a do-over, a second chance.

Jonah’s story begins when God tells him to warn the people of Nineveh in the Assyrian empire.

Nineveh, according to the Fire Bible, is a place known for its corruption, immorality and cruelty.

God wants Jonah to warn these wicked folks that unless they repent they’ll face the Lord’s judgement.

But Jonah doesn’t want to do that. The people of Israel hate and fear the Assyrians.

So instead of making the 500- to 600-mile trip to Nineveh, Jonah boards a ship bound for Tarshish in Spain.

It is the farthest away he can go in the known ancient world — maybe 2,500 miles — in the opposite direction of God’s plan.

Jonah will learn disobedience doesn’t pay after God hurls a great wind upon the sea.

The terrified sailors find themselves in a violent, windy storm that threatens to break apart the ship. The poor guys start praying to their own gods for help.

It gets so bad the captain goes to the inner part of the ship and wakes Jonah, who’s somehow sleeping through all of this. The captain tells Jonah to pray so they won’t perish.

Wow. How bad does it have to be for the captain to plead for prayer?

Next, the scared sailors cast lots to try and determine who’s brought God’s wrath on their vessel.

The lot falls to Jonah, the runaway prophet.

Now the sailors — who obviously didn’t do a background check on Jonah — start asking lots of questions. They want to know where Jonah’s from and what he does for a living. Why is this disaster coming upon them?

Jonah confesses that he’s a Hebrew and worships God who made the sea and land.

The sailors get really scared now.

What can they do to get the sea to calm down?

Jonah’s no Aquaman, but he’s got a plan.

He tells them to toss him overboard.

But the sailors don’t do that.

Instead, they just row harder to get the boat back to land.

Yet the storm worsens.

So the sailors cry out to God, asking him not destroy them for what they’re about to do.

And they throw Jonah overboard.

The sea stops raging — leaving some really shaken sailors in the boat.

What happens to Jonah?

The waters close over him and seaweed wraps around his head.

God then sends a huge fish and Jonah becomes the catch of the day.



How could that happen?

Well, Rick talked about whale sharks, which have huge mouths and are about the size of a school bus. They’re the largest fish in the sea, docile filter feeders, who swim with their mouths open.

I read that whale sharks don’t swim in the Mediterranean, but sperm whales do and they can be about as big as 1 ½ school buses.

Either way, it’s not a ride I’d want to catch.

But Jonah miraculously spends three days and three nights in the belly of that big fish.

While there, he repents — realizing his greatest fear is to be rejected by God. Jonah praises God and the fish vomits the prophet out on dry land.

Jonah takes advantage of this fishy mulligan — this second chance — and goes to the city of Nineveh to warn the people.

Why would anybody listen to this stranger?

The Fire Bible suggests two major plagues and an eclipse of the sun (which would have scared ancient-day people) may have prepared the Ninevites for Jonah’s message.

Anyway, the king and his people repent. God, who is merciful, sees this and doesn’t bring disaster on them.

Jonah’s not happy about this and the story ends with God asking the crabby prophet: “Should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

We never hear Jonah’s answer — or if he said anything else at all.

Had Jonah forgotten how compassionate God had been with him after he disobeyed?

Yet don’t we do the same thing? We want a second chance, but aren’t so willing to grant one to someone else.

And like Jonah — we have our Ninevehs — those places, people or responsibilities we want to avoid. Forgiveness can be a tough thing, but it can be the most freeing thing in the world.

I think it takes us asking the Holy Spirit to help us do what we just can’t seem to do in our own strength — and then trust that he will.

I’m so thankful that our God is compassionate and forgiving.

And I’m hoping that some poor greenskeeper in Sidney was able to be a little forgiving, too.

New Mexico -February 2020


MARILYN CONWAY: PORTRAITS OF NEW MEXICO IN THE 90S


Today, St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Punta de Agua presents a stark face to travelers on Highway 55 in central New Mexico. It is striking for its absence of vegetation. The churchyard is fenced, paved over, clean and bare. No trees, no grass, and no flowers grow near the grave markers.

But 30 years ago, photographer Marilyn Conway caught the church on film and preserved quite a different version of the old adobe church. Standing before that photograph at the recent opening for her current exhibition, Conway learned the reason why the churchyard at Punta de Agua came to be paved—a caretaker once poisoned the land with an overdose of weedkiller and the community decided to pave the churchyard in order to protect people from contact with the herbicide. For Conway, this fact resonated because of her own exposure and sensitivity to harsh chemicals.
Conway is a fine art photographer who moved to New Mexico in the 1960s to pursue a Fine Arts Degree in Photography from the University of New Mexico. Armed with a Certificate of Graduation from Parsons New School of Design and a BFA from the UNM, Marilyn set out to “make photos of New Mexico like no one has seen before.”



For the next 25 years, she worked as a film photographer, documenting her world in Martineztown and the South Valley of Albuquerque as well as other parts on New Mexico. Her work is in museums, businesses, and galleries throughout New Mexico and the country, including the Museum of Fine Art in Santa Fe and The Museum of Albuquerque.
During those years, she perfected an alternative process for developing and finishing her prints that gives them an ethereal quality. She shot her photos with infrared film and a red filter that produced a surreal, grainy effect when she developed them in her darkroom.


(“punta de agua” by Marilyn Conway )


After developing, she dipped each print into a sepia tone bath to give the print an aged look. Then, using cotton swabs and cotton balls, she painted the prints with Marshalls Oils, the same oils that were applied to black and white photos before the advent of colored film.
During these years, slowly and unbeknownst to her, Marilyn was developing a chemical sensitivity to her darkroom chemicals. Then, after the city of Albuquerque sprayed her South Valley neighborhood with insecticide, she developed the environmental illness and extreme chemical sensitivity that ended this phase of her career.


(“Tajique,” by Marilyn Conway)

For awhile, she hired other people to print her photographs for her. She also experimented with pinhole photography using Polaroid film to avoid exposure to darkroom chemicals.
In the end, to avoid environmental pollutants, Marilyn left Albuquerque and built a house outside of Mountainair. She switched from film to digital photography and created a digital process that gives new photos a look and feel similar to her early work.
This month, you can see her pre-digital hand-painted work, including some of her pinhole photography at an exhibition at the Manzano Mountain Art Center in Mountainair. The exhibition, New Mexico in the 90s, features 20 of her hand-colored photographs from the early 1990s, many from well known places in Torrance County, including the land grant communities Tajique, Torreón, Manzano, and Punta de Agua.

For more information, visit manzanomountainartcenter.org.

World , March 2020 .


''I'm a Christian, but I don't believe God has promised to protect me from Covid-19. Here's why ''


Health experts are unanimous: by enacting social isolation, we can stem the virus’s spread, prevent health services being overwhelmed and save lives. Religious groups can’t claim some God-given exemption from this edict.
Unfortunately, many are continuing to disregard the guidance by gathering together and putting others at risk of infection. Perhaps the most stark example of this comes from a Louisiana megachurch pastor who is openly defying state orders and swinging wide the doors of his church for thousands of worshippers to come and gather together in close quarters.

Laying waste to the advice on social distancing, Pastor Tony Spell is insistent that God will protect his flock from coronavirus. Convinced of his special spiritual status and assured of the power he commands, this pentecostal minister has even provided a private shuttle bus service to ensure that Sunday services are packed to the rafters. More than 1,000 attended at the weekend, most of whom came without any sort of protective gear.

At the same time, Louisiana Governor John Edwards issued a grave warning: his state is currently battling the fastest Covid-19 infection rate on the planet, with cases jumping from 100 to 1,000 in just a week. "That's a ten-time increase in seven days," Edwards said. “In the last two weeks, our growth rate has been faster than any state or country in the world.”

Edwards had also issued a "stay at home" order and personally requested that church leaders temporarily shutter their operations.

None of this has impacted Pastor Spell, who believes that his ideological right to free assembly should trump any regard for public welfare.

Bizarrely, the minister insisted that instructions to stay at home during this pandemic amounted to a “persecution of the faith” and warned that the pandemic was “politically motivated” – presumably referring to the notion that doomsday media coverage is hurting Trump’s re-election chances. Only when every business in the city is closed, he said, will he even consider pulling the plug on his gatherings.

And if anyone from his church was to get sick? The pastor has a simple backup plan: he’ll rely on God’s supernatural protection and healing power. "I'm going to address that by laying hands on them and praying for them and depending on God to heal their body," he told a local station.

As a Christian, I find Pastor Spell’s language extremely distressing. He appears to be more interested in propagating an image of personal spiritual prowess than he does actually protecting the people entrusted into his care.



Plus, the very notion of testing one’s faith – particularly amid a global pandemic – is also distinctly unbiblical.

When Jesus was tempted to test God in a similar way, he flatly refused. "If you are the Son of God," the Devil said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus replied: "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

At that moment, Christ issued a clear mandate for all believers: we should never seek to flaunt the power of God, no matter how tempting it is. Why? Because God’s power and might is not about making us look good.

Still, another question remains: is it right for believers to rely on God to protect his church during this pandemic? This is a difficult one. Of course, on the one hand, most Christians would believe that God is ultimately sovereign over all. However, one thing is abundantly clear - he does not offer his people an escape from suffering or pain, nor does he promise to protect us from earthly illness. You can be a Christian and still be a firm believer in the power of viral infections!

So what does he promise those who trust in him? Simply put: peace in the midst of crisis. Indeed, it is the response to difficult circumstances that reveals the true nature of a believer’s spiritual life, as they trust in God’s ultimate plan for the future.

As such, I would contend that coronavirus presents the church not with a chance to put God to the test, but with a critical opportunity to make known the love and kindness of Jesus. With the world brought to its knees by a global pandemic and with panic and anxiety proliferating across the globe, there is a need for people of peace and wisdom who will commit to following the appropriate health advice for the sake of the other. This is no time for supernatural grandstanding. It is a time for realism, hope and care.

Why is Pastor Spell so misguided? Because God is not some sort of magic genie that grants immunity from all the world’s problems. And he may not prevent you from catching Covid-19.

However, as a Christian, I am inclined to believe that Jesus would be more interested in seeing us embody his call to love our neighbors than he would be concerned about the preservation of our church services. And how do we express that love right now? By heeding the expert advice, by respecting the civil authorities, and by staying home.

By Will Maule


Portez-vous bien.

Barbados, april 2020


Easter message: Love God and each other


Easter is when we normally celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection opens to us the most delightful experience imaginable, that of knowing our Creator.

It is very easy for us to take this relationship for granted, and behave as if God is only there for our convenience. It is easy for us to dismiss Him at will, as if we created Him. Observing the perfection of nature reveals that we are the created.

God is not some figment of our imagination, or the work of our hands. He is the Almighty God, the Creator of all that is seen and unseen. We should not be careless about our relationship with God, and squander this opportunity of lifetime.

This is not some meaningless academic exercise for us in Barbados. The Barbados Constitution states in part: “Now, therefore, the people of Barbados proclaim that they are a sovereign nation founded upon principles that acknowledge the supremacy of God”.

So, what are these principles that acknowledge the supremacy of God? How do we approach and interact with our God? Jesus explained that we should love God, and love each other.

Jesus showed how we may: love God with all our heart, believe Him with all our mind, serve Him with all our strength, and trust him with all our soul. He also showed how we should assist those in desperate need, even if they do not ask.

Our embrace of wrong can separate us from our Creator. If we are repentant, God, like a loving Father, is always willing to forgive us. This forgiveness can remove the guilt that may weigh down a person from achieving their potential.

Some prefer a life of separation from God, which is their right. But they should not allow any unfortunate experience to keep them away from God. They also have a right to know that acknowledging God as sovereign can only benefit them.

Vatican City, june 2020


Life of faith involves both prayer, serving Christ in the poor.


— A person’s prayer is pleasing to God when it is accompanied by a life of service to the poor, Pope Francis said.

“Prayer to God and solidarity with the poor and suffering are inseparable,” he wrote in his message for the World Day of the Poor, which will be marked Nov. 15.

“In order to perform an act of worship acceptable to the Lord, we have to recognize that each person, even the poorest and most contemptible, is made in the image of God,” he said in the message, which was released by the Vatican June 13.

For the theme of the 2020 day dedicated to making Catholics aware of the charity and solidarity demanded by faith in Jesus, Pope Francis chose a line from the Book of Sirach: “Stretch forth your hand to the poor.”

The message included a reflection on how many people stretched out a helping hand, even at the risk of their personal safety, during the coronavirus pandemic. And how the pandemic has or should have made people aware of the fragility of life, the precariousness of their jobs and connections with others and about how little their normal busyness and patterns of consumption really matter.

“A hand held out is a sign; a sign that immediately speaks of closeness, solidarity and love,” the pope wrote. During the pandemic, “when the whole world was prey to a virus that brought pain and death, despair and bewilderment, how many outstretched hands have we seen!”

Pope Francis lauded the “outstretched hands” of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, priests and of volunteers who visited with and gave food to people living on the streets. He praised workers who continued providing essential services, including the police.

“Those hands defied contagion and fear in order to offer support and consolation,” the pope said.

The Book of Sirach, he said, demonstrates that closeness to God and closeness to other human beings go hand in hand.

“Time devoted to prayer can never become an alibi for neglecting our neighbor in need,” Pope Francis wrote. “In fact, the very opposite is true: The Lord’s blessing descends upon us and prayer attains its goal when accompanied by service to the poor.”

And, while it is true that in the Book of Matthew, Jesus says, “The poor you will always have with you,” the line does not end there. The full quotation is “The poor you will always have with you; but you will not always have me.”


(People in need stand in line for food distribution from farmers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 14, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.)



A central focus of the World Day of the Poor, said Pope Francis, who instituted the day in 2016, is to reaffirm the “basic truth in the life of the church” that “the poor are and always will be with us to help us welcome Christ’s presence into our daily lives.”

The image of God present in every human being does not depend “on the color of the person’s skin and certainly not on how much he has in his bank account,” said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, which coordinates the World Day of the Poor activities.

Presenting the pope’s message with an online news conference, the archbishop told reporters the pope’s message “is an invitation to shake off our indifference and our frequent sense of displeasure toward the poor in order to recover the solidarity and the love that lived generously give meaning to life.”

The ongoing economic impact of the pandemic and the number of jobs lost, including among tourist-reliant shops and restaurants near the Vatican, mean that more and more people are going to need help feeding their families, Archbishop Fisichella said.

“It will be our task, therefore, not to withhold from the increasingly numerous poor we encounter the daily signs (of help) that accompany our pastoral action,” he said.

In his message, Pope Francis also looked at how honoring Jesus present in the poor requires not just individual acts of charity, but also conversion and a change of lifestyle.

“In order to help the poor, we ourselves need to live the experience of evangelical poverty,” he said. “We cannot feel ‘alright’ when any member of the human family is left behind and in the shadows.”

“The silent cry of so many poor men, women and children should find the people of God at the forefront, always and everywhere, in efforts to give them a voice, to protect and support them in the face of hypocrisy and so many unfulfilled promises, and to invite them to share in the life of the community,” Pope Francis wrote.

The pope also mentioned in this message those who “stretch out a hand” to do harm to others and to the environment. He cited, for example, those whose “hands are outstretched to accumulate money by the sale of weapons that others” or drug dealers who reach out “to deal doses of death in dark alleys.”

“We cannot be happy until these hands that sow death are transformed into instruments of justice and peace for the whole world,” Pope Francis said.

At the same time, the pope encouraged people to focus on the hands outstretched to help.

“Bad news fills the pages of newspapers, websites and television screens to the point that evil seems to reign supreme. But that is not the case,” he said. “To be sure, malice and violence, abuse and corruption abound, but life is interwoven too with acts of respect and generosity that not only compensate for evil but inspire us to take an extra step and fill our hearts with hope.”

Italy . Summer 2020 -

En cette periode tres particuliere, nous choisissons de ne pas commenter davantage les evenements actuels, qui sont deja en surcharge dans l'actualité.

Au lieu de cela, nous partageons aujourd'hui l'histoire d'une communauté qui nous donne la possibilité a une introspection personnelle et collective profonde sur la nature de nos choix.
Nous invitons le lecteur a mediter sur cette histoire, non seulement sur son fond, mais egalement sur sa nature philosophique, qui indubitablement trouve un echo au regard de nos actions quotidienne .



How to Save the Sea: Lessons From an Italian Fishing Community


When Cosimo Di Biasi, 66, decides it's the right day to fish, he begins at 5 p.m. He drives 4 miles to the port of Torre Santa Sabina, boards Nonno Ugo, his 21-foot fiberglass boat, and navigates south for a half-hour to reach a marine reserve in Puglia, in southern Italy.

The rocky coast is interspersed with sandy beaches, and at the tip of a tiny peninsula, a majestic tower overlooks the coast. Built by the Aragonese in the 16th century to spot the invading Turkish, the tower is now the symbol of Torre Guaceto—a marine reserve spanning 5,400 acres of sea and 5 miles of coastline, where only five boats and seven fishers are allowed to fish.

Di Biasi has been operating in the area since he was 10. He would skip school to fish with his father, and he would bring baskets of fish to the teacher to excuse his absences. Still, she failed him in grade six three times.



When his boat is in position, Di Biasi throws the half-mile-long leaded net into the water, which is then held up by a series of floating buoys. After this quick operation, the fisher returns home. The invisible wall will lay all night, waiting for fish to get entangled. The morning after, Di Biasi wakes up at sunrise, goes to the bar to get a coffee and a croissant, and navigates his boat back to the reserve to load up the abundant catch of the day.

Back at the port in Santa Sabina, locals, restaurant owners, and other buyers wait for Di Biasi. Many of them have already reserved fish from Di Biasi's catch the night before. The species, like mullet, are common here; their incredible size sets Di Biasi's catch apart.

While other fishers in the Mediterranean struggle to make ends meet, going out every night and extracting fish of any kind and size, from anchovies to dolphins, Torre Guaceto's fishers enter the reserve only once a week, making stellar revenues of up to $10,000 a day. They are part of a cooperative management project that allows the sea to recover while they thrive economically.

But what may seem like a fairy tale today came after years of struggles and conflicts. Conservationists began the difficult task of working with local stakeholders more than 25 years ago, in a region plagued by organized crime and aggressive exploitation of natural resources. Now those fishers are the marine reserve's greatest allies.

"We are the guardians," Di Biasi says proudly. "This stretch of sea is ours."



Historic Exploitation
Alessandro Ciccolella, the director of Consorzio di Gestione Torre Guaceto, the management entity of the natural reserve, says that before they took over in 2001, this stretch of coast was a no-man's-land. Organized crime had a stronghold in the area, using the shores of Torre Guaceto as a port for tobacco and drug smuggling.

"Ciccolella would tell us that one day Torre Guaceto would be a reserve. But we didn't believe him, and we didn't care," Di Biasi says.

Fishers would detonate homemade bombs underwater, harvesting the dead fish that floated to the surface. In the process, though, they were killing marine life, destroying the reef, and risking their lives. Plus most of the kill went to the seafloor, while clouds of dust filled the waters. According to Ciccolella, fishers thought they were plowing the sea for good.

The area was so worn out that in 2001 the Consorzio, formed by World Wildlife Fund and the nearby cities of Brindisi and Carovigno, decided to close the waters of the reserve for five years to let it recover from the past exploitation.

"They took away a piece of the sea from us. We used to keep our boats there, and the tower was the place where we cooked and hung out," De Biasi says. "From one day to the other, we couldn't fish anymore."

Friction arose between the fishers and the management of the reserve escalating to slashed tires and broken car windows. The local fishers kept fishing illegally at night, to make a point, even if they still had the rest of the sea to fish. The coast guard occasionally caught them, confiscated their boats, and gave hefty fines.

"We needed to know what was underwater and let it recover," Ciccolella says, explaining the fishing ban. "We were able to do it because the area was not too big, and it was easier to reason with fewer people. But the benefits of a small reserve are way larger than you can think of."

Restoring Abundance
Paolo Guidetti, a professor of Ecology at Nice University in France, played a crucial role in developing the reserve's sustainable fishing model. He says it wasn't easy to start a dialogue with the fishers, but it turned out to be crucial to the reserve's success. In 2005, after five years of the fishing ban, the fishers were allowed in for a fishing trial.



"We met God's abundance," Di Biasi says. Catches were fivefold compared to the outside area, and fish were bigger and of higher value.

The Consorzio teamed up with Guidetti and Marcello Longo, president of Slow Food Puglia, a local chapter of an international movement that fights the disappearance of local food cultures around the world. They organized meetings with the bewildered fishers to create a protocol to start fishing again while preserving the biodiversity of the area.

"The fishers themselves proposed to fish just once a week," Guidetti says with excitement. Fishers would also use shorter nets—0.75 miles long instead of 2.5 miles—and larger mesh size to free smaller and juvenile fish.

While a day of fishing in the outer sea might give fishers a couple of hundred dollars in revenues, within Torre Guaceto, the fishers had miraculous days, and Di Biasi says, could catch up to $10,000 worth of fish a day.



The biodiversity had recovered, and in the following years, because of the renewed—but limited—fishing pressure, catches stabilized at almost twice the weight of catches from outside waters. According to Guidetti, the biologist, Torre Guaceto gives the highest catches per unit in the Mediterranean.

The biologist is sure that including the fishers in the decision-making process made Torre Guaceto a success story. Understanding the value of protecting the area, illegal fishing essentially stopped. Fishers turned into sentinels, helping the coast guard spot poachers. Researchers and managers developed friendships with fishers. "A top-down ministerial approach has never worked," Guidetti says.

And the positive outcome of the reserve goes way beyond the limits of the Torre Guaceto waters.

An increase of the fish population within a reserve pushes juveniles out of the area to find their own territory. This spillover is called "reserve effect"and benefits the areas immediately around the reserve. But there is an even more significant contribution from the sanctuary. With less fishing pressure, female white seabream inside the reserve can grow to twice the size of females outside and produce 100 times more eggs. A unique study by Guidetti followed those fish eggs and found that marine currents carried them south for hundreds of miles, repopulating far away areas. He called this a "shower effect."

Guidetti says that Torre Guaceto is the only reserve in the world with continuous and precise monitoring of the fish population, which shows the positive impact of a well co-managed marine reserve.

"It would be optimal to have a Torre Guaceto every 30 kilometers, to repopulate the rest of the sea," Guidetti says.

Expanding Protections
The biggest problem for a Marine Protected Area seems to be control and management. Many projects similar to Torre Guaceto fail because of the absence of precise control of the territory. Now, after years of struggling, Torre Guaceto can count on the rigorous vigilance of the Italian Coast Guard and of the fishers. But even with such control, some illegal fishing still happens at night.

Today an unlikely event is happening: Fishers are the ones asking for the protection for the sea. "We requested the director to enlarge the marine reserve," Di Biasi says. The request is now under examination by the Ministry of Environment. In the meantime, 10 other fishers from nearby towns have already started fishing with shorter nets and wider mesh sizes, hoping the reserve will be extended to include their coastlines soon.

Now Di Biasi goes to elementary schools to explain the importance of sustainable fishing. He also goes to fishing communities in other Mediterranean countries to tell incredulous fishers that it is possible to make more money while preserving the sea.

"We hope they will follow our example and create a marine reserve," Di Biasi says. "It took us time to learn this, but now we hope that others will do [it] too."

Agostino Petroni

Irak . Mosul . October-November 2020

Chaldean priest sees Mosul reborn thanks to young Christians and Muslims


The controversy that broke out between France and part of the Muslim world has not had any serious local impact. A collaborative esprit de corps prevails in the city, with Muslims trying to get Christians to come back. For Fr Paul, people are helping each through dialogue and exchange. In Karamles, a cultural centre helps “to preserve our identity".


KARAMELES: Mosul and the Nineveh plain have started a slow path of rebirth after years of sectarian violence and jihadist rule through initiatives that bring together Christians and Muslims, especially young people.Yesterday’s story about Sawaed al-Museliya volunteers "is one of many", says Fr Paul Thabit Mekko, head of the Christian community in Karamles.
He notes that the former is a sign "of the spirit that prevails in a large part of the population".Muslims “are working on clearing, cleaning and restoring churches because they think they will bring Christians back to the region,” he explains. “The groups are small, mostly young people, full of good will, trying to undertake positive initiatives.”“In a few days, some young Muslims will take part in the restoration of the cathedral of the Chaldeans in Mosul.” Such deeds “are evidence of a change in mindset and help others to join the path of dialogue and exchange.”
As a sign of a renewed climate of trust, the controversy that recently broke out between France and the Islamic world has not had serious repercussions in the city. The row has found some echo on social media, but in practice no one has protested, clashed or taken to the streets, unlike the past.



For years, the Chaldean priest has cared for thousands of families who fled in the summer of 2014 following the rise of the Islamic State group.
In his view, this process of reconstruction "starts precisely with young people, who have undertaken an increasing number of projects and initiatives since Mosul’s liberation.”Perhaps no one is coordinating a better use of resources, but “shared commitment and participation remain even at a time of the novel coronavirus pandemic", with Christian and Muslim groups “doing their utmost to set up sites for isolation and quarantine, bringing food, medicine, and essential items".
Some Muslims, in case of need, "also come here to us, in the Nineveh plain, to lend a hand" Fr Paul noted. "Now the priority is for the appropriate authority to remove the mines laid down by Islamic State, some in and around our churches,” he added. Once this is done, "we can start rebuilding, also because the situation today appears calmer".

One of the initiatives completed recently is the cultural centre in Karamles, but there are "other projects under study, despite the lack of funds, to protect our identity.”“The cultural centre has a large hall for weddings on the first floor, an auditorium for plays and other community initiatives, a bar,” explained Fr Paul.“Another part is used as the village museum with amphorae, kitchen tools, and other utensils salvaged from an old place now abandoned. We have an exhibit that ideally traces the history of the area whilst preserving the architecture.”
Fully rebuilding Mosul and the Nineveh Plain is still a long way off, but "several steps have been taken" recently despite some difficulties.One example is the revival of a historic Mosul neighbourhood, near the Old City, devastated by jihadists, where several traditional restaurants and a large fish market have reopened.For the Chaldean priest, "The COVID-19 pandemic is one of many challenges. It might have slowed us down a bit, but we certainly cannot stop because of the virus.”

CALIFORNIA, USA. Fevrier 2021


What is Enlightenment?


Enlightenment is a term that feels elusive for many. We may have images of a Hindu guru, sitting on top of a mountain contemplating the universe. Or a Buddhist monk living in a monastery, meditating daily. Or, maybe even in your own life, you’ve had moments that are intense or mystical and have caused you to feel enlightenment, just for a moment.

One of my favorite definitions of enlightenment is from Lao Tzu, who references enlightenment as the Tao. “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.”

This definition may not seem helpful if you’re seeking a more concrete definition of enlightenment is, versus what enlightenment is not. Today we’ll provide a more tangible definition of this feeling and existence.

In the West, we often refer to enlightenment as self-actualization. Whatever verbiage we use, the ultimate understanding of enlightenment is this: it’s the highest level we can reach as humans, in our lifetime. Whether it’s through our own experiences of living at such an exquisite level or someone else’s experience who’ve we met or read about, that seems to be flowing with life. These experiences can seem vague or unclear to those who haven’t experienced them firsthand. Is there a definition for enlightenment that is more tangible and allows us to know when we’ve reached the highest level of being?

Lao Tzu was correct in saying that enlightenment cannot be described, but I believe we can paint a picture of it. For example, if you’ve ever been to the Grand Canyon before, it’s hard to describe how vast and beautiful it is. But you might be able to paint a picture of it that will better capture its beauty. Today, I’m going to paint a picture of enlightenment.

Similar to the Grand Canyon, enlightenment is infinite and massive. And by painting enlightenment today, I’ll provide a clue into what enlightenment is. Through my journey in life, the most accurate definition of enlightenment I’ve found is this: enlightenment is the radical acceptance of what is.

So what does this mean, and how can I apply this to my life?

Let’s begin with the question: why do we struggle? We struggle because we fight against what is. What that means is, we may not like or be comfortable with what is happening right now in our lives or in the world, so we fight against it. We have expectations, desires, and fears about the way things should and should not go in our lives. And when our lives don’t go the way we expect them to, we get upset, angry, or sad and disrupt our inner peace. Our own expectations create discord and disharmony inside of us because life sometimes has other plans than the ones we’ve created. As a result, these negative emotions get in the way of our ability to simply flow with life.



Even when we’ve done everything we can to stay in control of everything, and life says ‘I’ve got other plans in mind,’ we find ourselves at a common crossroads - do we stay at peace and accept what is, or choose to fight against it?

The opportunity to choose radical acceptance presents itself several times throughout our days. And if we choose it, that path will create enlightenment or enlightened moments. If we ignore that path, we will face discontent and disrupted inner peace.

Let’s look at some examples to better illustrate enlightened moments and unenlightened moments, and examine how we can use radical acceptance to help our lives run better throughout the day.

Didn’t sleep well last night

There are some nights where it’s impossible to get a full eight hours. Let’s say, you wake up after only sleeping for two hours the night before. If you were to fight against this undesirable scenario your first thought may be “this is horrible” or “I’m going to be exhausted today, or get a headache later on.” These thoughts are so common, especially when we’re sleep-deprived.

If you lead with radical acceptance, your first thought may be “‘Oh, I didn’t sleep much last night, I wonder what today will look like. I’m okay right now, so I’ll just focus on this moment.” The key difference here is accepting what is out of your control.

Getting stuck in traffic on the way to work

Getting stuck in traffic is never fun, especially when you’re on your way to work. An unenlightened response to this situation may be wondering if you’re going to get in trouble, or ask the question “why me?” You may even beep your horn along with everyone else.

Leading with radical acceptance would look like accepting the fact that you’re going to be late, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Once you accept this fact, you can decide how you want to spend your extra 30 minutes. Instead of getting frustrated, you choose to listen to a podcast or listen to music to make the time more useful, and maybe even enjoyable.

When you arrive at work, you find out you’re getting laid off

This news is really tough, and of course, is going to cause some negative emotions. A person who is fighting against life may find themselves in a tailspin wondering if they’ll ever find work again or be able to pay their rent or mortgage. Someone who practices radical acceptance will also be sad or even angry. But, they are able to find rational thought in these moments - I need to pack up my things, I have enough money saved up for the essentials, and I’ll start looking for new work. They may even think that this moment could lead to a better opportunity or new adventure.

Your partner leaves you

This is devastating, no matter how often you practice radical acceptance. Negative emotions will come up no matter what. If you are someone who normally chooses to fight against life’s plans you may drink too much, or seek other unhealthy coping mechanisms to help ease the pain. If you choose radical acceptance, you will still feel anger and deep sadness. And through those feelings, you will still be able to take a breath, and focus on the moment. That may be as simple as cooking a meal or calling a friend. The key here is to take each moment as they come and do your best to get through it.

When we radically accept what is, we’re able to stop fighting life, and instead, flow with life. It’s not a state of passivity, but after we do what is in our control, we take a deep breath and do our best to accept the current situation, even if it wasn’t planned. This new thought process of knowing that we can handle anything that life throws at us will open us up to new opportunities. When a relationship ends, or we lose a job, we don’t force those doors to reopen, we seek new doors.

When we stop fighting what is, we start to experience life with a deep sense of peace. Radical acceptance presents the opportunity to look out at the world, in times of joy and disappointment, and say all is well.

Dr. Robert Puff