دير مار موسى الحبشي Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2011

Mar Musa or Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi literally The Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian is a monastic community Syriac Catholic rite, situated near the town of Nabk, approximately 80 kilometers north of Damascus. Paolo Dall’Oglio SJ is the leader of this community and Sebastien Duhaut is an inmate of the monastery. Both Paolo and Sebastien tell Victor Edwin SJ about the present situation in Syria for Jivan. Read interview...

Press release in conclusion of the 1 october 2010 about the

Week of spiritual jihad, through fasting, prayer

and sakina (God-inspired peace of the soul)

for reconciliation between the children of Mother Syria

at the monastery of Mar Musa al-Habashi

Monks and nuns of the monastery dedicated themselves, with friends and a number of visitors from the vast Syrian mosaic, to fast and prayer. We met daily in the church to read the Gospel, recite the Quran and meditate on a selection of texts about non-violent activism for reform, through forgiveness, through a dialogue based on brotherly reciprocal listening, through the acceptance of difference without conditions. A large number of friends (people and organizations) from around the world joined us in spirit, which made us feel deeply in communion and unity before God.

Dear Friends,

 In the light of the Resurrection, the announce of peace from our Lord, His breath of reconciliation, in his body, the Lamb always slaughtered, and in the fertile wound of his heart, as we kiss his tortured hands and feet, we come to you to assure you that by the grace of God we stay strong in faith, comforted by hope and passionate with love during this tragic period of deep fermentation in our Arabic homeland and in this Muslim world which is our great concern in the name of the Church.

My comments presented here are based upon the reflections given by the Monastic Community of Deir Mar Musa el-Habashi in Syria to the Lineamentaprepared for Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, which I consider still to be important, even after publication of theInstrumentum Laboris, I present them here, together with the text I wrote on the basis of my impressions of the latter, after our discussions in London. I would wish to stress here that the Lineamenta and the Instrumentum Laboris are both full of interesting insights. However, our role here is not simply to reiterate them, but rather to state what we think is either missing or insufficiently emphasised. Our approach is always intended to be constructive, even when critiquing the documents.