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May -16th Saturday Afternoon
12:30-2:45 PM
Crestone Interfaith Gathering 2009
Saturday Interfaith Gathering Presentation
THE DESERT FOUNDATION – Tessa Bielecki and Fr. Dave Denny
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“Life nowhere appears so brave, so bright, so full of oracle and miracle as in the desert.”
This wisdom is from Edward Abbey, the eccentric “desert solitaire” who lived in the arid wilderness of southeastern Utah during the 1960s.
“Life nowhere appears so brave, so bright, so full of oracle and miracle as in the desert.”
If our world is to become truly peaceful, a genuine “Civilization of Love,” as Pope John Paul II called it, we need bravery and brightness, oracle and miracle, now more than ever, especially between the peoples who grow out of the desert, those people who call themselves “Children of Abraham”: Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
This is the specific mission of the Desert Foundation: to explore the wisdom of the world’s deserts, with a special emphasis on peace and reconciliation between the Abrahamic peoples.
In the Western world, with our strong Judaeo-Christian roots, we’re familiar with bright prayers and brave teachings from Jewish and Christian sources, but not from Islamic sources. Let’s become more familiar then, with Sura One from the Koran, the Sura often considered the Muslim “Our Father.”
(Fr. Dave recited in Arabic.)
“In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Caring,
Praise be to God, lord sustainer of the worlds,
the Compassionate, the Caring, master of the day of reckoning.
To you we turn to worship
and to you we turn in time of need.
Guide us along the road straight,
the road of those to whom you are giving,
not those with anger upon them,
not those who have lost the way."
(Fr. Dave recited again Arabic.)
The Muslim “Our Father.”
And now, for a special reason, let’s remember the Christian “Our Father,” reciting it together:
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and forever. Amen.”
The Christian “Our Father.
But what if God were not merely “Our Father?” What if God were also “Our Mother?” What would a brave bright prayer to “Our Mother” sound like, from a troubled world in need of oracle and miracle?
This is a prayer-poem by George Ella Lyon to “Our Mother Who Art in the Kitchen.”
Our Mother Who Art in the kitchen
cooking us up
hallowed may we see all that is
Your kingdom here delivered into our hands
Your will in children and trees leafing out on earth as if it were Heaven.
Give us this day
bread we could feed the world
and snatch us bald-headed
if we try to swallow it all.
Don’t forgive us
till we learn it is all for giving.
That salve you’ve got in a pot
on the back of the stove
only heals when everybody has some.
And heed us not
if we believe You look like us
and love us best
and gave us the True Truth
with a license to kill Others
writ inside.
Deliver us from this evil.
For it is Yours,
this kitchen we call Universe
where you stir up our favorite treat,
the Milky Way,
folding deep into sweet our little sphere
with its powerful glory of rainforests and oceans
and mountains in feather-boa mist
forever
if we don’t blow it up
and ever
if we don’t tear it down
Amen
(Ah women
Ah children
Ah reckon She’s about fed up.
We better make room at the table
for everybody
before She yells “OUT!”
and turns our table over,
before She calls it off,
this banquet we’ve been hoarding
this paradise
we aim to save
with bombs.)
Poem from Imagine a World: Poetry for Peacemakers
Peggy Rosenthal,
Editor
Published by Pax Christi USA
532 West 8th Street
Erie, PA 16502-1343
814-453-4955
info@paxchristiusa.org
Translation from the Koran
by Michael Sells
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