Monks of Algeria INTERFAITH

CISTERCIAN (ocso) MENOLOGY
MAY 22

Christian de Chergé, Luc Dochier, Christophe Lebvreton, Michel Fleury, Bruno Lemarchand, Célestin Ringeard and Maul Favre-Miville + 1996

Monks of Our Lady of Atlas, Tiburine, Algeria. Having chosen to remain as Christian contemplative witnesses in a Moslem country in spite of increasingly dangerous circumstances, they were kidnapped by terrorists on the night of March 26-27, 1996, held as hostages for 2 months, and then slain.

 ----- Forwarded Message ----

From: Mark ...
Sent: Sat, 21 May, 2011 11:30:49
Subject: Fw: Atlas Moinks  

                             Introduction to Mass                     

                     Saturday, 21 May, 2011

Today is the fifteenth anniversary of the deaths of the seven Atlas Cistercian monks who gave themselves to God in the difficult circumstances of their lives, and ultimately in their deaths which they did not shrink from.  They died in their bodies but now they live on for us in the Spirit  

Last evening Abbot's talk was about the Atlas Monks.    
Considering the dedication of the monks to INTERFAITH prayer and dialogue, a very quotation was very timely:  
U.S. National Prayer Breakfast,

Letter of King Abdullah II of Jordan. 

On the occasion of the National Prayer Breakfast, King Abdullah II of Jordan wrote a letter stating:

"In all three of the monotheistic faiths, we share the two greatest commandments to love God and to love our neighbor. We are thus bound-each and every one of us - by our own faiths to reach out to each other as neighbors with goodwill and mutual respect; we must all help ease each other's suffering and want, and promote justice, peace and harmony. We are also linked not only by belief but also and more basically by our common humanity.

However, it is only by truly understanding the best in our faiths and in our common humanity that we can serve God and protect our children's future. In this vein, Jordan has a long and proud heritage of tolerance and moderation. Today, Jordanians are working systematically and boldly to expand the zone of understanding and dialogue around the world. We began within our own Islamic community, the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.

Six years ago, we issued the Amman Message, which sets forth Islam's call for tolerance, respect, justice, and mercy. The initiative strikes at the roots of extremism by building consensus on three essential points:

·             Who is a Muslim and what constitutes essential Muslim belief?

·             Who has the right to give a fatwa, a religious ruling?

·             And does anyone have the right to call someone an apostate in Islam?

 WESRMINSTER INTERFAITH - First World Interfaith Harmony Week May 2011  

THE ATLAS MARTYRS

21^ST May 1996

DOM CHRISTIAN DE CHERGÉ 

 “It is certain that God loves the Algerians and without doubt has chosen to show them this by giving them our lives… For each one it is a moment of truth and heavy responsibility in these times when those we love feel so little loved. Each one learns to integrate, little by little, death in this gift and with death all the other conditions of this ministry of living together which is a demand of total gratuity” 

BR. LUC DOCHIER

“What can happen to us? To go towards the Lord and to be immersed in his tenderness. God is all merciful and the great forgiver…There is no true love of God without consenting unreservedly to Death… Death is God”

FR. CHRISTOPHE LEBRETON

“My body is for the earth; but please, no protection between it and me. My heart is for life, but please no way between it and me. My hands for work are crossed, very simply. May my face be absolutely bare so as not to prevent the kiss. And the look, let it see it”

BR. MICHEL FLEURY

“Spirit Holy Creator, deign to bind me as soon as possible – not my will but yours be done – to the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ, our Lord, with the means that you would want, sure that You, Lord, will live it in me…”

FR. BRUNO LEMARCHAND

“You lead me, Lord, in silence and in prayer, in work and in joyous service of my brothers, in the example of your hidden life at Nazareth… I am always happy in my monastic life and to live in the land of Islam. Quite simply: here is Nazareth with Jesus, Mary and Joseph…”

FR. CÉLESTIN RINGEARD

“O Jesus, I accept with all my heart that your death is renewed and accomplished in me; I know that with you we ascend from the dizzy descent into the abyss, proclaiming to the demon his defeat”

BR. PAUL FAVRE-MIVILLE

“What will remain in a few months of the Church of Algeria, of its visibility, of its structures, the people who compose it?  With all probability little, very little. And yet I believe that the Good News is sown, the grain is germinating. The Spirit is at work, he works in the depths of the heart of people. Let’s be available so that he can act in us through prayer and the loving presence of all our brothers”

Martyrs of Atlas died May 21, 1996

Anniversary of the death of the Atlas Monks

Thank you, William, for the flowers and the Cards for Community and Guesthouse. Fr. Stephen is all unaware of the roses and  the view of his contemplating in the cloister.

ATLAS MARTYRS

In loving commemoration

21^st May 2011

  

21st May 1996

In 1986, Dom Christian de Chergé asked Sister Frances, iconographer, to create a cross for the monastery. Three   copies were made​​, the first for the Abbey of Our Lady of Anticosti, the second for the Monastery of Our Lady of

Atlas in Morocco and the third for the Hermitage of the

Holy Trinity at Bonifacio in Corsica.

From William . . .

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Encyclopedia

Updated live from Wikipedia, last check: May 20, 2011 11:33 UTC (55 seconds ago)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martyrs of Atlas
Died	May 21, 1996, Algeria
Martyred by	Armed Islamic Group or regular Algerian Army[1]

On the night of 26-27 March 1996, seven monks from the monastery of Tibhirine in Algeria, belonging to the Roman Catholic Trappist Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (O.C.S.O.), were kidnapped in the Algerian Civil War. They were held for two months, and were found dead on 21 May 1996. The circumstances of their kidnapping and death remain controversial; the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) claims responsibility for both, but the then French military attaché, retired General Francois Buchwalter, reports that they were accidentally killed by the Algerian army in a rescue attempt, and claims have been made that the GIA itself was a catspaw of Algeria's secret services (DRS.)

Contents 1 Circumstances 2 The monks 2.1 Disputes over killers' identity 3 External links 3.1 References

Circumstances

At about 1:15 AM on 27 March 1996, about twenty armed men came to the monastery of Tibhirine and kidnapped seven monks. Two others, in separate rooms, escaped the kidnappers' notice. After the kidnappers left, the remaining monks attempted to contact the police, but found that the phone lines had been cut. Because of the curfew in force, they had to wait until morning to drive to the police station in Medea. On 18 April, the Armed Islamic Group's communique no. 43 demanded the release of Abdelhak Layada as the price of the monks' lives. On 30 April, a tape with the voices of the kidnapped monks, recorded on 20 April, was delivered to the French Embassy. On 23 May, the Armed Islamic Group's communique no. 44 reported that the Armed Islamic Group had killed the monks on 21 May. The Algerian government announced that their heads had been discovered on May 31; their bodies' whereabouts are unknown. Their funeral Mass was celebrated in the Catholic Cathedral of Algiers on Sunday, June 2. They were buried in the cemetery of their monastery at Tibhirine on June 4, 1996.^[2]
The surviving monks of Tibhirine left Algeria, and have set up a monastery near Midelt in Morocco^[3] with help from other Trappist monks.

The monks

All seven monks killed were of French nationality. They were: Dom Christian de Chergé, Brother Luc Dochier, Father Christophe Lebreton, Brother Michel Fleury, Father Bruno Lemarchand, Father Célestin Ringeard, and Brother Paul Favre-Miville.

Disputes over killers' identity

In 2008, La Stampa reported that an anonymous high-ranking Western government official, then based in Algeria and in Finland at the time of writing, had told them that the kidnapping had been orchestrated by a DRS-infiltrated GIA group, and that the monks had then been killed accidentally by an Algerian military helicopter attacking the camp where they were being held captive.^[4]
In 2009, the retired French general Francois Buchwalter, who was military attache in Algeria at the time, testified to a judge that the monks had accidentally been killed by a helicopter from the Algerian government during an attack on a guerrilla position, then beheaded after their death to make it appear as though the GIA had killed them.^[5][6][7] Ex-GIA leader Abdelhak Layada, who was in prison when the monks were killed but was later freed under a national amnesty, responded by claiming that the GIA had indeed beheaded them after the breakdown of negotiations with the French secret services.^[8]

External links

• Martyrs of Atlas
• The Atlas Martyrs, by Dom Donald McGlynn [1]
• Abbey of Notre Dame de L'Atlas
• The Monks of Tibhirine (book site)

References

1. ^ http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1908873,00.html
2. ^ The death of the monks of Tibhirine: facts, questions, and hypotheses, by Armand Veilleux
3. ^ Notre Dame de l'Atlas
4. ^ "I monaci in Algeria uccisi dai militari"
5. ^ Sarkozy to release details about beheaded monks in Algeria
6. ^ Sarkozy accuse l’Algérie de mensonges
7. ^ Algerian army accused in massacre of French monks
8. ^ GIA executed French monks in Algeria in 1996: former chief

Categories: Cistercian Order | Trappists | 20th-century Roman Catholic martyrs | Algerian Civil War

Related links

Up to date as of November 16, 2009

Martyrs of Atlas - List of Martyr Monks

The Atlas Martyrs

Abbey of Notre Dame de L'Atlas - Document sans nom

Britain's Queen Elizabeth State Visit in Ireland

Britain's Queen Elizabeth toasts with Ireland's President Mary McAleese and Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron at the state dinner at Dublin Castle in Dublin May 18, 2011. 

John 10:30 I and the Father are One

TUESDAY, MAY 17JOHN 10:22-30

Jesus walking in Solomon's porch

AMPLIFIED BIBLE

Joh 10:22  After this the Feast of Dedication [of the reconsecration of the temple] was taking place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 
Joh 10:23  And Jesus was walking in Solomon's Porch in the temple area. 
Joh 10:24  So the Jews surrounded Him and began asking Him, How long are You going to keep us in doubt and suspense? If You are really the Christ (the Messiah), tell us so plainly and openly. 
Joh 10:25  Jesus answered them, I have told you so, yet you do not believe Me [you do not trust Me and rely on Me]. The very works that I do by the power of My Father and in My Father's name bear witness concerning Me [they are My credentials and evidence in support of Me]. 
Joh 10:26  But you do not believe and trust and rely on Me because you do not belong to My fold [you are no sheep of Mine]. 
Joh 10:27  The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice; and I know them, and they follow Me. 
Joh 10:28  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never lose it or perish throughout the ages. [To all eternity they shall never by any means be destroyed.] And no one is able to snatch them out of My hand. 
Joh 10:29  My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater and mightier than all [else]; and no one is able to snatch [them] out of the Father's hand. 
Joh 10:30  I and the Father are One. 

Commentary of the day : 
NJB: "The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep" (vv 27,26).
READING: As a faithful Jew, Jesus went to the temple for the Feast of Dedication ("Hanukkah"). This feast commemorated the rededication of the templeby the Maccabees after its desecration in 164 BCE by the Syrian King Antiochus IV Epiphanes (1 Mc 4:36-59). While in the temple, Jesus was confronted by those who demanded to know whether or not he claimed to be the Messiah. Jesus pointed to the works that he did as evidence that God sent him. The words and deeds of Jesus were the words and deeds of God. The reason his adversaries did not recognize him was because they did not belong to his flock. Those who belonged to Jesus knew him and followed him. God gave these faithful ones to Jesus, the "good shepherd" (v 11), who kept careful watch over his own. No one could snatch them from his hand because he and the Father are one

POPE BENEDICT XVI
JESUS OF NAZARETH Part I

Shepherd . . . pp. 282-286

Let us listen once more to these decisive words: "I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep". (Jn 10:14f). This statement contains a second set of interrelated ideas that we need to consider. The mutual knowing of shepherd and sheep is interwoven with the mutual knowing of Father and Son. The knowing that links Jesus with "his own" exists within the space opened up by his "knowing" oneness with the Father. Jesus' "own" are woven into the Trinitarian dialogue; we will see this again when we consider the high-priestly prayer. This will help us to see that Church and Trinity are mutually interwoven. This interpenetration of two levels of knowing is crucial for understanding the essence of the "knowing" of which John's Gospel speaks.

Applying all of the above to the world in which we live, we can say this: It is only in God and in light of God that we rightly know man. Any "self-knowledge" that restricts man to the empirical and the tangible fails to engage with man's true depth. Man knows himself only when he learns to understand himself in light of God, and he knows others only when he sees the mystery of God in them. For the shepherd in Jesus' service, this means that he has no right to bind men to himself, to his own little “I”. The mutual knowing that binds him to the "sheep" entrusted to his care must have a different goal: It must enable them to lead one another into God, toward God; it must enable them to encounter each other in the communion formed around knowing and loving God. The shepherd in Jesus' service must always lead beyond himself in order to enable others to find their full freedom; and therefore he must always go beyond himself into unity with Jesus and with the Trinitarian God.

Jesus' own "I" is always opened into "being with" the Father; he is never alone, but is forever receiving himself from and giving himself back to the Father. "My teaching is not mine"; his "I" is opened up into the Trinity. Those who come to know him "see" the Father; they enter into this communion of his with the Father. It is precisely this transcendent dialogue, which encounter with Jesus involves, that once more reveals to us the true Shepherd, who does not take possession of us, but leads us to the freedom of our being by leading us into communion with God and by giving his own life.

Let us turn to the last principal motif of the shepherd discourse: the motif of unity. The shepherd discourse in Ezekiel emphasizes this motif: "The word of the LORD came to me: 'Son of Man, take a stick and write on it, "For Judah, and the children of Israel associated with him"; then take another stick and write upon it, "For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him"; and join them together into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. . . . "Thus says the Lord Goo: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations ... and I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel ... And they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms"'" (Ezek 37:15-17, 21f). God is the Shepherd who reunites divided and scattered Israel into a single people.

Jesus' shepherd discourse takes up this vision, while very decidedly enlarging the scope of the promise: "I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one Shepherd" (Jn 10:16). Jesus the Shepherd is sent not only to gather the scattered sheep of the house of Israel, but to gather together all "the children of God who are scattered abroad" an n:52). In this sense, Jesus' promise that there will be one Shepherd and one flock is equivalent to the risen Lord's missionary command in Matthew's Gospel: "Go therefore and make all nations my disciples" (Mt 28:19); the same idea appears again in the Acts of the Apostles, where the risen Lord says: "You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

This brings to light the inner reason for this universal mission: There is only one Shepherd. The Logos who became man in Jesus is the Shepherd of all men, for all have been created through the one Word; however scattered they may be, yet as coming from him and bound toward him they are one. However widely scattered they are, all people can become one through the true Shepherd, the Logos who became man in order to lay down his life and so to give life in abundance (cf Jn 10:10).

From very early on - the evidence goes back to the third century-the vision of the shepherd became a typical image of the Christian world. In the surrounding culture, the Christian people encountered the figure of a man carrying a sheep, which to an overstressed urban society expressed the popular dream of the simple life. But the Christian people were immediately able to reinterpret this figure in light of Scripture. Psalm 23 is an example that comes to mind directly: "The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures .... Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. ... Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for ever." They recognized Christ as the Good Shepherd who leads us through life's dark valleys; the Shepherd who himself walked through the valley of the shadow of death; the Shepherd who also knows the way through the night of death and does not abandon me in this final solitude, but leads me out of this valley of death into the green pastures of life, to the place of "light, happiness and peace" (Roman Canon). Clement of Alexandria expressed this trust in the Shepherd's guidance in verses that convey something of the hope and confidence felt by the early Church in the midst of frequent sufferings and constant persecutions: "Lead, holy Shepherd, your spiritual sheep: Lead, king, your pure children. Christ's footsteps are the way to heaven" (Paedogogus, III, 12, 101; Van der Meer, Men­schensohn, p. 23).

But naturally, Christians were also reminded of the parable of the shepherd who follows after the lost sheep, lifts it onto his shoulders, and brings it home, as well as the shepherd discourse of John's Gospel. For the Church Fathers, the two texts flowed into each other. The Shepherd who sets off to seek the lost sheep is the eternal Word himself, and the sheep that he lovingly carries home on his shoulders is humanity, the human existence that he took upon himself In his Incarnation and Cross he brings home the stray sheep, humanity; he brings me home, too. The incarnate Logos is the true "sheep-bearer"-the Shepherd who follows after us through the thorns and deserts of our life. Carried on his shoulders, we come home. He gave his life for us. He himself is life.