Tuesday, October 16, 2012
My Thirty-day Retreat – Part 7
Dear Friends,
Here is another part of My Thirty-day Retreat in Jerusalem. During these days Jesus is teaching me about the Contemplative Brothers and the Contemplative Sisters of Jesus.
Father Melvin
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6th May 1990 – Early in the morning I prayed using the text of the Beatitudes in Matthew: Chapter 5, 1- 10. I especially dwelt on the Beatitude, which says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right.” This means that we have to practice justice. I saw that the poor, especially the rural poor, are the first to suffer from injustice. Often schools are far away and the students cannot get to them. Often the teachers in those schools in Africa are poor, the schools are not repaired, and they often do not have the required equipment. There are few hospitals or clinics for these people. If they do have hospitals, there is no medicine. The roads in the rural areas are very poor, and the bridges ready to collapse. The African people do not get their fertilizer in time, and often their produce just rots on the side of the road because there is no transport. The rural poor have no voice, and have difficulty to organize themselves because they are not educated. These people need help, and a religious congregation is needed to help them. In the other periods of prayer, I simply prayed for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, especially on the peoples of Africa. I asked the Lord to make His desires known for the poor in Africa, how He wants the Church to help these people.
7th May 1990: Day of repose – Early this morning (7:30) we piled into the bus for a trip to Jericho, the oasis near the Jordan River. We went first to the Orthodox Monastery of St. George Kaziba in the Wadi Kelt. This place is built in the mountains in the Judean desert. In fact the whole monastery is built in the side of the mountain. The road to get there is very steep and has to circle the mountain and in some places the drop is hundreds of feet which can make your head spin. In this monastery we met the Superior, a man from Serbia who has lived thirty years here. He leads ten monks, lost, as it were, in the desert. They have water because there is a spring just above the monastery. With this precious commodity they have trees and a small garden. We saw the Chapel where there are many Icons, and a good number of skulls and bones, and also the body of one of the monks who died in the 1800’s. We also visited the Chapel to our Lady – very beautiful, especially the floor made in the 6thcentury. This monastery and all the monasteries in the Judean desert were destroyed in 614 AD by the Persians, and about 30,000 monks were killed. It was about 1200 years afterwards that the monks returned to build here. From this monastery we walked about one hour, following the side of the mountain and its small stream, to the town of Jericho. Along the way we saw caves where hermits used to live, and even today some do live there. At Jericho, which we had visited previously, we caught our bus and drove through Jericho to the mountain of the Temptations. The Gospels tell us about the temptations of Jesus in the desert. The bus could only bring us to the foot of the mountain. So we had to walk up a very steep path. We walked for about 20 minutes till we reached the famous Monastery of the Temptations built very high in the side of the mountain. With cliffs straight down. These cliffs are about 1,000 feet high. Standing on the balcony of the Monastery one can see straight down to the bottom of the mountain, and if one fell over the side, there would no chance of reaching the bottom alive. How they built this monastery in such a place is a mystery to me.
The few Orthodox monks allowed us in. They brought us to a place which is actually a cave where we were told that Jesus passed the 40 days and 40 nights praying. The monk explained that in 614 AD, 2,000 monks were attached to this monastery, and in that year they were all massacred. Today there are only 5 monks here. We were shown the Chapel with beautiful Icons of Our Lord and Our Lady, and others of angels. We were taken further up the mountain to another enclosed cave where we were told that this was the place where the devil had tempted Jesus. Here we read Matthew 4, 1- 11: the biblical text about the temptations. After exploring around for a while we made our way back down to the bus, and back to Jericho. Our guides brought us to the centre of town to a huge Sycamore tree. This is supposed to be the tree that Zacchaeus climbed up in order to see Jesus who was passing by. Jericho has a population of nearly 20,000 people. As most of us were thirsty, we managed to find a light drink before we boarded our bus to return to Jerusalem. We arrived back around 12:15, after passing the famous Samaritan Inn situated about half way between the two towns.
In the afternoon at 5:30 p.m. we celebrated the Eucharist in our various groups. Afterwards I spent an hour in prayer. I took as text Acts 2, 14 -36: the preaching of St. Peter after the descent of the Holy Spirit. At the end, Jesus spoke to me saying: “Keep meditating on the Acts. As regards prayer, you should do the following every day: half hour of meditation every morning, Breviary, the Eucharist, visit in the evening and rosary.”
8th May 1990 – Today I saw my director early at 8:15 because we were celebrating the Eucharist at 11:00 a.m. at the Cenacle where the Apostles had gathered for the last Supper, and at Pentecost. My director spoke about the Movement of the Cenacle. He also gave me a book by Cardinal Martini of Milan called, “Peuple en marche“, a retreat He gave on the Acts of the Apostles. Fr. Luc has decided that I should meditate on the Acts from now on. The first three meditations were all connected with Pentecost. At Pentecost, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles baptized 3,000 people in a single day. Today the Church has spread throughout the world, beginning from this place: Jerusalem. The Event of Pentecost is continuing throughout the world as people come to believe in Christ and are baptized and are committed to Him. Yet there are still so many who have not heard of Jesus, and those sent to preach the Good News are so few. The missionaries are so few in Africa, especially in the rural areas. How important that this New Society be born, and work to bring about a New Pentecost for the world. The beautiful passage of Acts 2, 42 – 47 is a glimpse of Heaven how the disciples loved each other and shared everything they had. This indeed is the goal of Christianity: to be completely transformed in Christ. Unfortunately this beautiful life did not last long, and today it only exists in monasteries where the monks and the nuns have everything in common. Let this text be a fundamental one for our new Society.
In the evening we had 45 minutes of adoration in the chapel. It was for me a time to praise and adore God and the Lord Jesus. This will be part of the life of the members of the Society every day as they meditate and praise and adore God in the Church.