Refugee women from Darfur carry water in a camp in Chad. -Lolín Menendez rscj/JRS  |
Listen to the Word of God…
“But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?’ So Moses cried out to the Lord, ‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.’ The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.
Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarrelled and tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’” Exodus 17:3-7 For what do the people of our world thirst today? Spiritually? Materially? Listen to prophets of today…
Star Wars Help Darfur find water “A French scientist, Alain Gachet, has adapted elements of Star Wars – designed to counter the threat of nuclear attack on America, by using satellites to pinpoint missile launches – to locate sources of water beneath the Sahara. The technology is proving highly useful as the region struggles to cope with the fallout from the Darfur crisis in Sudan, with thousands of refugees heading over the border into Chad. When the country is very dry, very rough, without vegetation, it is a great tool because you can scan thousands of square kilometres within weeks.” To the Maori “water is pivotal and very sacred…Waterways were important sources of food and plants were used for tool making and medicinal purposes.” Water was/is also used in purification rituals. - Today “the Waitangi Tribunalcases provide guidance in making decisions about waterissues involving Maori:
- Fresh water is a lifegiving gift
- The Maori concept of rivers is holistic
- Only tangata whenua (local Maori inhabitants) can determine the spiritual and cultural significance to Maori of a river resource
- Environmental consultation with Maori is a Treaty partnership duty”
www.tki.org.nz
The Modern Desert “As lived by most people today modernity is often pretty dismal.Western civilisation is increasingly a desert of meaning and a daily lived crisisof surviving in human dignity…Even more gloomy is …the sense of the wasteland… of human relationships, the failure of the habit of fidelity andthe impossibility of making the gift of self…It is a world without prayer.And yet the very barrenness and desperation ofthat world seems to ignite a lone spark of spirituality…” (“Prayer in the West Today” Laurence Freeman OSB)
Listen to the story…
A Creation story of Aotearoa New Zealand “In the beginning lived Ranginui and Papatuanuku. Their love was so strong that their children were trapped between the darkness of their embrace. After muchpushing and shoving, Tane managed to separate his parents and let the childrenof Papa and Rangi escape and create the world as we know it. The disappointment of Papa and Rangi at being separated was great but their love did not diminish.Papa became Earth Mother and stayed with all growing things while Rangi waspushed far into the sky to become Sky Father. Even now when it rains, SkyFather’s tears fall down on Earth Mother whose tears are springs of water thatmingle with the rain and run in streams through the forest to the sea, finally,rising as mist like the song of her heart, to her lover in the sky. What ideas/images strike you as you reflect on this story? Is there a message for us in our world of 2005? Listen to our hearts… There is within each of us A quiet clear pool of living water Fed by the one deep Source And inseparable from it, But so often hidden By a tangle of activity That we may not know Of its existence. We can spend the proverbial forty years Wandering in strange deserts, Sinking unrewarding wells And moving on, driven by our thirst, But when we stop still long enough To look inside ourselves, really look Beyond our ideas about water And what and where it should be, We discover it was with us all the time, That quiet clear pool which is ageless, The meaning of our existence. And the answer to all wanderings. And as we drink, We know what Jesus meant when he said We’d never be thirsty again. “Aotearoa Psalms” by Joy Crowley Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Committee
Province of Australia - New Zealand Lenten Reflection: Week One
Lenten Reflection: Week Two
Lenten Reflection: Week Three
Lenten Reflection: Week Four
Lenten Reflection: Week Five
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