Ribat El Salam in Fnideq on the Feast of St. Francis Xavier
Fr. Rolando Ruiz Duran, SX | December 7, 2023
Xaverian Missionary communities throughout the world celebrate the feast of our patron, Saint Francis Xavier in very different ways. Here, the Xaverians are beginning a new mission in Morrocco, which is predominately Muslim. In this story, our confreres celebrate together with Sufi Muslim colleagues. The original post may be found on the website of our General Direction in Rome here.
Celebrating St. Francis Xavier with Sufi brothers and sisters is already a tradition in our community in Morocco. In this celebration we are united by the desire to “make the world one family” by becoming a “Ribat El Salam” (a bond of peace, founded in Algeria by Christian de Chergé and Msgr. Claude Rault, and lived with the Sufi brotherhood Alawiya). We Xaverians have been walking alongside the Tariqa Alawiya since our beginnings in this land. Our meditation and silent prayer, based on an aya of the Qur’an and a verse of the Gospel, aimed to deepen how in God’s plan “the other”, coming from the East and the West, is called to live the joy of God and sit at his table. On this occasion, the Daughters of Charity of Ksar El Kebir and Salva, a Christian friend from Ceuta, have joined.
This was followed by a meal together, in which we extended our communion and then shared freely and spontaneously what we experienced during the time of our Ribat El Salam[1].
In the sharing, we have expressed that the proposed texts have been useful to us because they have opened us up to the other. Silent prayer allows us, on the one hand, to enter into such a strong communion in which the ego leaves aside its being and in which a new experience of communion is created that is difficult to describe because we have experienced a kind of paradise with the feeling that we were not here; Time has passed very quickly, in summary in this experience we feel privileged as it is offered to us as an unexpected and undeserved gift from God.
This is how we have experienced feeling like a single family, at the end of the prayer it is like waking up with that taste in our mouths of something that we have lived with intensity and that can help us to live our daily life in a new way and with new horizons.
Meditated texts from the Qur’an and the Gospel and Koran: Aya 62. Surat Baqara.
“Those who believed, the Jews, the Christians, and the Sabaeans, who have had faith in God on the Day of Judgment and have done righteous deeds, will obtain their reward with their Lord, and they will not fear or grieve.”
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالنَّصَارَىٰ وَالصَّابِئِينَ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ﴾ البقرة: 62﴿
Gospel: Mt 8:11
“And I say unto you, many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” Gospel of Matthew 8:11
وَأَقُولُ لَكُمْ: إِنَّ كَثِيرِينَ سَيَأْتُونَ مِنَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ وَيَتَّكِئُونَ مَعَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ فِي مَلَكُوتِ السَّمَاوَاتِ.
11,إنجيل متى 8
This is a sharing from Asmae, from Tariqa Alawiya:
“Thank you so much for this wonderful moment. We have vibrated together in high vibrations and have tuned into Love, respect, trust, letting go and guiding, and wonderful sensations.
The 48 minutes of silence is a formidable proposal. Practicing it in every encounter is beneficial to our spiritual path because it has a great effect on introspection, calming the mind, for contemplating and becoming aware of the movements of the ego that uses the past, the future, and emotional wounds and creates thoughts. Silence allows us to live in the present, in the here and now. Silence allows us to get to know each other. And he who knows himself knows God. Silence is essential to open consciousness. The presence of the sisters and Salvador was no coincidence.
It’s a synchronization. We have synchronized together because we vibrate in the same vibrations and have the same intentions, the mutual desire to meet with open arms, the desire to knit with strong and soft yarns at the same time RIBAT ASSALAM. And I am sure and I have faith that what we all do, and for it to last, resonates with the whole world, with the whole Universe, and with the will of God, all humanity signs this blessed Covenant with the Heart. LOVE. AMIN”
[1] The Arabic transcription of Ribat El Salam is pronounced in Arabic as Ribat Salam.
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