DOSSIER
Precious Treasure
by VV. AA. | Summer 2010
The Poor Clare Community of Jerusalem in prayer. (photo M. Mezzera)
Monasticism in the Holy Land must not be a marginal reality or a simple personal search for God,” Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem has written. “Monks and nuns have to give witness to the primacy of God in the lives of people; and they have to aim for holiness, living the couplet of ‘ora et labora’ (pray and work).”
The role of contemplative men and women is even broader, especially in the Holy Land: “Pray for the world and the Church and bear the problems that so many men and women suffer: war, the absence of peace, poverty, hunger, the lack of jobs, persecutions, divisions within the Church, the lack of priests. At the same time do not neglect the personal needs of families and individuals who ask for counsel and prayer. Monks yearn for ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. With their prayers, openness, welcoming, hospitality and writings, they reflect the true face of the Church. They are instruments of salvation for all humanity. They are a precious treasure for the Church of Jerusalem.”
This treasure has given the universal Church figures of great prominence. Among these are: the Carmelite, Myriam Bawardi, the “little Arab” who lived until her death at the Bethlehem Carmel; and Poor Clare Sister Mary of the Trinity who lived and died in Jerusalem and was a mystic who distilled pearls of spirituality in her dairy titled The Spiritual Legacy of Sister Mary of the Holy Trinity (Tan Books and Publishers, Rockford, Illinois, 1981) (G.C.)
(This is the Introduction to the Dossier of The Holy Land Review, paper edition)