The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has made this statement about the terrorist attacks in London:
To his Eminence Cardinal
Cormac Murphy-O’Connor
Archbishop of Westminster
Deeply saddened by the news of the terrorist attacks in central London the Holy Father offers fervent prayers for the victims and for all those who mourn. While he deplores these barbaric acts against humanity he asks you to convey to the families of the injured his spiritual closeness at this time of grief. Upon the People of Great Britain he invokes the consolation that only God can give in such circumstances.Cardinal ANGELO SODANO
Secretary of State
I wish to associate myself with those sentiments, and these for those who have lost their lives:
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine;
et lux perpetua luceat eis;
Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion,
et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem.
Exaudi orationem meam:
ad te omnis caro veniet.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine;
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Kim - Pax domini sit semper vobiscum.
Also, nemo sibi nascitur.
Necessitas fortiter ferre docet, consuetendo facile.
Holy Thursday
‘Twas on a holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,
The children walking two and two in red and blue and green:
Grey-headed beadles walked before, with wands as white as snow,
Till into the high dome of Paul’s they like Thames waters flow.
O what a multitude they seemed, these flowers of London town!
Seated in companies they sit, with radiance all their own.
The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,
Thousands of little boys and girls raising their innocent hands.
Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,
Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among:
Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor.
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.
- William Blake; a Londoner.
So now as I’m leavin’
I’m weary as Hell
The confusion I’m feelin’
Ain’t no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God’s on our side
He’ll stop the next war.
Amen to that, Kim.
I can hear Faure’s Requiem in my head…
Kim, my sister’s a nun at Tyburn convent, a stone’s throw from the bombings. I’m not worried about her, because as an enclosed order it’s unlikely she was on the Tube or a bus. But I was touched by you & Markus praying for the victims, because that’s what I was doing (still am) and what I know she and her sisters were doing, all together, and with plenty of others probably. And that’s one of the only things that will make any difference - prayer. With (insincere) apologies to all you agnostics out there - believe in God, hope for His mercy and pray like mad.
Mark - don’t take the threads to heart. People are angry, tired, scared, all the rest. It should be kinda heartening that some of them turn here to try to let it out and make some sense (or no sense at all). Tomorrow’s another day. But damn, what a mess we’ve got outselves into.
And now I’m going to say the Rosary (a Joyful mystery this time) and then get drunk.
‘cos maybe, in vino veritas. That’s the only bloody Latin I know, anyway.
Another saddening event in the 1400 year old Islamic attack on Christianity and in an Islamic Civil War also centuries old. I’ll echo Tony’s comment. You provide a service, in a way, to people who do need a place to express opinions. Better out than internalised, I suppose.
More candles to light, come Sunday.
MarkL
Canberra
But damn, what a mess we’ve got outselves into.
Tony, I certainly can’t disagree with that.
Another saddening event in the 1400 year old Islamic attack on Christianity and in an Islamic Civil War also centuries old.
Cuts both ways, sadly, MarkL. A lot of the hardening of positions in Islam and the nipping in the bud of the incipient rationalist Islamic reformation of the 12th century came because of the Crusades. Not to mention the hostility between Eastern and Latin Christianity from the sack of Constantinople in the 13th Century. We are learning - again - what it is like to live in history - and we need to bolster our understanding thereof so all of us can transcend what’s been bred into the bone from centuries of mutual hostility.
Kim
Yes it does, but it does behove us to understand that even the 1st crusade came as the very first whole-of-Christianity counterattack after 464 years of continual Islamic conquest and annihilation of Christian Kingdoms. Khalid’s initial attack on Christian Syria was in 652 AD (IIRC).
This is not terribly important to us, but it is very important to them. For this is yesterday’s history according to Wahabists - Madrid was, in their view, a partial vengeance for Granada!
Remember what Amrozi was shouting as he left the courtroom?
“Remember Khaibar!”
That was among the first Muslim conquests, and where the whole concept of ‘dhimmitude’ was developed.
1400 years ago.
MarkL
Canberra
Maybe so, MarkL, and the point that what we see as ancient history is present reality in the Middle East has been made by Tariq Ali - with reference to 1917 and the Balfour Declaration being the day to day governing reality for Palestinians. We have also to ask ourselves why such events seem present.
And, also, ourselves to do some remembering.