Letter from Gaza

by Tony | 1/20/2009 in , | comments (0)

This Sunday our parish priest read out an open letter from Fr Manuel Mussallam who is the priest for the tiny Catholic community of 200 in the Holy Family parish in Gaza. The profoundly moving letter recounted the situation in Gaza under the conditions of war imposed by Israel over the last few weeks. My heart broke at this passage:


I announce to you from the heart of the father and priest, the death of the daughter of our school in Holy Family, the dear, Christine Wadi al-Turk, the first Christian to die in the war. Christine was in the tenth grade in our school and she died this morning, Friday, January 2, 2009 as a result of fear and the cold. The windows in her home were open to protect the children from glass fragments and the missiles that pass above it. The bombing that hit her neighbor's home caused her whole body to shake in horror. She could not bear all this, so she went to complain to her Creator about her situation and request a home and a refuge where there is no crying, screaming or wailing, but joy and happiness.

I find it deeply distressing that any nation should seek to wage war on innocent civilians and, in particular, that a child should be driven to death by fear.

The letter is reproduced in full on our parish website: http://www.saintdominics.org.uk/news.htm 

Please take the time to read it and, perhaps, to join in prayer with the Christians of Gaza as they recite the words Fr Manuel has provided for prayer at the top of each hour:

O Lord of peace rain peace on us, O Lord of peace, grant peace to our land. Have mercy, O Lord, on your people and do not keep us in enmity forever.

Amen.

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Welcome to dotCatholic. This is the personal blog of the editor of dotCatholic.com containing entries largely written from a Catholic perspective. I hope you enjoy reading.

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