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We remember you, José Ellacuria

A year ago José Ellacuría went from this life (1928-2020) to shapeless Life. I celebrate this day in communion with those who continue loving him most and remembering him, bringing him to memory, to Life. This morning, very early in the morning, I have received this email from the person who was closest to him: […]

If only we knew the path to peace….

The prophets of Israel had announced peace –Shalom– for a later time, the messianic future that would witness the coming of the Messiah, the king descended from David, the “Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:5). Then, Isaiah wrote, “They shall beat their swords into mattocks and their spears into pruning-knives. Nation will not lift sword against […]

A sea of small fires

A man from the village of Neguá, on the coast of Colombia, could go up to the high heaven. And, upon his return, he said That he had contemplated, from high above, the life of humans. And he said that we are like a sea of small fires. – The world is like that -he […]

Prophecy of Isaiah (ch. 2,1-5)

This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In days to come, the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it; many peoples shall come and say: “Come, let us climb the Lords’s mountain, to the house […]

On the way to peace (I)

Defining PEACE, the fullness of all goodness, is not easy. We know what it is until we try to explain it or, in order to do so, we look it up in a dictionary, and then suddenly we realize how ignorant we are. But lacking peace is more painful than our ignorance. Will words help […]

Happiness of the gaze

Happy those who stop their gaze without haste, those who do not shy away from the others’ gaze. Happy those who fix their most attentive gaze on the most every day events, and apparently insignificant. Happy those whose immediate, daily problems do not prevent them from reach the horizon. Happy those whose eyes have been […]

Empathy

The word empathy emerged in the 20th century to express the capacity to understand the feelings of others from right inside oneself. It is derived from the Greek empatheia, although, strictly speaking, this word means passion, affliction (en: inside; pathos: feeling, suffering). The Greek word to denote empathy was sympatheia (“to suffer with” the other […]

Let me weep for you

Let me weep for you Let me weep for you, my brother. Let me hold you, my sister, your aching heart beating against the rhythm of my own, our tears mingling, our ancient angers pooled red around our feet. And when our hearts dry and our tears slow, may we see in one another’s eyes […]

Spirituality and Transcendence: how to live the old age

              (Lecture delivered in the SUMMER COURSES of the UPV-EHU –University of the Basque Country–, in the Course “Meaning and spirituality of life. Taking on new dimensions in the old age paradigms”, in Miramar Palace, Donostia-San Sebastian, September 13, 2021) I start these reflections with two biblical sentences and three introductory observations. “A rich experience […]

Autumn

           Rafa Redondo writes: My dear friends, It has been a while since my last newsletter. The existence of each and every one of us has changed somewhat. After nearly two years, I find myself in the body of an 80-year-old man in a delicate state of health that is affecting my capacity to receive […]