Women and men, their eyes wide open, entered the Silence and watched attentively. They heard the Ineffable, they saw the Invisible. And, without being perfect, they became witnesses, heretical prophets, peaceful subversives, friends of life, of joyful goodness.
Theologian Bishop JOHN SHELBY SPONG died
/in Dawns, Witnesses to Light /by José ArregiJune 16, 1931 – September 12, 2021. Thank you, Brother John Shelby Spong! for your free, innovative, inspiring, prophetic theology! There are few theological giants who shape the way that entire generations relate to their sacred texts. Bishop John Shelby Spong, through his intelligence, kindness, and love of scripture, did just that. Bishop Spong […]
To Andrés Ortiz-Osés. Obituary
/in Witnesses to Light /by José ArregiI remember you, Andrés, in the corridor of the University of Deusto, your smile like that of a young boy and ingenuity in your eyes, philosopher in walking sneakers, on the verge of saying an aphorism or a paradox. May you rest in peace, tireless hermeneut of the invisible in the visible. Disolution as […]
Michel Berhocoirigoin. The death of a righteous man
/in Dawns, Witnesses to Light /by José ArregiAt the age of 69, before his time, Michel Berhocoirigoin left us quietly and peacefully. He was a big soul of the Basque country. Farmer, trader unionist, militant of the countryside, peasant of all struggles. He was brought to justice after he had registered in Basque the name of the farmer’s union he had founded. […]
Ibn Arabi
/in Dawns, Witnesses to Light /by José ArregiIbn Arabi (Murcia 1165 – Damascus 1240) was a wise man from Al Andalus (Spain), Sufi Muslim, philosopher and poet. Who speaks as he does, transcends every religion. As he may result suspected of heresy, and in order to avoid convictions, he went into exile successively in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Anatolia and Damascus. There was […]
Martin Mendizabal. Obituary
/in Dawns, Witnesses to Light /by José ArregiThere was hardly any thanksgiving before a meal in the dining-room or a prayer in Mass that before the final Amen Martin would not make a comment: “what nonsense do we say about God!” “But, Martin –I would tell him every time- why do you pay such careful attention when we say those prayers? Think […]
Arcadi Oliveres, tireless conscience agitator. Obituary
/in Dawns, Witnesses to Light /by José ArregiOn April 7th, a day after the theologian Hans Küng, Arcadi Oliveres (Barcelona), died at 76 of pancreatic cancer. Professor of Economics at the University, but above all street activist, scourge of injustice, accomplished fighter against big oligopolies and their executive directors, he favoured social movements rather than political parties. His program: anticapitalism, civil disobedience, […]
I choose to believe in God
/in Dawns, Witnesses to Light /by José ArregiI have no scientific proof that God exists, nor of what there may be after death. By now, when I am into my 80s, my faith is riddled with doubts. I’m bubbling with questions as I face the structural cruelties of the powerful, the suffering of the innocent, the poverty of so many people, natural […]
Loreto, a bright life
/in Dawns, Witnesses to Light /by José ArregiLoreto Rey Arnáiz has left an indelible memory in many people. Her task has been a permanent call to live joyfully in favour of others, particularly those who suffer the most in our world. She belonged to the Workers’ Vanguard Christian Community from its start, and suffered a multitude of searches by Franco’s police in […]
The sign of Saint Merry’s
/in Reflections, Witnesses to Light /by José ArregiIn Les Halles de Beaubourg, the old Parisian farmers’ market, completely redone in the 1970s and turned into the commercial, cultural and artistic heart of contemporary Paris, there is a singular jewel: Saint Merry’s, a beautiful gothic church from the 16th century, in flamboyant style, called “the little Notre-Dame”. It is a museum of architecture, […]
An abused woman
/in Dawns, Witnesses to Light /by José ArregiThis happened about thirty years ago on the banks of the Ganges in Benares. A woman whose age could just as easily have been thirty or fifty, because of the way TB had taken its toll on her, was holding her young son in her arms and beside her was her daughter, who was about […]