Interfaith Dialogue

Mother Teresa once said that listening is the beginning of prayer. If that is true, then my "cloistered brothers" and I spent the afternoon praying. We faith shared.
Before our meeting we were told to bring a prayer with us. We Catholics also had read the Letter to Presidents of Bishops' Conferences on the Spirituality of Dialogue, 1999, in preparation for this meeting. We began by trying to sit next to someone of a different faith. This was hard to do, since there was an over abundance of Catholics. But we managed to make ten groups, and each group had a least one member of another faith.

For some reason, Protestants don't come to this. No one is sure why. It seems that they're always arguing among themselves. But they're always invited.

The Jews never come. Some said it's because they don't encourage interfaith dialogue. They don't actively seek converts, so they don't seek opportunities to share their faith. I don't know. But we always invite them, too.

And the strangest, but most wonderful thing happened. The Wiccan High Priest who came to our first interfaith dialogue, has converted. It seems that he went to a Cursillo a few weeks ago, and was zapped by the Holy Spirit. Yeah, my jaw dropped, too.

Anyway, the meeting began with the groups sharing our prayers. In explaining why we chose that certain prayer, we were explaining our faith. Questions were asked to understand, and this helped to open up the conversation. It went very well. Everyone was so kind and friendly to each other.

After a while, the ten small groups went back to their big circles and one spokesperson from each group shared what went on. One enlightened questioned was asked about the Muslim saying that we were created to submit to God. I didn't think anything wrong with this, but a discussion arose. I was thinking of the catechism question, "Why did God make us?" The answer, "God made us to love and serve Him." Isn't serve and submit the same?

So we had a majority of Catholics, then a few Muslims, and only two Buddhists. But it was enough to make the dialogue meaningful.

"Sam'i Allahu liman hamidah, Rabbana wa lakal hamd" (God hears those who call upon Him; Our Lord, praise be to You). --part of Islamic daily prayer