Prayers for all in Brussels

[natefaith]

Our prayers go out to those in Brussels who have lost loved ones this morning. http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-35869266

When the world is going mad this Scripture verse brings me comfort: "When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted." - Psalm 138:3

Please travel safely, everyone, as you head to and from the Camino and go around the world. God bless you all.


Take care,
Faith

 

[rometimed]

Well wishes for the people of Brussels, the region and Belgium. I've never been to Brussels but last year spent some time in May at WW1 sites in Ypres and Hooge just West of Brussels. Great people and country, praying for them in tough times.

EDIT:

Wanted to add a note for Istanbul, where I also spent time last year, that has been hit with more than 6 attacks since I was there which was only a few months back. Wishing the best for people of that city as well.

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

This morning after I heard about the bombings in Brussels left my work and went to the nearest church and I light up an candle for all the people in Brussels.
Wish everybody a safe journey and God bless you all, Peter.

 

[Arn]

The Dr is OUT! Sorry for the short post but, I've been called out to assist in some senseless and some might say self-centered tragic happenings of late.
Terror, by it's very nature, is geared to force change. Change in the way one thinks, lives their lives and goes about doing all the things "normal" people do.
There are rules about how we should live our lives in respect to our families, friends and others we come in contact with in the "normal" course of each day.
On a "normal" day...we get up...go to school, to work...the library, movies or to play checkers in the park. Some of us start each day in prayer, others in Church and others going to and fro and hopefully... all to return home safely at the end of our day.
The "abnormal" seek to add currency to their lives...by changing, and or, taking ours. In the end, they hope to shock us into initially stop doing the things that make our lives healthy and then slowly, wring our resolve so tightly that we remain in our homes just waiting for them to come knocking.
OOPs, I hear the knocking at my door undoubtedly requesting my presence as the latest casualties are brought in. Sure, there are twenty or so with damage to their bodies. Some we will save and some we won't. They may be the lucky ones, because it's the millions we can't see that will forever be mentally damaged to the point where "normal" becomes an aberration, rather than reality.

 

[SabsP]

As a Belgian currently walking to Finisterre everything feels so unreal!
In hotel now with wifi.
OH travelled by car and not by plane today...

Let's stay strong....

 

[Dutch]

I have flow to and from Brussels airport dozens of times. Its just a one hour drive away. I thought the attacks in Paris were close by, but this is getting unreal.
My 15 year old daughter gets on the train with end destination Brussels airport several times a week going from school to home. The trainstation she travels from was heavily guarded after tofays attacks (because of the trains to and from Brussels).
My girlfriend goes to Brussels at least twice a week for work.

Today i am feeling sick to my Stomach.

 

[t2andreo]

I returned yesterday (Monday 21 March) from a 10-day visit to friends in the Antwerp area, from when I lived there for a a few years. Ironically, I was at the very spot in the main departures terminal at Zaventem Airport where the bombs exploded this morning, exactly 24-hours earlier... There but for the grace of God go I...

This was very spooky indeed!

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Belgium people in this time of utter senselessness and tragedy. I have been fielding e-mail and text messages from many of my friends there. And they were concerned for MY safety...go figure.

My time as a pilgrim has taught me a keen awareness of and appreciation for these accidents of fate. Call them what you will: coincidence, fate, karma, whatever. The fact still remains that my personal Guardian Angel is working overtime, both when I am on Camino and generally...

For this I am eternally grateful.

 

[movinmaggie]

OMG, I've been all day without listening, seeing or hearing of any news of Brussels, so I tuned in to PBS news just now. I was literally in tears; the heartache and senselessness of it all. God help us! As if France was not tragic enough. At times, I think the planet is having a nervous breakdown. My heart goes out to all who have suffered, not only injuries but the loss of those near and dear. When will this ever end. I pray for all of us.

 

[natefaith]

A friend brought this quote to my attention yesterday. It's from C.S. Lewis's essay, "On Living in An Atomic Age":

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things - praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts - not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."

The essay relates to a time when the world was facing atomic bombs for the first time, but it could apply to us today as well. Here's more of the essay, (but it gets cut off at the end).
Take care and be safe.
Faith

 

[natefaith]

Well wishes for the people of Brussels, the region and Belgium. I've never been to Brussels but last year spent some time in May at WW1 sites in Ypres and Hooge just West of Brussels. Great people and country, praying for them in tough times.

EDIT:

Wanted to add a note for Istanbul, where I also spent time last year, that has been hit with more than 6 attacks since I was there which was only a few months back. Wishing the best for people of that city as well.

Yes, romtimed, the people of Istanbul have had a bad time of late, too. Have you known anyone who's been hurt? Thinking of them as well!

 

[Angie94]

not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs.

Thank you for your post Faith and quote from the essay. Just this week my sister text me and asked me not to go on the camino because she is so fearful about what happened. I thanked her for her concern and worry and told I absolutely would be going and it never entered my mind not to. I also eased her fears by relating what so many of you have shared on this forum - that the camino is probably safer than where I live! (which is a big city) and that it will be fine.
I also reminded her that we have terror incidents right here in our own country...not just abroad.

 

[rometimed]

Yes, romtimed, the people of Istanbul have had a bad time of late, too. Have you known anyone who's been hurt? Thinking of them as well!

No one I know has been hurt directly. Just watching all the bombings where I was wandering around a few months ago is rough.

 

[domigee]

EDIT:

Wanted to add a note for Istanbul, where I also spent time last year, that has been hit with more than 6 attacks since I was there which was only a few months back. Wishing the best for people of that city as well.

In that case let's not forget Ankara!

 

[Pelegrin]

All with Belgium !

 

[JennyH94]

Our fellow Forum member and gifted poet, malingerer, has today posted a poem on his 'poems for seekers thread' which concerns the terrorist attacks in Brussels. In it he mourns the senseless loss of so many lives, not only in Brussels this week but in Belfast many years ago. The poem is so profound and so beautiful - I thought I'd share it on this thread. I hope he doesn't mind ... it's a poem that is meant to be shared - he so succinctly sums up how so many of us feel ...


BRUSSELS

Death becomes a television show

sandwiched between soap and sport

I hear the screams

but cannot smell the blood

until my mind reminds me

of Derry

Belfast

and English politicians talking

of

"an acceptable level of violence"

I do not think

that then as now

the dying and the maimed

would quite agree

as murderers cry out

"God is great"

before unleashing Hell

So I dim the lights

and candles seven light

along with incense

to reassure my senses

lest I too buckle under pain

and cry

"My God

My god

why hast thou

forsaken me?"

Stay safe out there, peregrinos, but keep on walking.

Yours in anguish,

The Malingerer.

malingerer, 36 minutes ago Report Bookmark

 

[Arn]

Today is Good Friday!

I am often asked, “If this is the day Christ died horribly on the Cross…what’s good about that?”

In the Old Testament, time and again, God entered into a “covenant” with His chosen people…the people of Israel. At that point, it was customary for a covenant to be sealed by the sacrifice of an animal. Often the blood from the sacrifice was not only washed upon the altar but sprinkled on those present as a visible sign they were both accepting and witnessing the agreement.

With the Coming of Christ and at the Last Supper (Holy Thursday) the institution of the Eucharist is established. No longer would agreements between God and man be sealed with a bloody sacrifice.

The horrific terrorist attacks in Paris, San Bernardo, CA and this week in Belgium are just the most recent examples of a group hell-bent on sacrificing innocents and, oft-times, themselves with blood in the name of God.

I honestly believe in good and evil. I believe that there are those among us who will compromise their family, friends, country and humanity for personal gain, be it wealth or power.

Some will point to God as justification for doing unspeakable things in His name.

I reject this!

For a merciful, just, forgiving and loving God would never direct anyone to kill the most innocent and vulnerable among us.

My God, the God that created the angels and damned Lucifer and his minions to hell, also created Michael the Archangel to smite the evil ones and protect the good.

And, that to me is why today is a Good Friday.