Śpiewaj Panu cała ziemio!

Getting to know Lebanon every minute of the day

We are very sorry! During the last one and a half weeks, there was almost no free minute to write to you about our experiences. But: There are many!
Maybe you remember that in our first week, we had thought having some initial difficulties trying to find out where we can meet young people or help in pastoral activities during our afternoons and evenings. This worry vanished during one single evening when one of the people we had contacted came to visit us with lots of friends from the students' pastoral (Jeunesse Etudiante Crétienne, JEC; see also our last post). They were (are!) like angels for us - within one hour, they helped us fixing numerous meetings with different youth groups in the area around Saida (there are youth groups of JEC almost in every village here). Also our friend Rodrigue (who is an angel, too; remember him?) helped us to visit a lot of different places. Because he is a Maronite and the young people from JEC are mostly Greek-Catholic, we had the great chance to visit people from both confessions. And when there are free minutes, our friends show us the beautiful mountains, landscapes, beaches, churches, monaasteries, museums, monuments, and other treasures that Lebanon has. Everything is so beautiful here! We are very thankful to Rodrigue and our friends from JEC for their great commitment and their friendship.
So for the last ten days, after finishing our mornings at the Fratelli Association in Rmeileh, we have practically always been travelling, meeting people, and discovering the country (see map). 

Pastoral activities

Today, we will tell you about our experiences meeting young people and visiting parishes, and in the next days (if we find time), our memories from visiting the country's sights will follow.

Ed Damour

As a beginning, we travelled to Ed Damour on last week's Monday, and were invited to sing a song from Taizé during the Maronite evening mass. Afterwards, Rodrigue and some of his friends invited us to spend the evening with traditional Lebanese dishes in a nice restaurant. Speaking with those friends, we could start discovering the realities of young people in this country, which are actually very diverse.

The church in Ed Damour from outside ...

... and inside.

After the mass, Rodrigue and his friends invited us to traditional Lebanese dishes ...

... which we really enjoyed.

Hassaniyeh, Miyeh w Miyeh, Salhieh, Maghdouche, Abra: Beginning youth meetings

On Thursday last week, we went to Hassaniyeh, a small village in the mountains between Saida and Jezzine, to meet our first youth group there. We first participated in their evening prayer and then went to the parish house to have our sharing there.

The church in Hassaniyeh ...

 

... and the young people we met there.

We enjoyed the evening in Hassaniyeh a lot:

We took our evening meal on the streets of the village, chatting and singing with its young people.

The day after, we met another group in Miyeh w Miyeh which is very close from Maghdouche. As down the valley in Saida, there is a Palestinian refugee camp in the middle of the village. When we will find time during the next days, we will try to share what we have learned about the situation of refugees here in Lebanon so far. In Miyeh w Miyeh, we first had a meeting with the local youth group and then participated in the evening mass.
  

Miyeh w Miyeh's church

Preparing the meeting room

Sunset in Miyeh w Miyeh

After a short trip to Jezzine (more in the next days), we went to Salhieh for a little party with many people connected to the JEC in the region.
 

The spots directed on Jezzine's famous statue of Mary producing a shadow in the fog

On Saturday evening, we met a group of adolescents in our home town, Maghdouche. One of them was very enthousiastic about Taizé. His first question after having shown the introductory video to the group was: When can we go there? 

Meeting young people in Maghdouche

On Monday, we met young people from Salhieh and then attended the evening mass with them. Later, we participated in a big parish feast in Abra which is close by and where we met many of our friends from the other villages again.

Our meeting with young people from Salhieh, in a meeting room for bishops, ...

... followed by an evening mass according to the Greek-Catholic tradition ...

... in Salhieh's village church, ...

... and further pastoral activities.

The church of Abra, for us one of the most beautiful ones we have visited so far, ...

... and the parish feast gathering houndreds of people outside of it.

Most of the young people that we meet are between 14 and 20 years old. As a little warm-up, we would usually show them the short introduction video about Taizé in the beginning of the sharings if it is possible. Although we are most interested in understanding their spirituality, getting to know more about their daily life within the church and about life as a Christian in Lebanon and the Middle East in general, and although we think it is most important to get in contact with the young people, develop a basis of friendship between them and us, and thus enter into a real sharing instead of "only" presenting what Taizé is, we found out that it is good to start with the video. Like this, they understand a little bit where we are coming from why we are there, and what the Community of Taizé is. After the movie, young people often have many questions about Taizé, our experiences there, or our personal lives. They are often really interested in how we live our faith back in Europe, about our biographies, and our way of life. Because in the beginning of the meetings, we tell them that we have been volunteers in Taizé for longer time, they are often interested in our personal spiritual experience. Frequently, the young people see parallels between Taizé and their youth group: praying and singing together, talking about faith, values, and struggles in their lives as well as living together in communion. Many of them are curious about the songs so that so far we concluded every sharing singing a couple of songs from Taizé together. The Greek-Catholic liturgy is full of music, and so our young people like to sing a lot. Because many want to continue learning new songs from Taizé, we already had to make an agreement with our JEC-friends that in the end of our time here in Lebanon, we will leave the songs books that we have brought from Taizé to them, so that they can distribute them to all the parishes we have visited.
As we stated above, we do not want our sharings to consist of introducing Taizé exclusively. One of our main goals is to share their and our experiences of faith. The young people that we have met have spoken to us very openly about their lives as Christians. They have told us about how they became Christian, how their daily lives within the church look like, and also how they living side-by-side with other denominations is like for them.
We are estonished how deeply rooted faith and christianity are for many of the people we have met. They explained us how important it is for them to be close to Jesus and, very often, to understand him better. A big number of young people states that their parents were the ones they have received faith from.
As far as we have understood, there is a friendly contact between different Christian confessions. Although church activities would be rather held within the frame of one denomination, there seems to be a constant exchange and friendship.
Looking at the contacts between different religions, we discover that children and young people have a different relationship to beleivers of other religions (mostly they speak about Muslims) than their parents and grandparents. Many of the young people we have met say that they have quite a number of Muslim friends and that for them, it is very normal to live with those friends. Nevertheless, when feeling the need to speak with someone about their spirituality or their faith, they would choose one of their Christian friends because they would be afraid that others might think they want to convince them about their faith. Adults to whom we speak do not often speak about friends from other religions. So, maybe these differences between generations can be a small sign of hope.

Jieh

On Wednesday, we travelled to a very new church in Jieh, a place between Saida and El Damour, just at the coast, and attended a Maronite evening mass there together with Rodrigue. The church was inaugurated last Sunday. Rodrigue still remembers donating for this church when he was a small child: So, this building has been a long-term project! During the mass, we were invited to sing a song from Taizé, and afterwards, a very nice Father welcomed us in the monastery of S. Charbel which is located just next to the church. Rodrigue went to school here when he was small! We spent a very nice evening in this monastery, speaking with Father Hassib and Rodrigue, sharing experiences, and becoming friends. 

Jieh's new church, not even one week old

P. Hassib who welcomed us very warmly

Abra and Wadi el Laymun: Rediscovering

After youth meetings, we usually think a lot about whether the meeting was fine for those who attended it, whether or not they enjoyed it, and what we could change.
Some days ago, we suddenly realised that, because we had focused so much on finding people to meet in the beginning of our stay, maybe we had forgotten about an important characteristics of Provisional Fraternities: It is to live with the people, to share their daily life, and to support them. Instead, we had been trying to meet as many groups as possible and to animate meetings for them, often about Taizé. But what we are actually searching for during our stay here is to meet people in their very daily activities, not to direct their focus on us.
So, we decided that we do not want to lead youth meetings any more in terms of animating them. Rather, we would like to just take part in meetings, sharings, and activities that take place anyway, as guest participants. We think that in this way, we can get to know the young people's spirituality and ideas much better than by just asking them questions actively, and that we would become more part of their groups maybe. In consequence, we changed our approach to those youth meetings: In order for the young people to understand why we are there, we would still show them the video and introduce ourselves quickly, but after this, we would just listen to what they would do during their normal meetings.
Probably, this discovery does not seem very special from outside - but somehow, it opened our eyes and made us much more conscious about what we actually want to achieve during our stay here.

On Tuesday, after having participated in a festive celebration of Assumption in Salhieh in the morning and having spent the day in Jezzine and its surroundings (more impressions about this will follow soon!), we tried to put our new idea into practice during a youth meeting in Abra. After having presented ourselves and Taizé very briefly, we just listened to the JEC meeting taking place - and were amazed.
Our friend Jamil had prepared a question that is very simple but touches one's faith and the life of Christians in Lebanon profoundly: Is it important to be a Christian? During a bit less than one hour, the yougn participants collected pros and cons to this question, ranging from "Just another religion" to "God is father". We were very impressed by the reflectedness of our friend who refused to accept many arguments the children brought up as a characteristics of Christianity that would have also fit for other religions (e.g., "religion of truth"), and again, we were so impressed by the young people who participated actively in the youth meeting and asked very interesting questions. 

Our youth meeting in Abra, ...

... led by our friend Jamil.

After the meeting, we went to Salhieh with our friends from JEC and had an evening prayer with them in a little grotto outside the village. We enjoyed this prayer a lot. The atmosphere was so calm and peaceful. Every second song came from JEC, every other second song was a song from Taizé that we animated. After a long moment of silence, we invited everyone who wanted to say intercessions if she or he wanted. It was very beautiful to pray together like this - we have the impression that this evening really brought us together, and we went home very happy. 

Two days later, we travelled to Wadi el Laymun, a small village in the mountains on the way to Jezzine. After a very beautiful evening mass according to the Greek-Catholic tradition, we were invited to animate a spontaneous prayer in the church. People really seemed to like it! Afterwards, we met a group of very interested young people and the aumônier of Saida's region, P. Georges Nemer. We had really admired his way to celebrate the mass - somehow, one could feel that he prays. People sang so beautifully, as always during the liturgies here, and the atmosphere was very beautiful. It was also very interesting to share with the young people about their experiences with JEC. 

The evening mass in Wadi el Leymun, which we enjoyed a lot, ...

... and our meeting afterwards.

This is it for today! We are very thankful for the possibility to get to know so many wonderful young people in the last days. In the next days, we will show you all kinds of sights and landscapes that we have been able to visit during or next to our meetings with young people all over the country's south.