Update from Morocco
To believe in the strength of Love and Truth
to refuse to despair of human persons.
It is to witness that there is in each of us
a secret seed of childhood,
an ability to be born again
which is sown in the deepest depths of the human heart.
Little sister Annie (1986)
![]() Casablanca:In the streets of Casa, we can see more and more sub-Saharan migrants. Some of them are very young, turned away from trying to cross the northern border. Most of them sleep on a field near the bus station and beg on the avenues. Seeing them so numerous with such a lot of needs, we feel overwhelmed and fearful. Caritas Morocco started an organization to support and help them: young people, Moroccans and Africans, are trying to go to meet them wherever they live. One of those in charge, not so young, was moved by their distress, and now for over a year, he has been trying to mobilize everyone he can to help them. This year, with his team and some volunteers, he prepared a Christmas meal for about 500 migrants, plus a parcel for each one of them: a warm jogging suit, a toiletry kit, food… all of which he got from Christians and Muslims. With his eyes full of light, he told them: “God is generous, so we have to share!” We joined with the many other people to help serve and just to be there with them for that meal: “They need your smile and your friendship.” Thank you, George, you have given us a push to help prepare the land of tomorrow! This land hasn’t arrived yet, though. When some of those young people went back to their camp, it was raided in an effort to disperse them elsewhere. Let’s not give up!Rabat:From Anne Yvette: There are four of us in our community, from four different nationalities. “Internationality, a reality to be lived more than a discourse. We still have a long way to go until we let ourselves be enriched by one other, emptying ourselves and making space for others for the sake of forming a new Body.” (from the chapter). Each one of us feels that very much. We are on the way. Our culture, our traditions are great riches that we try to put together so that the community can really live. Mixed into that is also each one with her temperament and it is good to see the differences, so that the community can be strongly built. This is a big challenge. Our neighborhood is marked by the life of each person in it, big and small. We have good and simple relationships. Often, from the kitchen, I can recognize voices: Moui Rebha, Fatima, Khadija. That helps me to be united to each of their lives. Life enters our house and enlightens my daily life. The children, in the middle of their games, like to come to get a kiss.From Mercy Mbugua: I am still at the center for migrants and I fit in well with them in many ways. In the Arab dialect, the word for migrants, “mouhajirin,” means those who are not citizens of the country and so I find myself like them. We share a lot of our worries about our countries of origin, about the lack of employment, the difficulty to find jobs if you don’t know someone, how society doesn’t look after orphans, etc. The list would be long. These are some of the reasons why young people emigrate. I would like to share with you two situations which touched me a lot: A young man left his country, he crossed all the borders and the desert. When he arrived here he heard that his father had died. That really upset his life. He decided to go back home to look after his brothers, sisters, and his mother. I was moved to see how he abandoned his projects in order to look after his family. A woman, after giving birth to twins, discovered she had breast cancer. She came to ask for help to be looked after. I found her very peaceful, accepting the reality very simply. She put everything into the hands of God and other people, living the present moment. ![]() FezFrom Lucille One morning, when I started work at the hospital where I have been working for three years, I saw a tiny baby boy who had been brought during the night. I heard that the police had found him in the street and brought him. I looked at him. I thought he was so beautiful. I was quite puzzled by some red marks around his eyes, like rings. I heard that ants had started to eat him! I really wondered what had happened and how much he must have suffered. At the end of the day, I realized that he had not cried. He would drink when given a bottle, but he would not cry for it. I started to think that he must have cried so much with no one answering that he did not believe in bothering anymore. His look seemed empty, so I took him in my arms and held him tight and stroked him as gently as possible. I stayed a long time like that. When I put him back in his bed, it seemed to me there was a spark of life in his eyes. When I came back the following day, I was happy to hear him cry. Life had won! What is beautiful is that the story does not end there. All of a sudden there was a surge of solidarity - first among the young ones who are working in the department, Meriem, Fatimzaha and Leila. They are employed by an association to help in different ways and they are always ready to hold him in their arms and feed him. Najia, from the housekeeping department, also started to help. We even managed to give him a bath and then we discovered he had a little wound on his head where the ants had come. Every day we found new clothes in his bed but we did not know who put them there. We even gave him a name, “Youssef.”![]() From Elie Miriam: Encouraged by the orientations of our last chapter to get to know what makes others live and to be close to Muslims who are open, I spent a very enriching week participating in the Sufi cultural festival in Fes. Here are some pearls I discovered at the different round table discussions: ![]() ![]() |
Inspired by Brother Charles... |