Chapter IV DIALOGUE WITH GOD 1.Intreduetion - The search for God is the most fascinating adventure of humanity since the beginning of human history. We do not make here any effort to present the history of religions in the world and what the different religions and philosophies say about God convinced that we ean find it in many books. = Wesimply try to share the relation between God and us and we do itas Christians and Muslims together, without any effort to describe the points of convergence or the differences among the two religions. Itwill be introduced in the two modules in theappendix which offerashort presentation of thetwo religions. = Thus, our focus in this chapter is how we, as creatures of God, have to understand and experience a deeper dialogue with God and we do this as believers and not as people who do not believe in the presence of God in. humanity andnoteven in any spiritual meaning of this life and the life to come. = We are invited to a deeper understanding that “dialogue starts from God and brings people back to God”. = This basic understanding of dialogue that Christians and Muslims share together can help us to open our hearts and minds to the spiritual search of human beings well expressed by St. Agustin who in his book The Confession says: “My heart is, restless until itrestsin yow'in God”, ~ Christians and Muslims in their holy books, the Bible and the Qur'an, present ‘Adam and Eve at the beginning of human history as the first man and woman. Starting from that beginning the two holy books present the first dialogue of God with them. = Sometimes we, Muslims and Christians, find in our holy books common points like the belief that Abraham is the “Father of Faiths”. Sometimes the two holy books present very different beliefs, but what we have in common is the story of humanity in dialogue with God. = Godis the creatorand the first who enters in dialogue with humanity and withus The vocation of Abraham who heard the voice of God telling him to leave his own and. remind us of the “spiritual joumey” which tells us what is more essential in life, . Searching for God A Path to Peace: A formation manual on Dialogue and Peace 2]The search for God is described by some authors as an internal and spiritual need ose With our creator. We can experience real happiness and peace in this life if our“T" wil a “thy” of God. We cannot completely experience the meaning of this life wits’ ic “encounter/dialogue” with God. Those who are closer to God in their spiritual journey proses. and share their experience of “Dialogue in God”. pa |n Christianity and Islam, as well asin ll other religions, we know that some reach tha eee level of “spiritual experience” as we present in another module ofthis collection. Here wer, Rot enter in any specific faith experience, but we list down some obstacles to overeomesnd it some guidelines to enter in dialogue with God, 3. Obstacles to Dialogue with God Each ones invited to reflect alone or share ina group, stories, quotations or examples based on ‘one’s own religion or good examples that have touched our lives to reaffirm what is presented in the list of obstacles to dialogue with God. 3.1 FEAR One ofthe fearsis thinking not to be worthy of God’s dialogue. But, indeed, God isthe one who started dialogue with humanity and with each one of us. Thisisthe first stage of a spiritual journey to enter in a stage of personal transformation. The message of love and mercy is clear in each of our own religions and we have many examples of people who were not worthy to enter in dialogue with God, but they have believed in the love of God and experienced dialogue with God without fear. 3.2 IGNORANCE The real ignorance is not when one does not know the basic elements of education, like read and write, but when one ignores that God loves all, even those who do not have basic education in this world, although basic education helps to overcome this form of ignorance that we mention here, Overcoming his ignorance, a person will enter a stage of light and wisdom and understanding essential in life. 3.3 HOPELESSNESS Hopelessness in this case is the stage and the fecling of those who lose hope to enterin dialogue with God only because he/she tried many times without results. God is waiting and often sends to us situations in life, including sufferings © make us more humble and more trustful in God who is always waiting toenteri9 dialogue with us like a lover waiting for the loved one. 3.4 MISCALCULATION : 1 niataane and PeatThinking that dialogue with God will be an obstacle for our activities and isolate us from the world is a form of “miscalculation.” Only when we search for meanings in life and experience our dialogue with God can we have a more holistic and realistic vision of life that helps us to choose what is essential and what is according to the will of God. It helps us to answer properly the fundamental call of life that is the basic call coming from God. Doing this, we will be able to dialogue with ourselves, others and creation with a new vision, that isinthe vision of God's love. 3.5 MYOPIA ‘When one thinks that dialogue with God is only for those who belong to the same religion or those who are considered religious leaders and not for the others, like the poor, the sinners, and the common people, this narrow vision is affecting today different sectors of society, structures and authorities. Indeed, God is forall and searches theway toenterindialogue withall, 3.6 POSTPONEMENT ‘This isthe temptation for those who think that it is not important to dialogue with God in youth and they wait for old age to give more time to God. This “postponement” attitude is a terrible temptation. It delays the process of our spiritual growth and the possibilty tohavea better vision ofthe present and of the lifetocome. Thus: = Why postpone a gift that we can have entering in dialogue with God now and understand better ourpresent and our future? = Why do we not decide to start now and discover what God wishes to communicatetous? 3.7 OCCASIONAL (One dialogues with God as a special occasion and not as a commitment to a regular contact with God considering that dialogue with God is not only when we reed or when we pray or meditate. Dialogue with God is also expressed when we serve, especially the poor, and when we do our duty following our voca life. ‘To be unstable and from time to time only keep our relation with God also destabilizes our spiritual life and does not help us to make the proper decision in life. Think about our breath, itis continuous, or else we die. God *s relation and dialogue with usand in usis continuous. God maintains us“alive” even when we forget Him orsin against His commandments. A Path to Peace: A formation manual on Dialogue and Peace —temptation that today is becoming bigger fy interested in what modern society offers an} “progress.” Tobeunstablein our dialogue with ‘many, because people tend to be mor forget the authorof ifeand trust more ‘There are many ways to enter in dialogue with and in God. We give here some basic guidelines sure that God knows how to help us to be ereative in inspiring us to find new ‘ways with the hope that the experience of dialogue with God brings in the world more love, harmony, solidarity and peace. 4, Guidelines to dialogue with God We are invited and challenged to present. examples and stories that help us to feel the need to dialogue with God. Westart with some guidelines: 4.1 COOPERATION God can do all, even things impossible to us, but usually waits for our cooperation to enter in dialogue with us. God needs our hands, hearts, and minds to manifest His love. Cooperating with God, we become in some way, co-creator of new events of goodness in society and, at the same time, it gives us the opportunity torememberand remind all the centrality of God in society. 4.2. DIALOGUEANDSILENCE To remain sill in the presence of God we need internal silence that allows us to listen to the voice of God in dialogue with us. Ifthe silence is extemal itis beter, but we have to leam how to maintain internal silence, even in the midst of s0 much noise around us. Everything great in life starts from silence. For this reason there are many methods to maintain silence and enter in unity with God in different forms of meditation: dik fk’, mandra, ete. We have to follow some traditions familiar to our religion, but also we can explore outside our religion, especially among oriental religions, provided that we use each method as a help to bring us to the essence of our dialogue with God that itis personal and a spiritual encounter. Thus, dialogue with God is an additional opportunity to experience our “I” in search of the “Thy” of God and understand better the will of God now forus. 43 DIALOGUE AND PRAYER There are different forms of prayer in different religions. In Islam and Christianity, we are guided by some formal prayer called liturgical prayer in Christianity and Safar in Islam. We are also encouraged to have, in different occasions, spontaneous prayers called dua’ in Islam. ‘We cannot nurture our dialogue with God without prayer. We are, indeed. called toreview our commitment to pray, every day and many times a day, according © eee st A Path to Peace: A formation manual on Dialogue 2”44 A ath to Peace: A formation manual on Dialogue and Peace suggestions of each religion God's will in our life ind our desire to become closer to God and answer Although we cannot enter in many details here about prayer, we can say that each sincere prayer, in any religion reaches Godina mysterious way. We use the phrase “mysterious way” because when a prayer is since an expetience of God's presence, although we pray in different ways, becomes Our intention here is only to remind the Muslims and Christians, those who directly benefit from these presentation, to pray with sincere hearts in their own way, and also to explore, when the opportunity comes, some forms of spontaneous prayers together that can be prayed in different occasions, like in gatherings where Muslims and Christians are together and start the activity with a spontaneous prayer/dva'a. This attitude brings to the group the feeling that we believe that God is with us andweneed His assistance in that specific occasion. Spontaneous prayers/dua’a can be done one after the other using prayers familiar in our own religion or together using universal prayers. One of those universal prayers recommended by many respected religious Muslim and Christian leaders is the “Harmony Prayer.” (see the presentation in the Appendices) DIALOGUE AND PLURALISM ‘There was a time when members of different religions were not encouraged to mix together with members of other religions. This was the practice also of the ‘Muslimsand Christians. As we mentioned in other chapters we are today in an era of dialogue where most of the leaders of different religious, including Muslims and Christians, encourage this dialogue, It is indeed a new journey and experience that has created a lot of fear in many religious leaders, but also beautiful experiences of friendship and soli Inthe context of dialogue with God our experienec is that pluralism of cultures and religions can be and must be, an occasion to rethink on the centrality of God in the plurality of our society. God knows how to guide people of sincere hearts in the plurality ofreligions. “The experience today is that those who practice dialogue, including Muslims and Christians, are becoming more aware of their commitment of dialogue with God expressed in many ways.45 4.6 26 —___ DIALOGUEAND VOCATION Presenting the stages of spirituality we mentioned that the first dialogue with us. The second stage is our answer to God’s dialo often given fully after different moments of purification and stage is our dialogue as part of our vocation and mission, Stages Gog, BUC. An ang finally, the ie Inthe context of our dialogue with God we are calledo verify our yocat mission trying to understand the voice of God that comes tos in many win verify our vocation and mission with the parameter of God's love and mag vested interests. For this reason, its also important to identity. people chao, God who can accompany us spiritually. In all religious traditions, especially in Christianity and Islam, there is he tradition to identify “spiritual directors” or “spiritual guides”, who can help inthe journey of life. This tradition is becoming less visible and_ less appreciate, especially in modem society. We have to promote more this practice ofthe spiritual journey and “mysterious adventure” of God present in us, butitisaley a discipline to acquire and we need special teachers willing and prepared ty accompany people to live and promote the spirituality of life-in-dialogue and thecentral elementof this spirituality thatis dialogue with God. Note: If this presentation is done in a group it is useful to evaluate the above points related to dialogue and vocation and ask the group: A) Doyou fee! the need ofa spiritual guide? Who is, for you,amodel ofaspiritual guide? B) _Areyou willing to help others in their spiritual joumey, and what do youneed to be ready for this service and vocation? DIALOGUE AND FORMATION Formation is important in the process of our dialogue in general, but especially our dialogue with God. Often we find Christians or Muslims who do not know their religion, A little knowledge of religion is often the beginning of misunderstanding, religious apathy or religious “radicalism.” The basic elements of our religions have the foundation in the love of God and love of neighbor. Formation and knowledge in our encounter/dialogue with God has ae approached with humility. The great Islamic scholar Al-Gazali, (1111) al reaching a top level of knowledge in Islam and after becoming so for ‘understood that it was important for him to experience more a “taste of Gor” Thus, tohavea personal experience of dialogue with God and in God andno'0 totalkaboutGod. ialague and —_ A hst6 ba Arnone & Loemention manual onA similar experience is found in the life of St. Th 5 life of St. Thomas Aquinas,(1256) a great CCvistan scholar. After wring bo much and so well about Go he decided a deeper experience of encounter/dialogue with God considering not enough what hehad written up to that point. ‘Today we are threatened by “religious radicalism” that brings division and violence in the world. If we go deeper into this phenomenon we can see that behind there are groups with vested interests, 4,7 DIALOGUE AND MARTYRDOM The experience of martyrdom is not only part ofthe history of the past, but itis alsopart of ourrecent history: Wedd at this point among the guidelines of our dialogue with God, the dialogue fof the martyrs to honor the many martyrs of today from different cultures, religionsand countries. We remember, in a special way, friends and members of the Silsilah Dialogue Movement who have given their lives to their mission of love, serving the people. One of this is Ft. Salvatore Carzedda, PIME, who was killed in Zamboanga City on May 20, 1992, He was an active member of Silsilah killed at the end of the summer course on Muslim-Christian Dialogue by those who do not like this dialogueto continue. ‘The beautiful experience after that was that many Muslims and Christians in front of the coffin of Fr. Salvatore committed themselves to be united in promoting dialogue with more determination, convinced that this is also the price and the example for those who live and promote. the Culture of Dialogue, path to peace, in our society. Painful stories of martyrs are often the beginning of strong examples for many Muslims and Christians to strengthen their commitment for dialogue and peace convinced that God loves all and that we have to be “instruments” of God's love insociety. 5. Sharing Stories of Dialogue with God ‘The tradition of Christianity and Islam have many relevant stories of people who have been closerto God and have been examples for many inhistory. Inthe module related to the spiritual journey of Suis in Islam and Saints in Christianity we ean discover. beautiful examples and observe that when one reaches a spiritual level of Unity, dialogue withGod reaches level thatis similarinall religions. This, means that the spiritual approach of dialogue that we promote opens the door to this experiences and to a more sustainable dialogue and peace in society. A Path to:Peace: A formation manual on Dialogue and PeaceSuggested group activities: 1 Here we suggest to the groups, who study this module together, shae stories familiar to them that have inspiredthem to gotclosertoGodany rediscover the love of God and the love of neighbor asa reality tht na can also experience in this time of history, even in our society and ge ushope fora future dialogueand peace amongus. 2. We also suggest to share personal moments of prayer and personl experiences of prayer that have influenced “our vocation” in life, 3. The group may decide to have moments of silence together or oer forms, like to write down a personal prayer or decide to help the poo o sick people as a way to be in a deeper dialogue with God when we arin solidarity with those who suffer most. 28 ——___— A oath 10 Geace: A formation mannat on Dialogue nd 282