[Dialogue] Little Girl Kidnapped in Portugal

catmarsh at att.net catmarsh at att.net
Wed Jun 6 12:43:57 EDT 2007


Hello all,

I just received this message from my daughter, who works for the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.  Particularly for those of you in Europe - the pictures below, could help locate this missing child.

Thanks,  

Catherine Marsh

Hi Guys, this little girl was kidnapped in Portugal 2 weeks ago while her family was there on vacation.  Her disappearance has been on all the major news networks and she is a niece of one of our clients.  Can you guys please send this out as it lists some identifying marks about her that might help her to be found.  This is not a hoax.  They believe that she is still in Europe but that she has been take out of Portugal and they are trying to spread the alert. 

Thanks, 

Julia 


 PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE AND FORWARD IT TO EVERYBODY IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK... 



Please read this message and pass it on!!!!!!!!! 
As you are aware my niece, Madeleine, is still missing and I am asking everyone I know to send this as a chain letter i.e. you send it to everyone you know and ask them to do the same, as the story is only being covered in Britain, Eire and Portugal. We don't believe that she is in Portugal anymore and need to get her picture and the story across Europe as quickly as possible. Suggestions are welcome. 

Phil McCann 
Please Pass this email on to everyone in your address book and they reckon it could cover 80% of the world's inboxes in 2 weeks. 
Madeleine's Eye Holds Vital Clue
Updated: 18:00 , Saturday May 12, 2007

Madeleine McCann's family believe a new picture of the missing four-year-old could play a vital role in the search for her. The photo of the youngster shows clearly her distinctive right eye, where the pupil runs into the blue-green iris.



The new poster of Madeleine It is this distinguishing mark that will identify Madeleine to those on the lookout for her, according to aunt and uncle John and Diane McCann.The Glasgow couple aim to distribute the appeal poster, which features the Crimestoppers telephone number, as far afield as they can. Family friend Andrew Renwick told Sky News 
that support for the search had been "overwhelming" and her family were extremely grateful.


Her right eye Mrs McCann said: "The purpose of the poster is to highlight the distinction in Madeleine's eye."We want to make the most of it, because we know her hair could potentially be cut or dyed."Mr McCann added: "The poster was designed by a friend of the family and I've begun Emailing it to acquaintances in different parts of the world."I'm asking people to circulate it the best they can and make it be seen."Madeleine's Eye Holds Vital Clue. 
--
If you have come to help me, you 
are wasting your time. But if you 
have come because your liberation 
is bound with mine - then let us 
work together." 
- Unknown Aboriginal Woman


-------------- Original message from "Roger Alexander" <ralexan934 at sbcglobal.net>: -------------- 


Just in case you didn't read it, here is the book review one of you referred to earlier. I think it adds to the conversation we've been having about mysticism.
Roger Alexander



The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance. . - Prophetic Mysticism - book review
Dennis Tamburello 
The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance.
AT 19, WHEN I was struggling to discern whether I had a vocation to the Franciscans (Order of Friars Minors), the following words flowed spontaneously out of my mouth as I prayed one night: "Lord, if it is your will for me to become a friar, I will do it." It was not an intentional utterance but seemed to come from the depths of my soul. I was amazed and not a little afraid. Moved by this experience and others, I soon found myself knocking at the door of the friary. Now, almost 30 years later, I hear that same inner voice constantly challenging me to live an authentic Franciscan life that promotes peace, justice and the integrity of creation.
Such experiences are neither illusions nor projections, Dorothee Soelle insists. They are authentic and put us in touch with the heart of reality. Unfortunately, many people have lost touch with their mystical sensitivity or dismiss it as fantasy or superstition. This loss of a sense of the mystical, Soelle claims, is at the root of our modern problems of egotism, materialism and violence.
Soelle, a professor of theology at Union Theological Seminary from 1975 to 1987, now lives in Hamburg, Germany, and is active in the peace and ecological movements there. In this book, which is being billed as her "major work," she makes the bold claim that mysticism is the key to the continuing vitality of religion in the new millennium. She uses the paradoxical expression "silent cry," taken from an anonymous 15th-century letter, as a mystical name for God, who cries out to us from the depths of our being, calling us to become one not only with God but with all of creation.
This sense of the unity or connectedness of all reality gives her argument its cohesiveness. Soelle claims that it is impossible to be truly in love with God without being moved to work for justice and peace. In one of many remarkable sentences, she states, "Without economic and ecological justice ... and without God's preferential love for the poor and for this planet, the love for God and the longing for oneness seem to me to be an atomistic illusion." Thus, when properly understood, mysticism leads to resistance, to a resounding "No!" to the world as it now is.
Soelle makes no apologies to those (often in Protestant circles) who would deny the significance of mysticism in religious life. She reproaches them for being afraid of or embarrassed by the experiential, and sees this rejection of the experiential as rooted in the trivialization of children's and women's experiences. Neither does she apologize to those (often in Roman Catholic circles) who accept mysticism only when it supports a hierarchical, institutional party line. Rather, she insists that true mysticism has a strong prophetic edge, and upsets "the powers and orders that be."
As Soelle makes her compelling argument for mysticism's relevance to our common life she refers to a wide variety of mystical authors from diverse traditions, including Christian, Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist. Particularly impressive is her grasp of Meister Eckhart, whose radical ideas she explains with exceptional clarity. Unfortunately, Soelle often quotes the words of the mystics through secondary sources, which makes it harder for readers to locate specific citations in the original texts.
There are points that can be criticized: for example, Soelle's assertion, following Eric Fromm, that acquisitiveness, as opposed to the possession of things for "functional purposes," was brought about by capitalism. Both the Bible and many mystical texts throughout the centuries have condemned selfish acquisition. However, though Soelle may be wrong in some of her particulars, her overall perspective on mysticism deserves to be taken seriously.
Soelle exposes much of what passes for religion today as just another form of consumerism. She advocates a relationship with God based on awe and love, not "bargaining" or self-interest. True mystical love gives us a sense of unity with all creation that has the potential to melt our egotism, possessiveness and propensity for violence. This will inevitably bring us joy but also some suffering and sorrow. Soelle criticizes some New Age and fundamentalist religious perspectives for their denial of darkness and suffering and their embrace of a superficial kind of "positive thinking." The dark night of the soul, which sometimes is manifest in our concrete failures in the struggle for peace and justice, cannot, she insists, "be voted out of existence."
Soelle rightly claims that the denial of mysticism poses a much greater danger to our world today than does the misuse of religion. Despite a few shortcomings (including an occasional poorly translated sentence or paragraph), The Silent Cry, more than anything I have read in many years, has made me rethink my assumptions about mysticism. It offers a gold mine of valuable reflections on the spiritual life.
Reviewed by Dennis Tamburello, O.F.M., professor of religious studies at Siena College in Loudonville, New York.
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