1564 Death gives way to life - prayer labyrinth recalls India Salesian in Kenya
austraLasia 1564
Death gives way to life: a prayer labyrinth's witness
says YES
KAREN (Kenya): 19th May 2006 -- The story that
follows might be geographically far removed from East Asia or Oceania,
but has an obvious relevance at other levels. A mere walk from
where I am now writing, a Salesian missionary, Fr Philip Valayam, was
shot dead less than six months ago. It was after Midnight Mass
and at the point where his vehicle was barricaded by several telephone
poles by thieves with intent to rob and, as it turned out,
murder. They were never found, but Fr Philip's death has given an
extraordinary life to an area that has no fewer than four Salesian
communities along the length of the road that serves it. The road
might just as easily be renamed 'Don Bosco street' for that - but the
garden at one end is named after Fr Philip, and has been turned into a
simply wonderful prayer labyrinth, visited by people from all walks of
life. The telephone poles have been erected as a cross at its entrance.
The prayer labyrinth is the work of Fr Tom Kunnel
and his many Kenyan helpers. Don Bosco YES (Youth Education
Services), where Fr Philip was stationed at the time of his death, was
at one stage the studentate of theology, which has now moved further
down the road into new quarters. The buildings that were left
behind has become a centre for leadership training and a centre for a
variety of services in multimedia as well as a service dealing with
AIDS as part of a Choose Life program.
All of which helps one understand the context in
which this prayer labyrinth is situated. It really is a garden
located at a botanically luxurious end of the property - Nairobi, of
which Karen is an outer district, is just below the equator.
Varied bird life, a surround of banana trees mixed in with a tropical
bottlebrush and tall stands of eucalypt, ensure a verdant setting with
a symbolic touch of red. The labyrinth takes about an hour if one
covers the entirety of its offerings. It is served by a
sound-surround engineered by the multimedia department at YES, and
various points with written suggestions for prayerful and reflective
activity.
Clearly, Fr Philip's final earthly habitat has
joined a fully human YES to life with all of the natural and the divine
YES to life which he loved and sought to proclaim.
DB YES is host, this week, to delegates for Social
Communication from throughout Africa and Madagascar.
ps apologies to those who might have sent in news - collection of mail,
and its sending has been hit and miss. I may not have received
your item. But keep sending! I will get it in due course.
___________________
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