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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