Multireligious prayer

The article by John L. Allen Jr. on Pope Benedict's prayer in the Blue Mosque (NCR, Dec. 8) addresses an initiative that took place at Trappist Assumption Abbey in Ava, Mo. For a week last June, there was an extraordinary encounter between the monks and seven young Turkish Muslims, disciples of the Turkish intellectual and Islamic scholar Fethullah Gtilen, who stayed with us for a week. Mr. Allen points out the pope's distinction between "multireligious" and "interreligious" prayer. It's a valuable distinction and in retrospect I can say that the Muslims and the monks here instinctively chose "multireligious" prayer, yet we did not think or talk in those terms. During the week of living together, there were no theological or theoretical religious discussions at all; instead, a sustained and respectful sharing of humanity and of prayerful presence. The Muslims spread their prayer rugs on the tile floor of the monastic chapter room. There they met five times each day, beginning at 5 a.m. and ending at 10 p.m. Always, there was at least one monk present, kneeling or sitting on the prayer rug, praying in his own Christian way, or simply letting the beauty and mystery of the chant wash over him. The Muslim guests attended faithfully the seven prayer times of the Christian monks.

On several occasions the two groups met together simply to read and to listen to texts from one or the other tradition, New Testament and Quran, Sufi poets and Christian mystics. Those who know Assumption Abbey know that we are anything but progressive or cutting edge. We are, though, thoroughly Catholic and Benedictine, giving us both a secure identity and a ready openness to "the other," whether the other be Assemblies of God seminarians, Muslims, or, as was the case last week, a conservative rabbi.

(Fr.) MARK SCOTT, OCSO

Ava, Mo.

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