Father David preaches priests’ retreat in Jordan

Each year, the priests in Jordan participate in days of prayer together with the Latin Patriarch and his Vicar in Amman, Bishop Selim Sayegh. This year, Fsather Rafiq Khoury, parish priest in Bir Zeit and a noted theologian, had been invited, however, due to his illness he was unable to travel to Jordan. Consequently, the Patriarch asked Father David Neuhaus, Vicar for the Hebrew speaking communities, to replace him and direct the retreat in Arabic. The days of prayer, contemplation and conversation took place at the Our Lady of Peace Center in the outskirts of Amman, from September 6 to 9.

The retreat focused on a reading of texts from the book of the Acts of the Apostles and alongside it a study of the Instrumentum laboris, the preparatory document for the Synod of the Catholic Church in the Middle East, which will take place in Rome in October. In two lectures each day, Father David interpreted the texts from the Acts of the Apostles, which describe the stages that led to the first synod in the history of the Church – the Synod of Jerusalem (described in chapter 15). Parallel to this, he proposed readings from the Instrum,entum laboris, which the Pope had handed to the heads of the Catholic Church from the Middle East, during his visit to Cyprus in June. The discussions after each lecture were fascinating and raised many themes from the life of the Catholic Church in Jordan. The priests who participated, about 34 in number, were thus able to be more actively engaged in the preparations for the Synod.

On September 8, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, Bishop Selim mentioned Father David during the mass because on that day he celebrated the 10th anniversary since his ordination to the priesthood. In fact, three priests attended the mass, who had been seminarians at the time of Father David’s ordination and had served at his ordination mass. There was also a golden opportunity during these retreat days for Father David to share with the priests the work and challenges of the Hebrew speaking Vicariate in Israel.