The experience of our sister Béatrix Dagras
The door of room 506 of the “Résidence de Bon Secours” in Paris is accustomed to discreet and unexpected knocks: questions, services requested or rendered, information… are all occasions for friendly encounters, bringing the pleasure of their balms. Even at night, a joker or a person suffering from insomnia may knock on the door a couple of times. No need to open the door: by the time you get up to see who’s there, they’ve gone!
In our residence a parish-initiated reflection group was set up, for the reading of the New Testament. I took part along with other residents. When this parish activity came to an end, the comment was made: “We don’t know the Old Testament!”
The group then became an in-house group, called “Biblical”, and they entrusted me with the task of leading it… Since last year, the group has been immersed in the Prophets. At each meeting, the Word of God, humanly situated in its original space-time context, reveals its potential for actualization in our personal and collective daily lives as disciples of Christ, made to live his Good News and bear witness to it. This is the essential fruit and ultimately the goal of our meetings.
As far as relations with Muslims are concerned, I am involved in three organizations:
- The Groupe des Foyers Islamo-Chrétiens (Group of Islamic-Christian Homes).
This was founded in 1977 by Father Michel Lelong, White father. I take part in their local meetings, and in the annual meeting at national level. I assist with personal requests for marriage preparation, welcoming young couples here in 506, and at their weddings, when they want to seal their union before God, I intervene, as a Christian, alongside a Muslim Sufi.
- The Islamo-Christian Friendship Group (GAIC). My main role here was to coordinate the Week (which has since become “the Weeks”) of Islamic-Christian Meetings (SeRIC), which has grown in number over the years, culminating in a national meeting of organizers. This success continues, proving that the aspiration for a peaceful existence in conviviality with others, welcomed and recognized in the richness of their differences, which they are happy to share by receiving those of others, is a reality lived “in the heart of the people”.
Recently, along with other former Christian and Muslim co-presidents, I was interviewed in a video recording made for the association’s 30th anniversary celebrations on 24 May.
- Finally, in May 2020, I joined the team of Father Antoine Guggenheim, Episcopal Delegate for Relations with Muslims. Faced with the proselytizing going on in the capital, this priest-theologian from the Diocese of Paris has asked me to take part in the quarterly meetings of a group that is reflecting on this issue. Its six members have produced a 140-page book on the subject, entitled ” Christian practices of meeting with Islam and Muslims ” (Une pratique chrétienne de la rencontre avec l’Islam et les musulmans – Edition Parole et Silence – August 2022). The aim is to make the faithful of the diocese aware of the need to approach Islamic believers with the respect due to all human beings, following the example of their Lord.
In this collegial work, my participation consisted in writing, on the basis of the experience of my meetings with various Muslims, several points on the whole of the extract from the Council of Chalcedon which I had summarized by these words: “without confusion or separation”.
Such is life in our “independent residence”, as the administration calls it. The atmosphere is convivial, and many friendly services and the discreet, fraternal carrying of one another’s burdens are living pages from the Gospel.
