There is desert and desert!

From our sister Clementine Mukampabuka

There is the desert I visited for the first time in 2004 in Ghardaïa and El Golea and where I sang the hymn of creation;

where I met Blessed Charles de Foucauld; where I met Jesus of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Galilee through the presence of our sisters and brothers on mission there!

There is another desert, the one where I meet my brothers and sisters detained in the different places of incarceration here in Algeria.

They are truly in a desert which deprives them of certain freedoms including that of going where they want, of seeing who they want. In this desert, the angels who feed them are the authorities of the penitentiary establishments and we who share the Word of God with them. We print it and leave it with them as an appointment for the week. These moments of prayer in prison awaken my faith. I perceive the communion of saints. This Word pierces the gates and barriers of all our prisons visible or invisible, real or imaginary.

This Word makes all our deserts bloom. It is this that helps us face the third desert. That of brazen freedom.

Indeed, our incarcerated sisters and brothers who, like all prisoners, dream of possible freedom only have it in the form of being sent back to the desert. Our Lord was driven by the Spirit into the desert, they are thrown there by their fellow men. After prison they have to brave many obstacles, spend considerable sums of money to find their loved ones or to prepare for a dignified departure back to square one or sometimes to reposition themselves and resettle. It’s unimaginable what we can witness from people driven by a force of resilience and incessant twists and turns.

From all these forms of desert, I learn endurance through love, the exploitation of my innate strength of resilience in the face of adversity and the violence of contrary winds.