conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

all souls: avril makhlouf

It has been my experience that the more sweet, the more gentle, the more truly soft an experience, the more difficult it is to write about.
- Rev. Ben Campbell

How do you sum up a life. Truly, it is an impossible task. There are never enough words. There are never enough tears or laughter or silent pauses...It cannot be done. But then there are days where we are called to remember. Today is the Feast of All Souls. Yesterday afternoon I learned that an old acquaintance of mine had passed away in September. Avril Makhlouf was a spiritual director at Richmond Hill. She was my first spiritual director. Follow this link for an online obituary. Here is the obituary from the Richmond Hill newsletter.

AVRIL MAKHLOUF, a founder and first Spiritual Director of Richmond Hill died on September 25, 2007. She was a companion and mentor to the entire Richmond Hill Community for a number of years, and for years wrote the regular column, InDirections, in UpDate.

After an early life in Malaysia and New Zealand, Avril earned a degree in Islamic History and Classical Arabic from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, and a doctorate in History from the University in Edinburgh. Her doctoral studies on The Doctrine of the Trinity in Early Arabic Christian Writers led to a life-long, passionate quest for greater understanding between Christian Churches of the East and West, and between Christians and Muslims. In the midst of her studies, she also spent five years as Public Relations Officer for the Kuwait Oil Company.

Last year she participated in the historic Catholic/Shi'a Dialogues at Ampleforth Abbey, which brought together Christian and Shi'a theologians and scholars to explore the common ground between them. She also chaired the Ecumenical Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond.

She was the western world's leasing authority on the spiritual development of Hindiyya Anne `ajaymi, a Syro-Lebanese religious woman who lived from 1727-1798. He published studies included an analysis of the record of her major mystical experiences which, although the dates are not yet established, occurred between her adolescence and middle age. She translated the record, which was written in Arabic, into English, and also translated Hindiyya^s Councils, composed later for the edification of the religious in her care.

Avril helped to found RUAH School of Spiritual Guidance at Richmond Hill. She developed the spiritual direction ministry and the systenm of adjunct ministers of spiritual guidance. Her high standards and professional and spiritual integrity were a central part of the foundation of Richmond Hill.

Grace and peace be to God's servants now and always.

Posted by tripp at November 2, 2007 08:31 AM