A day of firsts

Source: The Jordan Times

By Amy Hybels

Fifteen-year-old Peter Mikho stood on his chair, proudly waving the Iraqi flag as soon as he spotted Pope Benedict XVI circling Amman International Stadium in the Popemobile.
His younger sister, Cecil Mikho, stood nearby, waving the Jordanian flag in one hand while clutching the bright yellow and white flag of the Vatican in the other.
Cecil and Peter were among the 40 Iraqi children dressed in white from the Chaldean Catholic Vicariate in Amman who received communion during the Pope Benedict’s historic Mass on Sunday morning.
The Mass also marked Cecil’s First Communion, an important event in the life of a young Catholic. On Sunday morning, she joined hundreds of children in the stadium in receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist for the first time.
The 11-year-old moved with her mother and brother to Jordan shortly after the start of the war in Iraq in 2003.
Her father still works in Iraq, a concern for the fifth grader who said if given the chance, she would ask the Pope to “make Iraq better and safer” so her family could return to their home in Baghdad.
Valentina Manuel, 13, hoisted her Iraqi flag high in the air, posing for pictures before the Popemobile entered the stadium. Manuel moved to Jordan seven years ago with her mother and three siblings. Her father also works in Iraq.
While the two talk by phone, Manuel said she hasn’t seen her father since 2007.
The separation is hard on her family.
Manuel said if she could ask the Pope one question she would ask him, “Would you visit Iraq if you were given the chance?”
The family’s priest, Father Raymond Moussalli is the Chaldean patriarchal vicar in Jordan. He says the 5,000 Iraqi Chaldean Catholics living right here in Jordan face a unique set of challenges.
“A lot of mothers come to the church asking for help in reunifying families,” Moussalli explained.
“We try to support them by providing money or rent or by offering educational programmes for their children, but it’s not enough. We need to find a way to reunify the families.”
Baghdad University professor, Samir Stipho, knows all about the challenges of keeping the family together.
He and his family left the violence in Iraq in 2006. After spending a year in Jordan he resettled his family in Phoenix, Arizona.
This week Stipho flew back to Jordan so that his 12-year-old son Faysal could join the kids from the Iraqi church in receiving his First Communion during the Pope’s outdoor Mass.
Stipho admits the sight of the children waving the Iraqi flags in the stadium Sunday morning was overwhelming.
“It broke my heart,” he said. “The tears started when I saw the flags waving. Nobody can forget his country.”
And the children don’t want the Pope to forget them. Many were allowed to come forward following the Mass for a chance to greet the Pope before he exited the stadium.
While Cecil Mikho didn’t get to ask the Pope any questions, she said she was able to touch his hand, a moment she described as “amazing” on what has turned into a day of firsts for her here in Jordan.

At first Communion Mass, pope preaches courage in following JesusBy

Source: Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden

Pope Benedict XVI's only public Mass in Jordan was a liturgy like that found in many parishes in May: It was first Communion Sunday. Dressed in white robes and seated close to the altar platform, dozens of children from all over Jordan received the Eucharist for the first time during the pope's Mass May 10 in Amman International Stadium. Peter Mihko, 15, and his sister Cecilia, 11, were part of the first Communion group of 40 young people from Sacred Heart Chaldean Catholic parish in Amman. Like many in the group, the Mihko siblings are refugees from Iraq."I'm going to receive my first Communion from the pope," Cecilia said before Mass. "Wow! This is something really amazing; it's a dream come true."

Her older brother said, "Words cannot describe what I am feeling at receiving my first Communion from the messenger of God, from the messenger of peace."In his homily, Pope Benedict preached about the need for fidelity and courage in following Jesus, in discovering one's vocation, in building a family, in promoting dialogue with Jordan's Muslim majority and in carrying out acts of charity."Jesus knows what challenges you face, what trials you endure and the good that you do in his name," Pope Benedict told the crowd in the stadium, which holds 25,000 people.

Standing in front of a picture of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the pope encouraged Jordan's 109,000 Catholics to trust Jesus, to trust in his love for his flock and to "persevere in your witness to the triumph of his love."

People should be grateful, he said, for the love of God that can be experienced in the family, "from the love of our fathers and mothers, our grandparents, our brothers and sisters."

"May every Christian family grow in fidelity to its lofty vocation to be a true school of prayer where children learn a sincere love of God, where they mature in self-discipline and concern for the needs of others and where, shaped by the wisdom born of faith, they contribute to the building of an ever more just and fraternal society," the pope prayed. Noting that the local church was nearing the end of a special year of the family, which included a focus on the dignity of women, Pope Benedict urged the people to recognize "how much your society owes to all those women who in different and at times courageous ways have devoted their lives to building peace and fostering love."

"By its public respect for women and its defense of the innate dignity of every human person, the church in the Holy Land can make an important contribution to the advancement of a culture of true humanity and the building of a civilization of love," he said. One of the mothers present at the Mass was Mariana Kardsheh, who came from Madaba with her husband and children, including 8-year-old Natalie, who was making her first Communion during the liturgy."It's no coincidence" that Natalie was chosen to be among the children receiving the sacrament at the papal Mass, Kardsheh said. She and her husband -- childless at the time -- were at Pope John Paul II's Mass in Amman in 2000. "I made my way to the popemobile. He looked at me, I saw his eyes and I made my prayer," Kardsheh said. Two months later she was asleep and dreaming, she said; "I opened my eyes and saw an angel and I knew it was a girl," who would be born.Kardsheh is convinced that Natalie's birth was an answer to the prayer she made in the presence of Pope John Paul and that it was fitting that the girl's first Communion Mass would be celebrated by Pope Benedict. With Catholics attending the Mass from all over the Middle East, including the violence-torn Iraq, Pope Benedict said he knows that the region's Christians are affected by "difficulties and uncertainties." "May you never forget the great dignity which derives from your Christian heritage or fail to sense the loving solidarity of all your brothers and sisters in the church throughout the world," he said. The Naiomi family, Chaldean Catholics who fled to Amman from Mosul, Iraq, three years ago, was part of the crowd at the Mass. Saif Naiomi, 24, said, "We want the pope to send a message of peace so that people can understand that the Christian religion is a peacemaker, I wish the pope could go to Iraq, but he can't because there is no security," he said. Pope Benedict encouraged the people to stay in the Middle East, work for the good of their countries and remain solid in the faith of their communities founded by Jesus' disciples."Fidelity to your Christian roots, fidelity to the church's mission in the Holy Land, demands of each of you a particular kind of courage: the courage of conviction, born of personal faith, not mere social convention or family tradition," he said. Being Christian means having "the courage to engage in dialogue and to work side by side with other Christians in the service of the Gospel and solidarity with the poor, the displaced and the victims of profound human tragedies," the pope said. Christians must build bridges to members of other faiths and cultures, opening a dialogue that will "enrich the fabric of society," he said. And in a region torn by violence and terrorism, Pope Benedict told those at the Mass that being faithful "also means bearing witness to the love which inspires us to lay down our lives in the service of others, and thus to counter ways of thinking which justify taking innocent lives."

Editors: Contributing to this story was Doreen Abi Raad in Amman.