Latest Posts

and we had fun!

Published by Juliana

We had fun in moving our belongings, and it took us, one hour and 20 minutes to move our beds, and mattresses, bedside tables and all our belongings to our house. Now we need to clean and sort out, to put in place.

May God be blessed Amen.

The Novitiate begann!

Published by Andreas

Sister Juliana Baldinger of the Sisters of Sion, novice mistress of the new novitiate, sent this report on the beginning of the canonical year for the six novices to the Community of the Hebrew speaking Catholics.

140325_begin_canonical_year_004March 25, 2014, the Feast of the Annunciation, was a very special day for the Sisters of Sion. At Notre Dame de Sion in Ein Karem, six women, from Guatamala, the Philippines, Brazil, and Egypt, began their “Canonical Year” in the newly established Congregational Novitiate there. In this village, some 2000 years ago, Mary the Mother of Jesus confirmed her “Yes” to the unknown, to the seemingly impossible, her humble, “Yes, let it be done to me as you have said.”

Two names, Mary and Miryam echo through the millennia, in the Jewish and Christian communities. Countless girls, and even boys, have been given this name because of the promise it holds. Alphonse Ratisbonne, the brother of Theodore Ratisbonne who founded the Congregation, chose to be known as Marie-Alphonse, after the “Event of 20 January 1842, as a way of expressing what had occurred in his encounter with Mary that day.

In a much earlier time, on the shore of the Sea of Reeds, Miryam, the Sister of Moses, danced and sang God’s gift of freedom to her people. Father David Neuhaus, our celebrant at the Eucharist, reminded us that only people who know their freedom also know how to dance, and he invited us to remember the lovely liturgical dance of the novices at the opening of the liturgy.

All of us who had gathered to celebrate this moment had come because of our own call and commitment to follow Jesus. We want to do it well, to be witnesses, in the Church and world today, of God’s faithful love for the Jewish people, and of God’s promises to them for all humanity.

As a novice, or a sister, or a brother of Sion, the crucial question is not how much education I have, or how good I might be in ministry, but rather, in the light of the teaching and example of Jesus, how much love do I want to give? How deep is my commitment to give myself to God, in following Jesus so that, like John the Baptist I can say, “Jesus must become greater, while I must become less” (John 3:30). It is about allowing love to grow in my life, the love I know in Jesus.

140325_begin_canonical_year_005The six novices are beginning their “Canonical Year,” or as the Sisters of Sion call it, the “Sinai Year,” recalling that mountain of God, that was a place of powerful revelation and incredible intimacy, in a divine-human encounter. The question of the Canonical Year that one ponders over and over again is a gentle invitation and a great challenge: Is God enough for me? The year is a process of deepening my commitment to religious life, and letting go of myself, in order to follow Jesus. How can I respond to this call to love, as Jesus did?

Sr. Juliana Baldinger NDS
Ein Karem

Teshuva

Published by Juliana

teshuca_bibelstudyOur Founder Theodore said: ” you must live in your Bible like your Homeland”

Acording to Jewish traditon, Torah and teshuva where created before the creation of the World.  Why  Torah and  teshuva, the sages anwser, because the Torah teaches the way to God, and teshuva shows the way to return to God.
The word Torah means to show, to teach the way Ps: 25,8
teshuva means to come back, to return where you come from….

Sinai, Sinai, Canonical Sinai

Published by Juliana

Sinai, Sinai, Canonical Sinai
Sinai, sometimes you are called Horev
The mountain Of God
A sacred spot where Divine and human come face to face with
To exchange covenantal relationship
And to be in solidarity with humanity’s socio-political realm.
O Sinai, Sinai, Canonical Sinai
Walking to reach you in order to exchange covenantal relationship with God,
Is not simple, easy and smooth
For the road is hilly and rocky
And one is commanded to walk barefooted
They say it is important to remove the sandals.
Because you’re a holy ground
And we are standing on a sacred ground,
Lest we trampled on other’s path.
Sinai, Sinai, canonical Sinai
As we begin threading our path, towards your peak,
May we take-off whatever that will prevent us to walk respect fully, humbly and gently
For we hope and hope to really meet God to exchange a covenant of love upon reaching your summit.
So that when we start going down from your peak,
May we become fully courageous to be part of God’s Action in history?

Begin of Canonical Year

Published by Juliana

Spiritual year „Sinai“

This year will stress the relationship with God with the Question?  “Can I be alone with God” Special emphasis on a prayerful study of the Bible, on reflection and personal and community prayer. It is a time to leave all in order to follow Christ, chaste, poor and in obedient.

Recreation time

Published by Juliana

Time of Recreatio,  in our mordern world we call it Coffee and Tea time.

The call of Sr. Colette

Published by Juliana
waitng

Sr. Colette

Sr. Colette sees her Call as a gift from God, a seed that developed after being planted by the hand of God. This letter is a way of sharing some of that story.

Growing up in a very poor family where sometimes, as a child, she had to go to school without breakfast because there was just nothing to eat for a family of seven in post-war Ireland.  Things changed when a sister of Sion, a distant relative, working in the school in   Worthing, England helped two children of the family to continue our education in the boarding school in Worthing. That meant that as child I never went home during the school year, as we just didn’t have the money for travelling. So I stayed with the sisters.

After finishing my education, it was quite naturally the next step to enter the sisters and become one of them. I went to France for my novitiate and the next couple of years seemed to proceed very naturally, I experienced no big surprises or difficulties; I saw my life like a tapestry woven by the hand of God. At that time we observed silence through much of the day; only necessary words were spoken, which prevented gossip and other perhaps unnecessary forms of communication.

We also never went home after we entered the Convent. On the 14 of August the whole community gathered to learn our “obediences” for the coming year: it was then that I heard, “Sr. Collette is going to the Community of Ein Karem” and I accepted this as in obedience without question, “why me, not her?” With that, I left Ireland in 1954 as a young professed knowing I probably would not see my family again. My life belonged to God and only to God.

When I arrived at the gate of Ein Karem after a long voyage by ship and then by bus from Haifa, the sisters were just coming out come out with a dead cow that had to be buried somewhere! Ein Karem was a farm at that time. My first home visit would be after the Six Day War in 1967. At the beginning of my time in Ein Karem I was responsible of milking the cows and taking care of the animals and working the land. Ein Karem began to be a guesthouse in 1965.

So, this year, I am celebrating 60 years of living in the Holy Land and 60 years of my commitment through vows in the Congregation of Notre Dame de Sion. During these years in Israel I have served in the ministry of our institutions as well as, for 25 years, working with the mentally handicapped in the Illwen Center for mentally handicapped which is known now as the Swedish Institute. In Sion I have learned how important it is to follow the signs of the time and God never asks of you more than you can do.