All posts filed under: Excursions

Short reports about our excursions.

Immersion for the Chapter 2016

Before attending the 26th Chapter of the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion, which is being held in Sao Paulo Brazil, some of the delegates gathered for a 3-day immersion in Sao Paulo. Other delegates travelled to other parts of Brazil for their immersion days. We began our immersion time on Monday, June 20th with a prayer together. During this time, we were each presented with a journal to use to reflect on our experiences of the 3-day immersion in Sao Paulo. The key questions we were given were: What was I hearing, feeling and seeing today. What is stirring in me? What lifts my spirit? What am I finding uncomfortable? What insights am I having about the future of Sion? This opening prayer time was followed by a short introduction class called “Brazilian context: Social, Political, Economic and Cultural” with Marcelo Sarraino, one of the teachers in the Higieonopolis Sion school. Day one Tuesday morning, our schedule began by visiting the Higienopolis Sion school that has an enrolment of about 900 students. Some of …

Visit to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, 2016

“But with you I shall establish my covenant and you will go aboard the ark, yourself, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives along with you. From all living creatures, from all living things, you must take two of each kind aboard the ark, to save their lives with yours.” (Gn 6,18.19.) On May 8th, we went to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. It was a sunny and beautiful day. We walked around the garden, it was wonderful, since the garden had beautiful flowers and trees that adorned the view. Besides, it was amazing to see different species of animals and plants. we were so amazed to see those wonderful animals that do not exist in our countries. In addition, we had our picnic in the garden, we really enjoyed sharing this day and we blessed God for all the creation and wonders He has given to us. “God said, Let the earth produce every kind of living creature in its own species: cattle, creeping things and wild animals of all kinds. And so it …

One day in four amazing places!

We had the privilege of visiting four beautiful places in only one day; three National Parks: Masada, Qumran and En Gedi, and Nabi Musa in the Jordan valley. We shared this excursion with a group of priests and sisters who are studying for three months here in the Holy Land. Masada was the first place that we visited. The Masada fortress was built around the year 30 B.C by King Herod. The most impressive structure on Masada is King Herod’s palace, located in the northern part of the complex. It’s amazing to observe how King Herod the Great designed and built twelve entire water systems to save every drop of rain keeping it in tanks, in the midst of the desert, in an arid climate where there is rarely rain. Masada is an important place because it tells the world that the Jewish heritage cannot be erased even when it is at its lowest point. It is destined to revive and rise again. The En Gedi, Nature Reserve was the second place that we visited …

Getting to know Samaria and its surrounding

On Thursday 31st we went to visit four interesting places. We shared this excursion with a group of priest and nuns that are studying for some months here in Jerusalem. Mount Gerizim Mount Gerizim is a nature park that belongs Judea and Samaria civil administration. The name of the mount Gerizim occurs in the Torah from the beginnings of the Israelite experience in the Land of Canaan. The children of Israel are commanded to conduct the ceremony of blessing upon Mount Gerizim after entering the Land of Israel. Nowadays the Samaritan Community still lives there since 722 BCE because they believe in the sanctity of Mount Gerizim, where God commanded the construction of his Holy temple; they also believe that this is the place where Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac. The view of the Mount is beautiful we could see green areas, flowers and the villages that are near it. The Byzantine Church This place contains the remains of a Hellenistic city of a Byzantine Church. In this place one of the …

Visiting Yad Vashem Museum

On March 22, we visited Yad Vashem Museum which is located at on the western part of Mount Herzl, just about 20 minutes walk from our Novitiate house at Ein Karem. Yad Vashem Museum is Israel’s museum to remember the victim of the Shoa (Holocaust) and also an educational center for research or documentations to different group coming from the local people and international organizations. Creative and moving Monuments are built around the museum to commemorate about six million Jewish victims, communities, partisans, soldiers and ghetto fighters and their painful experiences during the Shoah. We had with Shlomo Balsam, a Jewish guide, to share with us not only his knowledge about the Shoa(Holocaust) but also about his family who was the victim of the Shoa (Holocaust). Shlomo Balsam introduced to us two parts of the Museum: one is for the educational center which is inside the building and second part as he said, is for the heart, outside of the building which they called “The Hall of Name”. First, Shlomo Balsam toured us outside the …

Visit to Bethany

On 10th March, we went to Bethany. It was a beautiful place, first we went to the Lazarus Catholic Church and each one had a brochure with the gospel John 11, 1-45 in her own language. We prayed and held a moment of silent remembering that Jesus loved to visit the home of Martha and Mary and enjoyed their warm hospitality and attention. They are wonderful women in the Bible and they are of very different temperaments. Martha loved to serve and to be active in her life and Mary was sitting attentively by Jesus’ feet and she was listening to Jesus. Both prayer and work are important in our life, we need to be contemplative in our work and our activities and prayers are doing acts of love, hope and justice. In addition, we went to the Lazarus’ Tomb. It was a beautiful place, we went down stairs and it was a small cave. Sometimes the person needs to die to resurrect and then have life. This happens a lot in our histories of live. Also, we …

Three beautiful nature places

Our Outing to En Gedi, the Dead Sea and the Baptism Place at the Jordan River On Sunday 6th of March we had our first visit to these three beautiful places. We went out together with two associates of Sion from Brazil, Luciano and his wife Sema, with Ada who is a friend of Sion from Poland and Victor a brother of Sion and the four of us with Sister Ivone and Sister Juliana. En Gedi, Nature Reserve The first place that we visited was En Gedi which is an Israeli nature reserve. Here we could see the gorgeousness of the landscape, springs, waterfalls, flora and fauna and remnants of the past. There were many students of a women high school and school and also many other tourist who were enjoying the sunny day, just perfect for a walk. So we did that. We climbed through the trails until we arrived to the place called Nahal David (David’s spring). Then we had a rest there and read the passage of the first book of Samuel …