All posts filed under: Excursions

Short reports about our excursions.

Visiting Bethlehem

We bless the Lord because this week we had a wonderful opportunity to visit Bethlehem. Thinking that we are near to celebrate the holy week we decided to visit the place where Jesus was born. We are doing a memory of his life and how with it he fulfilled the words of the angel Gabriel when he said to Mary in the gospel of Luke: “…he will be great and will be called Son of the Most High…!” Lk 1,32 Every time that you visit the Nativity church it is amazing to see how people from all around the world are praying in this place. They are full of hope and joy like the shepherds when they went to contemplate the birth of Jesus. We also took our time to appreciate the mystery of God in this significant place where “The Word became flesh” Jn 1,14. We read the gospel and reflected on it. Then we finished this special moment singing together a verse of the “Benedictus”. After visiting the Nativity church we went to …

Goodbye Galilee

As community of the novitiate, we started the New Year 2016 with our farewell trip in the Holy Land for two days. The first day we visited Haifa, the Baha’i Garden, the Stella Maris Lighthouse and the Carmelite Monastery. The second day we visited Nazareth, the tiny Galilean village of Nein (Lk. 7:11-17), Mount Tabor, (Mt. 17, 1-9), Safed one of the four holy cities in Israel and then we came down to Tabgha, Tiberias Lake and we ended our day in Jericho. After that we came back home with great joy, hoping that we will come back again to these amazing places where we feel Jesus walking with us as he did in those days. This trip helps us to reflect on Jesus’ call and also to prepare ourselves for our retreat in preparation for the 20th of January when we will pronounce our first commitment as sisters of Sion. –

New Year 2016

Faith Is the total, complete, strong and living adherence that we give to the Word of God: God speaks, I believe, that is the act of faith, but when God speaks, He says something. What does He say? He promises us eternal goods, He says that if we seek above all the Kingdom of God and His justice, we shall have His Kingdom, His justice, and in addition, the goods of this world (Mt. 6: 33). He tells us to have confidence, that He has come, “not to lose but to save” (Lk. 9: 56), “for the sick and not for the healthy” (Mk. 2: 17) (Lk. 5: 31) (Mt. 9: 12). He promises us joys and happiness which no human word can utter, “the things that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, things beyond the mind of man” (I Co. 2: 9) (Is. 64: 3). That is what God says to us, so if we believe in God’s word, we must hope for its fulfillment. Hope Hope is the flower of faith …

Pilgrimage to Czestochowa

My name is Alejandra and I am from Guatemala. I am a novice and, for the moment, living in Krakow for my apostolic experience with three sisters, Ania from Poland, Anne Denise from France and Victoria from Egypt. I have been in Krakow since July 3rd 2015 and I will be here for five months. I would like to share my experience of the pilgrimage to Czestochowa, two hundred kilometers from Krakow. This pilgrimage is organized in Krakow by the Dominican Priests who started it 24 years ago. Two thousand people were walking, in groups of two hundred, young people, handicapped, families and children. This seven days pilgrimage started on Monday 3rd and finished on Sunday 9th, August 2015. We walked 30 kilometers a day. Why did I go on this pilgrimage? I went on it because sister Ania invited us. The first day was not very tiring but the second and the third were very hard because as it is not so easy to walk 30 kilometers with 37 degrees of temperature. I said …

Palm Sunday and Desert trip

We ended our desert journey known as canonical year with a 5 day retreat facilitated by Fr. Lionel, reflecting on the life of Jesus and the covenant of God with His people. We also had an experience travelling around the desert area with Brother Elio, NDS during this Holy Week. By visiting significant places in the Bible history and our first Christian heritage we deepened more our understanding of the importance of the desert in our Christian faith. ? We went to Beth-Shemesh: as you can see in the book of 1 Sam. 6. ? Tel Azeka: 1 Sam. 14: 17; 1 Sam. 17:18 ? Beersheba: Gn. 21: 9; 2 Sam. 24: 1-2; Mt. 6 ? Ein Avdat, Carpentry and Ein Gadi particularly to the David waterfalls 1 Sam 24; Song of Songs 1: 13-14 ? We also went to the tomb of David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel who dreamt that the desert would flourish and turn green. ? We ended our two day trip in the place of Qumran: Acts. …

New Year and Bet Shemesch

We had a party to end 2014 and to welcome 2015. We had such a wonderful night with our ex formator when we were still postulants. In October 1858 Fr. Theodore visited Jerusalem for the first time and 2 days after this he wrote to the Sisters in Paris: “In Jerusalem, everything impresses me, everything moves me…” We have been here for some months and it has been great to be with all of us, sharing our talents, our weaknesses, supporting one another and just by being ourselves. This is a historical moment in our Congregation because it is the first formation meeting together with the apostolic sisters, contemplatives and brothers. They are planning about the formation of the congregation especially for the future. On Tuesday 30th we had the opening mass, at the same time our Leadership team introduced us the formators from the different regions: Cracovie, Central America, Philippines, Brazil, Egypt and Ein Karem, Jerusalem. As part of the meeting, the group had an outing on Friday 02nd to Beth- shemesh, it was …

Jesus took the boat to the other side

Walking the same way Jesus was walking was a wonder where I could renew my faith and my desire to follow him . In every place I could imagine Jesus talking to people and how his words reached the hearts of  people who are hungry for an answer to their sufferings and their hopes. The messiah led me everywhere. So I found that,  Jesus is the one who  makes me strong. The walking to Kursi and the Mount of Beatitudes were the places that made me contemplate how Jesus spoke of love and miracles and I also realized I could meditate how he was persecuted because of his love for God and his kingdom. The ones who heard, were enchanted with that love. For me it was the first time to make a pilgrimage in the Land where Jesus walked. A dream that became touchable, the story of Jesus in walking. I saw the places where Jesus walked, preached the Kingdom of God. The places where this happend are far from from each other but …