All posts filed under: Reflections

Refelctions about Biblical texts, prayer and spiritual life.

Juliana’s Pandemic and Sabbatical Year

When the pandemic year becomes a Sabbatical year. More than a year ago, life began to change with the emergence of the Corona Virus. During the first weeks, I experienced that my time was filled with more time to pray, to reflect, often and for longer periods. At this time, I was still thinking that within a month or two everything would be back to normal. So now, much later than anticipated, after 16 months of such slowing down, life is gradually becoming normal again here for us in Israel; whatever this new “normal” means!! It was not only this “slowing down” that I experienced during these months but I also organized the computer and cleansed it of all the unnecessary junk; the house got a good cleaning too. A few months later it became clear, that this was a world-wide calamity and that it would continue for longer than just a few weeks or months. Meetings or gatherings became prohibited, retreats in personal presence were not offered, and so the norm became zoom or …

The cry of the heart

A reflection by Carolina:
My summary; Today I am confirmed that God calls me to mix my spiritual experience, with psychology and languages. I want to dedicate my life to help others to discover themselves, and to find a way to be happy being guided God. I want to be able to approach people and speak to them in their own language in order to help them, to be more compassionate, and to show them that they are not alone that there is someone who loves us and wants us to be happy.

Christmas letter 2020

Advent, Christmas a time of new beginning, this year more than ever! A year has passed, and Advent and Christmas a year ago were still a time with no worries, a time of old normality, a time like all the other years. This year is different. Feelings, activities, even work are filled with insecurities, and many uncertainties are mixed in together with a little bit of adventure. Wearing a mask, yes or no, washing your hands and disinfecting as often and as thoroughly as possible and keeping your distance are part of the new reality. No big events are on the agenda. Christmas markets, and aimless shopping are out of our daily routine. This time of Covid-19 calls us to be recollected, to reflect a little, to think about whether I need all this or is it possible to exist with a little less? Questions are increasing like: why am I alive, what is my task in this often big and often diminishing world; and also the question: what does it look like inside my four …

Lockdown

Yes there is fear. Yes there is isolation. Yes there is panic buying. Yes there is sickness. Yes there is even death. But, They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise You can hear the birds again. They say that after just a few weeks of quiet The sky is no longer thick with fumes But blue and grey and clear. They say that in the streets of Assisi People are singing to each other across the empty squares, keeping their windows open so that those who are alone may hear the sounds of family around them. They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound. Today a young woman I know is busy spreading fliers with her number through the neighbourhood So that the elders may have someone to call on. Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples are preparing to welcome and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting All over …

Give thanks unto the LORD

“Give thanks unto the LORD; give honour unto his name, speaking of his doings among the people.” (1Chronicles 16:8) I am sheep! I am completing one year here in the Holy Land – and I have much to thank and praise God, who gave me people who contributed to my personal and spiritual growth, so that I could complete this time. Today I praise God! for this achievement, with Psalm 23, that one of my favourites! This text brought to my heart a retrospective of these 365 days, made me look back a year in my history. And to perceive me as a sheep that is going through the shepherd’s care. The Lord is my shepherd; (Psalm 23:1) God you are my King, you know everything about me, when I lie down when you wake me, you are always shepherding me. “My Shepherd is good, and puts all his benefits at my disposal, so that I do not fall, but if I stumble on the stones along the way He will carry me in His …

The Pact of Turkenstein

During the French Revolution, the wave of anger against the Catholic Church rapidly took shape. The Legislative Assembly (1791), the Revolution’s second parliament, was even more extreme than the first. Thus divorce was also legalized. The clergy, which was not included in the constitutional contract, was declared to be unworthy of trust. In August 1792, a decree against them was announced by which they were exiled. All fraternities and welfare organizations were suppressed. The religious communities that worked in hospitals and that taught were suppressed. Thus, the poor were robbed of education for their children and of Christian love of neighbour, of care for the sick, of the Church’s mission for the sick and the handicapped. By the Pact of Turkenstein in 1797, its participants dedicated themselves to counteracting these limitations. On Friday, June 23, 1797, on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a pact was signed, a seed from which Sion grew. The three participants, Louise Humann, Theresia Breck and the later bishop of Mainz, Joseph Ludwig Colmar, dedicated themselves to the …

The joy of prayer

Purim is finished, but always leaves a message of joy, hope and faith in God. The exaggerated cry of Purim is the sound of triumph, the sound of the victory of God and his people! The Fast and the prayer of Esther and her people, makes me reflect on the power of prayer. Never, we must subsist this force, the gift that the Lord has left us. James 5: 16-18 declares, confess your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The prayer made by a righteous man can be greatly in its effects. Elijah is also an example that tells us the power of prayer. Praying, asking not to rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit. God definitely listens to prayers, and gives us answers through them. Jesus taught: For verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard …