Month: February 2014

Laughter the medicine for mind and body

Humor is infectious. The sound of roaring laughter is far more contagious than any cough, sniffle, or sneeze. When laughter is shared, it binds people together and increases happiness and intimacy. Humor and laughter strengthen your immune system, boost your energy, diminish pain, and protect you from the damaging effects of stress. Best of all, this priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use. When we laugh with one another, a positive bond is created. This bond acts as a strong buffer against stress, disagreements, and disappointment. and we laughted and laught.

Telling our story

Today it was Juliana telling how she meet Sion and what brought her to Jerusalem. Abram starts out on this venture and leaves his home. He abandons all his safety, all his security. Since that tale of Abraham we know: a promise can only be fulfilled if we start out. Never in her life, after the death of my father, had my mother worried about her own wishes. It was hard for her, in post-war times, to bear the responsibility for three small girls (I was just three). Often, she did not know how to pay for the next school excursion or for the warm midday soup during winter months, or for the school milk; to say nothing of our children wishes! In this atmosphere of uncertainty, of want and hardship, we grew up, the three half-orphan girls of Holzackern, a village of Upper Austria, amidst fields and woods. We probably had no material security, but Mother was always generous, even though we had very little. No beggar left us without something to eat, and …

Daily living

Schedule of our daily living keeps us busy. Beginning with morning prayer, daily mass and bible readings next to personal prayer and learning to get to know one another. Different Cultures, age and background is meeting around the coffee table or in helping by washing up in guest house and walking down the street.

Religous life is…

We started the Stations of the Cross on the Lithostrotos in the Ecce Homo, the convent of the sisters of Notre Dame de Sion. Jesus is judged and handed over by Pilatus to be crucified. As we walked the different Stations of the Cross we prayed and remembered loved ones, friends and the sorrows of this world. For the victims of violence, the ones who are in physical and psychological pain or for the ones who are suffering because of prejudice, resentments and lack of freedom. We prayed in thanksgiving of the gift God sent through Jesus and for light to walk in his way.

Bethlehem

Bethlehem, Jesus was born their into a world where power and politics oppressed freedom, religious freedom. We went into silence, reflecting that the world did not change! Today we hear of oppression of faith, modern slavery, exploration of women and children and also men used as workforces for inhuman and in slavery jobs. The word of Math 13.15… “For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart …” …becomes even more powerful in this place where Jesus was  born.

Sunday in the old city

Today is Sunday. We celebrate the Eucharistic with the parish of the Arabic speaking Latin (= Roman Catholic) community in Jerusalem. Then we had lunch with the Beit Ruth community of our congregation “Notre Dame de Sion”. And we enjoyed walking in the rain. In Jerusalem they never have bad weather! They either have “dry and hot weather” or “good weather”. Today we had good weather as all plants and people wait for the rain filling up the water reservoirs!