Month: August 2014

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“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.” Psalm:133: 1 There are several important things to consider in living together. To begin with, the biggest consideration is: First, we have the opportunity to learn and grow from our different culture, background and personalities and these differences lead us to live life to the fullest. Second, from our imperfection we are trying to live out the Scripture daily as much as possible. Finally, we are now complete in the novitiate house and we all have our room. This week we began to work on our booklet for our Galilee Pilgrimage this coming October. It is a wonderful experience in sharing our ideas and talents working together. We had such a nice afternoon with Sr. Aparecida Aquino for sharing her vocation story with us. She was born in Aracaju, Santo Amaro, Brazil. She knew Sion since when she was a child. The Sion’s house and school were close to her familie house. She did her formation with the sisters for her first …

The power of Prayer

Interreligious Seminar on Prayer The Seminar that we attended talked about the meaning and importance of prayer for the three Abrahamic religions namely: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During the five consecutive days we tried to understand and reflect together what is prayer, why we pray, how do we pray and the significant of Jerusalem in our prayer life. written by Novice Arlyne.

Sh’ma Israel

Sh’ma= Obey We novices had an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the Sh’ma with Sr. Anne Catherine. She showed us the importance of the Sh’ma in religious life. She led us in a reflection on both the call of God in the “Sh’ma, Israel …” and the invitation to live God’s call to listen, in our own lives. Sh’ma invites us into the experience of listening deeply to the voice of God that reveals what we can do to build peace in the world. The commitment to live the Sh’ma enables us to affirm that God exists and to obey God’s call to live in charity/love like brothers and sisters. In the spirit of Sh’ma, we hear more with the heart than with the ear. Sh’ma enables us “to hear the word of God and keep it” in our hearts. The verb, “Sh’ma,” is often used in the Scriptures with the meaning of “obey.” In fact it means much more than just listening with the ear. The combination, “hear and do,” is well known; …

Teaching on Judaism

Monday, the 4th, and Tuesday, the 5th of August 2014, we had input with Sr. Anne Catherine. We studied a little more about Judaism. We were very interested in the destruction of the Temple, and were aware that on 5 of August (Tishah B’Av on the Jewish calendar), the Jewish people had their annual solemn memorial of that event. As we know, for them it is not only a memory but also a daily reflection that brings them back to awareness of the presence of God. After the destruction of the Temple they remembered their earlier experience of the presence of God at the Tent of Meeting and how they gathered there in open desert, to pray. Forgetting that moment led them into exile, remembering it is a secret of their survival as a people. For the Jewish World, three things remain central: Torah – The Word of God, Avoda – worship or the service of prayer, and Gemicur Hanadin – deeds of love toward one’s neighbours. These three are related to each other and, …

The fruit pickers and cleaners

We are grateful that we were finally able to clean our garden. We worked for three afternoons and, of course, we enjoyed it, running, jumping and climbing the apple trees like children. Now we have some different kinds of jam, for example, apple, pear, and fig. For some of us, this was the first experience of having so many kinds of fruit at the same time. It is all the more exciting because they come from our own garden, and for us this is a blessing. It is nice to pick so many kinds of fruit and not have to pay for them! Of course, it involves work, and we have been a little tired but very happy! Come and see the photos!… written by Alejandra  

Tisch Ha bAv

On Tish ha bAv the whole Jewish community is in mourning, the first Temple was destroyed because of evil behaviour, as sin was lived, immorality, bloodshed and idolatry. The second Temple was destroyed because of hate and the evil tongue (gossiping). On Tish ha bAv the invitation goes out to all humanity to mend this broken world (Tiqum Olam). The book of Lamentation is read during this Memorial Day, so to remember the destruction of the Temples, and to listen to the call to mend the world.

Encounter with the reality of life

We had an introduction to Judaism with Sr. Anne. She said that Jews respect the “Torah” and that they believe that God is everywhere, and so, they can pray anywhere. We also learned that Judaism is not only the religion of the Jewish people; it is also their culture and tradition. In addition, we understand better how that Christianity came from Judaism, since Jesus as well as his disciples were Jews. We had input from Sr. Juliana about prayer, using our Constitution and Scripture. We shared two by two on these questions: Why do we pray? What is prayer? We said that prayer is an important part of our relationship with God; we need prayer. We can pray in different ways and for different people, such as prayer for people who are sick or in need, the poor, etc. We said also that prayer is not just words, but an experience which involves our feelings. We need to be silent in order to listen to the word of God. Prayer can renew our energy every …