Year: 2015

Merry Christmas

On 24 December we all walked, as the wise Men to Betlehem together with some Brothers of Sion. During our Eucharistic Celebration in Shepherds field we worshiped and offered our gifts to God. The walk was long, full of graces and silence. Returning long after midnight and after our Christmas dinner on the 25 of December we enjoyed our Christmas party where we discovered our secret friend and had much fun full of the Christmas spirit. written by Rozeni

Fr Theodore

Commerating the Ordination of Father Theodore

From the moment of his baptism, Theodore felt a call to devote himself exclusively to the service of God and mankind by becoming a priest. If the formation he was given at the seminary of Molsheim left much to be desired, God was working in his heart and was beginning to awaken in him the love for Israel which would give direction to his whole life. He received minor orders on October 28th, 1828, and priestly ordination on December 18th, 1830. Memoirs, pag. 19 The passion of truth which characterized his whole being was being purified. At the beginning it caused him to suffer from the limitations of the mind and of the heart. After his discovery of Christ, it urged him to ask further more question. This was not in order to question the validity of the faith but to know how to live it, how to bear witness to it. A deepening process took place and his passion for Truth made him open to others in a desire to transmit this truth. He …

Advent and Lectio Devina

We the Congregational Novitiate are doing Lectio Divina every Saturday as our Advent preparation. In addition to prepare spiritually for Christmas, Fr. David Nehaus, SJ gave us input to help us reflect on the history of salvation as we dig deeper in the meaning behind the names in the genealogy of Jesus. Additionally Sr. Anne Katherine gave us input about Hanukkah. Hanukkah is the a Jewish Feast commemorating the Festival of Lights which began on the 6th of December and will end on the 14th of December. We had learned that Hanukkah and Christmas celebrates the dwelling of God in our midst. God wants to dwell in human history and we can prove this through reading all the books in the bible as we prepare for the second coming of Jesus. The symbol of lights conveys that God is present in our history of salvation. God “comes with vindication and with divine recompense to save us. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; Then will the …

Hanukkah and St. Nicholas

We celebrated the second week of Advent together with the Sisters, Brothers and Associates hosted by the Novitiate Community. As we are all preparing ourselves for the coming of Jesus Christ who invited each one to follow him and to continue His ministry, we, the Novices are deeply into the spirit of preparation especially for our coming first vows. As part of our Novitiate tradition we welcome Papa Noel (Juliana) every December 6th with her surprise gifts for each one. Everyone was happy and a little bit sad because that was our last Papa Noel experienced !  

Together again

Together again. We just had finished our apostolic experiences and now we are all together again in the novitiate house. It is so wonderful coming together and sharing our different encounter with God through our experiences. With a great joy we started our christmas decoration and also we lighted the first candle of hope, where we are called to live this season of advent. 50 years in the bible it is very important because it represents freedom fullness and a new beginning of new life life. So On 27 on November we celebrate the 50 years of golden jubilee of sister Therese Dominique one of our contemplative sister all the communities of Jerusalem joined to celebrate the new life of sister Therese Dominique in Sion. Novice Alejandra                                                                                       Jerusalem 27.11.2015

Educational holiday for two novices

Thursday, November 19th On the feast of St. Elisabeth the two novices Alejandra and Victoria arrived in Linz. They left Cracow in the morning by plane and took the ICE train which goes directly from Vienna Airport to Linz. It was a wonderful feeling to meet the two young women at the train! Almost a miracle became true! After Barbara an I (Andreas) had been several times in El Berba and saw where Victoria was living, now she stepped down to our home town together with her novice friend Alejandra! We were happy! In the train station we first had a short visit to the Caritas Centre for Migrants. Since September many migrants especially from Afghanistan and Syria pass by Linz. The one who ask for Asylum in Linz, mostly the ones from Afghanistan don’t get any accommodation by the government anymore. The two large camps close to Vienna and in Upper Austria are overcrowded and the government seems in no hurry to find any solutions. As long as they are not registered at any …