Year: 2016

Image of Our Lady of Miracles in St. Peter’s

At the end of his catechesis on Wednesday, Pope Francis greeted pilgrims from the Roman church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, who came with an original image of the Miraculous Virgin, or “Our Lady of Miracles,” which is being displayed in Saint Peter’s Basilica until January 1st 2017. The display marks the conversion 175 years ago of Alphonsus Ratisbonne in 1842, after Mary appeared to him in a side altar of that church. Ratisbonne (1812-1884) was a Jewish banker who had contempt for the Catholic Church and the clergy. He resented the fact that his brother Theodore had converted and been ordained a priest. Alphonsus’ own conversion had a great impact at the time, influenced as he was by rationalism, and the rejection of spiritual realities. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1847. Vespers will be prayed on Friday afternoon, December 30, and a Te Deum on Saturday, December 31, presided over by Pope Francis before Mary’s picture, which will be enthroned in the Altar of the Confession. On Sunday, January 1, the image will …

First Christmas in Jerusalem 2016

On December 24th, Christmas Eve we went to Shepherd’s field to have a beautiful mass with the brothers of Sion, Contemplatives and apostolic Sisters and volunteers from Ein Karem and Ecce Homo. Fr. Carlos, NDS celebrated the mass. It was a beautiful celebration and we asked for peace in the world and that Jesus fill our hearts with joy, love and hope. After that, we went to have a delicious dinner to wait for the mass at midnight in the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem. We prayed for our families, the congregation and the world and really thanked God for our lives and this wonderful experience to be there and felt the spirit of Christmas in our hearts. Next day, we had mass at 10:30 in the morning with the whole community of sisters and brothers of Jerusalem and after we had a delicious lunch. When we finished lunch, we sang some Christmas songs in different languages. “How beautiful on the mountains, are the feet of the messenger announcing peace, of the messenger of …

International Christmas

Ireland We have had special celebrations every week since November, each one preparing and explaining how we live and celebrate Christmas in our countries. The first one was Sr. Collette, who prepared a beautiful prayer and delicious Irish food on 22nd November. She mentioned that people usually put candles in the window to show the way to people and also, they usually had a family dinner. We really enjoyed the sharing of Sr. Collette and how her family was together at Christmas time. We ask the Lord for Sr. Collette’s family to give them peace, joy and love. Indonesia On November 28th, our second Christmas story was from Indonesia. Although Christmas is considered to be adopted from the Western tradition, yet, the vastness of Indonesian archipelago tells the richness of its traditions and cultures and how Christmas is celebrated in different provinces or islands. Today, as Maria shows Indonesian map, she shares with us nine different traditions of its major islands and particularly from her own place, North Sumatera where the people normally live in …

Posadas 2016

“Posadas”, Christmas Caroling, are part of the Christmas traditions celebrated in many countries. The tradition said that Posadas have to begin on December the 16th and they end on December the 24th. So it is like a novena; these nine days before Christmas represent the nine months of Mary’s pregnancy carrying baby Jesus. People participate in the Posadas as processions that re-create the journey of Mary and Joseph when they were searching for a place for Mary to give birth. This year the Novitiate Community has done the Posadas visiting the NDS Communities in Jerusalem and Ein Karem. We began our preparation choosing our own repertoire of Advent and Christmas songs; including songs in our different languages (German, Bahasa Indonesia, Portuguese, Spanish and English). Then we started practicing with the help of Brother Tiago who has been with us in each Posada. We also prepared some gifts for our Brothers, Sisters and friends. We gave them a bottle of homemade vine and some bags with sweets and nuts. Our first Posada was visiting the NDS …

Christmas 2016 in Cairo

This is Magy! Magy died this past Tuesday as a result of the attack on the “Botrosia” church on Sunday Dec. 11. Some of you know about Magy because we had asked for prayers for her. On Wednesday she had an extraordinary funeral, which has been described as more like a wedding. Her coffin was white, her lovely young mom refused to wear black and said she didn’t want people to mourn… she had returned “home” to the One who gave her to them 10 years ago. Magy was our next door neighbor, and though we didn’t even know her name before, we feel blessed to have met her occasionally in the lift and to know her parents and little sister are still there, on the other side of our living room wall. The tears that Am Samir, our Moslem security man wept for her, were precious and showed us what an effect this little girl had had on him. This last week of Advent has sort of been “taken over” by Magy and our …

„St. John in Montana“ News 12/2016

Dear Sisters and Brothers After our immersion experience with Pax Christi, we began to reflect on article 14 of the Constitution: “Our vocation gives us a particular responsibility to promote understanding and justice for the Jewish community and to keep alive in the church the consciousness that in some mysterious way, Christianity is linked to Judaism from its origin to its destiny.” We considered that article in relationship to our apostolic commitment, which is shaped by the call of the 2016 Chapter document to reflect on the priorities for apostolic life in Sion, and the section on “Formation in Sion.” With the Ecce Homo community we closed the liturgical year with the celebration of “Christ the King” and began the weeks of Advent in preparation for Christmas in our community. During this Advent we are visiting each Sion community here in Jerusalem following the tradition of “Posadas”, which is Christmas Carolling reminding us of Josef and Mary searching for an inn giving them shelter in Bethlehem. (Click here for wikipedia about „Las Posadas”). This tradition …

Feast of Hanukkah and Christmas

“We can celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas with the Jews the light of God and wish that it will illuminate the world with true joy and hope” On December 1st and 7th, our classes with Sr. Anne Catherine discussed about Hanukkah and Christmas. Do these two celebrations have any correlation with one another? We discussed this question by examining the celebration of Hanukkah, which is a Jewish holiday that is celebrated also in December and which actually will happen this year on the same date as Christmas. We looked at the background of both of these celebrations by readings some Scripture texts of the Old Testament and New Testament. In the readings from 1 Maccabee 4: 36-56 and 2 Maccabee 10: 1-8, the festival of Hanukkah was instituted by Judah Maccabee and his brothers to celebrate this event. According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough oil to light the menorah in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, …