On April 24, our NDS Brothers, Ratisbonne community invited us (the Novitiate community) for lunch. This was special for us, the Novices, because it was our first time visiting the Brothers since we arrive in Jerusalem this year. We enjoyed the Brazilian food especially the Salpicao salad. We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying our singing, playing guitar with Br. Joel and having our karaoke, and then watching a movie while having our special cake made by Br. Cristóvão. We ended our day having our Sunday Mass at Kehilla, the Hebrew speaking community. Everything was so special and we were very happy for this encounter with our Brothers. Maria Malau NDS, novice Congregational Novitiate Ein Karem, Jerusalem April 25, 2016

From April 16 – 23, we were privileged to have Fr. Werner Hebeisen SJ, a Jesuit priest from Austria for our music lesson. Fr. Werner taught us some basic guitar chords and we had practices every day. Most of all, he taught us the right way to sing; for instance, doing breathing exercises, listening and identifying our voice. He taught us how to play guitar and violin. Most of us enjoyed learning guitar. This was a new experience for most of us and we found it difficult but all of us were eager to learn. We were able to learn and sing about fifteen songs including the songs from the country of our origin; Spanish, Portuguese, German and Indonesian. Full of joy and energy, we sang and performed the songs in our community Brothers, Sisters and friends at Ein Kerem on Saturday night. It was really a real mini concert for us. At the end of the song presentation, we took the opportunity to thank Fr. Werner for spending his time and gifts of music, …