To think of God’s revelation to us as Jewish and Christian means we are able to make God to be part of our life which both respond to God’s call for common good. From May 18 – 26, Mark David Walsh gave us a class on Jewish – Christian Relationships. This session gave us the opportunity to learn and see the important of the development of the Judaism and Christianity together side by side. This began with the early followers of Jesus reading the Jewish Scriptures, which Mark called our ‘Shared Scriptures’ and continued through the next 200 years. Looking at the shared scriptures and the split between Judaism and Christianity. In the early life of Christianity, we see many understandings of who God is. This is also true with early understandings of Jesus’ own identity among many groups of believers in this time. During the life of Jesus we see many conflicts and confrontations among some of the different Jewish groups. Mark looks at it as a matter of dialogue rather than conflicts within …

Every week NDS communities get together to celebrate the entrance into Sunday. Each community takes turn to prepare the prayer and dinner. This moment is a way not only to pray or make a reflection on the scripture but also it is a time to get to know each other in a better way since we are from different countries and communities. It is the Spirit of Sion that reunites us in one place. As Father Theodore said: „How do we recognize the family spirit in a member of any family? Above all love of the family and all those that compose it.” (Theodore Ratisbonne, Religious Life at Sion, p.128) Last Saturday was the turn of the Novitiate Community to prepare the entrance into Sunday. This was a specially opportunity to celebrate our weekly sharing because we also celebrated Juliana’s birthday that is going to be on June 16th. So the preparations started some days before, buying the food for the BBQ and preparing meat, snacks, dessert and small details for it. We appreciate so …

We, the Jerusalem community of Sisters of Sion, had a thrilling vigil of Pentecost in Ecce Homo together with brothers, associates and friends of Sion. How great was the energy from the environment and the beautiful celebration presided by Fr. Carlos. We had a very good Mass, really in the spirit of Pentecost, with readings, psalms and prayers in different languages. We had an amazing sharing with Sr Anne Catharine: “We can find many affinities between the gift of the Spirit and the gift of the Tora, the Word of God. The Spirit unites us, from individuals it makes us one people. At the foot of Sinai, the children of Israel were one: They answered with one voice, all together. The gift of the Tora which is the seal of the covenant, made them one people, the people of God. And this unity is also obvious in the Acts of the apostles: ‘they were all together in one same place’. They were even confused or bewildered together, then was the beginning of the Church founded …

On May 13th we celebrated Victor´s life. We had on Saturday, in the Novitiate Community a delicious Brazilian breakfast together with the brothers´ community. It was a lovely time to share experiences and ideas about the life. Victor´s birthday was celebrated from Friday until Sunday with a wonderful Brazilian lunch, prepared by Carlos – Father of Sion. We had a famous ‘strogonoff de frango’ and other delicious dishes. We enjoyed this time to celebrate also Sr Regina´s life. Lúcia de Fátima NDS, Novice Congregational Novitiate Ein Karem, Jerusalem 16 May 2016