Month: August 2016

„St. John in Montana“ News 08/2016

Dear Sisters, We began the month of August by participating in the Elijah Interfaith Summer School on religious leadership. Meeting the different participants attending the summer school gave both the Novices and the Sisters opportunities to learn, to question our own understandings of religious leadership, and to become more aware of the opportunities for religious leadership today in religious and non- religious societies. It left us thinking about what speaks to our world today, and what needs some response in that context, so as to ensure a life with dignity as well as with respect for all values — secular and religious – that contribute to a non-violent society. For the Novices who come from different countries, it was the first experience of interfaith encounters like this, sharing face to face with persons with different religious insights, and specially becoming more aware of secularism, where religion is viewed with scepticism or even dismissed as not needed in one’s daily life. All of us in the Novitiate community come from countries where religion plays a role …

Sharing the Feast of Mary’s Assumption

On Monday 15th our Sion’s communities got together for the celebration of the feast of the Assumption. We were united with the Church in this special feast of the Virgin Mary. Besides on this day we had a great opportunity to thank the Lord for all the time Sister Diane has been in Jerusalem. She is having her Sabbatical year and for that reason we were very thankful for all her service and work. Since 4:30 pm people arrived to Ein Karem. At 5:30 we had the Mass prepared by the Contemplatives and the Apostolic Sisters. We, as novices, also had our participation in it by giving the offerings to the priest and singing in Bahasa Indonesian and English. When the Celebration finished and after a hot day we were lucky to have a very nice weather with a cool breeze. It made people happy to be sitting outside having talks while we were waiting for the supper. Soon we were enjoying a delicious meal. We had a diversity of dishes; for example, chicken, fish, …

Chrétien qui prient en hebreu

Nizar Halloun wrote a Report in french on the small Hebrew speaking Christian community in Israel. These are Hebrew-speaking Catholics who celebrate the Latin rite and mostly are Israeli citizens or  living as foreign workers or asylum in the Israeli society. Sr. Regine Canetti is one of the founding members of this community, mentioned in this article. This article was published in the magazine “Terre Saint” No 638, 07/08 2015. P. Raynald Wagner ofm kindly provided us the text to present it on the web. Of course, all rights reserved by the Franciscan Brothers. You can find a german Translation from the Magazine “Im Land des Herrn” here: Christen die hebräisch beten

Celebrating Nancy’s birthday 2016

On 16 August, we celebrated the anniversary of Nancy’ birth. In the morning we had a Costa Rican breakfast together. So we had a delicious “frijoles molidos” eggs and coffee. We blessed the Lord for Nancy’s life, her bravery and for her journey in the congregation. “I shall betroth you to myself forever, I shall betroth you in uprightness and justice, and faithful love and tenderness. Yes, I shall betroth you to myself in loyalty and in the knowledge of the Lord.“ (Hosea 2, 21-22) In addition, we had delicious lunch and ice cream cake to continue celebrating her birthday. We had a beautiful time together. Also, in the evening we went out to have ice cream in the village. It was a lovely and sunny day. “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.” (Psalm. 133,1) Andrea Chacón Carmona, Novice NDS Community St. John in Montana August 17th, 2016

Assumption of Mary 2016

On August 9, we had our class with Sr. Anne Catherine on the Assumption of Mary. It was interesting how she deepened the meaning of the assumption of Mary by simply making the connections to the other texts in the Bible as we saw Enoch (Gen 5: 24; Sir 44:16, 49, 14; Hebrew 11: 5; Jude 1: 14-15); as well as Elijah (2 King 2: 11-12; Sir 48:1-11), and perhaps according to the Jewish tradition, Moses, Aaron and Miriam did not died like any other human being but “in kiss of God”. And then we continued with the reading of the day, in the book of Revelation 11: 19, the Ark of Covenant appeared in heaven. We can hear the passage when the Ark of Covenant was carried to Jerusalem by David (2 Samuel 6) and then, Mary carrying Jesus in her womb in the hills of Judea. Mary and the Ark are linked. As the Ark is described as residing heaven, so too is the Mary described already residing in heaven with her body …

The feast of Tisha be Av

The class with Sr. Anne was about the Tisha be Ab. Tisha be Av is a memory of the destruction of the First and Second Temple. According to the tradition, on the Ninth of Av, it was already decreed upon our ancestors that they would not be allowed to enter the Land of Israel. Therefore, it is a commandment to mourn on Jerusalem starting with three weeks from the 17th of Tammuz. We can read the destruction of the First Temple in 2 King 25 and Jeremiah 52: 12-27. Looking at the provided texts and commentaries by Sr. Anne, there are some reason why the Jewish people have to mourn. The First Temple was destroyed for three sins of Israel: idolatry immorality and bloodshed. On the other hand, when the Second Temple was destroyed, Israel was already occupied with studying the Torah and practicing the commandment and good deeds. So, why in spite of that the temple was destroyed? Because there was hate without motivation and nobody challenged anybody. Some people say, the evil tongue …

„St. John in Montana“ News 07/2016

The month of July was an intensive one for us. In the middle of June, Sr. Juliana had left for Brazil to participate in the 26th General Chapter of the Congregation, as an elected delegate of the Mediterranean Region. In her absence, Sr. Ivone assumed additional responsibility in the Novitiate, and throughout the month Sr. Elizabeth Losinsky led the novices in a study on the Origins of Sion, taking both the mornings and afternoons, for that. This gave the novices an opportunity for the deeper reflection on our Sion History that many of us sisters would only dream of doing. Before the departure of Elizabeth later in July, the four Novices shared the projects they had created in relation to their study with her. The projects were a combination of research and reflection, presented in power point. Andrea’s project was on the life of prayer that we find in the accounts about Fr. Theodore, Fr. Alphonse and the first sisters. She also included what the Constitution tells us today about the life of prayer at …