Month: March 2017

Annunciation weekend

‘And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word’. Lk 1:38 After a day of silence and prayer on the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary we also reflected on our projects of life. We ended the day with a concert for the Feast of the Annunciation with gospel music – ‘My soul says YES!’. It was prepared by Veronika, our polish volunteer, with Br. Tiago and Anne-Catherine’s help and we all participated. Many of the Jerusalem community joined us. “My soul says yes to the Will of the Lord, I give my will over Yes, yes! Let me just be saying My life is in Your hands Anything You ask me I will do Your wish is my command I will trust You Lord With all my heart, my mind, body and soul I want You to know And I wanna say yes.” (music of Deitrick Haddon) It was a concert with lovely songs and at the same time it was a prayer. After that …

Fr Mary Alphonse in Jerusalem

An Important Seed

We had three sessions with Br. Elio, nds about the life of the Fr. Marie Alphonse and his relationship with Fr. Theodore. We certainly enjoyed hearing about him and the importance of his life in the congregation. Fr. Alphonse had a special and close relationship with Fr. Theodore. They had their own way to communicate with each other since their personal letters had a deep and special language which was different from others. So, we needed to be careful when we would read and interpret them. Theodore and Alphonse had a strong bond of trust between them, they also had a profound love and compassion as they tried to do the will of God. It was their good relationship that helped them to be self-critical in their discernment of the work of Sion. Fr. Alphonse did not lack confidence, he was very interested in the work of Fr. Theodore since at that time he was in his novitiate with the Jesuits. He had much communication through letters with Fr. Theodore. His brother wrote to him …

Celebrating Lúcia´s Birthday, 2017

On 16 March, we celebrated the anniversary of Lúcia´s birth. We had a thanksgiving mass for the life of Lúcia in the big Chapel with the apostolic and contemplative sisters, brothers of Sion and volunteers. Following Mass, we had a delicious breakfast in the community and enjoyed sharing the rest of the morning. We thanked the Lord for Lúcia´s life, her family and her journey in the congregation. “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; Listen to him.”(Matthew.17:5) We ask God to bless her with joy, peace and love. In addition, we had a delicious lunch together and continued celebrating her Birthday, we had a coffee together with a delicious cassava cake with all community of Ein Karem. “There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven: A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted. A time for tears, a time for laughter; a time for mourning, a time for dancing. A time …

Rejoicing with life!

Celebrating Father Carlos’ Birthday! On Thursday 09th Carlos celebrated his birthday. Even though we were in our Regional Assembly, in our break time the Novitiate Community had a chance to sing “Happy birthday” to him while he was working at the cemetery. Sharing a cup cake and full of joy we really had a singular opportunity to show him how much we appreciate his presence among us. Carlos officially celebrated his birthday last Sunday. Preparing a delicious lunch with traditional Brazilian food and drink, he invited all the Jerusalem NDS Brothers, Sisters, the volunteers from Poland, some of the Franciscan fathers from our Parish in Ein Karem and some friends of his. We had a nice time to share, talk and meet one and other. We finished our celebration singing “Happy birthday” to Carlos and enjoying a piece of cake. We thanked the Lord for Carlos’ life since it is a blessings for everybody to meet him. Joining Purim On the same Sunday during the evening we went for mass to the Kehila. After mass …

Our first experience with Oriental Churches

As part of our program in the canonical year, we are participating in different Eucharistic celebrations of Oriental Churches, on the Sundays of February. We went to: Greek community – This Church uses the Byzantine liturgical rite and uses Greek and Arabic as liturgical languages. Syrian community – Is an Oriental Catholic Church, in communion with the Latin Catholic Church. It uses Syrian, Arabic, Aramaic, English and French as liturgical languages. Maronite community – Traditional in Lebanon, the Maronite Church has its own rite. The Maronites have several of their religious canonized or beatified by the Catholic Church, such as St. Maron (the founder of the Maronite Church). Armenian community – Its liturgical rite is the Armenian rite and its liturgical language is Armenian. All these particular churches, being autonomous or local, are led by ordained ministers, who, ultimately, all obey the Pope. The rites of them are different from the Latin Church. For some of us it was new to participate in these different kind of rites. Lúcia de Fátima NDS, Novice Congregational Novitiate …

Our Retreat Lent 2017

“Come, let us return to the LORD, For it is he who has torn, but he will heal us; he has struck down, but he will bind our wounds. He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence. Let us know, let us strive to know the LORD; as certain as the dawn is his coming. He will come to us like the rain, like spring rain that waters the earth…” (Hosea 6:1-3) On March 1st, we had our Ash Wednesday mass in our chapel together with all the Brother and Sister communities of Ein Karem to mark the beginning of Lent. On the following days – March 2nd to 4th – the Novitiate community had our Lent retreat in our house with Fr. Kamil, a Jesuit priest. We had an input in the morning and afternoon about few themes: renewal or rethinking of our religious life, the growth of our vocation and other topics related to Lent, and most specifically on conversion …