Month: December 2017

A child was been born…

For child was been born to us, a son given to us… Is 9:6 In one of his Christmas writings Father Theodore inspired us to contemplate the divine Child of Bethlehem. He said, “This Child is the Son of the Most High, He is the love incarnate! Why does He appear to under the traits of childhood? It is so that we may love Him and not fear Him! A child gives everything, forgives everything, forgets everything; nothing, is more approachable and nothing is more lovable. He smiles at us from His mother’s breast; He asks for our trust; He tenderly invites us to enjoy His holy intimacy. How could His sweetness, His simplicity, His delightful caresses, His divine attentions fail to captive our heart?”… (Book 3, p.171). These words of Father Theodore give us an example of how we can live the spirit of this Christmas season. If this child captivates our hearts, if He becomes the love incarnated in us then we will be able to carry His presence to the world. A …

„St. John in Montana News“ 12/2017

Ein Karem, Tuesday, 19 December 2017 Here in Jerusalem we are saddened by the response to Trump’s announcement of having Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Even more we are distressed by the expressions of hatred towards Jewish people around the world. Hostility towards Jews is not only in the history of the Nazi regime; it is a history of nearly 2000 or more years in which education has played an important part. Violence begins in the mind and the heart. Before the gas chambers of Auschwitz there were the harsh words of Hitler and before that, there where homilies and theological writings and even expressions of hostility in the NT towards the Jewish people. (“The language anti-Semitism” by Monika Schwarz-Friesel). Rabbi Sacks spoke on Friday 8th December 2017, in a debate in the House of Lords on Education, on the question of why Moses in his last speech didn’t talk about the long walk to freedom. Why did Moses not speak about the land flowing with milk and honey? Instead, repeatedly, he turned to the …

To Continue Walking

“Blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Luke. 1, 45) On the 19th of December, 2017, we had a beautiful mass to thank God for all the years that the Contemplative Sisters have been in Nazareth and in Ein Karem. They first lived in Nazareth from 1969 to 1975 and later on they were founded in Ein Karem in 1971. They had been working in the garden, making jam and translating the liturgy into Hebrew. Also they have been participating in the Hebrew speaking Catholic community in different activities with the people. After mass, the contemplative Sisters made a presentation of a PowerPoint about their lives from 1969 to the present day. So they related different aspects of their daily life, prayer and community life, recreation time, various places that they visited here and also all the people that they have shared with on the way. It was very meaningful because we could see all the life that was lived and the light that the sisters …

Sr. Regine, a brave woman!

Sr. Regine Canetti NDS and her family had to leave Bulgaria by boat under the threat of Nazism. The boat carried more than 350 Bulgarian refugees in the hopes of reaching Israel having escaped from their country. The boat was called ‘El Salvador’ meaning in Ladino “The Savior.” Our Sister Regina was on this boat with her family. She was nineteen years old. On December 3rd, 1940 after a nerve-racking month of waiting, they finally got onto the deck of the Salvador convinced that they would reach their destination, but the condition on the ship was terrible and overcrowded. They arrived in Istanbul, but on the evening of December 11th the authorities expelled them and the boat was dragged out of the port to a distance of three kilometers offshore and left there. They sailed for long hours on the Marmara Sea not far from the coast. Then a very bad and sudden storm developed with strong winds, rain and snow. They were at a distance of about 100 meters from the coast facing a …

Magnificat – Rejoice with us!

In the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception we, the family of Sion at Ein Karem, celebrated the diamond jubilee of Sr. Bernadette Marie – one of our Notre Dame de Sion Contemplative Sisters. We had a lovely Eucharistic celebration presided by Fr. Carlos NDS in the Contemplative Sisters’ chapel. Sr. Bernadette Maries shared memories of her first vows of about 60 years ago and renewed them in her heart forever, following Jesus in Mary. Mary is an example for us in religious life, her full belonging and total dedication to God (“Behold the handmaid of the Lord”), is a sublime example of perfect consecration. Chosen by the Father, who wanted to fulfill the mystery of the Incarnation, it reminds religious that the initiative always comes from God: as the Apostle John recalls: “Love consists in the following: it was not we who loved God, but He who first loved us and sent us his Son.” Mary appears as a welcome model of the grace for religious, who are called by grace to be witnesses of …