Month: November 2018

A Journey!

If I have to give a name of this week it would be: JOURNEY. From two points of view. The first one is Helen’s long journey from Costa Rica to Israel. The second one is our retreat. I am going to speak about the second. As for the first point I will let Helen tell you herself in the coming weeks. As you maybe know we have had sister Maureen Cusick in our community for wonderful sessions on Human, Spiritual, biblical and theological development. For a few days we had a retreat guided by sister Maureen. A lovely journey with God! On the first day we were reflecting on our call, our Hineni -’’Here I am’’ using some of the personalities from the bible like: Abraham, Moses, Elizabeth, Mary. We have all been called by God and we answered positively; but where are you now in this process of developing your own call? To develop the call, we must begin the journey. It is what we did in the second day. Helped by the text …

Rain of grace!

This week there was rain, rain of water! A shower of blessing! There was rain of learning! The flowers, the pines, the rosemary… all of nature sings giving thanks to God for the water from the sky. In contemplating this, I remember the Biblical passage, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you” (Exodus 16:4). The drinking nature of God’s word, providence covers the whole world with faith, being still and knowing how to wait, but it is not always easy to follow the laws of God. So, I pray asking the Lord that my human nature be fertile and full of obedience to continue walking in their paths. And speaking of the blessing of water, this is also a blessing: that Sister Maureen came from London to teach a course for us, a wealth of knowledge. The course called “Human, Spiritual, biblical and Theological Growth” the sessions are very interesting, and dynamic. We studied some issues around the Identity grid; Mechanisms of defence; Life transitions; also, video presentation and reflections, Bible readings, questions …

Letter from Saint John in Montana, 11/2018

The first days of November in the novitiate were quite full. Sr. Maureen Cusick came for a session on Human, Spiritual and Theological Development. The three-week session ended with a 4-days of biblical reflections days. In her words: “From the very first hours of our existence until the last moments of our life we are learning. We learn how to articulate words, how to interact with people, how to behave in society, how to reveal that we are the children of God and how to reveal God to others.” In Genesis 1:27 it is written: “God created humankind in God’s own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” In the Psalms we see the many wonderful descriptions of God, God is kindness, God is love, God is a protector, God is good, a helper, merciful and gracious. Because we are created in the image of God this means that we have all the qualities that God has. The only thing that we have to do is to …

A wonderful visit!

These days we are really happy to have sister Maureen Cusick with us in our community. For two weeks, she is going to help us to understand the stages of our Human, Spiritual and theological development. From the very first hours of our existence until the last moments of our life we ​​are learning. We learn how to articulate words, how to interact with people, how to behave in society, how to reveal that we are the children of God and how to reveal God to others. In Genesis 1:27 is written: ,,God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” How beautiful! To be created in God’s image! But what is God like? We can see from the psalms the many wonderful descriptions of God . God is kindness, love a protector, good, just, a helper, merciful gracious etc. Because we were created in the image of God this must mean that we have all the qualities that God has. The only …

55 days in Israel

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; for he has looked with favour on his lowly servant…” I am in Israel for 55 days, I am gradually becoming accustomed to the place, I arrived in the middle of the celebrations of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah. Culture is strongly influenced by the Jewish religion, Israel is a land and a people. Here they speak three languages that mix with the three religions that exist here. I am living in Ein Karem a charming village, which has a good green area for walking, places to have coffee, restaurants, and enjoy a delicious ice cream in the summer. For us Christians Ein Karem has a special meaning for being supposedly the hometown of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and the site of the Visitation, where Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth before John’s birth. For me it is a privilege to be here, in this place built by Father Alfonso and to visit his tomb is a blessing. Also …

Bethlehem of Judah – Bethlehem of Galilee

In this Necklace we will use the three parts of the Covenant found in the Torah, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. These three parts show well the unity and God’s fidelity to the Covenant with God’s People. In our Necklace we have the different stages in the history of Israel: In Genesis, from the Tora: the Patriarchal period in the earlier Prophets: With Joshua the distribution of the land, in Judges the first settlements, in Samuel the Kingship of David, and in the latter Prophets: Micha written before the Babylonian Exile, Jeremiah during the Exile. In the Holy writings: Nehemiah and Ezra, books written after the Exile, and the Book of Ruth, which gives a basis to the genealogy of David, from whom will come the Messiah. The pagan background of the city of Bethlehem in Judah shows how God can intercultural the history of the covenant into pagan culture: Bethlehem, house of bread, לחם, or house of meat as well as the house of war (since the word for war is milhama מלחמהliterally meaning: the place of …