Month: January 2019

Ruah…

I write a brief preamble of the essence of the psalms. Breath! I say this because breathing is life is the breath of divine on its creation, and I think psalms are like songs prayed. They represent human states of mind like repentance, thanksgiving, adoration, hope, joys, judgment … all of these states of mind in tune with the sacred. There are 150 beautiful Psalms in he Biblical collection. There is an invaluable wealth of knowledge, fellowship, revelation, and growth in God that we cannot calculate. I loved the explanations given by the teachers and the visits to various relevant sites were amazing and full of stories. Stories already told by the Bible, by writers, by cultures … but here in Israel history can also be read in nature: in the silence of the rocks, in the noise of the waves, in the wind, the song of the birds … Nature, glorifies God and sing of glory. Fragments of records are left in time as signs of the visible and invisible God. The atmosphere is inspiring, …

Marys appearance to Alphonse Ratisbonne

Learning and Celebration

We began our second week on the psalms course with a wonderful trip to Galilee. Each one with different expectations, but I’m sure everyone was ready for God to surprise them. Following in the footsteps of Jesus at important moments in his teaching to his disciples, we also internalized in some way what this Fifth Gospel, the Holy Land, was revealing to us through all these places. We visited Caesarea, Nazareth, Tabgha, and Capernaum among many other places; a very deep moment was to be able to say our prayer on a boat in the Sea of Galilee. When we closed our eyes It was like being transported to the time of Jesus and his followers. It was also interesting to hear the short talk about the Jewish Kabala, as it is present in many forms in everyday life and in some way connects us all, regardless of religion or belief. January 20th – Anniversary of the Apparition of Mary to Alphonse Ratisbonne At the beginning of an emotional and festive celebration, our Bishop, Piere …

A journey in to the Psalms

With a wonderful prayer on Monday January 7thwe started a Psalms program called ,,Psalms-Songs from the heart of Israel’’. Gathered from all over the world, sister and friends of Sion started this amazing journey through the Psalms for two weeks. On the first day, after a morning of introduction and orientation on what is going to be the next two weeks, we had the opportunity in the afternoon to visit the Churches in Ein Karem with the group. We finished the day with a time of sharing the experiences of the day. Guided by Sr. Margaret Zdunich we started the next day with the Church Documents. For two hours she introduced us to the ,,Nostra Aetate’’ document and to the other documents that came out after the Second Vatican Council. After this section about Church documents we were introduced into Psalms by Rabbi Benjamin Segal who spoke about the order of Psalms, dating the Psalms, why and where the Psalms were written. He spoke about the psalms from the perspective of literature. We finished the …

Christmas 2018

“For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.” Luke 2, 11 As Christians who live in a time where everything outside has often more transcendence than the inside we must not celebrate a date where material gifts are simply exchanged, but commemorate this with the birth of Christ. This is where our salvation story really begins. But what does the presence of Our Savior mean? Christmas is the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God. The birth of Jesus is the encounter of humankind with love, a free and eternal gift from our Creator. We celebrate that we are not lost but that God in the simplicity of the everyday becomes one of us and is with us. It is important to celebrate with the family. Or like us, who are far from ours, seek to share with those we chose as our family: the table, the traditions of our countries and music among other things and for the wonderful gift we …