For a few days the whole novitiate community went to Tunis to visit our sisters. The excursion was well organized and it was a wonderful experience. We visited the projects our sisters had established in some other places around Tunis. Our first stop was in a ceramic shop where we could see the local people working on making and painting different things like cups, pots, bowls, etc. In Hammamet they have a very special kind of clay but at the moment this work is very difficult because of the devastating flood of six months ago. We went to a creche, where 15 babies are taken care of. These babies belong to single mothers, who leave them there because they are unable to care for them. The mothers visit them often and will take them home when they are able to take care of them, usually one year later. The sisters and the personnel are very friendly and really care well for the babies. They also work to secure the rights of the mothers. On a …

Another Jewish celebration which commemorates the salvation of the Persian Jews from Haman’s plan to exterminate them in the ancient Achaemenid Empire (First Persian Empire founded in the 6th century BC by Cyrus) as it is written in the Book of Esther. Studying the origin of Purim with Sr. Anne Catherine, and updating the context of biblical history to our reality. Purim speaks to us about the care of human beings (defects and qualities), faith, hope and unity. It also gives us a great lesson about knowing how to wait on God and hear what God is saying. Queen Esther knew how to wait for the right moment to speak, and the king knew how to listen to his wife. Esther also knew how to unite her people in prayer and fasting and to ask God for the salvation of the Jews when it seemed they were condemned. I learned some things that are present in religious life as I read this book. For example: The Beauty of Esther comes from God and she uses …

Dear Brothers and Sisters, By the beginning of February, the two leadership teams of Notre Dame de Sion shared on how to be Sion in our collaboration and partnership and the living and sharing of the Sisters and Brothers together here at Ein Karem. We, the group living in EK consist of the Apostolic Sisters Community, the Brothers’ Community and the Novitiate Community an we explore together of how we can envision Sion’s Charism and in living Sion’s identityby living togetherness. On the World Day for the Sick the whole Novitiate Community went with the union of Religious to participate in the Sunday Eucharist held in the Holy Family Church in Ramallah. The blessing of rain continued pouring down on us during this visit which was a celebration of both engagement and joy with the Catholic Church of Ramallah. The Parish had prepared a delicious lunch for us and between the rain and dry moments, we explored a little of the city and very soon we were taking shelter in one of the many pastry …

This has been a very interesting week of formation for us, because we had the privilege of having two of our sisters with us, who so generously gave us time and formation to broaden important issues in our learning. Our first session was with Sr. Maureena P. Fritz, who guided us through the meaning of Shabbat in Jewish tradition. In this regard I continue to reflect. For us as Catholics, it is easy to define the Shabbat as the rest day for Jews and we also make the connection with our Sunday… Of course, we do not have the same formality and seriousness. We need to understand why there has been some misunderstandings around the differences. This is probably due to a misunderstanding about what is “the day consecrated to the Lord”. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”(Exodus 20.8) “It will be a day of rest, a solemn rest, to humble their souls; it is a perpetual statute.” (Leviticus 16, 31) Echoing the ideas fully explained by Sr. Maureena, the Shabbat was first …

Today I would like to share with you my little work that I do with the ones that Jesus loves more, namely children. ‘’When Jesus Christ asked little children to come to him, he didn’t say only rich children or white children or children with two – parents families or children who didn’t have a mental or physical handicap. He said let all children come unto me’’ (Marian Wright Edelman) Three months ago, I started to go once a week to Saint Vincent House in Ein Kareem. A Home for Children and Young Adults with special needs. When I first stepped into this house, I could see the variety of ‘flowers’ that God has in his garden and this variety makes the garden wonderful. Like the flowers, every child is special and unique. This uniqueness of the children together makes this world beautiful. Behind every child there is a story and maybe a dream. A dream that sometimes doesn’t come out because they are not able to speak or to demonstrate their dream. But it …

Dear Brothers and Sisters, As rain has brought us cold and snow on Mount Herman, our cisterns are now full with water and the trees and land drank from this precious gift of rain in abundance. In our Novitiate program we participated from the January 7th to 21st in the Biblical Program course on the Psalms. Here we looked at the Psalms as Literature with Rabbi Benjamin Segal, as Liturgy with Rabbi Dalia Marx, and as Psalms for Personal Spirituality with Rabbi Gail Diamond. With Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kehlman, founder of the Kol HaNeshama synagogue we looked at Psalm 150. Engaging with the Word, the People and the Land, by studying texts and visiting sites related to the biblical text; reflecting on relevant Church Documents; and engaging with the people. (‘The Bible, The People, The Land’) is the motto of the Centre for Biblical Formation at Ecce Homo. We had amazing encounters with people – teachers of the Word and visits in the Land with a closing talk on Kabala in the city of Sefat. Our …