‘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 we had a delicious meal in the community and we celebrated Sr. Maureen’s birthday as well.

On Sunday, we participated in a retreat with some religious that live in Jerusalem or surrounding areas. It was in the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu – recalling Christ’s prophesy that Peter would deny him three times “before the cock crows”. Galli-cantu means cockcrow in Latin.

We started with the prayer of Laudes and following this we went to our language group for an hour’s reflection on the temptations of Jesus in the desert and how these are related to the religious life today. A challenge that those in religious life face today is the temptation of consumerism and sharing what we have with the poor.

Following the talk we had a quiet moment to pray and to take the opportunity of confession. Being in this place gave us energy and one felt very close to Jesus. We finished the day with the Eucharistic celebration.

Lúcia de Fátima NDS, Novice
Congregational Novitiate
Ein Karem, Jerusalem