We hope you know that our day was special because you were there with us, among us in our celebration, and because you where with us in spirit. With your presence and with your well wishes you have given us a reason to be thankful as you made visible what without your presence would have been meaningless. Thank you by the Novitiate Community St. John in Montana In a special way Lucia, Andrea, Maria and Nancy
From April 1st to 3rd we had three days of retreat in a very beautiful place. We enjoyed a lot this time of reflection, pray and silent. The view of Jerusalem’s city, the garden and the guidance of Sister Maureen helped us to be more open to the voice of God. The first day we could meditate in the Mount Sinai Revelation, the important of God’s revelation to Moises and what is it going to mean for us during this canonical year? The second day we reflected in some texts that talk about Ayekah (where are you?), the God’s revelation to Adan and then to many others women and men in the bible. The point was how to identify ourselves through these texts and how we will respond to God’s revelation to us. Finally we finished our retreat reflecting on the Mount Sion, the mountain of the Lord. With the character of Mary as a daughter of Sion we mediated in this question, what is the call of a Sister of Sion? Our call is …
On Thursday 31st we went to visit four interesting places. We shared this excursion with a group of priest and nuns that are studying for some months here in Jerusalem. Mount Gerizim Mount Gerizim is a nature park that belongs Judea and Samaria civil administration. The name of the mount Gerizim occurs in the Torah from the beginnings of the Israelite experience in the Land of Canaan. The children of Israel are commanded to conduct the ceremony of blessing upon Mount Gerizim after entering the Land of Israel. Nowadays the Samaritan Community still lives there since 722 BCE because they believe in the sanctity of Mount Gerizim, where God commanded the construction of his Holy temple; they also believe that this is the place where Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac. The view of the Mount is beautiful we could see green areas, flowers and the villages that are near it. The Byzantine Church This place contains the remains of a Hellenistic city of a Byzantine Church. In this place one of the …
Excitement, Excursions and Lots of Information became part of our Orientation time. During this month Sr. Maureen journeyed with us, focusing on Human Development; we closed that session with a 3-day retreat at the Franciscans’ in Gethsemane, to prepare for our next step which will be the celebration of the beginning our Canonical year. Jesus went from Gethsemane, where his prayer before his Passion is remembered, and where there is a beautiful view of Jerusalem. He left there to fulfil his Mission by walking the way of the Cross towards his resurrection, his ascension into heaven, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to his disciples. We celebrated Lucia’s birthday, as well as Brother Carlos’s and Brother Tiago’s birthdays by having special Brazilian food. Having finished an introduction to the Hebrew Alphabet with Brother Tiago, he is now teaching us the Our Father (Avinu she bashemaim) and all the shorter responses and refrains for the Hebrew Eucharist. With Sister Ann Catharine we explored the book of Esther and the celebration of Purim. We were saddened …
On Wednesday 30th we celebrated Tiago’s (brother of Sion) birthday. We thanked the Lord for his life in our morning mass. Then the novitiate community had a good time preparing together a special Brazilian lunch for him and for all the brothers community. At lunch time we started the celebration praying the Psalm 138 (139), with it we blessed the Lord for Tiago’s life among us and all the gifts that he has and share it with us. We also thanked the Lord for his family and his journey in Sion. After the prayer we were ready to enjoy our lunch. We sang happy birthday to Tiago and then ate our delicious Brazilian food; rice, beans, potato salad, pork, and for desert fruit salad. It is really wonderful how all of us sisters and brothers of Sion are one family. During the lunch we shared not only the food, but also we enjoyed ourselves having time to talk more about our countries, culture, language and families. All of this special moments together increase our relationship …
On Easter Sunday afternoon, all the Jerusalem communities, Brothers and Sisters enjoyed our barbecue in our garden at Ein Karem. We enjoyed having some drinks and typical Brazilian food, called farofa. We were also very happy to celebrate Maurina Fritz’s 90th birthday. With full of energy and lots of laughter, some Brothers and Sisters enjoy dancing together. Everybody likes Samba!!! A Blessed Easter to all and Cheers for Maureena’s life!!! Maria Odor Malau, Novice NDS Community St. John in Montana March 28th 2016.
Our first experience celebrating the Holy Week in Jerusalem. We spent three days with our Sisters in Ecce Homo. There we joined and took part in the liturgys of the Holy Week. This was not only new but also a very unique experience for us. We had with us a group of Biblical Study program who are coming from different countries. During the liturgy of Holy Thursday, we, the Novices together with Biblical Study group took part in the celebration of the mass and the washing of the feet. The biblical study group had a very beautiful choir. It was significant that the washing of the feet was not only for the “twelve disciples” but also with the people who come for the mass. Our Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion, invited the people to the altar for their feet to be washed and the vise versa, they washed each other’s feet. It was very beautiful celebration. Together with the Biblical Study group, we went to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was to believed …
