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Continuing the inward journey

“Search me, oh God, and know my heart!; test me and know my thoughts” Psalm 139

In the last week of April, we prepared the house to receive sister Maureen Cusick. She came to continuous sessions on formation with particular emphasis on Human, spiritual and biblical development which we began last November.

The sessions started with the question from Genesis to Adam and Eve ‘where are you? Where are you in your self. Your identity; where are you with regard to your heart? Your emotions? With regard to your intellectual development. Your faith and your actions in life?

We spent time reflecting on our inward journey. For me, this was a call to find myself; to recognize my gifts and the shadow areas of my life, and this for me is to know who I am.

But, why is it important to ask this question not only once but constantly throughout our Lives.

At different moments of our existence, we go through transitions, in which we find new beginnings that can help us redefine ourselves once again us as human beings.

And each of these moments of change can bring out the best of us to build something new, but for that, we need to know ourselves.

Together with this, the more I consolidate my identity, the more I find the strength to continue my path and call in life.

This was two weeks of hard work, analyzing, sharing and learning, which we greatly enjoyed. It has been excellent for us to have someone with the formation training and empathy to help our formation and growth process during this canonical year.

During the second week, we also had the blessing of a visit of sister Patricia Watson who wrote the book “Spaces of Dialogue”. She kindly shared a bit with us about the subject.

We learned that dialogue is not only hearing the other. But it’s more about respect and equality and listening. It is when we see, feel and share one to the other.

We understood, also that in the relationships, especially communication is often the most difficult thing between us; About that we never stop learning!

On Saturday we had a break to enjoy a barbecue with the brothers and sisters along with the volunteers of the whole community. This was a way to celebrate the beginning of Spring and all the life that we have around us.

We began with prayer first and then we shared pleasant conversation and delicious food outside, where the Good weather gave us the perfect touch.

We finished this time of formation, with a retreat of 4 days. We had prepared well and had what we needed .So on the first Saturday of May we began with enthusiasm our silence and time with God, We great thanksgiving to God and also for the assistance of sister Juliana and Maureen. And of course, accompanied by the prayers of our brothers and sisters.

Helen B
Novitiate

Letter from St. John in Montana, 04/2019

Dear Sisters and Brothers

The month of April was filled with preparations for our Easter Celebrations. On Palm Sunday we walked with the Catholic Hebrew speaking community in the long procession from Bethpage to Jerusalem, in remembrance of Jesus to Jerusalem as the King riding on a donkey. From “Maundy” Thursday to Friday afternoon we stayed in Ecce Home where the sisters welcomed us and we were able to participate in the wonderfully well- prepared liturgies around our most solemn feast.

Sr. Anne Catherine introduced us to the world of the Haggadah, the prayer book of Pesach with its meanings and traditions of lived Judaism in the world of today. From there we learned more about Easter, also called Pascha (Greek, Latin) or Resurrection Sunday and its meaning in our daily lives as Christians today with its many traditions and celebrations.

Helen and Erika shared with us, what they had learned during this last month. They had prepared a Project on Community life, Ministry and Mission, our life of Prayer both personal and communal.

During the last days of April, we began our sessions with Sr. Maureen Cusick. She began where she left off during our November sessions. The topic, which will cover all our sessions, will be on Pilgrimage as an outward and inward journey towards discernment and self-discovery. We explored the meaning of pilgrimage to sanctuaries and shrines in our own countries. What do they mean? What is it we search for when we make these pilgrimages?Who are we searching for? People make pilgrimages for all kinds of reasons; for thanksgiving, for repentance, for petitions. While walking on pilgrimage, we could say that it is an encounter with God in a special way. It represents our faith. The sacred place serves as a symbolic place to meet God. The walk is part of the outward and inward reflective journey.

We are privileged to be living in Jerusalem
which is the place ‘par excellence’ for Pilgrimage.

Our reflections are leading us into an exploration of the development of our faith as it matures, hopefully alongside our normal human developmental transitions. This is a time when we can re-view our faith and human development and discern how God is calling us at this stage of our lives.?

We had a morning with Sr. Patricia who is here in Jerusalem for the Easter/Passover Biblical Programme. She worked with us in a short and interesting session on dialogue. She explained that Dialogue is not a subject and object relationship, it is a relationship of working out something together on an equal basis In this way we build unity and community.

In our garden, spring has come, which makes it a place of joyful colour and smells from the flowers, the herbs and the trees! A delight of resurrection and new life.

Greetings and blessings from
Juliana, for the Novitiate Community

Holy Week 2019

Holy Week passed and many people celebrated the most important period of the Christian liturgical year.

Nothing compares to experiencing Holy Week in Jerusalem. Celebrating the great events in the history of salvation and the life of Jesus in the same places where they have traditionally occurred is an exciting and unforgettable experience of faith for all believers.

Holy Week officially began with the celebration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the procession gathered thousands of Christians from all over the world who joyfully walked from a place called Bethphage, praying and singing in every language, to the western slope from the Mount of Olives, through the Cedron/Kidron Valley and into the Old City.

On Holy Thursday, the Mass of the Last Supper was celebrated with the Sisters of Sion at the Ecce Homo – Basilica in Jerusalem and it was a beautiful ceremony. Then we had dinner in the community and went, together with the participants of the Biblical program, to the Church of St. Peter in Gallicanto, traditionally believed to be the place where Jesus spent the night after his arrest.

And here I pause, for a reflection: I was thinking of the passage from John 19: 4-6.

“Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, ‘Look, I am bringing him’. As soon as he came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’ as soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify him Crucify him!’
But Pilate answered, ‘You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis of a charge against him.’
Pilate says that he found no guilt in Jesus, but the people still cry, ‘Crucify him!’”

Guilt and crucifixion, words from the gospels. Do you remember anything?

Yes, Pilate found no crime in Jesus. He traded Jesus for another prisoner, to satisfy the fury of the people. But they preferred Barabbas to Christ. That Jesus who revolutionized the people, who dined with the “unclean,” who saved the prostitute from stoning, who whipped the temple vendors, who sent a rich young man to sell everything he had and give to the poor … A man who displeased others, especially the powerful, who wanted to keep their privileges and customs at all costs. These powerful were not cruel and devilish people as many think. They were people who were “good”, religious, priests, leaders and interpreters of the law. They were people above suspicion. While Jesus came from the people and to the people! It eventually became a threat to those who controlled power.

They feared that these people would discover that they had rights, that they were equal in essence, that they had dignity, that they could grow in abilities. And what did the powerful of the time use to arrest and kill Jesus? They used their own people. These people are susceptible and suggestible. Encouraged by the mighty, they greeted Jesus as they entered Jerusalem and then asked for crucifixion.

How often do I condemn and kill Jesus these days? How often do I judge and condemn my brother for his appearance? How many times do I judge the other by thinking differently from me? How many times do I condemn others for bothering me with their ideas? How often do I not wish the death of a brother who was caught in some crime? How many times…???

However, hope prevails every Good Friday; the Crucifixion, the Via Dolorosa, Calvary, the Passion of Christ for us, invites us to be renewed and be released as a people.

During this Easter I desired that I may identify my actions which contribute to the on-going suffering in our world; so that I may live your commandments freely.

“You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your spirit … you shall love your neighbour as yourself”. These two commandments sum up the whole Law and the Prophets. (Mt. 22: 37-40).

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, hallelujah!

Erika, Novice NDS

Starting Holy Week 2019

Indeed, of Zion it will be said,“This one and that one were born in her, and the Most High Himself will establish her.”… As they make music they will sing, “All my fountains are in you.” Psalm 87

Undoubtedly the most visited place during these days is Jerusalem, since during Holy Week the spirituality on this land is palpable even for non-believers. Pilgrims from around the world come to the Holy City to prepare themselves for the most important date of the Christian liturgical calendar, Resurrection Sunday; this is why, right now, the number of visitors has increased considerably.

How can this not be so? How can we not get excited over the next few days, in the very place where the great events of Salvation History took place?

For our part, in the novitiate, we begin on Palm Sunday with the Mass at 8:00 am in the Church of San Juan Bautista, sharing with the community of the Franciscans and some other friends known here in Ein Karem.

In the afternoon, we will first make a small stop at the Sanctuary of Dominus Flevit, the traditional place where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. We will there join the Procession of Palms, which begins in the Church of Bethfage, descending down the western slope of the Mount of Olives on the way to the Old City and entering through Lion’s Gate to reach the Temple of Santa Anna.

It will be such an enriching and wonderful experience when Christians from all the world will gather to walk together praying and singing for about two hours. There will be an impressive mix of cultures, races, and languages but the same feeling, the joy of showing faith.

For me, this will be the most unforgettable faith experience of my life until now! Participating in every possible activity is like entering a little into the life of Jesus and being there. In the very places where everything happened.

And begin to understand those words of Saint John Paul II:

“How many memories and images and how much passion and great mystery surround the word Jerusalem! For us as Christians, it represents the geographical point of union between God and men, between eternity and history.”

But for every believer, this should not be just a physical journey but a walk of the soul that involves the mind and heart awaiting the “encounter”. This pilgrimage is a call to prayer and conversion, to take the place of the prodigal son who, knowing how much weight and shame he has within him, also knows that he will find mercy.

So it does not matter where our pilgrimage takes place, whether here, in this Sacred Land, or in our cities of origin; what is truly important for us, as believers, must be our sense of listening and the focused attention through which participate in these rich liturgies; in this way we will be ready and expectant, having, at some level, lived through the Passion with Jesus, and hopeful of that Day of Resurrection.

Helen B.
Novitiate NDS

Ten days in the Holy Land

On Wednesday, April 3th, the novitiate community met a group of twelve people from Australia in Hadassah hospital. This group of four Christians, four Muslims and four Jews came to Jerusalem for ten days on a pilgrimage. They are all part of an association called JCMA (Jewish, Christian, Muslim Association of Australia) whose objective is to promote the prevention of emotional and physical abuse arising from religious intolerance and cultural discrimination.

“The JCMA aims to create and provide a forum for interfaith dialogue and shared experience through meetings and discussions in a modern Australian and international context. Meeting and learning from Jews, Christians and Muslims together, leads to a fuller understanding of other faiths and perhaps in turn of our own. By fostering relationships between people of different faiths, JCMA aims to reduce racism, intolerance, bigotry and violence and the associated emotional harm.” (source:JCMA)

For ten days they have visited Jewish, Christian and Muslim places in the Holy Land, sharing between their faith and traditions amongst themselves. This week they are going to celebrate together Friday in a Muslim way, Saturday in a Jewish rhythm and Sunday in a Christian way.
The role of the novitiate community in this encounter was to take the group to Ein Karem and to show them the Christian Holy places. We brought them to our convent too. They were really amazed at how beautiful and peaceful our place was.

It was a great experience for us, the novitiate community to meet them. We wish them a blessed time here in Jerusalem.

Iulia NDS
Novitiate, Ein Karem

The joy of prayer

Purim is finished, but always leaves a message of joy, hope and faith in God.

The exaggerated cry of Purim is the sound of triumph, the sound of the victory of God and his people! The Fast and the prayer of Esther and her people, makes me reflect on the power of prayer.

Never, we must subsist this force, the gift that the Lord has left us.

James 5: 16-18 declares, confess your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The prayer made by a righteous man can be greatly in its effects.

Elijah is also an example that tells us the power of prayer. Praying, asking not to rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.

God definitely listens to prayers, and gives us answers through them.

Jesus taught: For verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Pass over hence, and it shall pass away. Nothing will be impossible for you, (Matthew 17:20).

Prayer is communion with God. Through it we communicate with God in a very particular way.

2 Corinthians 10: 4-5 tells us: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God, to destroy strongholds. In it we are sure that God walks with us, and that He fights for us! ever!

Psalm 107: 28-30 reminds us: Then in their distress they cried unto the LORD, and he delivered them out of their distresses. He made the storm cease, and the waves calmed down. And they rejoiced with the good; and thus, led them to the desired port. God is always available to us, in all circumstances!

The Sacred Scripture is full of narratives that show us the prayer being performed in various situations, for example:

Defeating the enemy (Psalm 6: 9-10), conquering death (2 Kings 4: 3-36), healing (James 5: 14-15) casting demons (Mark 9:29) …

God, through prayer, opens the eyes, transforms hearts, heals the wounds and gives wisdom (James 1: 5).

Prayer sustains the Glory of the Lord!

May God make us to be people of prayer, to be intimate as He is, to approach us and say:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Erika, Novice (NDS)

Experience in San Andres Itzapa and Parramos (Guatemala)

We, Andrea and Clara,two Sisters of Sion went to Guatemala with a group of students and chaperones from Kansas City to share life and work with the aboriginal people. We stayed from March 8th to 14th and each day we had a special job to do – building stoves, chicken coops, concrete floors… etc.

We also had an activity with the women who are part of the project called, ‘Sharing the Change’ program. Their aim is to guide the external assistance towards the construction of development and solidarity communities in San Andres Itzapa and Parramos. They served us traditional foods and drinks and the evening ended with dancing. Some of the participating women we had met before, since we had gone to build their stoves and chicken coops. All the preparation was beautiful and done with much love and affection.

Also part of our program was a visit to a school called, ‘Valle del Durazno’ which supports handicapped children. We had different activities and games with them which were done with great joy and love. In addition, we went to an orphanage called, ‘Los Gozosos.’ There were approximately 24 children and young people. They were so lovely and kind; it was really to see the eyes of God in their eyes and in their sharing.

Part of our experience was to visit the sick and we brought them some bags of food. They were very happy that we were able to spend time with them. They were very poor and most of them were illiterate, but despite the poverty that they live, they are very brave and wise people who have managed to get ahead, in spite of the conditions in which they have lived.

Really, this experience has been wonderful and it has been a blessed opportunity to share with these people because they gave us so much energy, joy and love. We felt very happy sharing with them. It was so necessary to see their faces, laughing and singing. Their hospitality and kindness was remarkable. We could see God´s face through them. It was like the butterfly effect, with a simple flutter of a butterfly, it can be felt on the other side of the world, that is to say, there is a minimum change.

We felt that God had invited us like Abraham, “Leave your country, your kindred and your father’s house for a country which I shall show you; and I shall make you a great nation. I shall bless you and make your name famous; you are to be a blessing!” (Genesis 12, 1-2) Abraham left his country and family for a country that he had not known before. He started something new in his life and he responded with courage and faith. Perhaps he met different faces, realities and communities just as we did.

Abraham recognized the voice of God in his life among the people. We, in turn listened to the voice of God through these handicapped children, women and elderly. Our intense sharing in all of their works brought us to the end of each day when we prayed together. We were very grateful for the deep experiences we have had and we cried together. God was with us – Emmanuel.

God had invited us to leave ourselves, to go to these people and to respond to them. We can be a prophet in our own time going beyond ourselves and having an encounter with the people. That is actually to have an encounter with God. In our Constitution #15 it states:

“The events of our world and of our lives urge us to hear the cry of the poor and to respond a new to the call of God to do justice. This commandment resounds urgently in our days through the calls of the Church.”

It is necessary to hear and to respond to all these different realities that happen around us. This experience in San Andres Itzapa and Parramos has deepened our understanding and such an experience has made a tremendous change in our lives.

“Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to…”. (Matt. 28, 10)

Father Theodore said that we must leave ourselves so that the love of God enters into our hearts and that is why we are giving our time and gifts to these people. We thank God for this wonderful experience and for each one that we met in Guatemala. We thank the Lord and ask God’s blessing on our students of Kansas City, chaperons, Phil, Melinda, Sr. Audrey NDS and all the workers that were part of this deep experience of silence, prayer, reflection and work.

We will save this experience as a precious stone in our hearts so that it will help us when we need a precious stone to walk and to live out the plan of God.

Sr. Andrea Chacón Carmona NDS
Costa Rica, March 2019