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 …

Dear Brothers and Sisters, News on Nationalism and its fear of differences or 18 NGOs having to leave Pakistan as Pakistan is currently tightening its actions against Christian and secular aid agencies. Anti-Semitic Hate Crimes in Canada are up 60% with 360 reported incidents in 2017. All these realities cannot hinder the light to shine. We studied with Anne Catherine the feast of Chanukah and Christmas and learned that the two minor feasts in Judaism are Chanukah and Purim with both speaking about persecution. In the feast of Purim, the exiled Israelites are being treated badly in an effort to eliminate them. This all takes place by means of a degree sent out by the wicked Haman, councilor of King Ahasueru (presumed to be Xerxes I or Artaxerxes I of Persia). Here the goal is to destroy the physical people of Israel. It is then that the persecuted take revenge when the persecutor becomes the persecuted. In the Feast of Chanukah, the Greek wanted to kill the soul of the people of Israel. Here we …

Few days ago, when I saw the schedule for the next week, I was so happy to see that ‘Bethlehem trip’ was written down on the agenda. In my happiness, I forgot to think about a gift. I was going to visit my friends Mary and Joseph and their new baby, Jesus who is also my friend. How could I go to visit them if I did not have a gift to bring? The day arrived when we were to go to Bethlehem. I was so agitated. I left the house with empty hands, thinking what my friends Mary, Joseph and Jesus would say about my negligence. During the journey I was thinking what excuse I could have. At the same time, I hoped that maybe I could find a shop in Bethlehem where I could buy some clothes, toys, sweets or flowers for Mary. No store in Bethlehem had a perfect gift for them. I was so disappointed. When I got to their house, I saw that others had come to see the newborn …

After a few days of rest on my arrival in Jerusalem, we finally began this adventure of living together in community. We started by spending some time Identifying and assimilating our differences as a group: cultural, generational and those of personality. But at the same time, we thanked God for each of these contrasts for they enrich our community. Then we began to explore the land. Our first excursion was to the house of Marta, Maria and Lázaro in Bethany, where we somehow identified with the feeling of ‘home’ that Jesus must have felt, each time he rested there during his travel A very deep moment was when we were able to enter the tomb of Lazarus. There we had the space to share the Word of God, pray and in silence reflect together. Somehow we felt very close to that man, Jesus’ friend, whom he loved, and who left the grave for a new life. Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”… …

If I have to give a name of this week it would be: JOURNEY. From two points of view. The first one is Helen’s long journey from Costa Rica to Israel. The second one is our retreat. I am going to speak about the second. As for the first point I will let Helen tell you herself in the coming weeks. As you maybe know we have had sister Maureen Cusick in our community for wonderful sessions on Human, Spiritual, biblical and theological development. For a few days we had a retreat guided by sister Maureen. A lovely journey with God! On the first day we were reflecting on our call, our Hineni -’’Here I am’’ using some of the personalities from the bible like: Abraham, Moses, Elizabeth, Mary. We have all been called by God and we answered positively; but where are you now in this process of developing your own call? To develop the call, we must begin the journey. It is what we did in the second day. Helped by the text …

This week there was rain, rain of water! A shower of blessing! There was rain of learning! The flowers, the pines, the rosemary… all of nature sings giving thanks to God for the water from the sky. In contemplating this, I remember the Biblical passage, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you” (Exodus 16:4). The drinking nature of God’s word, providence covers the whole world with faith, being still and knowing how to wait, but it is not always easy to follow the laws of God. So, I pray asking the Lord that my human nature be fertile and full of obedience to continue walking in their paths. And speaking of the blessing of water, this is also a blessing: that Sister Maureen came from London to teach a course for us, a wealth of knowledge. The course called “Human, Spiritual, biblical and Theological Growth” the sessions are very interesting, and dynamic. We studied some issues around the Identity grid; Mechanisms of defence; Life transitions; also, video presentation and reflections, Bible readings, questions …

The first days of November in the novitiate were quite full. Sr. Maureen Cusick came for a session on Human, Spiritual and Theological Development. The three-week session ended with a 4-days of biblical reflections days. In her words: “From the very first hours of our existence until the last moments of our life we are learning. We learn how to articulate words, how to interact with people, how to behave in society, how to reveal that we are the children of God and how to reveal God to others.” In Genesis 1:27 it is written: “God created humankind in God’s own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” In the Psalms we see the many wonderful descriptions of God, God is kindness, God is love, God is a protector, God is good, a helper, merciful and gracious. Because we are created in the image of God this means that we have all the qualities that God has. The only thing that we have to do is to …