Sion community in Costa Rica

Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!
The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
Zephaniah 3:14.17

My first year as a sister of the Congregation of “Notre Dame de Sion” has been unique and meaningful. I have experienced some fantastic realities which have taught me to love God and my Congregation more.

I am working at the Sion School in Turrialba in Costa Rica as a secretary. We have 390 students, most of them facing hard realities: broken families, poverty, child abuse and so on. But what has struck me is that some of them have expressed that they feel the school as their own home and that is why they are excited to attend the classes every day. So I ask God to give me wisdom to be able to show them God’s compassionate face.

I am also the guide sister of the associates. There are sixteen women who have committed themselves to be part of this family to spread Sion’s Charism and Spirituality.

“The guide sister is the link between the community and the group, the channel through which the Charism and the Spirituality of Sion pass to the group.” Father Theodore

I am studying French. I am so fascinated and glad to be studying this language. I love to do it. I have always dreamed to be able to read and understand our first documents which are written in the mother tongue of the Congregation. I remember the passion for Sion’s history of Sister Paulina (who passed away) and Sister Elizabeth Losinski who have inspired me to do this.

Now about my community life. We are four in my community. It is written in our constitution:

„… community life is built through the active participation of each member. It is strengthened by faith, mutual support, sharing, service of each other, and also in suffering, difficulties, weakness and failure…”

So it is what I have experienced with my community sisters and it is what has struck me since I first met the Sion Congregation.

I am trying to live what I experienced in my novitiate home in Jerusalem, especially this passage:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4: 18-19.

All that I experienced in the novitiate house marked me as a woman and as a sister of Sion. So I want always to commit myself to this beloved one of God and to remember this always:

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. Ps. 137: 5-6.

I thank the Lord, the Congregation and my family who have walked and supported me during this remarkable year. It has been a unique adventure.

Sr. María Clara Luz Gutiérrez Menchú
May 20172