News

Spanish-Portuguese Biblical Program 2018

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” Psalm 119,105

The Spanish-Portuguese Biblical Program began on Saturday 6th January with seventeen students from Spain, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Brazil attending the course. This program is coordinated by the Brothers of Sion who are also teaching in it. They also have Anne Catherine NDS and other professors from abroad presenting.
The focus of the course is to offer students an experience of being in touch with the land, and with the people of the land. It is very important to understand the historical and the theological contexts in which the bible was written. It digs more deeply into interpretation and understanding of the bible, enabling students to live our faith more authentically.

Some of the specific objectives of the program are to:

  • renew the knowledge of the Bible in the land that it was born;
  • discover the roots of Christianity in the Jewish Tradition that shaped the religious experience of Jesus, his disciples and the early Church;
  • know better the history of the Church in its richness and diversity;
  • have an introduction to the reality of Islam;
  • and understand the historical context and geopolitical situation in the Middle East.

The sessions are based in the classrooms at Ecce Homo and participants have the opportunity to visit places referred to in class, such as: The Negev, Beer Sheva, Yad Vashem; Galilee, etc. Through these excursions we reaffirm what we learnt in the sessions.

What is essential for us as Sisters and Brothers of Sion is to offer an unique experience where people attending the course enjoy, learn and pray with every single detail of what we experience here in Jerusalem as it speaks to us profoundly.

Our Sion Constitution calls us to transmit the Word of God

“The revelation of the word of God in the Old Testament is the common root of Judaism and Christianity. In the Church we interpreted the Scriptures in the light of the Christ event…. We thereby grow in the appreciation of our own roots and in an understanding of Judaism. We are called to foster this appreciation and understanding in the Church” NDS Constitution # 7

Nancy Mena Fernández NDS, Novice
Congregational Novitiate Ein Karem, Jerusalem