The second year of the Novitate is called the “Apostolic Year.” As a novice you try to integrate all the studies and spiritual experiences you have had over the past few years in a community of Notre Dame de Sion, before you came to the Novitiate community. You also do some daily work as a volunteer in a parish, or a social or educational organization. There could even be a chance for regular employment in a field of your interest which has some connection with the Charism of Sion. In this way, you seek to discover the Mission in which you would like to express the Charism and the call to follow Jesus in your vowed life in Sion.

One month ago we were in another country to know more about Muslims where Arabic is spoken. Now we are preparing ourselves and our bags for a new community experience not just for one month, but for 5 months which is asking each one us for courage! Pick up your mat and go for a new life outside of the Novitiate which was our womb and protector. We know that now we will live and deeply experience community life with responsibility inside and outside the community with more challenge than our first experience. We are going on apostolic mission two by two to different communities:

This apostolic stage of the novitiate experience called Alejandra from (Guatemala) and Victoria from (Egypt) to Krakow for the next 5 months. There they will experience and learn about Jewish life and history in Europe.

Rozeni (Brazil) and Joey (Philippines) are called to Ecce Homo. There they will learn more about the sources of Notre Dame de Sion at Ecce Homo in Jerusalem, and will reflect on the sisters and their own stories in the past and present in relation to modern life in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem.

Arlyne (Philippines) and Clara (Guatemala) will spent their apostolic stage in the Ein Karem convent where guests from Tel Aviv, Haifa, Ashdod, and elsewhere in Israel appreciate this quiet and peaceful place when they come to visit Jerusalem. Arlyne and Clara will have a guided study with Sr. Anne Catherine using the “necklace” method (“hariza” in Hebrew) to work with the Hebrew Scriptures, the New Testament and Rabinic teachings.

As they are sent out now, two by two, to the different communities who will receive them, may God bless them and keep them full of loving, joyful hope, proclaiming the Kingdom of God according to Fr. Theodore’s inspiration: “everything in our life should be permeated by this special Call of God to love his people and make them loved” (Origins of Sion, Book 2, p. 65).

written by Rozeni and Juliana