Weekend For Families December 2022

On Friday at 5.pm we gathered in Tiberias. The families from all over the country arrived and gathered near the hot drink and light refreshment stand. The children and young people could be seen playing a football game and other "action" games.

This was the warm-up for the first meeting which was an introduction to the participants, when this time there was a numerous presence from the Haifa Community, and there were many Russian speakers and even Slovak speakers this time. The interpreters were quite busy at this meeting and throughout the weekend including amusing "mistakes" in the field of simultaneous translation as they switched the languages spontaneously. At the introductory meeting, each parent introduced himself and his name, the name of the child(ren) and the community to which he belongs, and then we played an entertaining version of musical chairs in a circle, and it was indeed possible to get to know some new participants as well as old ones.

The second meeting included a lecture by Rivka about the issue of making decisions in our daily lives as Christians in the aspect of the integration of faith. The discussion then revolved in smaller groups on how and whether we incorporate prayer to God when we need to decide something important as part of the decision-making process. Many of us have intuitively said that we incorporate a moment of prayer or a pause of reflection or saying a prayer before or after making a decision. Beyond the different backgrounds, the different languages and every other diversity, the similarity was greater than the difference.

After the first discussion we had dinner together and after that we prayed the evening prayer, and the children and young people were busy watching a movie about Christmas (of course) and allowed their parents some peace and quiet time...

On the second day, Saturday, December 17th, we met at eight in the morning at the church for strictly Catholic meditation. For some of those present, it was their first encounter with meditation in general and with meditation from a Christian and faith perspective. After that we had breakfast together and after a short break the children left again for the parents who returned to deal with another interesting topic in the first session of the lecture. The lecture was about an 8-step decision-making model, when it was a model without making the faith involved. The lecturer (Ana) presented different situations and the eight stages and then everyone in the group addressed a number of questions related to this model, when he quickly found a link with for the lecture from Friday - a decision together with the prayer and with a religious aspect.

We all received the model directly on WhatsApp as a benefit of the computer-technological age, each in his own language.

After the lecture we had a break and returned to the great hall again to have lunch. Meanwhile, the children were making cookies for Christmas, while the parents were busy with the lecture. After a delicious lunch and lovely hospitality from the John the Baptist community of Tiberias there was a rather long break until the next meeting.

The next activity was surprising and very enjoyable. Rivka and Kathy brought a huge amount of different types of doughs, ingredients, tasty toppings and more to make Christmas cookies. Casa Nova's dining room has been transformed into a Catholic version of the Kitchen Games... Children and parents (not only mothers!! fathers too) were busy kneading dough, stamping shapes, smearing with egg, placing decorations and after baking - more artistic decorations on the finished product. The lovely staff of hosts were busy with the oven full time. The results were amazing and proof of that is the photos of the finished product... Who knew there was so much hidden talent in this field in our community. In a few minutes we gathered our products in a central area and left tables completely clean as if nothing had happened in the last hour or more. A nice sample of the most original cookies was specially packed to be delivered to the Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

After that, most of us stayed for the Lord's Supper with the congregation of Tiberias, when it was prepared by Fr. Piotr, assisted by Fr. Andrey and Fr. Giacomo, who came to visit. After the end of the Lord's Supper, we said goodbye to each other and wished each other a happy Christmas.

A special thanks to the organizers of the event, to the young people who took care of the children (not such an easy task), to the lovely hosts from the community of John the Baptist.

Looking forward to the next meeting

Merry Christmas "For a child is born to us, a son is given to us"

Taliana Strassman and Erez Yager