Four new novices for Our Lady of Sion

The new novices, Nancy and Andrea from Costa Rica, Lucia from Brasil and Maria from Indonesia began their canonical year on the Feast of the Annunciation, April 4, 2016. They received during the Eucharistic celebration three symbols: a candle (representing the light of Christ), a Bible, (as our constitution number 6 says our vocation is characterised by the word of God) and the medal of the Immaculate Conception.

We begin our time together with the question: what does it mean to be in the Holy Land for our initial formation program? Answers to that reflect the spirituality of NDS in the Holy Land, which we experience in visiting the Holy Places and walking where Jesus walked. Here we begin to understand why Jerusalem is so important for the congregation of Notre Dame de Sion and to know this not only with our heads, but with our hearts, and even with our feet as we walk the land that Jesus walked and pause in places where he stood too.

Sr. Anne Catherine is giving us an introduction to Judaism and to Jewish feasts. Her first presentation was on circumcision as well as the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the feast celebrated on February 2. We explored the book of Esther and the celebration of Purim and Pesach as we walk the Jewish Liturgical calendar with her.

We were saddened when we heard of the attack in Brussels just before the holidays of Purim and Easter; and that made us realize how much our world is influenced by what at times appears to be forms of slavery, such negative ways of thinking and being. Pessah is the celebration of freedom with its story of how the Jewish people walked away from slavery in Egypt -- what a contradiction we are experiencing in our world today!

The Hebrew alphabet and the responses for the Mass in Hebrew, as well as the Our Father in Hebrew is being taught by Br. Tiago with some little refrains in Hebrew.

Human development taught by Sr. Maureen has also found its place in our weekly schedule.

Walking through Wadi Qelt to the Monastery of Temptation in Jericho showed us the desert in bloom, with its flowers and green pastures for the sheep and goats of the Bedouins who live in this area. Or our excursion to the city of Nablus, where Jacob’s well is located, and Mount Gerizim with its community of Samaritans, which, though small, continues to this day in the Holy Land.

We also visited Bethlehem, and Ein Gedi where we had a swim in the Dead Sea. Just some days before Palm Sunday we visited Bethany where Jesus and his disciples were frequently and warmly welcomed, and where Lazarus was raised to life by Jesus. Walking the Palm Sunday procession with the Hebrew speaking Catholic community in Israel was one of the highlights. Processing down the Mount of Olives, singing and waving palm branches, vividly reminded us of the day that the people of Jerusalem and Jesus’ disciples proclaimed “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

During Holy Week we went to Yad Vashem where our guide, Shlomo, made the experience both personal and informative. There we entered into the suffering of the Jewish people throughout the history of the past 2000 years and the suffering of so many people around the world today. On Holy Thursday we went to Ecce Homo, which became our home for the next few days, so that we could participate in the celebrations of the Paschal Triduum. On Holy Thursday, after the washing of the feet, we went down to Gethsemane and walked the first way of the Cross via the Kidron Valley to the house of the High Priest, and then on to Ecce Homo where the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, had washed his hands before condemning Jesus to death. Early Friday morning we walked the way of the Cross from Ecce Homo to the Holy Sepulcher, where the crucified Jesus was buried and where on the first day of the week his resurrection was proclaimed. We were among those who chose to be locked in the Church until nearly midday that day in order to participate in all of the celebrations happening there that morning. Saturday morning after breakfast we had a quiet time at the Garden Tomb just outside Damascus Gate before we walked back to Ecce Homo for lunch and prepared for the Easter vigil in the Basilica of Ecce Homo that evening. On Sunday we celebrated with the whole Jerusalem Community, with an Easter Mass, followed by a barbecue, in Ein Karem.

We already had some celebrations of birthdays: Lucia’s, as well as Brother Carlos’s and Brother Tiago’s birthdays by having special Brazilian food.

And so we began on the April 4, the Feast of the Annunciation our canonical year where we continue to walk with Jesus in his land and among his people to learn and experience with our heart and mind what it means to follow Jesus today in the Congregation of Sion here in Jerusalem before we return again to our countries and become witnesses of our founder’s, Fr. Theodore Ratisbonne, call “to love his people today and to make them loved”.