Meeting of "Desert Flower" in Jaffa

On Saturday, January 28, we held our meeting, we, the youth group, as we do each month.

Needless to say, we began with the excitement of seeing one another again, asking one another what was new since meeting last month.

Then, we sat in a circle and we sang "Let the heavens rejoice,' after which we were told the details about the upcoming trip to France – to Taize. We were also given the details about the children's camps during the Passover holidays and during the summer.

After a short explanation, Brother Alberto showed us a short film that explained well about life during the week spent at Taize, about the activities we will participate in and the talks we will hear, about our role in organizing the day to day life and the cleanliness in the place and the experiences of those young people who have already been there. (see film here) We were all enchanted by the place and are eagerly awaiting the summer.

When noontime arrived, we began to prepare lunch. We again discussed our many experiences over the past year and of course remembered the trip to Spain. We spoke about the new things that have happened to us in recent times. After the meal, we went out for a short walk before returning for the more spiritual part of the program.

We gathered in the chapel in the monastery and there our theme was: hope, and in its wake faith and love. After reading a passage from the New Testament, we spoke about a disorder called "seasonal affective disorder", a sickness that causes a person to feel sadness and unexpectedly tired, caused by a lack of sunlight. The purpose of the discussion was to reach an understanding that something similar happens in the spiritual world – when a person lives far from the light of God and when he has no part in that life. Then, that person feels that everything is dark and unclear. He sinks into sadness and exhaustion…

It was thus that we began to talk about hope, actually to believe in what you desire – meaning that if you want something and you hope for it, that means that you believe it will come about! We then read Psalm 130 which describes the person sunk in the shadows, deep in the depths and from there he calls out to God. He pleads that God be attentive to his petition and pleads that He not look only on the bad things, the sins , that he has committed because otherwise there will be no one to save him and the entire world. He hopes – he has hope that God will hear him and bring him out of the darkness which envelopes him. His soul hopes for this even more than the city guards who await the morning.

Then we read from the Gospel according to John (chapter 11), where it is told about Eleazar, whom Jesus raised from the dead. From the story, we can learn that when Jesus says: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live even if he dies. Whoever believes in me will never die!", Jesus is not only talking about eternal life in which the soul continues to live. Rather, he intends as well that even when we are in the darkest of situations and we think there is no solution. No way out, we must still always believe in Jesus. He is the one who will hold us up, giving us hope because we know he loves us and thus we have hope that he will save us.

The most important is to always remember that Jesus is with us and that he strengthens us and will never let us fall – and always to remember the three most important values: faith, hope and love.

After we concluded the discussion in the chapel, we spoke with Mariana, who is studying in the United States – she is an integral part of our group. We heard from her about her experiences and we told her ours – everyone is hoping to see her again in the summer.

Let us pray together that hope will always be dwelling in us and in her wake faith in Jesus our brother and God our Father. God who is with us will support us even in the darkest situation. However, faith in Jesus will only take root only if we truly know that he loves us and will never leave us!