Youth group at the Poor Clare convent

The group of youth from the Hebrew speaking Catholic communities in Israel gathered this month in the Vicariate in Jerusalem for their monthly meeting. On Friday night, a bitterly cold night, they went to the convent of the Poor Clares and had a meeting there with a group of the nuns together with the mother abbess of the convent. The meeting took place in a room divided into two by a divider that separates the nuns from the visitors, this time from the young people visiting. The nuns spoke of their vocation in the Church and their life in the convent. Some of the young ones described their spiritual journey. The nuns spoke in Italian, French and Hebrew too. Two postulants in the convent described the process of beginning life in the convent. The young people had questions and comments:

- What characterizes the life of a nun in the Franciscan order and why choose this particular order rather than one of the other orders?

- What is the meaning of the dividing barrier between the nuns and those coming in from the outside?

After hearing the nuns, one of the youth said: “When I look at you, I ask myself what am I prepared to do for God and for my faith?”

At the end of the lively conversation that lasted about an hour, all those present went into the chapel, where there is also a separation between the nuns and those coming from the outside. Directed by Benny and Franciscan Brother Alberto, together the nuns and the youth participated in a Taize style prayer – songs of praise and thanksgiving and prayers for the Church and for the world.

This was a very meaningful evening for the youth, who promised to remember the nuns in their prayers, but no less meaningful for the nuns, who will undoubtedly pray even more fervently for the young people.