Desert Flower meeting in Jaffa

On Thursday, October 2, we, the youth of Desert Flower, met in Jaffa after an entire summer during which we did not meet because of the state of war in the south of the country and the arrival of the Italians who were supposed to come was cancelled. Some of the members of the group were also unable to participate in the summer camp.

On Thursday, we arrived at the Franciscan monastery of Saint Peter in Jaffa. After we had organized our things, we prepared dinner because many arrived late. After dinner, together with Benny and Alberto (the two seminarians from Jerusalem), we gathered together for prayer in the style of Taize. After the pray, we said our farewell to Benny and Alberto who had to return to Jerusalem because of their studies.

On Friday, the following day, we began the day with breakfast and after breakfast went to spend time on the beach. When we returned, we prepared lunch and had rest time. During the pause in activities, Fathers Piotr and Apolinary arrived from the retreat of the priests and joined us for the meeting. After the break, we had a lecture given by Father Piotr on confession, account of conscience and their meaning. After the lecture, we participated in the mass that celebrated the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi in the main church. After mass, we went out for a walk together.

On Saturday, the day of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), we began with morning prayer. Following the lecture of Father Piotr the day before on the account of conscience, we were invited to do an exercise: to spend two hours on retreat in silence with ourselves – without mobile telephones, without our companions, in order to do an account of conscience: to think about our relationship with God, with the people around us and with ourselves.

At the end of the two hours, there was time to eat something and rest. Before the meeting of the group to bring these days to a close, there was time to put things in order and to clean the places we had been in. After the final meeting, Father Piotr prepared us for mass which we celebrated together with the kehilla in Jaffa. When mass ended, we bade farewell to one another and each one went home.

This year, three new young women from Beer Sheba have joined the group and we hope that the group will continue to grow more and more and that more young people will join us.