Desert Flower gathers in Jaffa

We, the members of Desert Flower, met once again and this time for the last meeting of the year in the convent in Jaffa, where we had not been for a long time. The program of this meeting was a little different this time because members of the group themselves had designed it.

We began the meeting on Tuesday, earlier than usual in order to exploit the maximum amount of time together.

We began with a water war on the seashore promenade and on the beach. After we had spent some fun time together with lots of laughter, we returned to the convent in order to have a barbecue. Then we went outside to have a meeting in the park in order to evaluate the year and we discussed what we had liked during the year and what not, what was missing and what we might add to the program next year. Later, we gathered in the chapel in the convent for a time of prayer in the style of Taize. Then there was free time, to sit and talk or to go to bed.

The following morning, as we always we prayed morning prayer together and then had breakfast. Then we get ourselves organized in order to go to the beach. When we returned, we had lunch together and after lunch there was free time to rest or to walk about for whoever wanted. After the rest time, Father Apolinary gave a lesson on the Holy Spirit and we read together from the Acts of the Apostles, ch. 2. After the lesson, we assembled again for a short activity during which each member of the group jotted down on a slip of paper his or her expectations regarding next year, with regard to the meetings, faith, self. The slips of paper were gathered and put into a sealed box and next year we will open the box to see if the expectations have been realized. At the end of this exercise, we brought a small gift that the members of the group had bought for the counselors (Father Apolinary, Claudia and Benny) as a sign of gratitude for all the energy they had invested in the meetings and for the fact that they are always there for each one of us! Then we gathered again in orde to listen to the witness of a family and we listened to them talking about their life together, their vocation to be a family. It was very beautiful and interesting to listen and hear their story.

We ended the meeting with the celebration of mass.

It was a really great meeting’ fun to meet up again and we went off with the great expectation to meet up again with most of the members of the group during the summer activities. Those who will not participate will meet up again next year.