LIfe and death and life

My dear Friends
This coming Sunday I will drive down to Bushey cemetery, near London, with a close friend. In the Jewish cemetery there my father, mother and brother are buried. My mother died at 97 in June 2006, my father in June 1972 and my brother, who was 20 years older than me in June 2003.

Actually June 18th was the date my father and brother died in different years.
On June 18th 1988, I had gone down to the sea in Cromer in Norfolk, after sitting an exam in Biblical Hebrew . This was to be my entry into Lucy Cavendish College in Cambridge to do a Hebrew degree. On the Saturday, June 18th, I was praying for my mother by the sea, when into my mind came a monastery in North Wales. It was there, a few years previously, that I had a profound experience in the silence, which was to lead me into the Catholic Church.
And then, later on this day, near Cromer, I had another profound experience, on the very anniversary of my father's death - his soul was leading me onto a new path.

I wrote about these experiences in a book, called The Moving Swan, published on 8 May 2006 in the context of a Presentation of My Life so Far. It took place in the Impington Church Hall, just outside Cambridge, with 50 guests, who sang in Hebrew with me, while I also talked about my life and afterwards signed copies of the book.I only realised later that 8 May is the day that World War Two ended in Europe.

I published The Moving Swan under the foundation of The Little Sisters of Joy. Amazingly, over 750 copies have been sold and distributed and it is already into its 3rd printing. I hope to display the cover of the book, and some excerpts from it in my next Blog entry.

If any of you are interested in buying it, I would like you know that it is not simply a book about my journey in faith; it documents my Jewish childhood, my wild youth and nervous breakdowns, my journeys, and, perhaps most of all, the people I have loved. It is quite a personal book and I would be happy to make it available for you.

So, just to tempt you, here is the opening line...

"I always was an unconventional little child..."

Shabbat Shalom
Sister Gila

The Holy Spirit

My dear Friends
We have just celebrated Pentecost, which is when The Holy Spirit descended on the disciples in the early Church and does, every year, during the liturgical commemoration of this Feast. Last Sunday was the Feast of The Holy Trinity, so I thought I would display my little essay on The Holy Spirit, which I wrote for an exam question last year. So here it is:

The Holy Spirit is the bond of love, which keeps the Father and Son together in love in the intimacy of the Trinity. Therefore no sacrament would be complete without the presence of the Holy Spirit, in whom we live, move and have our being. During the Sunday Eucharist, we define our belief in the Spirit by saying:

'We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.'

The Spirit was sent into the world by Christ as the Comforter and as the one who 'abides forever.' Thus is the Spirit essential to any sacrament and is, with the Word, the Prime Mover of that sacrament. We see the matrix for all this right at the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis, when the Spirit of God hovers over the waters, bringing order out of chaos and the world into existence through the Word. Thus is the Spirit already working in conjunction with the Father and the Son.

In the Eucharist, the words of the consecration 'breathe' and make present Christ on the altar, out of time and space. We can see how the Shechinah, the Divine Presence was already present in the desert with the Children of Israel, in the pillar of cloud and especially in the Tabernacle. And with Moses face-to-face at the burning bush and on the mountain of Sinai. It was the Spirit who knit the bones of the nation of Israel together in Ezekiel 37, in a prefiguration of the Resurrection. Without the breath of the Holy Spirit in the Eucharist, the bread and wine would remain bread and wine and not become the Body and Blood of Christ. And yet it remains a Mystery.

A unifying Force-this is what the Priest proclaims just before the Our Father in the Liturgy, as he lifts the newly consecrated bread and wine:

'Through Him, with Him, in Him, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is Yours, almighty Father, forever and ever, Amen.'

But the Spirit does not just 'appear' at a certain part in the proceedings. He/She (the word is both male and female in the Hebrew) is present from the moment the priest says 'The Lord be with you' and the congregation responds 'And also with you' at the beginning of the Mass. We could say that the Spirit is the conductor of the liturgy, which moves like a symphony, in its different parts, variations and cadences, to its natural conclusion, making Our Lord present, and bringing clarity, healing and reconciliation to the world and those present, who must take it out to the world.

The Spirit is the unseen hane who guides the liturgy, movingthe hearts of the faithful and drawing us in Christ to the Father, as we make intercessions for ourselves and others. It is in the Spirit that we feel the JOY of the Eucharist. It is the Spirit, touching our hearts, that makes us feel contrition and gives us the desire to open to our hearts to God, so that we may receive Him in abundance. The Spirit, working in love with the Father and the Son, empowers us to love so deeply in the Eucharist that sometimes it is almost impossible to bear. We may turn with renewed compassion to others, as we allow the action of the Spirit, within the sacrifice of the Mass, to transform our lives.

It must not be forgotten that the central part of the Mass is the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, re-enacted out of time and space. This is the definitive outpouring of love which intersects the past, present and the future. In the beginning of creation the Spirit intersected the chaos to bring order and temporal time. Here His action is both temporal and eternal, in the economy of grace. Here the very essence of God is made manifest, and transmitted to us through the redemptive action of Christ on the Cross. As we receive the very essence and substance of God, we are divinized as a result.

Every blessing and shalom from

Sister Gila

Ordinary Time

My dear Friends
After all the drama of the liturgical year, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost, the Church has moved into what is known as Ordinary Time. And yet it is still pierced with Feasts-this Sunday is Trinity Sunday, one of my favourites, then Corpus Christi and so on.
I have been leading such an exciting life that it is quite a relief to calm down for a while. In the corner of my room I have created a little 'nest' of shelves with my Hebrew books, and have placed my big red chair facing them and away from the window, which at other times I enjoy looking out of.
I was sitting having breakfast yesterday and looking out of the window when I saw,right in the middle of the silver birch tree, a bird. He moved around and was making the tree and several of its branches his own. It is the first time I have ever seen a bird in the tree and it seemed a sign for the future that, before too long, The Little Sisters of Joy would be at home in Toronto. And there are plenty of beautiful trees near the 'Motherhouse' over there.

God still speaks, even in Ordinary Time, perhaps even more so when there is less noise. After all, Elijah was told quite firmly (! Kings, 19) that God was not in the fire, nor in the earthquake, nor in the thunder, but in the still small voice. This phrase in the original Hebrew is actually untranslatable, nearest is a thin voice of silence.

I invite you in Ordinary time to listen in the stillness with me, that you may be touched by His Peace.

Shabbat Shalom
Sister Gila

Benigna's 90th Birthday

My dear Friends

Today is the 90th birthday of Benigna Lehmann, my friend of 26 years and my landlady for 16 years. We met in the first week of my coming to Cambridge in August 1982. A talented pianist and accompanist, she was hosting a musical rehearsal in her lovely Cambridge home.

Many people from all over the world have received her hospitality. Her Italian name means kindness and her kindly light has helped to lead me along the way. It was in the upper room of her home that I founded The Little Sisters of Joy, with the help of Maryvonne le Goanvic, on the 7th March 1999. Together Benigna and I began the series of Concerts for Peace and Reconciliation, which I have continued with my guitar.

Only a few months ago I discovered a new talent of Benigna's which I would like to share with you: writing childrens' stories. Composed for a little girl from an Indian family who moved in with her parents to share her house,Benigna wrote the following:

The Lady and her Adventures

Once upon a time when the world was young, a beautiful lady lived alone in a small house in the middle of large fields. Her name was Mystery Lady. She was polite and friendly to other people she met, but no-one knew her well and people wondered why she lived so far from anyone and what she did during the long days.

If they had looked up to the sky at night, they would have seen her among the stars and dancing across a dark sky until she flew onto the edge of the moon. Here she stopped and for a time danced with the moon fairies before flying to the secret moon gardens, all bright gold or silver.

She had many friends here and a tiny room of her own made from moon and star beams. She hoped to stay there for a long time, but the head of the moon people said: "No, dear lady, you must float to earth again and tell the people there that they must dress and have airlungs and come and live with us - go now, dear lady, and come back again, bringing them with you. This she did and there was Perfect Peace.

(Story written by Benigna Lehmann)

A very happy and blessed birthday, dear Benigna!
Love and shalom from Sister Gila

Post Paris

My dear Friends

Paris was everything I expected, and more. And the unexpected happened too: for example I was staying in a busy neighbourhood and it was noisy at night. I have got used to it over the various visits as a nice change from Cambridge, but I was unprepared for the commotion last Friday night around midnight. Gazing over the balcony, I saw 100 people on roller skates!Apparently Friday night in Paris is roller skating night, and they happen to arrive in my neighbourhood around midnight. Following in the wake of the last roller, were three large police wagons to ensure that everyone was alright on the unpredictable roads.

Alexia took me to the Bois de Vincennes, a beautiful park not far from my hotel. The lake was a little like Regents Park, a lone swan hovered over the water and a sole Canadian goose (looking for its partner?) while runners, young and old passed us sitting idly on a park bench. Alexia counted at least 5 laps for a middle-aged man who still went round happliy! Alexia is trying to encourage me to take up a sport, but my maxim at the moment is Mark Twain's:

'whenever I feel the urge to exercise coming on, lie down until it goes away again!'

A bientot!
Sister Gila