Reconnecting with Glasgow

My dear Friends

Life this past week was pretty exciting. I reconnected with my roots and had a lot of fun in glasgow. I stayed near the Botanic Garden, close to Byres Road, scene of my wild youth.The place has changed, with a lot of trendy cafes,but one place has not changed-the University cafe, started in 1918 by one Italian family and still going strong. It is a place where what I call the 'real' Glaswegians go-when you look at the chiselled faces it really moves you, to say nothing of the place itself, with its narrow seats and long mirrors.

Mass at St Peter's in Partick was amazing-the chamber choir from Strathclyde University sang beautifully, including singing a setting called the Russian Kyrie which I was familiar with.I was also there on the Feast of St Margaret of Scotland, the second Patron of the country along with St Mungo. The delightful priest, Fr John, explained to the children from the primary school that St Margaret was not a nun, but a good wife and mother who minstered to the poor and who was married to King Malcolm of England.

I was also in Glasgow cathedral (more in the next post) but the highlight of the trip was a tour of Garnethill Synagogue, the oldest one in Glagow and the place where my parents and grandparents worshipped.My cousin came with and identified the place near the Ark where her father and my father sat, and where my father's eyes would have drifted (across and up to the ladies gallery) and spotted my mother! We had a good guide and we spotted a stained glass window in memorial to Anna And Samuel Solomon, our grandparents.

For now
Shalom from
Gila

Is he invisible?

My dear Friends

Just to let you know that i will be off the air from tomorrow, Tuesday 13th November 2012 until Friday 23rd November, as I will be going to Glasgow.(See previous blogs.) I am really looking forward to this break, seeing my family and taking a little rest, as it has been an extraordinary year. Last year, 2011 was one of the most difficult years I have had in a long time and I suffered from ill health and a kind of lassitude. Only on december 11th and on my 60th birthday did I suddenly take on a new lease of life!

This year I have given two Concerts for Peace and Reconciliation and a talk with music, published two Newsletters for Friends of The Little Sisters of Joy and been on wonderful trip to Amsterdam.

But if we look back to 1998, also a watershed year and my trip to Rome, I want to tell you a little tale. I was there on 1st November, All Saints Day and attended Mass(but not in St Peters in the Vatican) near to the Vatican square. I discovered that there was also to be a wedding! A man struck up with a rather poor rendition of Ave Marie, the bride's father looked as if he should be wearing a toga and, all, in all, it had a touch of the bizarre. I melted among the wedding guests without a suitable wedding garment.

Reeling from this experience, I staggered out to St Peters Square. suddenly I heard a voice coming through a microphone. I thought to myself that i recognised the voice and when I looked up at the window, there was the Pope! John Paul II blessed us in Polish and everyone clapped. There were two curtains, one on either side of the Pope. He stepped back...and was gone.

Recounting this story to a little Catholic girl called Rosie the following week at Mass in cambridge, Rosie asked: 'Is he invisible?'

See you when I return
Shalom from Gila

Fasts and Feasts

My dear Friends

I love being part of the Church liturgical calendar, with, from time to time, also being in tune with the Jewish liturgical calendar, from where, of course, I originate.

From September to November, we seem to have happily swung from fasts to Feasts, what with the Jewish New Year then the Day of Atonement, then the Feast of Tabernacles. We have celebrated several Saints days in the Church recently, including St Francis of Assisi, and last Thursday was the big one-the Feast of All Saints. Among my favourites, for different reasons, are-Thomas More, the first Saint I ever encountered at fourteen (when my Protestant school performed A Man for All Seasons), who slightly unfortunately is the Patron saint of politicians!

Then, you may not know about St Botolphe, who is the patron Saint of travellers. You may think this is St Francis and I am not sure when the change occurred! Then amongst the women St Cecilia, patron Saint of music and of course St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, known as Edith Stein, who came from a Jewish family in Breslau and perished in Auschwitz, and was brought into official sainthood by John Paul II.

All these give us an example of holiness by their lives; there are many unknown and hidden people who could be called saints by their selflessness and devotion. For many, they live lives in obscurity but of course God knows all of their goodness.

Hannah Senesh, who lived in Palestine on a kibbutz, but who went back to Hungary and flew a plane behind enemy lines and perished at the hands of the Nazis, said in one of her letters:

'The souls of those who have gone before us light up the way for the rest of mankind.'

In November the Church remembers especially those who have gone before us, and with whom we are in communion for the rest of our live too.

In the next Blog I will tell you my unusual experiences on All Saints Day in Rome 1998, when I was about to embark on my new life.

Shalom from Gila

Singing and speaking

My dear Friends

Sorry for the delay in this new post. Something very special happened last night-I was invited by the Mother's Union just outside Cambridge, to speak and sing about my life, in particular my journey of faith from Judaism to Christianity. the Mother's Union is a worldwide organisation, which upholds family values and helps those in need. You don't have to be a mother to join or participate (just as well as that is one major life experience I haven't had!) and has mainly Anglican roots. The week before the talk my host showed me round the ancient church in Stapleford, next to the hall where the talk was to take place.

Last night 12 ladies made me feel very welcome. I was able to speak about my life without notes, from the heart, as they were so responsive and I had four pieces of music to illustrate my experiences-three of them from the Jewish repertoire. I went through childhood, my move to Glasgow  my wild youth-everyone sang Blowing in the wind-breakdown and return to self through singing lessons, move to Cambridge, return to the Synagogue and that autumn my week in St Beuno's in north Wales where I rediscoverd Christ. I told the gathering that i was received into the Catholic Church in 1989 in Newmarket, and returned for a visit to Israel that summer. Ultimately I went to Provence in 1998 and The Little Sisters of Joy was born!

I had a feeling of catharsis after I sang and spoke. It had been a while since I had shared my life story in that intimate way, but I think it did me good and I felt that the Holy Spirit was with me. God is also a God of surprises, as afterwards a lady came over to me and reminded me that she had known me twenty eight years ago!

I am now having a break from singing, as I will be going up to Glasgow, as you know, in mid-November.

For now, Peaceful Sabbath and see you soon
Shabbat shalom
Gila 

Happy new year

My dear Friends

It has been a very rich period again since the concert. A week past on Monday saw the beginning of the new Jewish year and I was invited to a service at the Guildhall for Beth Shalom, the Reform Jewish group in Cambridge. I stayed for the first two hours and was able to join in the singing of the Avinu Malkaynu, Our Father, Our King, a moving entreaty to grant favour and bless us, hear us and save us. It is especially moving to realise that this is being sung by Jews all over the world at this time.

I sang it again in a different context on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which was celebrated two days ago. I was leading the prayers for the Wesley prayer group, a small group of Methodist Christians who meet every Wednesday for prayer. I quoted from the Rabbis about prayer and repentance, the theme of the day, and joined all the prayers of intercession with a rendering of the last verse of Avinu Malkaynu:

'Make in us charity and righteousness, and save us. Our Father Our King.'

Yom Kippur is a day of fasting, repentance and asking for mercy and forgiveness and this year, with the Jewish community, I decided to keep a little fast.I did not do the whole twenty five hours, but ended my little fast in the Friends' Meeting House. that is the Quakers, over some bread and a bowl of soup. I shared with them about Yom Kippur. Afterwards we had their traditional meeting for worship in silence.

I wish you all a good and sweet year
Shalom from Gila

Concert for Peace and Reconciliation

My dear Friends

I am delighted to tell you that my little Concert for Peace and Reconciliation went very well. It took place last tuesday, on the anniversary of 9/11. The venue was Michaelhouse, a cafe and ancient church right in the heart of Cambridge.

Annabel, the Anglican priest in charge, set the tone when she asked for a short pause to honour the day. Then I told the story of how something was going on at Ground Zero,a few days after 9/11 and when the people drew closer to see what was going on they saw a group of people-dancing for the joy of living.

The music unfolded-I started with an anti-war song by Ed McCurdy called Last night I had the strangest dream: 'I dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to war.' Psalm 23 in Hebrew followed, dedicated to a sweet American man I had recently met and who had just lost his wife. Then There but for Fortune, written by Phil Ochs but made famous by Joan Baez.'There but for Fortune go you or I.'

The audience (and it was a full house) really started singing when i struck up with 'We shall overcome' , the last verse of which is 'The Truth shall set you free.' Then there was a lyrical break with Are you going to Scarborough Fair, followed by the totally transcendent Blowing in the wind.

Hannah Senesh, a young Hungarian Jewess wrote a beautiful song calleld Eli, Eli, my God about the God of all creation-she perished at the hands of the Nazis but in one of her letters before she died she wrote'The souls of those who have gone before us light up the way for the rest of mankind.'

I finished with a couple of rambling songs by Tom Paxton. The second was Rambling Boy and, after retelling the death of the hero, the song finishes as follows:'If when we die, we go somewhere, you can bet a dollar he's ramblin there!'

Power to your elbow
Love and shalom
Gila

November in Glasgow

My dear Friends

November in Glasgow will be gloomy, but only from the weather perspective. Although I have been here in Cambridge for thirty years, Scotland remains part of my inner landscape, especially as my mother, Dorothea, was born there.  All my formative years were in Glasgow, although I spent the first eleven years of my life in London, where I went to a Jewish primary school.

Glasgow changed me and shaped me. I discovered Christianity there, although it was not until twenty years later, in an English landscape, that it was to flower and I entered the Catholic church, as you know.

Glasgow has a real grit to it, and the friendliness is tangible. It has a rough reputation, with the gangs and the Gorbals (now thankfully gone) but in realty it as a sophisticated city, rich in art, music and culture, with many fine museums and, at least in 1972 when i left, 72 parks. I think its cloisters in the University rival some of the buildings in Cambridge and there is a sweeping boulevard up to the university, named University Avenue.

I didn't complete my degree there, although I got most of it, because I was a rebel in the sixties and was making a statement, but I don't regret the four years I spent there. I had some wonderful lecturers, particularly in German, and I am still in touch with one of them . Looking back, it was amazing that not only did they tolerate me but gave me references which were the gateway to my entering the University in Cambridge twenty years later.

More of the story next time!
Shalom from Gila