Visit to the Synagogue

My dear Friends

Yesterday, on the Jewish Sabbath,or Shabbat as it is called, I had a beautiful experience. I had been invited to BethShalom Reform Synagogue, where I was going to pick up two prayer books I had ordered from one of their members.

Beth Shalom Synagogue is not new to me  as I had been a member of the congregation between 1986 and 1988. I took some of their services and it was during this period that I learned to chant in Hebrew from the Torah scroll-my teacher was the late Louis Berkman, formerly cantor of Belsize Synagogue in London. This was indeed a great privilege.

Yesterday's service was on the eve of the Festival of Purim, commemorating the time when Queen Esther saved the Jews from their enemies in Persia and it is a delightful feast for adults and children alike. Yesterday's actual reading from the Torah was rather complex, being from the Book of Leviticus and its injunctions on sacrifices-I was particularly interested in the Peace offerings, which were strictly laid down.

As I was standing and singing and gazing at the beautiful Torah scrolls, a thought struck me. As this community do not yet have their own building, the 'mobile' Ark containing the scrolls resembled that of the ark of the covenant which was carried round in the desert. How appropriate for me, during Lent, to be there, amongst my Jewish people! For I have always envisaged Len as my own journey through the desert with the Israelites, as in days of old.

The cantor sang well and I heard many new tunes that i had not heard on a previous visit. I resolved to come again before too long.

Happy and joyful journey through the desert!
Shalom from Gila.

Towards Lent

My very dear Friends

It is hard to believe that we are approaching Lent once again. It seems that it was only yesterday that we celebrated Advent, Christmas and the New Year. and with snow on the ground still in so many places (not in Cambridge however) that we have just had the first official day of Spring.

Spring-that is the real meaning of Lent and many of the religious poets commemorated and celebrated it in beautiful poetry. Like George Herbert, for example, one of my favourite 17th century poets. He wrote a wonderful poem called 'Easter Wings' which I first came across the night after I was baptized into the Catholic Church at Easter 1989.

This is why Lent and Easter 2014 have such a special meaning for me, as it is my 25th anniversary of being a Catholic. It has been a momentous 25 years, with many ups and downs, twists and turns along the way. but I have never regretted it and have been told  that my Orthodox Jewish upbringing was my best formation for my new life.I have tried my best to bring everything that was meaningful  from the Jewish religion into the last 25 years and have attempted to build bridges between Jews and Christians through music, encounter and Friendship as best I could.

It has been my privilege to have been given the grace to found, with the help of a friend, an organization dedicated to that aim, The Little Sisters of JOY and this has been, and will continue to be, the focus of everything I do.My life as a Catholic Christian gives me the structure and above all, the sacramental life, to follow in the steps of Jesus and to do his work.

I am blessed with a huge variety of friends from every religion and culture whose love and support nourishes me and empowers me.

And you!
A blessed and joyful Lent
Shalom from Gila 

Patron Saint of thunderstorms

My dear Friends

I had intended to write this little piece last Monday on the Feast of Saint Scholastica. Who is this Saint, you my well ask? She is not as obscure as you might think.

Her brother was Saint Benedict, who was one of the Founders of the monastic life. She was very fond of her brother and one day went to visit him in the monastery. She was really enjoying his company but after a while he said he had to leave her to go back to his monastic cell (the word used for someone's private room.) Sister Scholastica prayed very hard and soon afterwards there was a massive thunderstorm, followed by torrential rain, much as there is over many parts of the country at the moment.

Saint Benedict had no choice but to go on talking to his dear sister for a night and a day and that is why she is chosen by the Church to take this role. Let us hope that in some mysterious way she will use her gifts to help appease the terrible storms that beset us now and that the Master of the elements will hear our plea.

I was privilege in Cambridge to know a nun called Sister Scholastica. She was a teacher all her life and, being retired and reaching the age of 75, she said to God that she was bored. Apparently there was a divine reply and she was told to learn Hebrew-which is where i came in. Scholastica was a wonderful scholar on her own, but she would invite me to the convent every Wednesday at 5pm, we would have a session on Hebrew until 6pm, when there would be Mass and a nice supper with the other Sisters after wards. Then my dear friend would take my arm and we would go for a short walk in the garden.

Her prayers were very powerful and she died in November 1995, in the same week that I was in israel and Yitzchak Rabin was shot down at a Peace rally.

I miss her still but for sure she is watching over me.

Shabbat shalom, peaceful Sabbath
Gila  

Gathering at the Regent Hotel

My dear Friends

Just to report that my little gathering at the Regent hotel here in the heart of Cambridge went really well. Eleven people gathered to celebrate 15 years of The Little Sisters of Joy, now a Foundation of Prayer, Peace and Reconciliation, which takes many forms;  Concerts of Peace and Reconciliation in various lovely halls, usually in and around the university of Cambridge, the occasional lectures and much more besides. In any one day I can meet up to half a dozen new and very diverse people.

Getting back to last Saturday, the eleven people came from different Christian traditions,which was fitting especially on that day as it was the beginning of The Week of prayer for Christian Unity.Traditions represented were Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Russian Orthodox and even American Orthodox!

Our newly refurbished surroundings added to the JOY of being together and chatting over some food and drink. I gave a brief overview as to what happened in the Project in the past year and what is planned for the year to come, including singing with my guitar at a service in Grantchester Parish Church. where 3 Anglican Parishes will come together for their annual celebration-a great privilege for me!

A holiday beckons and I can now tell you that i have planned a short holiday in the 'wild and wooly West' of Ireland. (That is how someone described it to me when i said I was going quite a way beyond Galway city.) My final destination is to an Abbey in Connemara, but I am flying to a shrine in County Mayo first, to give thanks for my 25 years in the Catholic Church.

My flight is booked for the second half on May and i will prepare to put my little pussycat in his holiday home in a village near Cambridge, where he is well cared for while I am away.

Until the next time!

Shalom from Gila

Music at Queens

My dear Friends

Life has been quite hectic since we kicked off into the New year. My main project as you know this year is the publication of my second little memoir, Where the Woods the Water.

I was feeling a bit frazzled, having just come from the University library and the Graduate Centre and was passing Queens College in Silver Street. I popped in and over the mathematical bridge and into the court with the huge walnut tree. This is where tihe Chapel is and as I entered I heard the sound of the organ playing.

I could see a young man perched below the huge pipes, playing with great gusto. I sat down down in the middle of this really beautiful space and listened. After he had stopped playing the first piece, I clapped and shouted what a joy it was to hear such wonderful music. I think he was pleased to have me there, as he told me he was practising for an organ recital at 1.15 today. I explained I would be unable to go as i was holding a gathering of Friends in the Regent Hotel, but that i would love to listen to more.

Qutie a selection of music followed; Bach, some French music-quite delicious-some loud and soem quiet. This short interlude in my life really soothed my soul.

There is a variety of organists playing in this lunchtime series and I hope to go to something in the future.

Have a great weekend, a report about my meeting will the next blog entry
Shalom from Gila

A very happy and healthy new year to all my Friends

My dear Friends

In 1989 I was in Amsterdam for my first real Christmas and New year with two very close friends I had met in Israel in the summer of that year-Liesbeth and Chava. I remember that I was in Chava's mother's house in New Year's Eve. People lit bonfires in the street and my friend was playing the piano. As the bells of midnight struck, I could actually feel the year 'turning' and another close friend back in england came very strongly into my mind.

This will be my third New year in 2013. The first was the Jewish new Year for Trees, on which The Little Sisters of Joy commemorates its anniversary-2014 will be its 15th birthday. A gathering of friends met in (yes you know its my favourite hotel) the Regent Hotel in Cambridge, among them Methodists and Catholics, who were meeting each other for the first time. I gave a little speech about the progress of the Project and we all had tea and cakes and chatted happily. We will do it all over again this coming January, with a few different people this time, with hopefully a lady from the American Orthodox Church.

Then there was my trip to Toronto in June, highly successful and quite emotional for me for as you know I really love the place and hope to return many times in the future. A visit is already planned for September 2015, when my friend Sarah will accompany me and I will show her the beauties of the city, before she goes travelling. And I have a little event in store at that time, which i will reveal to you nearer the time.

In September I celebrated the Jewish new Year, Rosh Hashanah with two dear Friends, Marcellus and Ivona, who celebrated their wedding just two weeks ago. W e were joined by a Russian friend and her daughter and the food and the good will flowed!

Let us hope and pray that this beautiful and creative period will flow into 2014, that Where the Woods meet the Water will be published as planned on 19th october 2014 and that i can keep on singing! No time for a Concert this coming year i fear, but Sue is keen to do another one and lets hope for Spring 2015.

I don't mind planning if I feel it is God'w work-anyhow i was brought up to it as I am the proud daughter of a Jewish businesman!

Every blessing, health and happiness
Go safely wherever you go
Love and shalom
Gila

Happy birthday Gila

My dear Friends

Yesterday i celebrated one of the best birthdays I have ever had. To begin with I discovered, being 62, that i had spent exactly half of my life, thirty one years,in Cambridge. when i came here in 1982 I did not know even one person, but my life changed took off and changed forever when i started on a course at what is now Anglia Ruskin University and what was then known fondly as the Tech.

I think I have grown and matured as a human being in those thirty one years. You may recall that I was unhappy in my twenties and although exciting revolutions were going on around me in the sixties and early seventies, it was a rasher dark period in my life.One good thing though-the music. It was then I learnt to sing and play the guitar in a way that was to carry me through the res of my life and form the basis of the Concerts for Peace and Reconciliation that I have been doing for the last eleven years.

I received many cards from old and new friends yesterday and was showered with affection.I started the day with prayers with the Methodists in Wesley, as I usually do on a Wednesday morning. at coffee in a cafe afterwards, Angela the minister's wife, bought me hot chocolate with a huge amount of cream, which was a great start to all the eating I was to do. for this was quickly followed by a wonderful lunch in the double Tree hotel by the river, where my Canadian friend and i watched the mist turn into lunchtime sunshine. We ate and talked of many things, including Canada, which as you know is my spiritual home.

Later in the Regent Hotel my friends there gave me a beautiful card with some very touching words and a bottle of my favorite tipple-brandy, and very special stuff it was too.

2014 beckons and there are many things to look forward to. Top priority is getting my second little memoir into the light. I thank the Lord for all he has brought and ask him for the strength to continue.

May you all be truly blessed at this holy and special season.
Shalom from Gila