Exhaustion and relief

My dear Friends
The concert is over and I feel a sense of exhaustion and relief. Also of happiness, because I feel I did a good job. I had a final rehearsal in the beautiful hall last Thursday, with my friend who is a professional pianist of some standing, so gave me the best advice. We decided that I should sing 'off the floor' which means me, a chair, footstool and the guitar! And that way I am close to the audience.

They took a little winning over, which was a bit strange, as I knew many of them, but I had them singing by the second song, which was Blowin in the wind-there was no excuse as I had provided the words. They loved 'Killin me softly' and I enjoyd it too, because finally having mastered the chord sequence I felt light with it and that's really its style.
The Hebrew music and special Sabbath melodies went down very well and an Israeli couple in the audience beamed at me and sang along ! Summertime, which I had never performed in public before was appreciated too. Throughout, I spoke of Risa Domb, my former Modern Hebrew teacher who died not long ago and to whom the concert was dedicated. How fearless she was and how she had told me to continue regardless of opposition.

James, my friend and former lecturer in Accadian Studies, had requested an encore in the afternoon, and so I finished with 'Eli, Eli,' a very moving song I sang on my visit to Auschwitz. Written by Hannah Senesh as she was walking by the Mediterranean, she perished at the hands of the Nazis when her parachute came down over enemy lines.She had returned to her native Hungary to play a part in the war.

And so I leave you with the words:
'Eli, eli, shelo yigamer leolam,
Hachol vehayam, rishrush shel hamayim.
Verak hashamayim tefilat ha-adam.'

My God, my God, who is unending,
The sand and the sea, the rustling of the waters,
And only the skies are the prayer of Man.

Every blessing and much Shalom
Sister Gila

I'm bound for the mountains and the sea

My dear Friends

I am exhausted! I have had 2 full rehearsals already for this concert, singing for 3 hours in the Hope Residential and Nursing Home. But they loved it and gave me some good advice. Then I sang to 3 close friends in the Graduate Union, a wonderful place I have just discovered where I feel safe and happy. My Russian Jewish friend rightly advised me that it was taking a risk to sing Jacques Brel in French so I have dropped it-but it was worth learning. In its place will be Erev shel Shoshanim, a love song, sang and danced to just pre-state of Israel, when things were a lot more carefree and innocent than they are now. The concert is dedicated to Risa Domb, and this is when she grew up. I like the thought of Risa as a girl, dancing with her hair blowing in the wind.

Speaking of which, that's the second song, and I am going to get them all singing, with sheets of words to help. At last I have the help from students in Wolfson that I need, so its looking good.

Yesterday I hired a car and cruised down to Walsingham, pilgrimage site of hundreds of years. Didn't get there until three, as I stopped a lot on the way. Finally fell in at the little house of The Little Sisters of Jesus, who have been such an inspiration to The Little Sisters of Joy. Took a walk in the evening with Sister Claire, the sky was blue, there was a moon, and galaxies of stars. I think its the first time that I have driven alone through the Suffolk countryside, at night in a fast car, with the moon at first facing me, then moving to my right and allowing for those galaxies of stars to guide me. Heavenly and more...
Love and Shalom for now
Sister Gila

Journey in the desert

My dear Friends

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, which, I discovered, means Spring. I awoke this morning and cried for an hour over something that happened yesterday and, as a result, felt cleansed and refreshed. A good way to start the day.

Lent is the pilgrimage of the Church and also a personal pilgrimage through the desert-spiritual in our case in the West, but very real for the Children of Israel who spent 40 years wandering in order to find the Promised Land. The 'Promised Land' of the Church is Easter and the mystery of Christ's victory over death.

Jesus of Nazareth made his own pilgrimage into the Judean desert before starting his earthly ministry. You can see the Judean desert from the top of Masadah, a fortress in Israel/Palestine which was at one time inhabited by the Jewish zealots, who had gone there to flee from the Romans, and eventually made a suicide pact in which nearly all of them died.I often wondered how they got up there with the old and lame, and concluded it was on eagles' wings.

Every desert has its oases, every human heart has respite from its trial, tribulations and temptations. I will try to chart my journey in this country and Canada as I go through my own desert experience.

Shalom from
Sister Gila

Concert in a Chinese Garden

The latest Concert for Peace and Reconciliation will take place on Saturday, February 16th at 8pm The venue will be the Lee Hall, Wolfson College. With my guitar I will sing Hebrew music, Jacques Brel, Gershwin and other various pieces.The concert is in memory of the late Dr Risa Domb, lecturer in Modern Hebrew at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Cambridge. She was also the Founder-Director of the Centre for Modern Hebrew Studies at the University, and she was made a life Fellow of Girton College, which was quite an honour. She was my friend and advisor, when The Little Sisters of Joy was just beginning-there will be hostility, she said, but you have to go on with it. And so I did. And so I try to do.

This time round (the previous ones have been in Clare, Pembroke and Robinson College Chapels, by kind permission of the various Denas) I decided on a change of venue. So I found Wolfson College, and, as you meander down Selwyn Gardens to the back entrance(parking is on the Barton Road side) you stumble across a very beautiful concert hall. The hall is simple but the surroundings are quite stunning. On either side there is a Chinese/English garden.

It would be lovely if it were summer and I could sing outside in the garden, but I have already begun to be affected by the location. I have made some new Chinese friends, who told me it would be difficult to find a Chinese costume my size, because they are all so small! And because the concert is in the evening (2 hours after the going out of the Sabbath) the audience won't be able to see the beauty around them. But hopefully they will feel the vibes.

Yes, I am nervous, but thankfully the adrenalin which started to flow last week has abated a bit. I am ahead in my arrangements, and have arranged several run throughs of my programme to friends. I have a month in Toronto to look forward to in March as a reward.

I only have one photo of Risa Domb-from the Jewish Chronicle in black white - and still she looks vibrant. I 'had a few words with her' this morning and promised her I would do a good job...

Come to the concert if you can, I promise you too a good night
Love and Shalom
Sister Gila xx

Portugese snow

My dear Friends

I am sitting in the local library and the young man next to me has just said that there might be 'nas'-he was Portugese and with the help of my French, I intuited that this meant snow. The Blog has acquired a Portugese feel in that 2 young men, Portugese speakers, have commented and given me their Blog address-thank you, guys!

2 nights ago, rather tired and on the bus coming home, I met a charming young Portugese woman. We had a deep conversation, mainly in the cold when we got off the bus, but it relates to an important dimension of The Little Sisters of Joy. Hospitality is everything, it goes right back to Abraham and the angels. He was standing outside his tent one day, when 3 men came along, with the message that his barren and aged wife Sarah would bear a son. Sarah laughed and so the child was called Isaac, from the Hebrew root to laugh.

In the heat of the day, Abraham gave these men hospitality. Something to eat. Convivium, congeniality. My new Portugese friend can't understand why people in this country and in many Western countries, don't enjoy their food or talk to each other slowly and lovingly while they are eating. In a Jewish family like mine, we did enjoy each other's company when we were eating, especially on the Sabbath. And we always blessed the food, no matter how little, and sang the grace after meals,

'Those who are sowing in tears, will reap with shouts of JOY!'(Psalm 126)

On 15th August 1999, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, I wrote the beginnings of a Rule of Life for my future Sisters. Hospitality was very prominent, and this was welcomed by the powers that be in Toronto-and Canadians are naturally hospitable people. I made the point in the Rule of Life (a dcument putting down how we live together, when we pray, eat etc and our 'charism' - really a gift of the Holy Spirit and the defining ethos of the community, in our case JOY. )

My Jewish aunt, disabled and poor, would always welcome strangers at her table-we can always put a little more water in the soup, she would say!

Auntie Belle is long gone, but certainly not forgotten.

I wish you JOY, in your Friendships, in your sitting down together, in your eating and your sharing.

Shabbat Shalom from
Sister Gila