My religious journey (Part 1)

My dear Friends

I was born in London in 1951 into an Orthodox Jewish family. My father took me to the Synagogue at a very early age and I loved it. I also loved the Sabbath and the Festivals. I went to a Jewish primary school until at age 11 we moved to Glasgow. I went to Glasgow Universtity and stayed in a bed sit and one night had a dream about Christ. My friend took me to an evangelical Christian who almost converted me but I was rebelling against my family and it just wasn't the right moment.

In 1979 I had a massive nervous breakdown and when I was better I took singing lessons which brought me back to God. IN 1982 I moved to Cambridge to study music at the Technical College and at the same time returned to the Reform Jewish Synagogue, where I began to take servises and my faith deepened. I also married the pianist David Christophersen. In 1987 I wern to St Beuno's retreat Centre, North Wales, on a retreat of deepsilence. One day I rested above what I discovered to be the chapel and suddenly my heart leapt and I was flooded with joy.'Oh dear its Him again,' I said to my self and went to the prior to decide what to do.'This is a consloation and we leave it at that,' he said. But all the rest of the week I got to the heart of myself in prayer and discovered my true self.

Six months passed on my return to CAmbridge. I felt the need to go away again and was going to take a friend to Cromer but no-one could come with me. So I went alone. On my way home I was praying at the beach for my mother and suddenly St Beuno's was encapsulated in my mind and I was in that dimension that is pure God. Driving home I looked for a Church and found a little Saxon one on the right hand side. Going into the graveyard I knelt down and said 'Ok, I'll do anything you ask' and in the still small voice it was the Lord. IN that moment my life changed forever. All that week it was as if I was taken to heaven and back, different Catholic women popped in and out and I disovered they were Mother Julian of Norwich and Edith Stein who were helping me into this new life. Edith Stein was a GErma Jewess and philosopher who became a Carmelite nun and perished in the Holocaust.

In the middle of the wee I was at work and my colleague ased me if I had discovered the blue field of flowers behind the Institute.Going with her, Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem Heaven Haven flooded into my mind:

I have desir'd to go
where springs not fail
where flies no sharp and sided hail
and a few lilies blow.
And I have desir'd to be
where no storms come,
where the wind is in the havens dumb
and out of the swing of the sea.

And so I received a religious vocation.
(To be contd)

Shalom from
Sister Gila