Joyous Christmas and peaceful New Year

My dear Friends

Advent comes to a close and Christmas approaches. The waiting is ended and the birth of Our Lord is near.It is a time of great JOY. But the birth of Jesus is not confined to December 25th; it can happen any time, any place, anywhere.

Incarnation of the Holy in our lives is a very precious thing.New birth is astounding. How often have we experienced cycles of Death and Resurrection in our own lives and it applies to all human beings, including those who claim to have no faith.

The Little Sisters of Joy as a Foundation for Prayer, Peace and Reconciliation was conceived in prayer in Provence exactly fourteen years ago. Over the years it has evolved and changed. One of the most important things to happen was the creation of an Association of Friends, now about 650 in 23 countries.

What gives me the most pleasure is that these Friends are from all religions and cultures and are simply united in their desire for peace. While the birth of The Little Sisters of Joy springs from the very heart of the Church, it is international-it welcomes everyone. And indeed the word 'catholic' means universal.

I wish you all a fruitful, happy Christmas and a peaceful new year.

With love and shalom
Gila

My birthday

My dear Friends

Today is the eve of my 61st birthday.I always like birthdays with a one in them, as you feel you are starting something new.It has been a glorious year, with none of the dark shadows that plagued me towards the end of the year before. Hard to believe on the one hand that i have reached this great age; on the other hand I have, by the grace of God had an interesting and full life, so in one way I feel the time has gone quite slowly.

I am lucky to be surrounded by good friends; Ania, Marisa, Jenny, Francoise, to name but a few. And of cours my dear 90 plus year old who is still going strong and takes me out to dinner in the University Centre from time to time. We are able to express things to each other(we have been friends for over 25 years) at quite a deep level and on many subjects-he is an academic of the very best kind. And religious, so we have that in common as well.

When I was approaching 50, I knew an old lady who had turned blind-she said that was the best thing that ever happened to her, because it brought her in touch with so many new people. She was becoming 90, so I asked her how I should live my life from 50 on. She paused for a moment and then said: 'Just as you have always done.'

And so I have. I am looking forward this year to visiting Toronto again, after a five years absence. My only real desire is to go to New York and see the Metropolitan Opera, but I have Renee Fleming on CD and that is the next best thing.

Here's to you, all my dear Friends
Love and shalom
Gila

Coming home

My dear Friends

Glasgow was emotional and a little intense, so it was good to come home. I was sitting at my desk, writing, and suddenly I took the pencil and drew a line across the page. A line under what was now the past. I am looking to the future and my trip in june to Toronto.

I am glad it is Advent-a time to reflect and take stock. A time for watching and waiting, waiting for the Lord. The last few days have been homebound and quiet, while the world rushes around me. And of course it is cold, very cold for Cambridge. A time to pray.

This season, like Lent, is penitential, at least in the sense of gentle self examination. It is full of expectation, you can feel it in the air. The birth of Jesus is a momentous thing in anybody's life, whether they realise it or not.The Readings at Mass and in the prayer book are often taken from the Book of Isaiah, which make the most prophetic statements about the coming of the Messiah.'The maiden will give birth to a child, and His name will be Emanuel, which means God with us.'

A time to sing. A time to praise.

Hallejuah
Gila

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

I belong to Glasgow

My dear Friends

Thirty years ago I would have been singing the following: I belong to Glasgow, dear old Glasgow town, there's nothing the matter with Glasgow, for it's going round and round!' Except of course it would have been in a Glasgow accent!

The reason for all this preamble is that I am going to Glasgow for a week in mid November, dreich and all as that will be weatherwise. I left Glasgow thirty years ago to come to Cambridge. I had all my formative years there, from an eleven year old child, through my wild (and it was wild) youth, out the other end, taking singing lessons and coming to Cambridge, where I have been ever since, give or take a yearning or two to go to Toronto or Jerusalem.

But Scotland, and especially Glasgow, forms part of my inner landscape. My mother was born there, my maternal grandfather founded the oldest Synagogue there and I went to school there. I love my life in Cambridge, I am able to feel really free here, but I will never forget those years when a close friend and I walked for fifteen years in the Highland landscape, with those amazing remote deer forests.

Did you know that Glasgow used to have trams? I am sure that I travelled on the last one through Sauchiehall Street when I was about twelve. I am really going to see my relatives, mainly cousins, to whom I am very close. One of them became a Christian before me and she prayed my way into the Church. The other one is the matriarch of a great tribe and many of those children I have never seen.

But I have good friends too -I have known Kelda, musician and artist for thirty five years and we have much in common. So lots to look forward to. More next time-have you ever been to Glasgow?

Shalom from Gila

On the mountain

My dear Friends
Today in the Church is the Feast of the Transfiguration, which has a special meaning for me and the work I am trying to do. It is reported in the Gospels that Jesus took some of the disciples up a high mountain, now commonly thought of as Mount Tabor, in the north of Galilee. Also on the mountain appeared Moses and Elijah,representing the law and the Prophets.. Suddenly the garments of Jesus shone with a brilliant light and he was transfigured before them, in a representation of His future glory. Suddenly a cloud enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud:'This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!' When the disciples looked round, they could see no-one but Jesus.


In 1989 I went to Israel, for the first time in twenty-one years, and three months after I became a Christian and was received into the Church.I was staying in a friend's flat in Jerusalem and was aware that it was this Feast. I prayed, and was shown that this Mystery of the Transfiguration was about Jewish-Christian reconciliation.My own Judaism and Christianity were like two perfect halves of an orange, which could be joined together in the perfect whole.


On one wall in the flat was an excerpt from a famous Robert Frost poem and the lines read:'Two paths converged in a wood.I have taken the path less travelled, and that has made all the difference.'


Today, 23 years later, I can say that the path has not been easy. but that it has been very rewarding, and that I wouldn't change it for any other.


Every blessing
Gila

Olympics

My dear Friends


I feel sure that all of you will be following the opening of the Olympic games this coming Friday. There is always intense competition and excitement, especially when someone from your own country wins a gold medal.


As a practising Christian, I have another take on it.My goal is to win eternal life and in order to pursue my goal I have to be in training like any athlete. I have to be strong and courageous, ready to take on any trials that God puts my way, and never to look behind but always to strain ahead for the prize-Jesus Christ. St Paul puts it much better:


''Do you not realise that, though all the runners in the stadium take part in the race, only one of them gets the prize? Run like that-to win. Every athlete concentrates completely on training, and this is to win a wreath that will wither, whereas ours will never wither.'(1 Corinthians 9:24-25)


So you see that the stakes are high but the journey, or race, is exciting. A bit like the tour de France, there are companions along the way. But if we look back, the penalties are great and we may not make the Kingdom.We can't let the past fetter us, although it is very tempting.


Cheer me on!
Shalom from Gila

Newsletter number 17 Summer 2012

My dear Friends

The Jewish people prays for rain at this time of year (as of old in Palestine) and it seems that their prayers have been answered! Rain can be both a sigh of blessing and a time of grace and since celebrating my 60th birthday last December I seem to have taken on a new lease of life.

The Concert for Peace and Reconciliation I gave in Wolfson College last February was the first evening recital I had done for a while.  The hall, bounded on one side by an English garden and on the other by a Chinese one, is a beautiful place in which to sing. The audience numbered about thirty and were from various backgrounds.

I was a little nervous at the start, but soon the audience was joining in with me in the songs of the 60's and 70's. When I stopped playing and let them sing unaccompanied, their voices rose up like a force for healing in a broken and troubled world. The Hebrew music was well received-I sang a selection of pieces from the Eve to the Close of the Sabbath with melodies that I learned in my childhood.

The simplest songs also struck home, like Plaisir d'Amour and John Riley;my own favourite was All my Trials, a traditional folk song made famous by Joan Baez. I quote:

'If living were a thing that money could buy, then the rich would live and the poor would die.'

April saw my return to Amsterdam after a long absence. Chava and Liesbeth are two of my closest friends. They were in their 20's when I met them on a summer programme at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1989. Now they are married with several children, some of whom I was meeting for the first time. I stayed in a little hostel right in the centre and enjoyed walking along the canals, looking at the buildings, tall and thin, which are such a hallmark of this beautiful city.

Amsterdam was where Etty Hillesum lived. Etty was a vibrant young Jewish woman, older than Anne Frank. She was a great teacher, reader and linguist and, above all, a writer of diaries.  She perished in the Holocaust also, but in her diaries talks about the time leading to her last days as a time of enormous internal and spiritual growth.

She stresses the need not to hate, but, rather as a mystic abandonning herself to the Divine Will, finds an inner meaning to those terrible dark days.

Was the Holocaust simply a tragic waste of human life, or should we see it as a universal act of salvation for the whole of humankind?

In Peace and Friendship
Have a wonderful summer
Your sister Gila

Bat mitzvah

My dear Friends

Last Saturday (Shabbat) some friends and i had a beautiful and moving experience. We went to Beth Shalom, the Reform Synagogue in Cambridge, to hear a young girl coming of age in the community-this is called in Hebrew a Bat Mitzvah, literally a 'Daughter of the commandment.' (Perhaps you have heard of a Bar Mizvah).

During the course of the joyful service, which consisted of various prayers, songs and hymns, Sofia explained the verses that she was to chant from the Torah. These included the special Aaronic Blessing, and verses about sacrifices and the use of vessels in the Tabernacle. Not an easy choice, but the parasha, or series of verses, was alloted around Sofia's birthday.

She chanted beautifully and confidently and in the Sephardic Jewish mode, that is how the Jews of Spain, Portugal and Morocco chant. (It was quite different to my own debut at a much later age in the Ashkenazi, or Russian and Polish Jewish mode.)

As we listened, it was as if we went back thousands of years in Jewish history, right back to the Children of israel in the desert. Sofia's voice, my friend said, stretched right up to the Creator Himself.

I leave you with the Aaronic Blessing:

My the Lord bless you and keep you
May The Lord shine His face upon you and give you favour
May The Lord lift up His face to you and grant you Peace.

Shalom from Gila

Between Ascension and Pentecost

My dear Friends
We are in a season full of grace.The Church has celebrated several weeks of Eastertide, following on from the Resurrection.It is written in the New Testament that Jesus appeared to His disciples in Galilee many times after the Resurrection and prepared them for the time when He would ascend to the Father and send down the Holy Spirit as a Comforter and guide for their lives, in speech and action


'All that has life has breath.' Filled with the Spirit, in which we 'live and move and have our being', we can do anything that God wants us to do. We can pray, we can love, which is our greatest commandment, we can dance and sing and we can especially heal the sick and give light to the blind.


Henri Bergson, was a French philosopher in the 1930's and 1940's (he was a relative of mine on my grandmother's side.)He wrote about the 'elan vitale', the life force, which in religious terms is the Holy Spirit. Bergson spans the bridge between Judaism and Catholicism. They say, with his writings on Time, that he influenced Proust and his 'A la Recherche du temps perdue', In pursuit of Lost Time, which is written in the genre of the stream of consciouusness.(cf James Joyce and his novel 'Ulysses')


'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was null and void and the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep.'
Let us meditate on these great mysteries as we approach the great Feast of Pentecost this Sunday.


Shalom from
Gila

Amsterdam again

My dear friends

I wanted to share with you an experience I had in the Jewish Museum and some reflections on it. Lies and I went together. We had both seen Jewish artefacts, Torah scrolls, Menorahs etc., so we concentrated on a stunning art exhibition by two Jewish artists in the 1920's and 30's. Their names are Else Berg and Samuel Schwartz, known as 'Moomie.' Else painted figures, including a self portrait, while Moomie painted landscape and stil life. They went to many countries to paint and the pictures are ravishing, full of bright colours. Lies's favourite painting by Moomie was of a monastery somewhere in Italy, high up on a hill, the aspect of which fascinated the artist apparently.

They were associated with a Dutch school of painting and gathered somewhere with their friends outside Amsterdam. When the Nazis came they were hidden,presumably by their non-Jewish friends but for reasons which were 'unclear' (according to the information in the Jewish Musuem) they returned to Amsterdam in the early 1940's, were immediately rounded up with many other Jews and sent to Westerbork, where they were deported to Auschwitz and immediately sent to the gas chambers.Most ot the paintings were hidden, others confiscated by the Nazis and returned after the war.

Sometime I will tell you about Etty Hillesum, a twenty seven year old Dutch woman who was a mystic and felt that what was happening to the Jews was a part of history.She had a sense of their collective destiny-was this perhaps the reason that Else Berg and Moomie returned to Amsterdam? I know that this may sound controversial, but if you take it in the context of Death and Resurrection this may give us some meaning.  It says in John's Gospel that 'the darkness can never overpower, or even comprehend the Light.'

Hannah Senesh, a young Hungarian woman who flew a plane over Germany and was captured by the Nazis, said that'The souls of those who have gone before us light up the way for the rest of mankind.'

Shalom from
Gila

Paintings in Amsterdam

My dear Friends

The Rijksmuseum is in the middle of being renovated but you can see most of the best paintings, especially 'The Night Watch.' This painting by Rembrandt is full of burnished reds and golds. When it was originally hung, it was on a very long wall, which gave it much more depth-today it was in a small room, but the colours still stood out.

Virtually next to it are the Vermeers, which of course are much more homely. Vermeer's colours are also bold, and he adds yellows and blues, which are intimate and attractive. I bought a card for a friend with his painting of 'The girl with the pearl earring' (which has been made into a film). but I couldn't see it actually in the gallery. Despite the smallness of the current space in the gallery, you could still appreciate the stunning beauty of the paintings.

Dazzled by all this, Liesbeth and i decided to treat ourselves and go to the art nouveau cafe called the American. It was very near the museum and you have to dodge several fountains in front of the building. We sat in the corner on two armchairs and enjoyed a nice lunch with a glass of wine. At the next table ws a very nice retired Swedish couple-they had heard me telling the waiter that my family was Scottish, Swedish, Russian and Polish. and, of course Jewish.My Swedish grandmother came from Karlstadt, in the middle of the country and on the lake. this nice couple came from near Malmo, where my mother used to go for holidays and which is across the 'Sound' from Copenhagen.

I have to admit that i feel rather tired after all the walking and sightseeing-I leave tomorrow-but it has been a wonderful opportunity to catch up with Chava and Liesbeth, and meet all their children at last.

I am left with one impression which I want to share with you, but tomorrow is my last day and I will wait until returning to england. In the short term, I look forward to the final breakfast and one more conversation with the nice man from Vancouver (originally turkish) who I met a couple of days ago in the hostel dining room.

A bit too early to give you the following greeting, but here goes-

Wel te Ruste-Sleep well.

Shalom from Gila

News from amsterdam

My dear Friends

What a fascinating trip it has been so far! I am staying in the German Seaman's Mission, which used to be a hostel for sailors and is now for everyone. I have not seen a sailor so far, but Stefan, the guy on reception, goes out to the big boats and takes the sailors the things that they need.

The little breakast room faces a lovely canal, lit up at night, which houses some quite big barges. I think people live on them, but, like the sailors, i have not seen anyone. but it is the greatest pleasure to walk alongside the canals and gaze into the water-it gives a feeling of peace.

I am living very near Rembrandt square and there is a fine statue of him in the middle. tomorrow my friend lies and i will go to the museum with his paintings, but yesterday I saw the outside of the house where he spent most of his life. and presumably did his paintings. Not sure about that, because the paintings are enormous and would have never fitted in the narrow Dautch houses.

Speaking of which, I took an hour long boat trip on the water yesterday.I say 'water' because although most of the journey was along the canals, we did go as far as the beginning of the North Sea, where the water is wide and there are some big boats-very exciting!

On the tour we had the history of amsterdam, cruised along the different neighbourhoods and saw some very elegant houses, as well seeing some buskers with guitars taking a rest on a bench by the canal. they have put up smass railings to prevent cars faling into the water, but at least one car a week still tips into the canal!

Catch you again soon

Shalom from Gila

Run up to Amsterdam

My dear Friends
This will be the last blog before my trip to Amsterdam-I leave on Saturday. Chava and Liesbeth have made a detailed plan for me, apparently,with one or two gaps when i will be on my own. I have very little sense of direction, (once being lost in the middle of Tel Aviv for about three hours), but they have assured me they will acquaint me with the trams, as they know i don't enjoy walking too far either!

But isn't any holiday an adventure? You never quite know what will happen, but i am in good hands.I long to go to the Ryksmuseum and see the Rembrandts-I remember the first time I was gasping at the size of them, and oh, the colours, those deep reds and burnished golds of 'The Night Watch.' I have never been to the Van Gogh museum, but was very struck by the Jewish Museum. From the window you see a canal, and just behind a canal an old building, which turned out to be the Old Synagogue, where Chava got married.

Anyway, I will be in touch again in about two weeks, when we will be really into Eastertide. Between Easter sunday, Ascension and Pentecost we have seven weeks, when Jesus appeared to His disciples in Galilee. In parallel, the Jewish people celebrate passover and then 7 weeks until Shavuot, the giving of the Torah on Mount sinai.

Be well and joyful
Shalom from Gila

Chava and Liesbeth (contd.)

My dear Friends
Some of my more conservative friends in the Church were a bit concerned that I was having my first real Christmas in Amsterdam,but Chava and Lies took me a very traditional Jesuit Church, complete with choir and orchestra! Afterwards I prayed in the Lady Chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and I felt her hands on my shoulders.

When we were all in Israel, I had got to know a Calvinist Christian man and his family who asked me get in touch with him in Holland. I stayed in his house by the sea outside Amsterdam, just for one night, but it was enough to learn of his important work among the prostitutes, who were mainly from Catholic countries. He and his team brought them healing and shared the Gospel with them. His family were delightful and after dinner I took a walk near the sea front with his wife. The sky was full of stars and I was able to share at a very deep level with her. Their daughter was engaged to a man who was not from the same sect, and the next morning the daughter confided to me that she was looking for a church to marry them-she was even interested in the Catholic church!

Some time later, I visited them in their office in Amsterdam. I had a few hours to spare, so I went into a cafe in the city. The waiter brought me a menu-25 types of cannabis! But I only want a coffee, I said. that's okay, madam, he replied, we do that too!

More later
Shalom from
Sister Gila

Chava and Liesbeth

My dear Friends

The last few weeks have been hectic, what with the concert and all. Shortly, after Easter, I will be taking a little break in one of my favourite cities in the world-Amsterdam.

Let's go back to 1989, three months after I became a Christian and my sixth trip to Israel. I had enrolled on an international summer programme in Jerusalem, on Mount Scopus, in the Hebrew University. The summer programme was to learn Modern Hebrew and it was for all levels, from beginners to advanced students.

In my first week I met Chava, a Jewish Dutch girl in my class. I thought she was a fine person, and she introduced me to her friend, Liesbeth, a Christian also from Amsterdam, where I had never been before. They were in their 20's and single-now they are in their 40's and married with children!

The encounter between us was very moving ( a sign of grace as Liesbeth said) and the bond between the three of us has grown steadily over the years. I visited Amsterdam later that year, in fact had my first Christmas there since I entered the Church at Easter 1989.

More later

Shalom from

Sister Gila

Lent 2012

My dear Friends
My concert took place on Shrove tuesday(see previous entry.) I took this as quite auspicious, because, as i am sure you know, Shrove tuesday preceeds Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of Lent.

Lent is the Old word for Spring and, despite the winds of the last day, there has been the hint of a change of season. So it is with Lent-we change gear, go on an internal journey and head for the Promised land. This mirrors to an extent the journey of the children of Israel in the desert, where there were many tests and trials but also some oases, and a tremendous outpouring of grace, especially when the Torah was given to them on Mount Sinai.

Moses came face to face with God in the burning bush and we must open ourselves up in the same way at this special time of the year.Like Abraham and his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, we must be prepared to yield to the Divine Will and relinquish some part of ourselves in order to gain a fuller sense of our integrity. We must attempt to bring about the Kingdom of God, clothing the naked and feeding the hungry and pursuing a course of righteousness. There are many injustices in the world and we must do what we can, in our lives and in our prayer, to combat them.

Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael and we must ask the Almighty to bring Peace and Reconcilation in the Middle East. May He give us the patience to wait for Him to bring this about in His own and good time.

I wish you a joyful Lent and a beautiful Spring
Your sister Gila

Concert for Peace and Reconciliation

My dear Friends
I am happy to tell you that I gave another Concert for Peace and Reconciliation last Tuesday evening. The venue was somewhere i had sung exactly three years ago-the Lee Hall in Wolfson College in Cambridge. It is a lovely hall, and during the day you can see how it bordered by an English garden on one side and a Chinese one on the other, to reflect its Chinese benefactor.

I sang my usual mix of traditional folk songs from America and Scotland-John Riley(about a girl being reunited with her long lost lover) and the Skye Boat Song, about the daring escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie on the island of Skye. What was so beautiful was that all the audience, about thirty of them, joined in the music. This has a special meaning, as the communal singing is like a prayer which in some mystical and mysterious way rises up and contributes to the healing of the world, or Tikkun Haolam, as the Rabbis called it.

I included in the first half a cycle of Sabbath songs, all traditional and which I remembered from my childhood. They sart with the song to the ministering angels that the mother sings as she lights the Sabbath candles, as a homage to the angels which accompany the father as he comes home from the Synagogue. They continue with the melody of repentance and the tree of life, as the Torah is returned to the ark in the Synagogue. Continuing with the Grace after meals sung by Russain and Polish Jews all over the world, I concluded with Elijah the prophet and the herald of the Messiah, a sparse and haunting tune fitting to the close of the Sabbath, marked by the appearance of three stars in the sky.

In the second half, I think the highlight was the beautiful anti-war song, Last night I had the strangest dream, written by Ed McCurdy, who preceeded Dylan and Baez and others as the father of modern folk.

There was a mixed audience of Jews and Christians and other friends, with possibly some Muslim students from the college. At the end my old friend Mrs G requested Hava nagila and so the concert finished on an upbeat note!

Shalom from Gila

Happy birthday

My dear Friends
We have just celebrated 13 years since the foundation of The little Sisters of Joy. The original concept was of a Catholic women's community of Prayer, Peace and Reconciliation. Also to be a community of praise. The name has stayed the same but, following on from the starting of an Association of Friends, in 2004 it evolved into an international foundation, with the same aims of Prayer, peace and Reconcilation.

The Friends comprise nearly 700 in 22 countries, including 3 Arab ones, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Pakistan. Most of the Associates live in the UK but the Newsletters, published twice a year, travel as far as Australia and South Africa.

Yesterday in the Regent family hotel in Cambridge we were only six but we celebrated in style with good food and conversation. 2 of our Jewish Associates were with us and we covered many things.In my Jewish primary school on this Feast i would bring in as many different kinds of fruits as possible.

One of my mentors, who died a few years ago, but feels still very much with us celebrated this Feast in his childhood, and wanted me to keep the anniversary on this date. His name was Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, and i had the privilege of meeting him in Paris in 1999, when he was the Archbishop. He was a Jewish Christian like me and gave me some good advice when the Project was just beginning.

I also owe a great debt to the late Risa Domb,my modern Hebrew teacher at university and who told me to never be afraid of confrontation to get to resolution. That there would be difficulties and hostility along the way but that it had to be done.

At the moment there is much JOY for which I am very grateful.

With all good wishes
Gila

Mazel tov

My dear Friends

I wish you a peaceful and happy New year, with lots of good things. There are two events to look forward to in the history of The Little Sisters of Joy early this year. The first, on february 5th,is a gathering to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the founding of the project. As you may remember, the founding took place in December 1998, in Provence, where i was staying with The Sisters of Pomeyrol, a small and lively Protestant group of nuns.

There, in the silence of the beautiful countryside, I felt God calling me to start a new religious community. Some years later I started an Association of Friends, and in 2004 it evolved into its present state as an international Foundation for Peace and Reconciliation. Now there are over 600 Friends in 22 countries, of all religions and cultures.

So, we will gather, about thirteen of us in the Regent hotel in Cambridge, a samll family hotel overlooking Parkers Piece, at one end of which is the large and imposing Catholic Church. Let us hope that we will be able to do this for many more years to come.

Then, on shrove tuesday 21st February, I will give another Concert for Peace and Reconciliation, singing my usual mix of Jewish music, songs of the 60's and traditional folk. Three years ago I gave a concert at this lovley venue, the Lee Hall in Wolfson College. During the day you c an see an english garden on one side of the hall and a Chinese one on the other. I am publicising the concert to a wide range of people and let us hope for a good turnout. It is sso special when the audience sings with me and our common prayer, I am sure, has a very healing effect.

More later

Shalom

Sister Gila