Observations from the White House

Washington DC Midnight and Cambridge, England 5am

My dear Friends

It was one of those rare and pleasant times when I spent the night at Benigna's, with whom I lived for 16 years. between and 2003. I did such a lot of stuff yesterday, that I fell onto the bed around 9.30 - I am still gaining energy after my breakdown.

Not having a telly at home, I was able to home into the White House, along with the rest of humanity. There's no doubt that Obana is good-looking. 'He doesn't look very black to me' said Benigna, in a completely non=racist remark, showing how observant she is (at nearly 91 she has a lot of wisdom)., and how the media are underplaying the fact that Obama is actually of mixed race.

Its not the colour I pick up on.Its the fact that, although in some way Obama is in line with his great ancestor Martin Luther King, he doens't quite have the grace and poetry of this great man. To me the key is poetry, I have a Dream etc, and even about Yitzchak Rabin there was a certain poetic strain. This is made poignant due to the fact that he moved from terrorist leader to peacemaker, before he was assassinated in 1995.

I would like to tell you more about this key event in Israel/Palestine as it has had such a bearing on wold events today, and I was in the country when he died.

So more later
Hope Obama and wife won't be too squeaky clean
Love and Shalom
Sister Gila
p.s. If you want a good night out in Cambridge, come and see and hear Suitcase Cabaret, performed by the band from Clare college and the actors from the ADC theatre. I am sittting with a few of the Clare students now. performed in a veriety of unusual venues, such as Jesus Chapel, Clare Cellars and the Jesus Shop.'

'Come and See'!!

Shabbat Shalom

My dear Friends
Sabbath has fallen again. None of us can rest easy in our beds, knowing that there is so much violence going on in what we know as the holy land. The situation, as ever, is complex, and it is very tempting to take sides, especially as the violence coming from the Israeli side seems to know no boundaries.

When my mother, God rest her beloved soul, was living in a Jewish care home in Golders Green in London, an Orthodox Jewish man came from Ireland to visit his mother, who, by chance, was sitting in the chair next to my mother's. We fell to talking: I never told him I was a Christian but did tell him what were my aims in life. Shalom and more Shalom.

I think, my dear, this man said to me, that if we were to describe ourselves politically, you would be on the left and i would be on the right. But I do admire you - you are sitting in the middle of the road with the cars coming at you from both directions.

Its very difficult to be objective, but as Christians that is what we are called to do. The only thing that keeps me going in all this is that my people, who are perpetrating such an injustice at the moment, seem to be hurting internally at the moment with a very deep wound. Holocaust or whatever, who knows. We all need the love of Christ, which John Paul II showed when he went to the Wailing Wall some years ago and drew such attention and admiration for his peacefulness.

I was staying in the Scottish Presbyterian hospice a little while later, when the manageresss came over to me. 'I never know anything good could come out of the Vatican, she said to me.. Neither did i ... I retorted... But when the Pope was here and spread the Peace of Jesus across this land..

We can pontificate and we can pray. We can march and hold up banners. We can stand alert and be ready to do our part.

Shabbat Shalom
from a land where for the moment there is Peace.
Sister Gila

Greenness

'Who would have thought that my shrivelled heart would have recovered greenness?

It had gone quite underground...llke a mother root full blown'

This is from one of George Herbert's famous poems, and one of my favourite of all time. Its amazing how the heart can regenerate, after lost love, illness and so on.

George Herbert was an Anglican in the 17th Century in England, not far from here in Little Gidding, under threat by the dreadful Civil War in England at the time, which crossed all sorts of religious divides. He was a supreme poet.

In the absence of emigrating, I am changing the title of the 2nd part of my memoirs from 'Point of Departure' to 'Making a Chiming of a Passing Bell', lines quotedl ater on in the same poem as above, and making the point that at any, what we perceive to be an 'ordinary' or 'dull' moment, we can make a a ravishing sense or eternity out of it, as long as we have a mystical eye for it and we don't miss opportunities.

My dear mother used to tell her life story at busstops in Glasgow, enlivening the day of many folk I am sure.

LIfe is plodding along nicely, I was home last night and to be sure again at the weekend. I hope to include one or two different photos on the Blog soon, as I am sure you will appreciate!

Peaceful Sabbath, shabbat shalom

reflections on the situation in Israel/Palestine next time

Sister Gila

Onward and upward

My dear Friends

You may have wondered why the Blog entries have been a little sparse over the last few weeks.The truth is that I have not been well, alternating between hospital (psychiatric) and home, so everything has been a muddle.

It is difficult to know causes, reasons, etc, only that when i returned from Canada I was very stressed, what with my cousin dying unexpectedly and having to fly across the country and back. Then having taken on all the tesponsibilities, communities and charities. but for which now i am grateful as all good things, especially the love of Friends in my life, are returning.

I have made a big decision, but a sensible one- I have decided not to emigrate. All I need in Canada will still be there, and as a religious friend said: It has been a brave adventure, in which nothing is lost. And I already plan a little holiday in May of June to see my friends in Toronto, especially the elderly Bishop, and my oldest friend in Canada, in Cambridge, Ontario, where i went in 1988.

The idea of community more locally is not lost either, but more of that at a later stage if I may.
In the meantime, I wish you all the good thigs I would wish myself in the new Year, strength, good health, love and music (not necessarily in that order!)

And always Shalom, more of that later especially in israel/palestine
Love from
Sister Gila

'The harvest of righteousness shall be sown i...
[Photo]
'The harvest of righteousness shall be sown in peace by those who make peace' (Letter of St James)
Friends of The Little Sisters of Joy

an ecumenical foundation of Prayer, Peace and Reconciliation

Newsletter no 10 New Year 2008
My dear Friends
I hope that your time between Christmas and New Year has been a peaceful and prayerful one.

It is a time of transition, the year 'turns' on New years Eve. The Church moves, between Christmas and New Year, rapdily through a series of dramatic events and Feasts, seemingly from long ago, but fresh in the eternity of the moment, until she reaches the New Year, a soleminty of Mary the Mother of God. It is important to remember that Our Blessed Mother guides each and every one of us, her arms held gently round our shoulders, in the right direction through the flow of our lives.

On the 26th December, which most of us know simply as Boxing Day, we have the Feast of St Stephen, the first Martyr in the Church's rich tradition of her Saints and Martyrs. Looking at the Book of Acts, we see the wonderful vision of Heaven, which St Stephen experienced. (He is also immortalised in the carol, rather poignant, of Good King Wenceslaus.) Close to this is the laying on of hands of the Seven, who are commissioned by God and the apostles, to carry out the mission of preaching the Gospel to the whole world.

'For out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'

These important words, at the very heart of the Jewish liturgy, are are embedded in the 2 eschatological texts, virtually identical, of Isaiah 2:1-4 and Micah 4:1-4.

With the current news from Israel/ Palestine seeming to draw us towards the latter days more and more,we would do well, with Mary, St Stephen, Isaiah and Micah, to ponder the Mystery of how God will bring about universal Peace, when swords will be turned into ploughshares and there will never be war again.

Always with hope for a good and joyful New Year

Love and Shalom

Sister Gila



Adam lay y-boundenBounden in a bond;Four thousand winterThought he not too long;And all was for an apple,An apple that he took,As clerkes finden writtenIn theire book.Ne had the apple taken been,The apple taken been,Ne hadde never our LadyA been heaven's queen.Blessed be the timeThat apple taken was!therefore we may singen'Deo Gracias!'My dear FriendsI awoke at 6am wondering where to find the inspiration for this Newsletter. Turning on the radio, I heard the above ancient anonymous carol being sung by the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir, conducted by John Rutter! It contains the whole theology of Christmas and the incarnation of Christ, through the Virgin Mary. It succintly links the Old and New Testaments, in stating that it was through Adam's choice of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and so contravening God's will, that Christ came to save us.From an historical point of view, clearly stated in the genealogy at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, the Messiah is rooted in his Jewish heritage, as is Joseph, his 'foster' father. The story of the birth of Christ is both particular and universal at the same time.It has to be from this standpoint that the business of Jewish-Christian reconciliation begins. for too long, the theology has tended to be black and white; in reality, and with the experience and hinsight of my own life, brought up as an Orthodax Jew and having been a Jewish Christian now for over 18 years, it is much more nuanced.With the great Feasts of Light of Chanukah, the Winter solstice and Christmas converging, we must ask ourselves what are the underlying human factors that we share, which can lead us to Peace. We are all on a journey of human time,

Newsletter of The Little Sisters of Joy to follow

A long wait but surely worth it! Watch this space over the next week!
Much love
Sister Gila

Travelling

My dear Friends

Just to say that a good pilgrim enjoys the travelling on the journey and hopes to arrive at his/her destination. With God at our side who could fail? Sometimes there are storms and sometimes there is calm and we have to weather everything.

Elijah the Prophet heard the still small voice of calm, while he was in the cave, and we pray that we can do the same. A restful peace out of the wind and storm.

Inshallah. God willing.

Love and peace and always joy
Sister Gila xxxxx