Summer Event

My dear Friends
I am delighted to tell you that there will be a Summer Event on Sunday 26th July 2009 in the Old Library, Darwin College, Cambridge, between 2 and 4 pm. Jonathan Gorsky, Lecturer in Judaism and Jewish-Christian Relations at Heythrop College, University of London, will give a talk on the following theme:

Jewish-Christian Reconciliation in the Post War Period

Jonathan is an expert on Jewish-Christian Relations and used to work for the Council of Christians and Jews in London.

The venue is lovely, we held our first talk there and I hope you will flock along!

Shabbat Shalom

Sister Gila

More about The Haven

My dear Friends
I thought I would like to tell you a little more about The Haven, where I live. And what I do there. Well, sometimes I receive people in need and hopefully they feel a warm and calm presence in the flat, not just me I assure you! And one of the things I enjoy doing most is inviting people for a Shabbat meal, the traditional Friday night supper of the Jewish people.

This goes right back into my Jewish childhhood, where I learned early on that the presence of God infuses all of our lives, including weekdays. But the Shabbat is indeed special. I usually invite Christians or people who have never experienced a Shabbat meal before and are interested in participating in this time-honoured ritual with the candles and the wine and the braided bread.Occasionally someone comes, (like my friend from the monastery I spoke about in a previous entry on the blog),who was brought up as a Jew and is familiar with the proceedings. But it is always a JOY.

As for the rest of the week, first thing in the morning I pray the Divine Office, a collection of the Psalms arranged daily by the Catholic Church. Sometimes I pray them in English and from time to times in Hebrew or French. Then, when I come home at the end of the day, I pray the Psalms from the Evening Prayer. This recitation consecrates my day, gives me a framework of prayer and 'binds' the two ends of the day.The great thing about the Divine Office is that all day, every day, the Psalms are being prayed all over the world in an unceasing rhythm of prayer and you feel united with the whole Church, unsleeping, East and West.

So-another little glimspse into my life at The Haven.
Shalom for now
Sister Gila

The Haven

My dear Friends
I would like to tell you a little more about The Haven, the flat in which I live and which is the headquarters of The Little Sisters of Joy. It is a ground floor flat with a garden, in which I planted a silver birch tree, when I moved in there five and a half years ago. You can see me in my little flat in the picture on the bottom of the Blog.

I live in what I guess you would call a working class neighbourhood, althoug there is quite a lot of mixed housing; anyhow the people don't have too many luxuries. There is a good community spirit, and we have shops and a local library, which sometimes saves the need to go into town. Which I like doing though and by bus it only takes around 20 minutes to the centre of Cambridge.

The flat can be hard to find-when they built them around 30 years ago thy devised all kinds of weird and wonderful paths and you can get lost (which is why mobile phones can be so handy!) Despite occasional neighbour problems in the past, I get a lot of peace and solitude and it is a good place to rest. And it is good to struggle with everyone else in the day to day problems, financial and otherwise.

I moved in on 8th August 2003, birthday of Our Lady and the beginning of the liturgical year in the Orthodox calendar, so very auspicious! Being ground floor, I can keep nocturnal habits and pace around or quietly write and not disturb anyone. The painting you see on the wall of my flat is a famous view in Ely, which is close to Cambridge and I have icons and many other little things. It is a nice environment to do Yoga!

So this has been a little taste of where I live.
Love and Shalom
Sister Gila

Ash Wednesday and Lent

My dear Friends
Today is the start of a 40 day journey with Christ, experiencing his pilgrimage on earth, His Death, Resurrection and new life with God in heaven. It is a journey through the desert, as it was for our Jewish ancestors, to the Promised Land. Our hearts and minds are especially attuned to loving others and the graces we may receive on our individual pilgrimage, which is also a pilgrimage with the whole Church round the world.

Today we receive the ashes, which remind us of our dying in and with Christ. Our humble mortal and earthly state in which, vulnerable as we are, we nevertheless can receive our divine life, whcih stretches into eternity.

The desert is never completely barren; there are always oases along the way, and the liturgical cycle of 40 days is interspersed with Feasts such as ST Joseph's day on the 19th March. It is a fallacy too that we give up things in Lent; we should be striving to love more and to listen to the Word of God as He speaks to us more profoundly in the still small voice, to which we must be attentive.

The culmination of Easter is ever before us as we journey along. This year I will again be conducting a Passover meal in my church for about 70 people, re-enacting the Exodus narrative of my childhood, which has so many parallels with the Resurrection. And of course which is valid in its own right as the remarkable story of a people, who seem to be going through another desert experience politically right now with the unfolding of the terrible events of Israel/Palestine.

Time to rethink and take stock of our lives! Lent is always a good opportunity. I wish you JOY.

Shalom from
Sister Gila

Glorious Suffolk

My dear Friends
It's not difficult to see why they call Suffolk 'Constable country', after the famous painter. The undulating countryside, the open views and, above all, the wide skies. And I followed my swan all the way to Clare Priory, where Barbara and I went on the second day. Sitting in lovely grounds, the Priory celebrated the 750th anniversary of its foundation not too long ago. Barbara and I were given a warm welcome, and then we meandered through the not too extensive but lovely ground where my former mentor, Fr Billy Baldwin, is buried.

We glanced into the Oratory in the house and then saw the church in the grounds, a place suitable for deep meditation. As are all the Churches in Suffolk, one favourite being Long Melford, which goes back pre-Reformation and which shows the traces in its Lady Chapel, a separate building which may be unique in the country for that fact. The atmosphere was deep and still.

Barbara and I attended morning Sevice in this lovely church and it was like going back in time. The Vicar, Ian, couldn't have been more welcoming and preached a beautiful sermon on the Gospel reading of the Transfiguration, whcih is usually contained in the Lenten calendar, soon to come upon us. The singing was lovely both by choir and congregation and I chatted to some people at the end, who seemd interested in my Project.

It was a time to go back in time: the previous day we visited the gorgeous village of Lavenham, where every building seems to lean and have wooden beams. Having tea in the Swan Hotel was a delight!A little hilly, we wandered round one or two antique shops; one seemed to go on for ever!

Perhaps the highlight of the trip was the Evensong in St Edmundsbury Cathedral on Sunday afternoon. The setting was perfect, the reading was the still small voice that Elijah heard (my favourite and one I really resonate with) and the choir sang beautifully, men and boys.

All in all, a trip to remember! Thank you, Barbara!
Shalom from
Sister Gila

The Plough

My dear Friends
I am coming to the end of a marvellous weekend in Suffolk with my dear friend Barbara. Last night in the depths of the countryside I looked up into a clear night sky filled with the plough and other stars. I have seen some really beautiful churches, quite ancient and this morning resonating to the sound of Sunday worship.
This is just a taster! More tomorrow!

Love and Shalom
Sister Gila

Post concert

My dear Friends
Well, in the end it was a great evening! We had a modest turnout, but the people got very involved. First to arrive were 2 women, who came because of a leaflet I gave out in the street-they turned out to be very musical and enjoyed the Jewish music, as did everyone!

Speaking of which, next to arrive were 2 Jewish women, who added their own songs in Hebrew and Yiddish, and who ended up teaching everyone the Horah! This is an Israeli circle dance, danced to the tune of Hava Nagila, so we pushed back the chairs and got on with it.

In between I sang many folk songs and popular numbers such as 'You've got a friend' and I got a lot of pleasure letting the audience sing the chorus on their own and a verse or two as well!

Liesel, my friend to whom I owe a big thank you for coming from London and supporting me and taking my stuff to the venue, comes from South Africa and requested 'Swing Low, sweet chariot' which I have just added to my repertoire and which I sang twice. But it was definitely the Jewish music which won the evening. I had to sing more when a friend called Jonathan arrived with six foreign language students from France, Switzerland, Japan and the Czech Republic - I sang the Lorelei in German but the students did not seem to know it!

Jonathan was moved by Psalm 23 in Hebrew. I learned the tune from a Japanese nun on the top of the Mount of Beatitudes; apparently it was composed by a survivor of the Shoah.

Anyhow I enjoyed the informality of it all (venue was similar to my wild youth) and it must have been successful because the Israeli manager has asked me to repeat it all sometime.

Ole! And Shalom
Sister Gila