Korazym, February22nd, 2021
Dear brothers and sisters,
We write to you to make you participants of what the Lord is working amongst and give glory to him who “precedes us in Galilee”, as he guides us in our mission. Truly the Lenten period that is about to begin, is an extraordinary time: it is when we, the people of God, may be more closely united to the Lord, as we contemplate the mystery of his passion and resurrection. In this way, we may become opened to our brothers and sisters, leaving the lockdown of our “I” in a divine exodus towards the “You” of God and the other.
What we are about to begin is a path through the desert, a silent and solitary place in which we are put to the test to know what we have in our hearts, as well as the soundness of our faith and the authenticity of our charity towards the brothers that the Lord has placed alongside us. In this path through which we try to increase the time dedicated to prayer, we have you particularly at heart as we entrust the Lord to keep you.
We know that the ware living through difficult moments caused by the coronavirus pandemic that still conditions when it doesn’t contort the lives of so many brothers and sisters of ours throughout the world. We pray for you all so that this time may be, even amid struggles and trials, the desert in which the Lord manifests himself; the place in which the Word wants to meet us: “Behold, I (…) will take her to the desert and speak to her heart (…). There, she will answer, like in the days of her youth” (Hos 2,16-17).
In these days, the seminarians are taking the winter session exams, before they begin the second semester courses that will see them busy until the end of the academic year. We are therefore thankful to the Lord who has allowed us to always guarantee that classes are given. Even though some courses are done through remote learning, we have never been forced to interrupt our course of studies. Surprisingly enough, we have even welcomed in these days two new seminarians: Antonio, an Arab Israeli, and Simon, a Colombian. It is a great honor and a reason for hope for the Church to set her eyes on the “sight” of these young men whom, because of a special gift of grace, risk everything and abandon their own lives to into the hands of the Lord, certain as they are, that true joy is found in answering his calling. He, that is, who is faithful and always brings to completion what he promises. We have attached a picture of our seminarians that we took during a Scrutatio of the Word that we did at the new land for the Seminary, located next to the property belonging to the Sanctuary of the Beatitudes.
We have also the joy of announcing to you that this coming March 18th, at the Solemn vigil of Saint Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church and seminaries, and feast day of our Seminary, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Msgr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa will ordain a deacon formed by us, who comes from El Salvador: Samuel Francisco Tobar Maida, who will be the first deacon ordained in the Holy Land after the pandemic. Asking for your prayers in his coming ministry, he has wished to write to you the following lines, so you can get to know him better:
“My name is Samuel Francisco Tobar Maida, I’m thirty years old and I am from El Salvador. My parents, before they returned to the church, were about to get divorced. In that time, they already had seven children, two of which had passed away due to miscarriage complications. Thanks to the Neocatechumenal way, they returned to the church and were opened again to life, having five more children. Thanks to God, I am the eleventh.
Thanks to this story, I was born and raised in a Christian environment, which has preserved and protected me from many difficulties present to the youth of my generation. Already during adolescence, with the troubles and sufferings that characterize that age, I had a profound encounter with Jesus Christ, most of all through the forgiveness of sins which I have experienced through the sacraments and the preaching of the church in a Neocatechumenal community, which did not get scandalized of my reality and did not judge me.
While I was studying architecture at university, I realized that my life project made no sense, I was short-sighted and selfish. I dreamt of getting married, becoming rich and living in a mountain where no one could trouble my life. This would produce in me a profound dissatisfaction, which would make me ask myself to where am I leading my existence. In that time, my mom started becoming very ill. It was a difficult time for me, full of uncertainty and fear, but at the same time I felt that my life had to go in a different direction.
When I was five years old, I had already felt – for the first time – my calling to the priesthood, but with the passing of time I would forget about it and would think that that life wasn’t for me, maybe because of my fear of living alone. In a convivence (a spiritual retreat), finding myself in this great existential crossroad which I’ve described, I asked the Lord that, if he was truly calling me, may he call me by my name and in that way, I would know if he was calling me and not someone else. So, I told him that if He would respond to my request, I would be willing to leave everything and enter the Seminary. That very day, without me knowing, the first reading of the liturgy (second week of Ordinary Time, Year B) was the calling of Samuel (1 Sam 3,3b-10.19).
I can only thank the Lord for this calling and for all these years in the Seminary in which I have always felt happy, living moments of both crisis and joy.
A particularly decisive moment for me was the death of my mother, through which the Lord conceded me to experiment both her death as much as her resurrection. He granted me to live for a time in the Seminary of El Salvador and subsequently, by grace of God, I have completed my studies at the Seminary of Galilee, learning Hebrew and Arabic. Today, after all these years in the Seminary, I can say that I owe my life to the church and to her I wish to give it back.”
On Ash Wednesday, the Lord has wished to grant us, here in the holy land, the sign of snow as a sign for us all at the beginning of this time of Lent: «Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow» (Is 1,18). Here is a picture of the holy sepulcher with snow, which has made us think of the words in the gospel: «For an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled away the stone and sat on it. His face was like lighting, his robe white as snow» (Mt 28,3).
The Lord has said «Look, I am doing something new, I am making a road in the desert» (Is 43,19). May He grant you all a Holy Lent, rich with fruits of conversion. We accompany you with our prayers and ask the Lord that he may grant the prayers that come from our hearts, and may He reward you for the good you do for us.
We wish you a Holy Lent and ask you to pray for us!
The formators of the seminary,
To sustain the Seminary:
Bank: Bank Leumi – Tiberias; Branch: 10-970;
Account n.: 0034088/59
Account Name: Neocatechumenal Way – “Seminary Redemptoris Mater”
Swift Code: LUMIILITTLV; IBAN: IL020109700000003408839
Address: Ha-abanim St.1 – 14201 TIBERIAS.
Cause: Voluntary Donation
