A blessed and happy Easter!

Wishing you all a blessed and happy Easter!
May the peace, joy and love of Our Risen Lord
fill our heart each day of our life!
And may like Mary Magdalene and the disciples of Jesus,
may we all become witnesses of His resurrection
by the way we live and spread His Good News to everyone ...

First Profession of Sr. Marie Elizabeth

On 12 April 2011, Sr. Marie Elizabeth of the Divine Mercy pronounced her First Profession of Vows in the hands of Mother Prioress during a simple yet beautiful ceremony within the Mass presided by our Carmelite confessor, Fr. Paul De Bois.

Sr. Paul Therese sang the favorite song of Sr. Elizabeth,
" I am the Vine", before the Gospel.

Here Sr. Elizabeth answered the questions by the presider
as representative of the Church

She prounounced her Vows in the hands of Rev. Mother Prioress,
Mother Lutgardis of Maria.

then she signed the document

before she prostrated on the ground while the community sang the Te Deum.

The bride received from the celebrant the profession cross

as well as a copy of our Rule and Constitutions

Then, the Sisters embraced her while she asked them to pray for her.

The bride was given first the Holy Communion

while Sr. Lutgart played the cithaar.

A souvenir pose with Fr. Paul after the ceremony.

At evening recreation,
the bride gave account of her guided retreat.

Sr. Elizabeth received gifts from the Sisters
foremost of which was a statue of the Divine Mercy, her mystery.

Spring in our garden

Now that it is spring, we can resume our gardening.

Sr. Aloysia teaching Sr. Paul Therese how to prune the millions flowers.

Sr. Elizabeth silently and seriously doing her work

The dry brown leaves have to be cut away
in order to give way to new leaves and flowers buds.

tilling the soil.

Our expert gardener, Sr. Aloysia, trying to get rid of "grasses among the grasses". Strange, no?
But it is true. We learned from our chief gardener that there are also grasses which grow among grasses and "they must be not be allowed to grow together", she said

Under the prune tree

How would you like gardening in a surrounding like this
while listening to the singing of the birds for joy and gratitude.
Is it because of the free" little apartments",
hanging on the walls, that Sr. Aloysia provided for them?
Guess not, but they sang the praises of God with us..

After working hard, Sr. Paul Therese can now take a rest
and enjoy the spring beauty.

And sing , "The Hills are alive!"

as well as admire the tulips

and can bring again Sr. Augustina around the garden.

Our 2 tortoises came up again after burying themselves
under the ground since autumn beneath this Magnolia tree.

Those are "narcissus" flowers
or we call it here "paasbloemen" (Easter flowers).

These are but few of the many variety of flowers in our garden,
each with its peculiar beauty.
How can we not praise and thank God, Who created them all so wonderfully!

Time to go back inside for it is still quite cold
for Sr. Augustina despite the sun.

Students from the Atheneum van Vilvoorde

On March 14, 8 high school students from the Atheneum van Vilvoorde with their religion teacher, Els, came to visit the "Troost" Carmel. They wanted to know more about our life. The dvd about the Troost was shown to the group, afterwhich they asked questions based on it and what they have read beforehand in our website. They sang songs at the beginning and end of their visit to the accompaniment of the guitar. They prayed and sang before the image of Our Lady of Consolation before finally having this souvenir pose.

The commuity with Godfried Cardinal Danneels

The whole community having a souvenir pose with His Eminence, Godfried Cardinaal Danneels, at the end of our very beautiful retreat. The Cardinal led us deeper into the mysteries of our faith by delving into the Life of Jesus, as recorded by the evangelist, St. Luke. His insights were very deep and high yet simple to understand. How he could easily relate a gospel episode with a text in the Old Testament and then relate it to the present situation in Belgium, was really remarkable! We could not hzlp but sing God's praises and mercy for the graces of the retreat and for sending us a holy guide, one who has followed the path trodden first by Our Lord and meant for all Christians.

A blessed and meaningful lent!

Jesus tells us in the Gospel read on Ash Wednesday (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18) to begin the lenten season:

" When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”

The prophet Joel advises us with the following words:

"Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment."- Joel 2:12-18

With Jesus, let us journey together into the "desert" of our heart...

Community Retreat

The Sisters request you to accompany us with your prayers during our community retreat, starting March 6-12. We have the privilege to have our retired Archbishop, Godfried Cardinal Danneels as retreat master this year. We also keep you in our prayer during these intense days of preparation for the Lenten season.