The following is written by the Mother Superior of the Nuns currently stuck in Gaza, it was first published HERE on the Institute of the Incarnate Word website.
In our convents and parishes, we usually do what is known as “heroic nights” when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed on the altar and Jesus the Eucharist is worshiped during the night, praying for a special intention. It is well known, for example, on the night of Holy Thursday, in which Jesus is accompanied before the Tabernacles or Tabernacles of the churches, who that night suffered his agony in Gethsemane, until his death on the cross. It is a spiritual way of uniting ourselves with Our Lord in his painful Passion.
Well, the nights in the Holy Family Parish in Gaza can be called, with all reason, truly heroic nights. Long nights praying the Rosary under the sounds of missiles and bombings... uniting that prayer to the Cross of Christ.
"We want to stay here, together with the Christians of Gaza, they have nowhere else to go." That was the response, at the beginning of the war, of our sisters Pilar and Perpetuo Socorro, united not only by being twins, but by the same vocation and belonging to the same Religious Congregation. That was also the brave response of Father Iusuf, priest of our Religious Family present in Gaza.
No one could imagine, those first days, that the temporary place for some parishioners who asked for refuge would really become the new home for almost seven hundred Christian refugees who lost everything.
Nobody would have imagined that that painful and terrible October 7, where one thousand two hundred people died in Israel, would be repeated and prolonged for almost fifty more days in Gaza, under continuous bombardments, where fourteen thousand people have already lost their lives, leaving the rest of the two million three hundred thousand inhabitants without electricity, without water and without a safe place to live.
Since that first day of the war in Gaza, communications with our Sisters were also affected, which is why there is no greater joy in the group of superiors that make up our Province than to see a little message from Mother Pilar, which she usually sends every tomorrow or barely can: «We are all fine; "Although it was very hard, we spent the night."
Another night... Another heroic night that perhaps they spent in the church, arranging the elderly in the pews so that they would be more comfortable. Another night in which they renewed their initial delivery. Another heroic night they spent next to the Tabernacle begging Our Lord to cover them with His Heart as with a shield. One more night that they survived, that they were able to contain, serve and accompany the Orthodox and Catholic Christians refugees there.
This is how all the missionaries present there are living these days: the missionary sisters of Mother Teresa's Charity; the nuns of the Rosary of Jerusalem; we, Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, and Father Iusuf, members of the same Religious Family of the Incarnate Word.
They are like the lamp that shines constantly before the tabernacle of the Lord on the altar of Gaza.
Once, many years ago, when we were in Bethlehem under curfew, unable to leave our homes due to the armed clashes during the so-called Intifada , between Israel and Palestine, someone told me: – «To be locked up there, it would be better if "They would get out of the war and be calmer." I answered: -"I always rejected that as a temptation." Because it was precisely our silent and “apparently useless” presence that surely bore fruit… praying, offering ourselves for the long-awaited peace, so that God would protect the families entrusted to our prayers, with whom we were in continuous communication. In fact, our adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, which as a rule we do every day, often coincided with the time when the shooting and bombing increased. Praying in Italy or Argentina was not the same as praying in Bethlehem, sharing and suffering the same situation of those innocent people who only sought peace. But to see it you need faith.
My emotion as a Mother was very great when I confirmed that the generous dedication of our sisters in Gaza was accompanied by many similar ones from the rest of our religious in the Holy Land, who, faced with the option of remaining on a mission at war, with dangers of attacks and missile attacks that are also received nearby, they said: "I want to stay, for love of the Mission and to accompany our sisters in Gaza." It is that the charity of Christ unites with ties stronger than blood...
Faced with this attitude, someone may ask: What can lead a foreign nun who has the possibility of “saving herself” and being calm in another place, to prefer to stay on a difficult mission, under continuous bombardments, with the earth moving under the feet, breathing air contaminated by ashes from fires and weapons, etc.?
What can lead a nun to say YES, to an option that the Institute itself proposes to choose with complete freedom?
What pushes her not to put her family that demands her presence before this decision? What is it that leads her to forget about her own well-being and safety, to want to risk everything so that the people who came to care for her feel supported and accompanied by that "I want to stay with you"?
The answer is given by Our Lord at the Last Supper: «This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than that which he lays down his life for his friends »(Jn 15, 12-13).
In this way, by loving our neighbor and God, we can be light in the midst of the darkness that now covers the sky of Gaza, under the smoke of bombs, missiles and shots: "Let your light shine before men, so that they may see." your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Mt 5, 16).
May God grant that these heroic nights of our missionaries in Gaza contribute to peace and awaken in Western Christians a greater love for God.
Many ask how to help... Prayer is available to everyone, and, in these moments, fervent prayer for peace is urgent.
May the Blessed Virgin, Queen of Peace, give strength to our Christian community in Gaza so that it does not falter in its faith!
Mother Mary of Heaven, SSVM
Missionary in the Holy Land
