Word

Report · De Drie Stromen (De Graankorrel) · Sint-Urbanuskerk Duivendrecht · 5 October 2025

ANNUAL ACCOUNTS 2024: stepping stone to the next challenge

In June 2025, our treasurer Jan Mentink once again submitted the 2024 Annual Accounts of the Martelaren to the Diocese. Do you remember? Jan Mentink is the treasurer of all the parishes in our Cooperative Partnership,…

Tim Stok (budgethouder)

Reflection · De Drie Stromen (De Graankorrel) · Sint-Urbanuskerk Duivendrecht · 5 October 2025

Pastoraal woord

Beste parochianen, Zoals u al weet, hebben wij op 14 september onze Startzondag gevierd. Het was een mooi begin van een nieuw seizoen. In de afgelopen zomerperiode ben ik vooral bezig geweest met de voorbereiding van…

Pater Yan Asa, SVD · Only in dutch

Reflection · De Drie Stromen (De Graankorrel) · Sint-Urbanuskerk Duivendrecht · 5 October 2025

Central church

Let me begin by expressly stating that this is a personal reflection on my part. That gives me the freedom for the following considerations. First of all, it has been clear for many years that "something" must happen. I…

Tim Stok

Reflection · De Drie Stromen (De Graankorrel) · Sint-Urbanuskerk Duivendrecht · 5 October 2025

News from the location board

This is the first piece I write in Hofnieuws on behalf of the location board (LB). As you have already been able to read in the newsletter, Arthur Anderegg has stepped down as chairman and member of the Location Board.…

Caspar van der Leeuw

Reflection · De Drie Stromen (De Graankorrel) · Sint-Urbanuskerk Duivendrecht · 4 August 2025

Zomerbericht uit de parochie – Tijd voor rust, warmte en hoop.

De zomer is volop aanwezig. De zon schijnt gul, soms vergezeld van een korte bui die de aarde verfrist. Het is een mooie, warme tijd — letterlijk én figuurlijk — waarin velen van ons even ademhalen, op reis gaan, thuis…

Pater Yan Asa, SVD · Only in dutch

Reflection · De Drie Stromen (De Graankorrel) · Sint-Urbanuskerk Duivendrecht · 4 August 2025

From fratelli tutti

On Sunday, 13 July, I had the privilege of leading a Liturgy of the Word and Communion service in our church. My reflection was on the well-known text of the Good Samaritan. A few days later I attended the well-attended…

Frans Woortmeijer

Reflection · De Drie Stromen (De Graankorrel) · Sint-Urbanuskerk Duivendrecht · 4 August 2025

From the chairman

We are still in the middle of summer as I write this piece from our holiday address in France. We spent the first week in the Italian Alps and, as always in France, it is a special experience to visit centuries-old…

Arthur Anderegg

Reflection · Begijnhofkapel · June 2025

Katholieke kerk en slavernij: de pausen

Enkele Kapelkranten geleden schreef ik dat ik me wat meer wil verdiepen in de katholieke kerk en slavernij. En vorige keer dat ik het deze keer over de pausen wil hebben. Laat ik het zo zeggen: het onderwerp kerk en…

José Huijberts · Only in dutch

Reflection · Begijnhofkapel · March 2025

All Christians celebrate Easter together this year

This year all Christian communities everywhere in the world celebrate Easter on the same day, on 20 April. This happens only once every so many years. Yet it is the wish of many Christians, as a further sign of our…

Johan Smit

Report · Begijnhofkapel · June 2025

Looking Back on Holy Week

We celebrated the celebration of Maundy Thursday in the Begijnhof Chapel together with the French Community. There were about ninety participants in the celebration. Father Valentin sma was there on behalf of the French…

Pieter van Wijlick sss

Reflection · Begijnhofkapel · March 2025

Easter and Hope

Pope Francis begins his book Hope with the description of migrants departing by steamship from Italy to Argentina. His own parents did the same on 1 February 1929. The ship, which departed a good while before them and…

Pieter van Wijlick sss

Reflection · Begijnhofkapel · March 2025

The Catholic Church and slavery: the Bible

When slavery is spoken of today, it is usually about that of the sixteenth century and later, when Europeans travelled all over the world and kept and traded in slaves on a large scale. Terrible amounts of money were…

José Huijberts

Report · Begijnhofkapel · June 2025

Eucharistic Miracles

As your own roaring reporter, I visited the travelling exhibition on Eucharistic miracles, which among other places stopped at the Church of Our Lady on the Keizersgracht. Eucharistic miracles are inexplicable events…

Brigitte Kristel

Report · Begijnhofkapel · June 2025

Palm Sunday 2025

Sunday 13 April 2025 was Palm Sunday. As every year, the usual ceremonies took place again this year. After the procession out of the chapel, the palm branches were blessed by Father Pieter outside at the Houten Huys.…

Jan Spruit · Palmpasen

Report · Begijnhofkapel · June 2025

Installation as lector and acolyte

In 2021 the pope made official installations as lector and acolyte possible for women. In connection with this, a number of our lectors followed a course at the De Tiltenberg training centre in Vogelenzang in order to…

Jan Spruit

Reflection · Begijnhofkapel · March 2025

Through the Year with the Saints: John Augustus Tolton

This time my attention was drawn to Augustus Tolton. A Black American who, born enslaved, became the first Black priest in America. And thereby played a pioneering role. And who knows, may one day become a saint in the…

Erica Eitjes

Reflection · Begijnhofkapel · June 2025

Pope Francis (1936-2025)

This morning, Monday 21 April, Easter Monday, we were having coffee after the celebration when a Protestant friend called me in tears to say that the Pope had died. Many loved him. As I heard someone say on CNN this…

Johan Smit

Report · Begijnhofkapel · December 2024

Through the Year with the Saints: Teresa Benedicta of the Cross / Edith Stein

This time, the life of a holy woman of the 20th century, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. And I think you say, 'Who?' I think her secular name is better known: Edith Stein. Born in Breslau on 12 October 1891, died in…

Erica Eitjes

Report · Begijnhofkapel · December 2024

Jubilee of Msgr. Van Burgsteden

On Friday 15 March 2024 it was exactly 60 years ago that Msgr. Van Burgsteden was ordained a priest. Bishop of Haarlem-Amsterdam, Msgr. Jan Hendriks, and the bishop emeritus, Msgr. Jozef Punt, also have a jubilee to…

Report · Begijnhofkapel · December 2024

International meeting for peace

In Paris, from 22 to 24 September, the 36th meeting for peace was held, at which the representatives of the world religions, religious movements, cultural life and science, and of course also the numerous participants,…

Ben van Oortmerssen, deelnemer

Reflection · Begijnhofkapel · December 2024

When Does the Day Begin?

An old rabbi once asked his disciples: ‘How can you determine the moment when the night comes to an end and the day begins?’ ‘Is it the moment when you can distinguish a dog from a sheep from a distance?’, one asked.…

Reflection · Begijnhofkapel · December 2024

Advent / Christmas 2024

Writing an article about something that has already been written about a great deal is not such a simple matter. This time I had to think of a text that is used at Christmas (Luke 2:14-15): 'Glory to God in the highest…

Pieter van Wijlick sss

Reflection · Begijnhofkapel · December 2024

Catholic Church and Slavery: Suriname

In the previous Kapelkrant I wrote that I wanted to explore the Catholic Church and slavery in more depth. That is of course a very large subject, so from time to time I will do a piece on it. This time about the…

José Huijberts

Report · Begijnhofkapel · December 2024

Pilgrimage to Heiloo

It was a sun-drenched Sunday morning when we arrived at the presbytery of St. Joseph's Church to set out together for the shrine of Our Lady in Need in Heiloo. The way there was already special, as if we were being…

Glenda Williams

Reflection · Begijnhofkapel · December 2024

News from Rome

At the beginning of September, Pope Francis undertook his most distant and longest journey to date: to Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Singapore. A special fact within it was the opening, carried out together with Grand Imam…

Johan Smit

Reflection · Begijnhofkapel · December 2024

Book: Medieval monasteries of Amsterdam

In September a beautiful book appeared about the medieval monasteries of Amsterdam. In the late Middle Ages Amsterdam counted 21 monasteries. During the Reformation, in the second half of the sixteenth century, all the…

Reflection · Begijnhofkapel · December 2024

Vows

On Saturday 12 October last I made my solemn profession in Nijmegen, and was thus incorporated into the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament. In a full church I was permitted to pronounce the evangelical vows of…

Jim Schilder sss

Homily · Krijtberg · 1 October 2023

Conversion and life

There was a time when everything seemed to be going in the right direction. But it appears that this faith in progress has since given way to doom-mongering. All kinds of facts seem to prove the doom-mongers right:…

Peter van Dael SJ · Zesentwintigste zondag door het jaar

Homily · Krijtberg · 15 January 2023

Tweede zondag door het jaar. Gregory Brenninkmeijer SJ

Er woedt een oorlog, beste mensen, een oorlog tussen Rusland en Oekraine. Het is verschrikkelijk. Zoveel verwoeste levens, zoveel families uiteengescheurd. Verwoeste steden en dorpen. Dat is kwaad. We zien het, we…

Gregory Brenninkmeijer SJ · Tweede zondag door het jaar · Only in dutch

Homily · Krijtberg · 11 December 2022

Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect another?

The doubt of John about Jesus From of old this day is called Gaudete Sunday, because the introitus or opening text of the liturgy begins with Gaudete, rejoice. We are halfway; the third candle of the Advent wreath has…

Peter van Dael SJ · Derde zondag van de advent

Homily · Krijtberg · 14 August 2022

Sermon 14 Aug 2022 (C 20) Fire on earth, division, PRIDE

(1) Is Jesus merely a bringer of peace? As in the Beatitudes? He is certainly not saccharine and does not tell people what they want to hear. He is not for peace at any price – and as he says today: he even brings…

Jan Stuyt SJ

Homily · Krijtberg · 12 June 2022

Drie godsnamen

God heeft vele namen. Binnen de islam worden er zelfs 99 gebruikt: Meest Barmhartige, Meest Genadevolle, enzovoort. Ook in de Bijbel heeft God vele namen, want één naam is niet genoeg om Hem aan te duiden. In de…

Peter van Dael SJ · Feest van de Heilige Drie-eenheid C · Only in dutch

Homily · Krijtberg · 13 March 2022

Second Sunday of Lent, Year C

Brothers and sisters, sometimes it can happen that for a brief moment we obtain certainty about something important. I had that, for example, some twenty-four years ago, when I was considering whether I should become a…

Ward Biemans SJ · 2e zondag Veertigdagentijd, jr. C

Homily · Krijtberg · 13 February 2022

Sunday, 13 February 2022

The prophet Jeremiah, dearest friends, lived about 600 years before the evangelist Luke. During the reign of the last kings of Judah, Jeremiah set before them, in unmistakable words, the truth that the wellbeing of…

Gregory Brenninkmeijer SJ · Zondag, 13 februari 2022

Homily · Krijtberg · 10 October 2021

on Mark 10:17–27

Do you have a good friend, dear people? And then I am not talking about someone with whom you have a pleasant beer and exchange the latest news. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, but now I am speaking of a…

Gregory Brenninkmeijer SJ

Homily · Krijtberg · 15 August 2021

Assumption of Mary

Brothers and sisters, in life we are inevitably confronted with good and evil powers. The first reading from the Apocalypse, about the Woman who bears a Child that is threatened by a Dragon, is a clear allusion to this.…

Ward Biemans SJ · Maria Tenhemelopneming

Homily · Krijtberg · 13 May 2021

Ascension - Ben Frie SJ - Basilica of St. Nicholas Amsterdam

One verse from our readings is dear to me: 'After His death He showed them with many proofs that He was alive.' It is the intense experience of the sorely tested disciples that Jesus was still with them. What those many…

Ben Frie SJ · Hemelvaart

Homily · Krijtberg · 11 April 2021

The new fire of easter

Today is the second Sunday of Easter, also called Low Sunday. The gospel describes two appearances of the risen Christ to his disciples. The first appearance took place on the evening of the first day of the week, that…

tweede zondag van Pasen

Reflection · Kapel van de Vrouwe van alle Volkeren · 30 December 2020

Explanation and pastoral word on the Declaration concerning the Lady of All Nations

Devotion to Mary as the Lady and Mother of All Nations is good and valuable, but must remain separated from the messages and apparitions. These have not been recognised by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.…

Homily · Krijtberg · 12 August 2020

Walking on water

The roaring of the waves The Bible is a book about God and people. It is not a theological manual, but to a great extent a book of stories. That also applies to today's gospel. It is a story in images, a narrative in…

Peter van Dael SJ · 19de zondag door het jaar

Reflection · Polska Parafia · 29 April 2020

Drodzy Parafianie!

Czas Pandemii zmienił kalendarz 2020/2021 wielu ludziom. Choroba ogarnęła prawie cały świat. Nikt z nas wcześniej nie wyobrażał sobie np. Świąt wielkanocnych bez święconki, bez mszy św. czy Wielki Piątek bez pochylenia…

· Only in other

Report · Begijnhofkapel · September 2019

Organ Recital by Mark de Vries

On Sunday afternoon, 26 May, Mark de Vries played the organ in our chapel. This performance was given on the occasion of his 40th anniversary as a church organist. Among the visitors was a sizeable group of people who…

Report · Begijnhofkapel · September 2019

New associates

The family of Father Eymard has expanded once again. Among the Sacramentines in Amsterdam there are five new associates: Diana Janssen, Marianne Kalsbeek, José Thoomes and Rudolf and Lucia Westerlink. A warm welcome!

Reflection · Begijnhofkapel · September 2019

What is Focolare?

That question came to my mind while reading the book Jan van Burgsteden, bishop for the people, which was published this spring. The book is a 'life interview' with the ever-sympathetic monsignor, skilfully conducted by…

Nico Koomen

Reflection · Kapel van de Vrouwe van alle Volkeren · 27 May 2017

1917–2017: The dark century and the new springtime of the Church

[this apparition has ecclesiastical recognition from the local bishop] During a night in 1579, mother Mariana de Jesús Torres, a Franciscan nun, prayed on the ground before the tabernacle in the church of her Franciscan…

Reflection · Gerardus Majellakerk · March 2011

The almost square cloth with mountains in the distance

The almost square cloth with mountains in the distance and emptiness in the foreground seeks to evoke rest and silence, fitting the 40 days season and recalling Jesus’ time in the desert. The liveliness comes from the…