Missed yesterday's posting so here is a two-fer. We sadly left lovely Galilee. Such a peaceful and beautiful place. The water and mountains in always make for very nice real estate -- Galilee brings to mind Palestine's equivalent of Scotland.
Jesus could not have been too happy when he had to leave blessed Galilee -- where he was the local hero, for intrigue filled Jerusalem. It was also a very long walk -- that modern prophet Google says about 68 miles. Jesus sure did a lot of walking and we are covering this trip in a comfy bus which is still tiring.
We left Galilee and drove south to Mount Tabor, the site of the Transfiguration. It's a pretty good sized mountain and again, no small feat to hike up it -- we went by local taxi which provided a NASCAR like experience with narrow hairpin turns. Two monasteries up top, one Greek and the other run by the blessedly hospitable Franciscans, who play the dominant role in maintaining Holy Land sites -- though the Orthodox are always right alongside and often closed except by special arrangement Spoke to a Franciscan Brother from Quito Ecuador -- serendipitously named "Angelo" -- who let on that his group has no contact whatsoever with the Greeks. This is sadly a pattern that repeats itself -- turf wars over the Holy sites -- there have even been Monk brawls in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and a Moslem family is entrusted with the keys.
We had a Mass on the Mountaintop (in a small Chapel in the Church) and then drove down for a long trip along the fortified Jordan River Valley to Jericho, a West Bank Palestinian town that proudly advertises itself as "The Oldest City on Earth".
After lunch, walking the 2500 year old ruins, and some mandated shopping (tour guides steer us to Christian shopkeepers and evidently get a cut), we returned to Jerusalem Sunday night. We had a lecture by the Anglican Priest in charge of the Arab Christian Community who provided a nuanced and moderate view of the current political situation. Suffice it to say that Christians in the Middle East are fairly down on the Israeli leadership and are pro Palestinian.
Monday morning mass at St. Anne's, a French Monastic order built on the site of the pools of Bethesda (!) where Jesus healed the crippled man (John 5:1: "Will thou be made whole?"). Not another person there for this early morning experience and then a Mass in the Church, in French led by a Haitian Priest, with two other European Priests, six Haitian seminarians and five European Nuns. French harder to follow than German but the Eucharistic portion was translatable.
Morning excursion to the top of Mount of Olives where Jesus came down from on a donkey on Palm Sunday and entered Jerusalem. We walked down the small mountain/large hill with a lot of other pilgrims with Jerusalem's walls ahead of us. We tarried a nice while at Gethsemane, a garden with the oldest olive trees in Palestine and a lovely Church built on the site where Judas betrayed Jesus and Jesus was arrested.
Walked back thru the Old City to St. George's College. Afternoon activity was a trip to Yad Vashem (from Isaiah -- a "memorial and a name"), the Holocaust Memorial. Powerful history very thoroughly documented. Large group of Germans (they are ominpresent in the Holy Land) -- who appeared sullen and contrite.
Back to the Old City for some more walking -- Greek Catholic sites, Coptic sites (built by Constantine's wife Helena, 4th century), Russian Orthodox sites with much homage to dead Tsars who where patrons of the Russian Church and grabbed a prime spot next to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Saw Russian Nuns for the first time -- dressed like Florence Nightingale and not at all flirty.
Tomorrow early for Mass at Church of Holy Sepulcher and to the Upper Room, site of the Last Supper and Pentecost.
Feeling blessed,
Dan
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