Jerusalem Day 26 (Friday 27th)

Today is the anniversary of my parents wedding and so it has been a day of reflection for me.   It started early because one of my brothers managed to send at text acknowledging the fact that there is a 7 hour time difference between Jerusalem and Australia for a shared remembrance at 8pm Australian time (1pm here) but he sent the text at about 3am here so I was well aware of what was going on. As it happened the best I could do was to have an ice-coffee just before 1pm so I hope that was good enough.

As I mentioned yesterday we started with the Stations at 5.55am this morning in the Listostrophos - and we were all on time.  It was quite amazing walking the streets and stopping at the stations at a time when most shops were shut and not too many people were about. Over the weeks we have been here we have passed many groups walking the stations and almost all of them have caused all sorts of difficulties for everyone else as they clog the narrow alley ways.

After breakfast I headed back to my room for a short time and then headed off to walk to the Garden of Olives. As I was walking down towards the Lions Gate (the way out) there were Police and Army everywhere. After negotiating the exit point I headed up towards the Garden and managed to visit the Church whilst Mass was being celebrated.

 

An ancient Olive tree in the Garden.

From there I headed up the hill and came to the place of the Ascension. Elio Passeto had mentioned it on our 2nd day but I hadn't had a chance to visit it - it is a tiny place with almost nothing to tell people how important it is.

 The Building.

 The top of the hill of the Ascension.

From there I travelled back down the hill a wee way to vsiit the Pater Noster Church and found the English Translation amidst all the others that are placed on every wall and space in the area.

There is a photo of the Lord's Prayer supposed to go here but I can't get it in

Not sure what happened to the Our Father but it is big and that just the way it should be. As Pino shared with us in class the Lord's Prayer is central to Chapters 5-7 of the Gospel and all aspects of these three chapters can be found there.

Whilst I was there I met Jacinta (Forde from Ireland) and she said that she was going to Bethany - a walk of about 4 kilometres. So I decided that I would go with her and so we headed off down the hill and got as far as Bethfage where we found the little Church which we learnt is the starting point of the Palm Sunday Procession.

From there we were told that we would need to go back up the hill and then turn down the hill to get to the checkpoint which we walked through without anyone looking at anything at all. Immediately we got through the gate we were approached by a Taxi Driver who would get us to Lazarus' tomb for 10 shequels each and since we'd already walked some distance that seemed ok. 

The Church was beautiful and well appointed and from there we headed for Lazarus' tomb - unfortunately just as we were about to have a photo taken the lights went out and so the photo didn't work. The photo below is the mosaic on the wall of the Church and looks good.

The streets of Bethany are not as bad as we saw in Hebron last Saturday but there was almost no activity (then I realised that it was Friday and all the Muslim shopowners were at prayer). 

We travelled back on the bus and got to the checkpoint and I think I almost caused a stir as all the men got off and I sat there and the soldier checking the papers kept looking at me but when he'd checked our papers he got off the bus  and all seemed well.

When we got into the city we had to get out before the bus terminus because the soldiers had closed the roads because they thought there was going to be some problems. I haven't heard whether anything has happened but I'm sure we'll hear later on.

From there we headed round to the Centacle which was good because I didn't think that it was likely to be closed. Luckily I was able to get a photo taken without too many people crowding round.

 

From there we headed round to the Dormition Abbey and arrived whilst it was closed for prayer so that's when I had my drink for Dad & Mum's anniversary. After our ice coffee we visited the Church (I have a report on my visit to the abbey on Saturday 14th) and then we headed off down the hill to visit Oskar Schindler's grave - a remarkable man who saved the lives of many Jewish people during the Nazi reign of terror.  His grave (like so many we've seen) was covered with rocks to indicate that many people have visited the site.

From there we headed off to visit the Church of St Peter in Gallicantu - where Peter was when he denied Jesus 3 times. The Church is beautiful and there is more than enough there in the Church to keep anyone occupied for hours.

From there we walked back to Ecce Homo and although there were plenty of soldiers and police around we had no problem getting back into the Old City.

Before tea we joined the Community of Sion and the Chemin Neuf Community for their Friday night Peace Prayer time. It is almost time for the evening meal and then we're heading off to Salle de Sion for a party/concert/entertainment - so I'll add something about that tomorrow morning.