The Holy Land, part 3

Well, as I mentioned at the end of my last post, on

Friday

we woke up very early and were out the door by about 6, I believe. Why so early? We went to a 6:45 am mass in the Holy Sepulchre, up on Calvary, in the chapel right next to the site of the crucifixion. Definitely worth getting up early for. It was a beautiful mass--in Latin, and mostly sung. I think knowing a little bit of Italian has helped my Latin skills, because I could actually get the gist of the readings (well...at least the Gospel, as always). Continuing on my theme on the Eucharist from the other day, during mass I was reflecting on how the Eucharist contains the entirety of the Passion. It's a sacrifice, the re-presentation of Christ giving up His life on the cross (about 20 feet away), but it's also the Resurrection. It's our glorious, risen, triumphant Lord! All of that...all of that in that humble piece of bread.

After mass, we were going to go down into the tomb (because we didn't have time on Monday), so we went and got in line. Almost immediately, though, someone came through saying it was closing for a few hours so they could clean the floor. So we ended up with some extra waiting time, which actually fit quite well into our mini celebration of the Triduum that day. Can't skip out on the vigil of Holy Saturday--we literally got to keep watch by the tomb. And I'm really glad we did, it was a very fruitful time of prayer. We prayed a rosary and a Divine Mercy Chaplet together. The Divine Mercy Chaplet was especially good. One time I heard someone describe the DMC as an opportunity for us to call down God's mercy into the world, to cover all our failings and shortcomings. That phrase has always stuck with me, and I was reminded of it again especially during this time. Calling down God's mercy--we were soaking in it, at its source. The blood and water flow from the cross to the rest of the world. It was another powerful experience of being aware of the presence of grace.

So I started out thinking mostly about the cross, and sacrifice, but then sometime during those few hours my focus started shifting more towards the Resurrection. I read the Scripture accounts of it, thought about the women coming to the tomb, thought about Peter and John's footrace (I love how John's subtle competitiveness comes out), and Easter songs even started running through my head.

When they opened the line back up, we were very near the front, so didn't have to wait long at all before we got to go into the actual little room with the rock slab (it was cool to think that that's where the Shroud was, too, since I got to see that last April). We could only stay there a few moments...but as it should be, right? The apostles didn't stay long either, before the angel told them to get out of there and spread the good news. And that is my commission also, especially now that I have seen with my own eyes the empty tomb. He is risen indeed! Alleluia.

After that, let's see...we ate lunch (pita, hummus, falafel, etc), and then went to the church of St. Anne, which also includes the birthplace of Mary. I of course prayed for you there, Mom!


A statue of St. Anne and Mary that was in the church

Right outside that church are the healing pools where people would come and get in the water when it swirled up and all that. AND, that church is the start of the Via Dolorosa, aka the way of the cross. So we walked and prayed the stations of the cross. Those are one of the things that are less-than-historical...there's no record of them until the Crusades, and the route has changed a few times since then. But it was good to have a place to be reminded of the events, and they did happen in Jerusalem.

After that, we had a little free time to walk around. A few of us climbed up a tower at a Lutheran church, for another sweet view of the city.


Here's where Jesus played basketball.


Oh, and here's the Holy Sepulchre--the largest dome is built over the tomb.

We then went to Vespers at an Armenian Orthodox church. St. James is buried in that church. (Most of him. The rest is in Spain, at Santiago de Compostela, where the Pope was over the weekend! His head is in one place and his body is in the other, but I can't remember which is which).


The church also has cool secret passages built in. I'm definitely putting those in any churches I might design in the future.

Anyway, that made me think that St. James, and all the other apostles and saints who are venerated by both the Catholics and the Orthodox, are the best ones to ask for prayers for unification of the Churches--I'm sure they want it. And they know real Truth, so they'll help lead us to it. (Similarly, whenever I see a Protestant Church dedicated to St. Paul or some other saint, I first wonder how they feel about it, and then know that they're praying for that church to come to a fuller Truth, and it's kind of nice to know it's under such good care...anyway). An Armenian Orthodox man met with us after Vespers and told us a little bit about how much the Armenian Church suffered during 20th century persecutions, and how the number of Christians in general in the Holy Land is dwindling. He said they have hope, though...hope that the West will not abandon them, that Europe and the U.S. will come to their aid. That was quite convicting. I don't know enough about foreign policy to know what all we're doing about those things, but I bet it's not enough in the eyes of the people over there.

After a rather sobering end to the afternoon, we headed back for our last evening at Tantur. They cooked a special meal for us, which was delicious--especially the apple pie. A nice American touch, to ease the transition back, maybe? :-)

Saturday

We got to sleep in a little on Saturday morning, and then headed back to Bethlehem for lunch in a nice family owned restaurant. Home made fresh pita bread=the best we had on the whole trip, I think. A young Palenstinian lady came to talk with us while we were eating. She told us a little more about the political situation, and how hard it is for Palestinians to get permits to come to Israel (she doesn't have one). Also, fun fact: her family owns and runs a brewery in Palestine that accounts for 20% of the national economy.

After lunch, we headed back to Jerusalem one last time, to the church of the Holy Sepulchre yet again. This time we were meeting with Fr. Fergus, a Franciscan who's basically in charge of the Catholic part of the Holy Sepulchre (different religions have "custody" of different parts. The Greek Orthodox have the tomb, for instance, which is why the mass we went to on Friday wasn't there). Fr. Fergus was awesome. He showed us around to some parts of the church we normally wouldn't be able to go to, like a place where some of the rock is exposed that's part of the same hill the tomb is carved out of, and we actually got to touch it! He also kept emphasizing again and again that "it's the Resurrection"--don't get caught up in the politics of everything, remember why we really came. The Resurrection, the most important event is human history, happened here. He also said that in a way it's good that things are so crowded and crazy, that fires and earthquakes have damaged the structure of the tomb so it's not very pretty (true), because we're not supposed to want to stay there. We're supposed to leave, to go out and bring this all home with us. It was a perfect thing to hear on our last afternoon.

And then we did head out...our flight was later that night from Tel-Aviv. We flew back through Atlanta and finally arrived back in South Bend at about 11 am on Sunday.

I'm so thankful that I got to go on this trip--it was incredible and so grace-filled, in ways that I'm still realizing. Baruch Hashem! (Hebrew for, Praise His Name)!

The Holy Land, part 2

Picking up where I left off from the last post...

Tuesday

On Tuesday we went back into Jerusalem. We went first to the Ecole Biblique, a Dominican run French school for Biblical studies. Pre-requisite: proficiency in French, Hebrew, and Greek, and they only give out doctorates. Looks like I have a little ways to go before that becomes a post-grad option...anyway, another really cool thing about the Ecole is that it's located at the place where St. Stephen was martyred. There's a really beautiful church there. We went there to meet Fr. Gregory, a Dominican, who then showed us around for the day.


Here's the exterior, and the courtyard where the stoning happened.


And a portion of the way awesome interior.

We walked from the Ecole to the Mount of Olives, and then up it, which was quite a hike! For orientation: the Temple Mount is between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. So from west to east, it goes: Jerusalem, Temple Mount, Kidron Valley, Mount of Olives, and then the town of Bethany is on the east side of the Mount of Olives (that's where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived, and where Jesus would stay when he came to Jerusalem for feasts and things. During those times he hiked regularly up and down the Mount of Olives. What a stud).

So anyway, there are quite a few things to see on the Mount of Olives. We started at the top, at the mosque of the Ascension. Yep, it's a mosque. But they very graciously let Christians celebrate mass there a few times a year.

Next we saw the site of the Pater Nostre, aka the Our Father. That's supposedly the place where Jesus gave the Our Father to his disciples. However, I was a little confused about that because I thought it was during, or right after, the Sermon on the Mount, which happened in Galilee. But anyway, the area was really cool. It was essentially a big courtyard surrounded by walls that had large tile plaques with the Our Father written in every language you could think of. There was also a small area to go down and see the rocks that were the actual spot where Jesus prayed the prayer.


Laura, Chris, and I all studied in Rome at the same time last year, so naturally we had to pose with the Italian version.

Continuing down the hill, we came next to the church of Dominus Flavit, which means, the Lord wept. When Jesus came to Jerusalem for His passion, He sent the disciples ahead while He stayed on the Mount of Olives. He looked out over Jerusalem and wept for it, for the sins of its people. The view from this spot does lend itself very well to contemplation of the city. It was quite moving for me to sit in that same place and also look out over Jerusalem. I found myself wondering what Jesus would think of it now. (Actually my immediate thought was, "he's still weeping", because of all the struggle and controversy and suffering). But there's something different about Jerusalem now than there was back then. The Dome of the Rock is the most noticeable feature of the skyline, and is a symbol of that tension and discord in the city. But at a closer look, tucked behind and almost hidden, the dome of the Holy Sepulchre is visible too, and that changes everything. It's the hidden hope of the city and of the world; a promise that weeping will not last forever. Like I said, it was really beautiful to look with the Lord for a few moments.


Here's the view that I saw...

The next stop was the garden of Gethsemane. There's a church built over the rock that Jesus prayed on. It was really powerful to be there also, just to be there and keep vigil with Him. Unfortunately we couldn't do that for very long, because the church closed for siesta (or riposta, or whatever the Hebrew word for it is...) shortly after we got there.

The last place we visited on the Mount of Olives was the tomb of Mary. What? Tomb of Mary? Wasn't she assumed? You might be thinking...and actually, it reminded me of the first day of my Mariology class sophomore year. My professor gave us a little quiz just to see what we already knew, and one of the questions was, where is the tomb of Mary located? I thought it was trick question:-) Anyway, in the course of that class I learned about the theory of the Dormition of Mary, that she chose to die because she wouldn't want to escape something that her son had gone through. That class pretty much convinced me of that theory, actually. (But the Church doesn't say for sure one way or the other). And while we were at the tomb, I think we were all subscribing to it.


This is the valley south of Jerusalem--the name translates to the Valley of the Cheesemakers. I thought that was hilarious, and if you've seen Life of Brian you'll know why. It gives a whole new meaning to it, in fact.

Anyway, after seeing all those things, we booked it through the city back to near the Holy Sepulchre, so that we could meet with the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Theophilus. Beforehand, we also talked to a Greek Orthodox archbishop. This is when we heard, as I mentioned at the beginning of the first post, that "this is the place" where God chose to reveal Himself in history. He also told us that a pilgrimage has two purposes: to increase knowledge and to increase sanctification. Pretty awesome. Our audience with the patriarch was quite interesting. Like Fr. Lazarus, he told us some things he thought were wrong with the Catholic Church. Some of what he had to say, though, showed a misunderstanding of what the Church really believes. That's kind of disheartening, to know that the leader of the Orthodox Church doesn't truly understand Catholicism--because then how can we ever have a reunion? But after he said all these things, he also gave us keychains and posters, so I guess it turned out alright:-)

We ate a very late lunch after that, and then...I think I mispoke in my last post. I described going to the Syrian Church with the Upper Room on Monday, but I think it actually happened on Tuesday...I think we went there after eating that late lunch. Everything that I said before still applies, so just copy-paste it in your head to right now...:-) And I apologize.

Anyway, after that it was back to Tantur to eat, discuss, pray, hang out, and sleep.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we headed up north to Galilee. On the way, we drove through Jericho and stopped in the Judean desert, which is the one that Jesus went into to pray for 40 days and 40 nights, and where the devil tempted Him.


Some of those heights might have been the ones where Jesus stood!

Also on the way, we went to the top of Mt. Tabor, which is where the Transfiguration happened. The church up there is Franciscan, so nice and Western-looking.


The late-afternoon lighting was gorgeous.

I think my favorite part of the church layout was that immediately off to either side when you walk in the door are 2 chapels, one dedicated to Elijah and one to Moses. A nice touch. I really like the Transfiguration. I often tend to focus on seeing the Lord in everyday life, and sanctifying the ordinary, etc, so it's good to be reminded of His outright majesty and glory. We usually see Him veiled and hidden, even in the Eucharist, but someday we will see Him face to face. And since it was up on a mountain, the view from near the church was pretty awesome. Also awesome was the fact that there was an Italian cafe up there, in the giftshop. It reminded me of the cafe on top of St. Peters:-) It was dusk by the time we were ready to come down the mountain (but come down we must--no tents for us), and we decided to walk the path down instead of waiting for the shuttle.

We then had a short bus ride to our hotel in Tiberius, which happened to overlook the Sea of Galilee. We ate dinner close to it, too, and then hopped a fence to go down and wade in it. There is so much holiness connected to that water, and I felt it all while we were there. That's the water that Peter fished in, Jesus walked on, the storms were calmed on, Peter recklessly jumped in, etc...SO many awesome stories. I loved it so much, in fact, that I woke up quite early on

Thursday

to watch the sun rise over the water.



It struck that that's the SAME SUN that Jesus saw rising over it also. The water's not exactly the same, different molecules and all that, but the sun is the exact same one. I then went back and hopped the fence again and went swimming. I didn't stay long, because we had the opportunity to go to mass that morning before breakfast. The place where we were staying was run by a French Catholic group, and there was a priest there. That was a great blessing. I find I really do miss daily mass when I can't go. So, mass, breakfast, and then we left for the sightseeing of the day.

We visited several churches in the morning--the Church of the Beatitudes, the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, and the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter (when post-Resurrection Jesus ate with the disciples by the sea and then commissioned Peter to "feed my sheep").


Looking out from where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.

My reflections at those churches, the last two in particular, centered mostly on the Eucharist. In the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes, it seemed perfect that there's a tabernacle there now--Jesus continues to provide for us, feeding us with Himself. And then at the Primacy of St. Peter Church, "feed my lambs" took on a Eucharistic meaning that I had never really thought about before (and I can't take total credit--it was pointed out to me by a friend). But anyway, I am one of those sheep that gets fed by Peter (and any priest), when they consecrate the Eucharist. I find that as my love for the Eucharist grows, my love and gratitude for the priesthood deepens also, and this experience inspired some of both.

From there we walked to Capernaum, which is not a functioning town anymore, but more of an archaelogical site. The remains of Peter's mother in law's house and the synagogue where Jesus occasionally preached (such as giving the Bread of Life discourse) are the main things to visit.


The dark stones on the bottom are from the synagogue of Jesus' time.

Next, we drove to Nazareth. On the way, we stopped to wade in the Jordan River. We read from the Bible about Jesus being baptized in the Jordan while we were standing in it--another experience of very tangible grace.



When we got to Nazareth, we ate lunch, then saw the Orthodox church of the Annunciation, and then the Catholic church of the Annunciation. The Orthodox church had a beautiful interior, with gorgeous icons and intricately carved wood detailing. The Catholic church had...interesting architecture. Not my favorite. But the importance of the event totally trumped how the church looked. Fiats and Angeluses (Angeli?) abounded:-) There was also a smaller church close by that commemorated the site of St. Joseph's workshop.

We finally headed back to Tantur for the usual evening routine, being sure to go to bed early, because we got up extremely early the next morning. But that is a story for the next installment...

The Holy Land, part I

Well, it's been awhile since I've blogged about anything...to quickly summarize what's been going on since then, summer was relaxing, and the new school year has been good too. There you go:-) Now on to the reason I'm writing--I have something a little more exciting to write about again! Over fall break, (the week before last), I went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with 9 of my classmates from my Theology class, plus my professor and his wife. It was an incredible trip on many different levels. It was just fun to travel again (I even broke out the ol' framed backpack), it was an opportunity to get to know some of my classmates better that I didn't know very well before, it put us in contact with the complex political situation over there, as well as the possibly even more complex dynamics between all the religious groups with a presence in the Holy Land, and finally (and most importantly), it was a pilgrimage to the important places in Jesus' life, to the places He actually lived (and moved and had his being). In fact, we realized afterwards that we visited 18 of the 20 sites of the mysteries of the rosary, and one that we missed doesn't count because the coronation of Mary happened in Heaven, and that unfortunately wasn't on the itinerary (unless you count mass).
The overall spiritual impact this trip had on me is probably best summed up by these words, which were told to us by one of the Greek orthodox archbishops in Jerusalem: "the Incarnation happened at a specific time and place. And this is the place." He also said that a pilgrimage has two main purposes--to grow in knowledge and sanctification. I hope I did both during the week.
We packed quite a lot into our short amount of time. I'll go through day by day and hope I can remember everything...

Friday
We left South Bend in the afternoon and took an overnight flight to Tel Aviv (through Atlanta). Having pulled an all-nighter the night before, I had no trouble sleeping through the entire thing. It was actually really enjoyable. With the time difference, we got to Israel in the evening on

Saturday
We were staying at a place called Tantur, which is an ecumenical institute owned by Notre Dame. We ate breakfast and dinner there every day. Dinner was in fact the first thing we did after we arrived, then had a short orientation and went to bed.

Sunday
Tantur is located about midway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, on the Israel side of the wall. On Sunday, we walked down the Bethlehem for the day (through the checkpoint). We started by going to mass at a Melkite Church. I really liked the church itself. For some reason when I think eastern Catholic I think of dark, uninviting spaces, but this church was light, open, and very welcoming.


The Church wasn't crooked, just my camera...

The whole service was sung. I was surprised at my inability to follow along. When I go to Roman rite masses, even if they're in a language I don't know I can at least tell what part of the mass we're on, but here I wasn't even sure about that. Anyway, after mass we ate lunch at the church, with another big tour group from France, and then headed off to the Church of the Nativity. That, of course, is the church built over the spot where the cave was that Jesus was born in. Once you go in the Church you can go down underneath to that cave, and venerate the stones where he was laid. The line was very long, so at first we were afraid we wouldn't make it in the time we had, but after convincing one of the guards to let us in a back way, we did. It's difficult to describe what it felt like to be in all those places (this being the first of many of the week), where you can say what you're doing and almost not believe yourself. It's surreal--but at the same time, very real--that's what's so awesome about it. Because of the crowds, once you get to the actual spot you can never stay there very long. There's only time for a few thoughts, a few prayers (and I kind of felt a certain pressure to make sure I made them good ones...but didn't always), but having the memory is huge. The experiences can be brought to mind and reflected on later, and in fact I will probably be doing that for the rest of my life. But anyway, back to the Church of the Nativity. I prayed especially for my family while I was there, because what better place than where the Holy Family started? We also started what became typical of the other sites we visited--reading the Bible stories that took place there while we were there. So awesome.


Here's the spot where Jesus was born, where Mary and Joseph were too, where the shepherds came, etc...

And believe it or not, that wasn't all we did on Sunday--we also took a taxi ride out into the desert, to a monastery called San Saba (or Marsaba). It's a Greek Orthodox monastery, the only one left functioning out of the hundreds that used to be in that desert. One of the monks happens to be from California, and he is kind enough to come talk to English speaking groups that visit. Hearing what he had to say was really interesting. He explained some about the Greek Orthodox Church, and the things they emphasize (communion with God through the heart, not the head, for instance) and also...told us some things they think are wrong about the Catholic Church. I knew they think we split off and all, but hearing it was still kind of surprising and strange.


There it is...blending in with the desert

After that, we made it back to Tantur in time for dinner, and then had our nightly discussion/debriefing of the day. Those were a good chance to discuss lingering questions or just things that had been brought to mind over the course of the day. It was always good to hear what had affected everyone else, and share some experiences with each other.

Monday (only Monday? I've already written so much!)
On Monday we went into Jerusalem for the first time (by bus, not walking). We went first to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.


The exterior is not particularly impressive, but...

There are several ridiculously important things to see in there--Calvary, so the site of the nailing to the cross and of the crucifixion, right next to each other, the tomb, the anointing slab, and the spot where St. Helen found the True Cross...those are the main ones. We didn't have time to visit all of them on Monday. We did go up to Calvary (literally up--there's a flight of stairs to the right immediately when you walk in the door). We spent a while there. I remember feeling overwhelmed with gratitude, and the line from St. Paul, "we proclaim Christ crucified" kept running through my head.


Here's the site of the crucifixion--you can duck underneath that altar and venerate the rock. Also, you can't really tell, but there's a beautiful image of Our Lady of Sorrows off to the side.

After that, we went briefly down into the cave where St. Helen found the Cross. References to her are everywhere in Jerusalem--churches and chapels named after her, etc...I guess she was pretty important. It also kept reminding me of Rome, because a lot of the things she brought back from the Holy Land ended up there, so I've seen them from the other end. Now I got to see where they came from! Finally, one last thing we saw in the Holy Sepulcher on Monday (we went there several times, so it will keep coming up): there's a spot underneath the site of the crucifixion where you can go in and see the rock of Golgatha, and see how in a certain part there's a definite crack running through the rock...a crack from an earthquake. THE earthquake. So cool. (And fun fact: that chapel is called the chapel of Adam, because of the belief that Adam and Eve were buried underneath the spot of the crucifixion, so when Jesus' blood dripped down it hit them first, and they were then saved. No historical truth to that, but an interesting theological idea).

After all that, it was time for lunch. We went to a rooftop restaurant with a great view of the city, and ate lots of pita and falafel and hummas and schawerma.


Here's the view from the roof--the shiny gold dome is the Dome of the Rock (and no, there's no Mary on top)



The shadows were kind of funky, but anyway, here are most of the girls! From left to right: Katie, Kaitlyn, Lauren, me, Laura, Theresa, and Laura.

Then, we walked through the city and ended up by the Temple Mount. We couldn't actually go up onto it, because it was unexpectedly closed, but just being at the base was awesome anyway.


This is the view approaching from the west

And, of course, the Wailing Wall is there, so we were able to be part of that tradition of leaving prayer intentions in the wall. It was kind of interesting to think about the Temple, the role it had in the past and the role it could possibly have in the future. Obviously it was incredibly important in the Old Testament, and Jesus spent a lot of time there. (And, sacred architecture in the Catholic Church has roots in the design of the Temple. Since it's described in the Bible, we take cues from that--can't argue with Divine Inspiration). But now--now, as Catholics, we don't really need the Temple anymore. We aren't waiting and hoping for a 3rd Temple to be built like the Jews are (they have a menorah ready and everything. Seriously).


Yep, there it is, just waiting...

I was particularly reminded here, though, of the image of heaven as the New Jerusalem, and I think Jesus is the New Temple in that case (hope that's right...and not heresy, haha). The Temple was holy because the presence of God dwelt there. Now the presence of God is present to us in the person of Jesus Christ. And all of this is further complicated by the fact that this spot became important for the Muslims, too, because supposedly it's where Muhammed ascended into Heaven to converse with God. So now the Dome of the Rock is built there, and dominates the Jerusalem skyline.

In the late afternoon, we went to vespers at a Syrian Orthodox Church. It was all sung by 3 (priests? monks? not sure what to call them...). Afterwards, a very sweet lady talked to us about some of the miracles she's witnessed in that church, and also sang the Our Father for us in Aramaic, the language Jesus would have prayed it in. That church also happened to be the site of the Orthodox Upper Room, of Last Supper and Pentecost fame. I say "Orthodox" because there's also a Latin Upper Room, in a different location...so that made it a little strange. It might have been the place, but not for sure, but it did have to happen somewhere, and if not there then somewhere close by. There's also an icon of Our Lady in the church that was supposedly painted by St. Luke.

When we finished praying in the Church it was time to head back to Tantur on the bus. We finished the day with our typical evening--dinner, discussion, prayer (I forgot to mention before--we prayed Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours altogether every night, I really enjoyed that), fellowship, and bed.

Well, this is definitely going to have to come in installments...and this is a good place for the end of part I. So, to be continued!