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!