My Pilgrimage: June 11

The only group event today was Mass on Mt. Tabor, site of the Transfiguration.  It was about a 45 minute drive there, up a steep winding road with one lane but for two lanes of traffic.  Always fun driving here.  I cannot remember if I mentioned this before, but at the official Holy Sites the Franciscans (how have custody of them) have their own Mass particular for each site.  That made today an interesting case, since it is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, and typically you are obliged to say the Mass of the Day for any Solemnity.  Well apparently the Franciscan said that we could celebrate either (Transfiguration or Trinity), so Monsignor celebrated the Mass of the site while also remembering the Trinity. 

The site itself is beautiful.  The final drive way up is lined by tall trees (poplars?).  They have some rather nice gardens (which unfortunately were not opened to us).  There are some great views of everywhere from Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee.  The church itself is somewhat simple, which the main church for large groups (another American group was there the same time as us) and two side chapels for Moses and Elijah (we were in the Elijah chapel).  After Mass we came back to the hotel, had a pizza lunch, and we are free the rest of the day.  Some people went down to the beach, some who have been sick went to Capernaum, some are just relaxing at the hotel.  It’s meant to be a day of rest before we start digging tomorrow.  I said there’s no way in heck I’m driving on my day of rest (outside of to and from Mass) so I’m taking it easy at the hotel.

Elijah Chapel

Moses Chapel

Speaking of taking it easy, I finished the latest Michael Crichton book Dragon Teeth, my novel for the trip.  It was written in the 70s, so before Jurassic Park, but he never published it so the transcript was found and published posthumously about a month ago.  The story is somewhat appropriate for my trip: a snobby undergrad from Yale is dared to go West on a paleontological dig in 1876 and gets caught up in the Bone Wars between paleontologists Marsh and Cope.  The main character is fictional, but the rest of the story is loosely based on real events.  It was a fun, though quick read.  I imagine Crichton would have liked to flesh it out more (no pun intended) since it’s fairly basic.  Overall, I’d put it on the lower end of his novels.  Someday I’ll have to make my definitive list ranking his novels (I think I’ve read all but one or two).