My Pilgrimage: June 17

Let me start by saying today made up for the frustrations of yesterday.  We were able to sleep in a little bit, at least theoretically.  I only slept in spurts last night due to Ramadan calls for prayer and the general noise coming from the street below our window. 

At 8:00, we met downstairs in Ecce Homo to start our tour for the day with the area below the convent.  It is located on part of one of the palaces used by Pilate, which was traditionally the spot of the condemnation of Jesus (and hence the first couple of stops on the Via Dolorosa are in the area.  In the area below the convent, they have preserved scratchings made by Roman soldiers for dice games, as well as some of the original Roman street that Jesus would have walked on.  Pretty fascinating.

Roman street

We then walked down to one of the gates and hopped on a van up to the top of the Mount of Olives.  There we visited the church of Pater Noster, which includes the Grotto of the Teaching where Jesus was said to have given us the Our Father (hence, the name).  In the church, which was largely empty, we prayed the Our Father in English, Spanish, Latin, and a Nigerian language.  Then, despite various groups from a certain area of the world taking up more space then they need to sing the Our Father in their native language, we were able to squeeze in and quickly look at the grotto. 

We then made a slight detour.  The Church of the Ascension, including a stone with a footprint made my Jesus, was just a few minutes walk away.  On the calendar, we were going to take a taxi here tomorrow to keep in the sequence of events for Jesus’ life.  Instead, we agreed to go there now to save the time and money.  A mosque has been built around it, but the stone itself is still intact.  It was great to have a little time there to reflect on the importance (as a side note, there are about five other Ascension churches claimed by various other Christian denominations).

We then started our walk down the Mount of Olives.  We had some stunning views of Jerusalem from the Mount, and it was great to be able to stand up there and visualize the path of Jesus in His last few days.  As someone who learns by seeing, this trip, and this stop in particular, has been very helpful in understanding the Passion.

Our next stop was Dominus Flevit, a church built with a dome in the shape of a teardrop where Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem (again, hence the name).  It is the newest church in Jerusalem, and somewhat lackluster, but again the view is amazing.  As the tour guide pointed out, it is on the same plane as the Temple Mount.

We then continued out tour down the Mount of Olives with Gethsemane, the Garden of Agony (again, there are a few different sites for different denominations).  In the garden, there are a few olive trees over 2000 years old, meaning, as Monsignor pointed out, they were witnesses to Jesus’ Agony.  We were originally supposed to have Mass there in one of the garden altars across the street, but since we were almost an hour early, we were able to get in and have Mass at the main altar!  What an amazing and unexpected treat!  I will not go into detail, but I can say that this was the most profound Mass for me in the Holy Land so far.  Just in front of the altar is some stone which can be venerated that may have been the site where Jesus gave the witness to us all to say “not my will, but Your Will be done.”

Following Mass, we walked around the garden a little and then across the street to get a better view of the façade of the church.  We also were able to see from there more of the Jewish cemetery which takes up much of the Mount of Olives, including the tomb of Absalom, son of David (we did not walk down to see it up close).  We then trekked up the hill to re-enter Old Jerusalem to begin the Via Dolorosa.

I won’t go into our praying the Way of the Cross in detail, but it was a very good experience.  A couple of the stations were open that many times are not, so that was nice.  It ends at the Holy Sepulchre, and while it was much more crowded (and thus chaotic) then when we had Mass a couple of weeks ago, it noticed that I came with different eyes.  It was also neat that the tour guide brought us down to the Helena Chapel, a place Monsignor did not even know about.  This is where Constantine’s mother in the 4^th century found pieces of the True Cross.  The other very interesting part was the area below the area of the Crucifixion where the rock was split by the earthquake.  It’s still hard for me to process that one church includes the area of the Crucifixion, the area where Jesus’ body was dressed, and His tomb.  Again, I did not know that when we first visited, so that accounts for my “different eyes.”

The cracked stone

The place of the True Cross

After that, we were free for the afternoon.  A group of us walked over to the Christian Quarter and had a pretty good lunch.  I wanted to walk over to Mount Zion and the Upper Room, but when I went to pick up a map of Jerusalem I asked the people there for a schedule and found it was closed on Saturdays.  So, we plan on going there in our free time tomorrow afternoon.  I also hope to talk them into visiting Oscar Schindler’s tomb in the area.  So since that was closed, we just walked through the shopping area, stopping in a few stores.  I made my last purchase in Jerusalem.  It was a big debate for me, but it was pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

In my previous trip to Europe, I had regretted passing up opportunities to purchase paintings of some of the great cities I had visited (I did have a friend bring me back a painting from Paris).  Here, we visited a shop of a nice English woman a couple of the guys had been in before.  She sells beautiful prints (and originals) from various painters.  The one I had my eye on was a print from a British painter in the 19^th century.  As I told her, I didn’t want something too modern, but the price was a little more than I wanted to pay.  Well, after thinking about it, and a bit of encouragement from the owner and my friends in the group, I decided to go for it.  It’s a very nice print, and as she pointed out it is on canvas and not paper, so it is more durable.  Now, I just have to decide how I want to frame it when I get home.

We had our celebratory dinner tonight, and it was good, though the restaurant gave us some problems.  They said we had reserved for 17.  We are only 12.  It became an issue, but we got our food and it was tasty.  A bunch of different dips (hummus, eggplant, yogurt and lemon, and something with parsley and garlic that was quite good) with pita bread; an “Arabic salad” (cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions); french fries and a mixed grill of chicken and I think beef with tomatoes, peppers, and onions; and a slice of watermelon for dessert.  By the way, the melons in Israel are fantastic.  They have the best, juiciest cantaloupe I’ve ever had.

So overall it was a very good day.  I like Jerusalem, but it is a bit too crowded, and the streets can be confusing.  One last full day here before we pack up and head our separate ways on Monday.