9/08/11
Making it count!
Today was an extraordinary day, one so memorable that it will be vivid in my mind for long to come – Bethlehem, Jesus’ birth place, Ein Karem, jesus’ cousins birthplace, Mount of Olives, Church of Pater Noster, a photo over the city, the garden of Gethsemene and a holy hour in the grotto of Gethsemene.
In Bethlehem we went to St Catherine’s Church and celebrated a beautiful mass – it will definitely be a special memory for the songs Away in a manger, O come let us Adore Him and O Holy Night.
After mass we descended down into other parts of the church to actually see the a cave where Jesus may have lay and been born. The anticipation built as we crowded down the stairs and took some great group pics. It was a great to lay our hands upon the rock and be in the cave for several minutes contemplating the birth of our Lord.
We also did our bit to help Behtlehem by souvenir shopping. I bought an opal and silver Jerusalem cross that can transform into a necklace with the four parts of the cross extending into separate pieces.
Next Ein Karem the birthplace of Jesus’ cousin – John the Baptist and where Mary visited Elizabeth to exchange news of their babes.
Ascending to the Mount of Olives and the church of Pater Noster (where Jesus gave us the Our Father). We searched quite a while to find the Anglais (English version). We also went underneath into part of the original rock cave church. We also stopped up high above the city to get the classic Jerusalem photo with the Dome of the Rock a standout.
Once back to Notre Dame a small group of us headed back into the Old City- I was on a mission to find a piece of jewellery, either a necklace or ring that had an ancient coin attached. Our first antiquities dealer had many coins to show us ranging from the widow’s penny – a poor specimen at the bargain price of $20 US, to hundreds of dollars for better quality, framed in silver or gold. We wanted to see some other stores and products but I did want to have a coin from the Byzantine era, around 1700 years old or Jesus’ vintage around 2000 years old. We kept shopping around and after stumbling across the Holy Sepulchre and spending a few quite minutes inside found some more shops. The first one looked pricey and I overheard him sound a little pushy. That’s when Geoff saw and told me the store a few doors up had some coins. I started to think wouldn’t it be cool if you could get a Jerusalem cross with a coin in it. I searched through the store and was quite relieved not to be bothered by the shop owner and finally had to ask him for the price of what I had just imagined- the Jerusalem cross with a high quality coin – a widow’s penny to be exact. After looking at a few other coins and the gold and silver products I finally settled on my Jerusalem cross with a widow’s penny coin.
Garden of Gethsemene was next. I’ll admit I was a little disappointed to find out we weren’t actually spending the hour in the garden but we got to go in for a few minutes to imagine Jesus in his time of anxiety and fear. We then relocated to the grotto where Jesus would have spent time with his disciples. I actually really enjoyed it – a simple rock cave – had an authentic feel to it. After some songs and prayers it was our time to reflect. I planned on reading some passion accounts and then time in refection but I barely got through the Gospel readings. In my few minutes of reflection I did have some great visions. Now that I have seen and been in so many of these places I could actually picture the passion so clearly – Jesus in the garden praying, being arrested, walking the via dolorosa through the packed market and heckling crowd and being laid to rest on the rock. It was a magical lightbulb moment of wow, I can really understand and see these events take place – Christmas and Easter will never be the same – it isn’t just some story of a guy in a far off land. It is very real and I have seen these places from the ground and an aerial view, walked these paths, smelt the rich aromas of the market place and touched these rocks.
No comments:
Post a Comment