Good Friday

The Good Friday service today affected me much more than usual. Perhaps it was because, this year, I could actually picture the places where the passion and death of Jesus occurred.
* Caiaphas' place- where Peter denied Jesus, was just near where Oscar Schindler's grave is now.
* The praetorium where Pilate interrogated Jesus was believed to be directly below our place of residence - "Ecce Homo" - "Here is the man."
* Calvary/Golgotha - now part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

I visited the site of Calvary a number of times, the most moving were on the Jewish Feast of Yom Kippur, and on my last night in Jerusalem.
Today I was transported back in time to this place, the site where Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice for us, and I was moved, not only by the deep emotion and comprehension of this fact, but also by the realisation of the great privilege that was given to me last year to visit the Holy Land, and to worship and pray at this most holy of shrines.

Gethsemane Revised

Today has brought back many memories for me of my time in Jerusalem last year.
This morning at our school Stations of the Cross, the introduction spoke of early Christians visiting the via Dolorosa to reflect on the last hours of Jesus' life.
It brought home to me just how lucky and privileged I have been to actually visit these sacred sites - the Upper Room, Gethsemane, and Calvary.

As I sat quietly at the altar of repose tonight, my mind took me back to the days where I visited the cave at Gethsemane to pause, reflect and pray.

Over the next three days, during the sacred Triduum, I know that the liturgies will be so much more meaningful for me, as a result of my time in the Holy Land.

Reflections one month on ....

"Listen, Israel, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength" Mark12:29-30
I can't believe it has already been one month to the day since I returned from my amazing journey to the Holy Land!
During the past month, I have been slowly settling into life back in Tasmania. I have been fortunate enough to keep my pilgrimage alive by sharing my experiences with many staff and students at my school. So far I have spoken to over 15 classes and shared my reflections on what I saw, learnt and felt not only about my own faith and Christianity, but also new insights into Judaism and Islam that I gained through our study and experience of living in Jerusalem. I have also been heartened by the many people who have commented on how much they enjoyed sharing my journey via this blog - I am most grateful to everyone for their support.
As the days and weeks pass, the full reality and impact of my time in Jerusalem continues to unfold to me in many different ways. Whether it be through a greater understanding of the daily scriptures, a deeper connection to sacrament of the Eucharist, a thirst for more knowledge of Church history or a desire to draw inspiration from such spiritual writers as Thomas Merton, the fruits and graces of my journey will certainly enrich my life for a long time to come.
Today's gospel reading is a prime example of how this journey has impacted my faith - today, in the Gospel, Jesus repeats the words of the Shema - words sacred to the Jewish people- as the first commandment. The importance of understanding the Jewish faith in order for us to better understand our own is just one of the many blessings I have received from this wonderful pilgrimage.

Final days .....

The last couple of days have brought times for reflection and farewells as our time in Jerusalem draws to a close.
On Sunday morning, we travelled to Abu Gosh, one of the possible sites of Emmaus, where we went to a wonderful Benedictine Monastery for a beautiful mass in French. The singing was amazing with about 10 nuns and 7 priests and brothers leading. It was wonderful to witness this community of faith in prayer and worship.

On Sunday afternoon, I wandered down to the Mount of Olives for some quiet time. I went firstly to the tomb of Mary, which we did not see on our first visit as there was an Armenian mass happening. There was no one there this time, so I visited the tomb which is like the one in the holy Sepulchre, but you could stay in as long as you liked.

I then went around the corner to the grotto of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed before being betrayed by Judas. I stayed in the silence there for about 20 minutes, most of the time on my own- it was very quiet and very prayerful.

On Monday morning we had a final prayer and sending liturgy. We each said a word or a phrase about our experience over the last month, then we each had the opportunity to light a candle and say a prayer. Each of the prayers were very sincere and heartfelt. People prayed for peace in this land, for world leaders, for the children of this land etc. It was very moving. Sister Bernadette then said some lovely words about our journey and about where we go from here and what we take with us. We then received our graduation certificates and a lovely silver bookmark with footprints on it.

After morning tea, we had our final mass together in the basilica downstairs. It was a great celebration with beautiful singing and lovely hymns that meant a lot to all of us. The gospel was the end of Matthew's gospel where the disciples are "sent forth" by the risen Christ - very appropriate as we all journey our separate ways. Richard, in his homily, mentioned that, in the Gospel, Jesus tells the women to tell the disciples to go to Galilee, and they would see him there. This meant that the disciples would find Jesus back at their home, and so we must do the same!
After communion, we anointed each other with oil, as a sign of our being sent forth.

We then had a final celebratory lunch together in the garden. After lunch, the farewells began- I felt sad to say goodbye to my beautiful buddy Beth. She gave me a lovely card and a rainbow set of rosary beads that had been blessed by the Pope in Rome before Beth came to Jerusalem - very special.

I spent the afternoon having a rest and packing, before heading to the Holy Sepulchre one last time - this time in the quiet of the evening to sit, reflect and pray.

We head off in the morning for the long trip home. It has truly been a life changing and spiritually uplifting experience for me- one I will never forget!

On the road from Jerusalem to Jericho

This morning we headed off early for our last big excursion to Jericho, the oldest city in the world!
On the way we stopped in the Judean desert for a time of reflection at Wadi Kelt. The last time we were in the desert was on Day 4 of our course- it seems like such a long time ago now and we have experienced so much!
We went to a viewing point which had a spectacular view over the barren hills.

We were given time to just stop, sit and reflect on our incredible journey over the last month, and to listen to what God is calling us to next in the silence and the stillness of this hot, dry and barren place.
As with every place we visit, there were some Bedouin (desert people) there trying to sell us their wares. A number of us bought white scarves from them.

Our next stop was up the road a bit where we walked out to see a Greek orthodox monastery built into a cliff face. Many monasteries existed in this area as monks withdrew from society to become hermits and contemplatives. This monastery is still in use today and has five monks in their community.

We then travelled to Jericho - an ancient city which dates back to 8000 BCE. It is also the lowest city on earth- located at 1300 feet below sea level. It is also the place where Joshua led his armies into battle.We caught a cable car up to the Mount of Temptation, where people believe was one of the places where Jesus was tempted by the devil when he was in the desert. The place is now a part of another monastery which clings to the side of a cliff.

From here we visited Elisha's spring and a Sycamore tree, where people believe Zaccheus climbed up to get a glimpse of Jesus as he passed through the town.

Our last stop was a very beautiful modern Romanian Church which was built recently, but was covered in the most amazing icons depicting saints, prophets and stories from the Old testament and the life of Jesus- I know my son Daniel would have loved it! In fact there were a few lovely icons of his namesake!

We had a nice lunch at a lovely restaurant then returned to Ecce Homo for a shower and a well earned rest as it was an extremely hot and humid day.

In the evening the whole group went out for dinner to celebrate together and to thank Sisters Bernadette and Trudy for all their help and hard work in organising such a wonderful program for us. It was a lovely night!

Information overload!

Today was a busy day full of lots of lectures and lots of listening!
This morning we continued our studies of the Gospel of Matthew with Pino, looking at the temptation of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount- this had much more meaning for us now that we have actually been to where this is believed to have happened.
After lunch, we had a couple of lectures from a very engaging Jewish speaker Dr. Marie Lenk. She spoke to us about the Jewish feasts of Rash Hashanah, which was celebrated last week, and the big feast of Yom Kippur which is this Wednesday. Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement is spiritually and liturgically like Easter. On this day, Jews spend most of the day praying in the synagogue confessing their sins and asking for forgiveness. Tomorrow evening we will be going to Kol Nidere the beginning of this feast at the Hebrew Union Synagogue which should be very interesting.
In the late afternoon, we walked out of the Old City to West Jerusalem to attend a mass in the Hebrew language. While I couldn't understand anything, we could still follow the parts of the mass. There was lots of singing which was really lovely. There were also 7 young priests concelebrating which was an inspiring thing to see!
We then heard from Fr David Neuhaus, a Jesuit priest who was born Jewish in South Africa, was sent to Jerusalem at the age of 15 to study and, after meeting an 88 year old nun, decided to be baptized and become a priest.
He spoke about the need for a Hebrew speaking Christian community to support the children of migrants and refugees in Israel who learn Hebrew at school. His community runs Sacramental programs and other activities for these children and their families.
After a long and tiring day, we walked home exhausted yet enriched by the amazing speakers who had shared their wisdom and insights with us.

Mixed blessings

The last two days have brought mixed blessings. Yesterday (Saturday) we travelled to Hebron, a very sad and troubled city in the West Bank which is one of the oldest cities in the Holy Land, founded in 5000 BCE. There is a very strong military presence in this place - there were soldiers every 100 metres or so.
This city is regarded as a sacred place by Muslims, Christians and Jews as it was here where they believe that Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah are all buried. The Tomb of the Patriarchs which we visited is divided into a Jewish synagogue and a Muslim Mosque, each with its own entrance. As it was a Saturday (Shabbat - sabbath day for the Jews), we could only visit the mosque side. All the ladies were given long hooded cloaks to wear - we looked like characters from "The Lord of the Rings"!
We saw the parts of the Mosque, including all the prayer carpets on the ground all facing Mecca, as well as the sign that had all the times for prayer which change daily according to the sunrise. We visited the tomb of Abraham, which is actually shared between the Muslims and jews so we only saw the Muslim half.
After leaving the tomb, we wandered the marketplace. As it was early morning, there weren't many shops open, but we saw lovely embroidery and pottery shops as well as people selling soap and spices.
This is a very poor city, with lots of sad-looking children trying to sell you bracelets and other trinkets - it was really heartbreaking.
After the market, we headed into the new city to visit a glass blowing and ceramics factory where we saw artisans at work, making glass items and painting bowls etc. They were very talented.
Today, on the other hand, was a day of blessings and graces! We began the day by going to a very prayerful mass down the road at St. Anne's Church. The mass was in French, ( I managed to understand quite a bit!) and the singing and acoustics were amazing.
We were then going to go to the Temple mount but found some of our other pilgrims who had been lining up for an hour and were still a long way from the entrance, so Richard, Eamonn and I went for a wander instead.
Our first stop was the grave of Oskar Schindler - which is found in a Christian cemetery just outside the Old City. We could easily find his grave as it was literally covered in rocks, something Jewish people put on graves as a sign they have visited and have said a prayer there. Standing by the grave of this amazing man was a very moving experience for me as I have watched the film Schindler's list many times and remember seeing some of the people Oskar saved placing stones on this very grave. The inscription on the tombstone translates to " the unforgettable lifesaver of 1200 persecuted Jews".
From here we visited the Upper Room again which was a lot quieter and much more reflective this time as the only company we had was a local cat!
We also went to King David's tomb where we had to separate as men and women have to worship separately.
We revisited Dormition Abbey before going to a modern day mall outside the Old City where we had lunch and enjoyed the wide open spaces, lovely art shops and modern atmosphere.
I bought a beautiful book by a Jewish author called "The Soul Bird".
We then had a lecture this afternoon on Oriental, orthodox and Eastern Christian churches which was very interesting.
Another relaxing and very enjoyable day!