Day Seven - From Israel to Jordan

After a long and wonderful day in Jerusalem, we left the city behind us as we continued our trip.  That last view of Jerusalem is always a bit sad, for you never know whether you will get to the Holy City again, and you know there is so much  more to see and experience.  We had to leave a bit early to get to Jericho for an 8:00 a.m. Mass.  Jericho doesn't have a church designating a particular site or miracle; there is simply a parish church with a school.  We heard that the parish has only about 225 Catholic among the much larger city population.  It is run by Franciscans, and we met a brother who had spent some time in the Air Force in North Dakota.

The school children were celebrating the Palestinian Independence Day, a day early.  Since there was a lot of noise due to this, we had Mass in an upstairs room rather than outside, which was our other option.  The gracious hosts let me use a chasuble and stole that had never been worn before (something in there sounds scriptural) and we used the reading about Zacchaeus.  We took up a collection for the parish - we collected over $400 dollars which I am sure is much more than the typical weekly collection.

Jericho is just off the main route north and south.  We got back to this main road and headed south.  We passed by Qumran and had some of the caves which held the scrolls pointed out to us.  I've been to Qumran a few times, and don't find it compelling.  You aren't allowed anywhere near the caves, and you see what was probably a spot where the Essenes lived in community, but some people question that as well.

We stopped at a the factory outlet for some very good hand cream and other products made from minerals harvested from the Dead Sea.  It is cheaper here than in the U.S., so I like to stock up.

Our next stop was Masada.  This is a mesa near the Dead Sea which was the final holdout for the Jewish Zealots during the revolt against the Romans in 66-73 A.D.  They held out here for the final three years with thousands of Roman soldiers surrounding them.  In the 1970s a mini-series was made of this final stand.  Masada had been a strategic defense place and palace of Herod.  Huge cisterns were filled atop Masada with an ingenious method of getting water.  Stores of food were there as well.  It had been largely abandoned after the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC, but it became a place for the Zealots about 70 years later.  More than 100 Zealots soldiers and their families were able to live there for those three years without resupply.

Finally the Romans were able to build a ramp to the top and breach the walls with battering rams and fire.  They retired for the night to prepare for a final assault the next day.  But the Zealots chose suicide for themselves and their families over slavery.  Lots were chosen, and ten men helped all the others die.  Then one of those ten was chosen to kill the remaining nine before killing himself.  When the Romans arrived the next morning, there were only two or three women and children remaining. Years later archaeologists discovered the pottery shards with the names of the Zealots on them, used for the lottery.  This is now a national park, and every Israeli school child and everyone in the compulsory military service makes an official visit to this testimony of this sort of courage.

The top is accessed by a cable car, but there is a switchback trail that can be walked to reach the top.  One of our group, Mike chose that route.

After Masada we continued south to a lunch area and resort which accessed the Dead Sea.  Most of use took advantage of taking a dip in the Dead Sea.  This is an apt name as the water content, which is 34% mineral, is so salty nothing can live in it: no fish, no seaweed, no algae.  The water has the feel of Johnson & Johnson baby oil.  It is impossible to sink in it.  You can sit in it as though you were reclining in an easy chair, and read a magazine if you like without getting the paper wet.  If you have cut, it will sting, but the cut will heal quickly.  Your skin gets very soft, and you notice that for several days.  Some places have mud deposits along the shore and you can smear it all over your body if you wish.  At this place we found it painful to walk into the water because of the sharp salt covering the floor of the walkway and sea bottom itself.  Happily you can float in about two or three  feet of water, so that doesn't last long.

The Dead Sea is shrinking rapidly as its main source of water flowing into it, the Jordan River, is nearly completely drained for the purpose of irrigating crops along the entire valley.  The Dead Sea has perhaps only 50-70% of the surface area it had when I first visited it in 1990.

When you get out of the Sea, you make sure to wash off in the shower provided.  You will feel the salt if you do not.  Those with longer hair who had it dip into the Dead Sea had stiff hair until all the salt was washed out that night.

From the Dead Sea we made a dead run for the southern border city of Elait (on the Israeli side) and Aqaba (on the Jordanian side).  You pass through many miles of desert.  Much of it shows no sign of life.  Once in a while you see an odd shelter or hut of some sort.  There are some huge mining areas as well - some from the ground around the Dead Sea, but more of it from the Sea itself.  We saw piles of magnesium and other minerals.

Finally we arrived at the border, around 5:00 p.m.  We had to get off the bus, go through passport control on both the Israeli and Jordanian side, routed through the obligatory duty free shops.  People who had purchased enough items in Israel (rather than Palestine) were able to get a refund on their VAT (value added tax)- about 15%.    Between the passport controls was about a quarter mile of what I will call "No-Man's Land."   We had said goodbye to Joseph and Mo, our guide and driver who had seen us through Israel, and on the other side met Ace, our guide for Jordan.

We boarded another bus and made the 20 minute trip to our hotel for the night, an amazing Intercontinental hotel along the Gulf of Aqaba, a part of the Red Sea.  We got to our rooms, cleaned up as we needed, and gathered for a wonderful meal (many of us ate on the veranda) and several of us explored the beautiful scene outside afterward.

It was a day of saying goodbye, of seeing the wonders of nature, and the desert where so many come into contact with God.

Day Nine- our final day of touring

Day nine - our final full day

Jordan. - Amman to Jerash to Mount Nebo to Masada Mosaic to Amman again.

For the first time in a long time we started after 8:00. After another great breakfast most of us headed north from Amman to Jerash. This is another huge excavated site showing a Greco-Roman city. There would be much more to dig up, but homes have been built over much of it for generations.  

Jerash is in the land of Gilead. This area shows up in the Bible in many places. Jacob flees there after conning his father-in-law Laban. They come to a truce there, piling stones as a border. Gilead means something like “stone pile.” It is near there, at Beth Peor, that Jacob wrestles with God. “There is a balm in Gilead” the old African-American Spiritual, comes from a line in Jeremiah 8:22 where he is lamenting his community, asking, “is there no balm in Gilead? No physician to cure ...”. Apparently the land was known for its medicinal plants and doctors.  

Jerash is an immense excavation. It prospered primarily from about 300 BC to 200 AD or so. It has broad streets, a hippodrome, many temples, a theater, etc. In the 6th century Byzantine Christians made their mark with many churches there. Only ruins remain of those. In recent years chariot races had been performed in Jerash as tourist shows, but I think those have stopped again. 

In the Bible we often hear of the Ammonites and the Moabites. Both of those kingdoms were in central and northern Israel. So as we headed to Mount Nebo, we passed from the area of Gilead through Amon to Moab. Some of that land had been given to the tribes of Manasseh (Gilead); Gad (Amon) and Reuben (Moab).  

We had our final Mass together at Mount Nebo, where Moses was allowed to see the Promised Land, but not to enter it. There is a view across the whole Jordan Valley. On a good day you can see the Mediterranean, and far to the north and to the south. It wasn’t a great day to identify everything, but we did recognize the Sea of Galilee, Jericho, the Dead Sea, our skirts of Jerusalem and a few other things.  

The church was built over 6th century ruins and incorporated many of the mosaics into the walls and floors. It was a good place to have a final Mass and tie together the Transfiguration and this passage describing Moses view and death (Deuteronomy 34). 

After lunch at a cafe with a panoramic view of the Jordan Valley, we went to a factory that makes mosaics, a traditional craft of Jordan. Outside the building was a smaller replica of the Magaba Mosaic, a 6th century map of the Holy Land which had been over 30 meters in length. It once was more than 3,000,000 tile pieces.  

After that we got a bus tour of downtown Amon. We saw the Friday markets (Friday is the Muslim Holy Day) which sell EVERYTHING. Due to the “weekend” traffic was light and from the bus we saw the palace, various governmental buildings, the Blue Mosque and directly facing it, a Coptic Church. We also saw the difference between the older East side, with lower rents and the expensive West side with its much higher rents. There are several refugee camps, going back to 1948 on the East side.  

In the evening, after dinner, all 37 of us gathered again for prayer. By this time we were all in pretty good health again. We had a few songs, and responded to a litany of praise, and determination to let Jesus be our guide. I will include that here when I can clean it up a bit for publication.  

We left for the airport at 11:00 and have been traveling up to this moment. I write from Chicago on Saturday night.  

Sent from my iPad

Day Five: Leaving Galilee Behind

Day 5 Leaving Galilee Behind

Mount Tabor, but not to the top; Bet She’an; Baptism Site; Jericho; Up to Jerusalem; an extraordinary evening walk. 

It is always so hard to leave Galilee behind. This beautiful area of the country which bears that musical name was often the site of great parables, large crowds, joyful healings. In Luke 9:51 Jesus turned his face steadfastly to Jerusalem where he would die. We bid goodbye to the very lovely Sea of Galilee and headed to Mount Tabor, a traditional site of the Transfiguration.  

Mount Tabor is a high hill that rises in the middle of a plain. It is a six day walk from Caesarea Philippi, which in the Synoptics is where Jesus is before the Transfiguration it describes. At least one account begins “six days later Jesus went up a high mountain ...”. We arrived to find hundreds of people ahead of us. It would have taken us many hours to get up the mountain and spend the time we would like and return from the top. The mountain top cannot be reached by regular bus ... the switchbacks are too tight. There is a monopoly of taxi drivers that control the access, so ... we decided to just describe what was on top, and make sure we got to all our other stops and added a bonus.  

Along the drive to Tabor, we passed along some places with minor Biblical references, primarily in the book of Judges.  

Mount Tabor shows up in Judges as well, in the story of Deborah. Even to this day there is a town at the base of Mt. Tabor bearing her Arabic or Hebrew name. There is another town, Bedouin, in which all the people bear the same last name, Shivili. There are about 2,000 people in that town. It was comical to hear the guide read the mayoral election signs describing the four or five candidates, all named Shivili who were running for office.  

We turned south and stopped at Bet She’an, a national park where a city has been excavated. The city goes back thousands of years. It is referred to in Egyptian documents going back to 1900 BC. In the shadow of Gilboa where Saul was defeated and he and his sons were killed, it has a remarkable history. Much of the over-80 acre site is excavated to the Roman civilization level, but it was inhabited by many different people before and after them. It was destroyed by an 8th century earthquake.  

Like many Roman cities of some importance, it has a theater, Roman bath, cardo (Main Street) and temple/cultic area. Many of the shops and sidewalks were covered with mosaics, which were covered with marble when fashions changed! This is akin to people covering hardwood floors with carpet or linoleum. At the far end of the area is a tel, an archaeological term for a hill created by a series of civilization building upon each other’s ruins. It rises 80 meters. A pop culture reference is the dead tree atop it appearing as the tree on which Judas hung himself in the movie version of Jesus Christ Superstar. (Judas actually hanged himself very near Jerusalem).  

From Bet She’an we went to the baptismal site of the Jordan River. I have never been to this place. It had been accessible from the Israeli side only on Epiphany for many years, and the only time I was in Jordan before this trip it had closed before we got there. We had Mass there - a bit distracting because of a very large and loud group singing in the next worship area, but as someone in our group noted, it was a place where Christians of all types gathering to joyfully praise God. A number of us did step into the Jordan where we were there. Since we don’t re-baptize in the Catholic tradition (or in most mainline Protestant traditions) we did not rebaptize people as some groups there did. I did gather some of the muddy water to bring home to filter and add to our baptismal water for baptisms. I expect to use it this coming Sunday.  

After this stop we went on to Jericho. This very ancient city - it claims to be the oldest in the world, but Aleppo, Syria may be older. Biblically, it is seen in Joshua as a place of conquest, where Joshua and the people walked around the city seven times, six times in silence and at the seventh blow horns and shouted and ‘“the walls came tumbling down.” It is also the site of several miracles - either one or two blind men were cured, and in some cases followed Jesus on to Jerusalem. Perhaps the most famous story is that of Zacchaeus who climbed the sycamore tree to better see Jesus. (Luke 19). Jesus, seeing him, called him down and stated he would stay at his home. Jesus was intending to simply pass through, but will spend time to save us. There is a very old sycamore tree in town, but it cannot be from the time of Jesus. 

Jericho is an oasis in the desert. Because it has water and will always be warm, it was a place people would inhabit. It became a place for wealthy people as well. It has several names, including the city of palms because of all the date palms there. Its name actually means something like ash heap.  

Rising above the city is the traditional mount of Temptation, although there can be no way to determine that. 

From there we drove up to Jerusalem. When we say up to Jerusalem, we really mean up. Jericho is 902 feet below sea level, part of the great Rift Valley where Africa and Asia are pulling apart. This is what helps make the Dead Sea the lowest place on earth. Jerusalem, on the other hand, is in mountains, 2,474 feet above sea level. We rise thousands of feet in about 15 miles. Along the we see a marker of reaching sea level. There are also many Bedouin encampments, flocks of sheep and goats. At this time of the year, before the winter rains start in earnest, there is very little vegetation in the Judean desert. In the past 25 years many homes have been built on this east suburban settlement area of Jerusalem. The wall that separates Israel from the West Bank also cuts across the area and through old neighborhoods.  

We arrived at our hotel. With a couple of hours before dinner I recruited a few people to walk with me so I could make sure I still knew the way to the Old City walls. I like to offer an early morning walk there on my trips, so people can see the city. Without the throngs of people. We made it there in about 20 minutes. Whenever I step inside the walls I like to read aloud one of the psalms of ascent, psalm 122. “and now our feet are standing within your walls”.

There were more people than I expected around Jaffa gate so we headed down David street towards the church of the Holy sepulcher. I was surprised to find it still open. We visited Golgotha within the church and then did a quick tour of the whole church. As the six of us went down to St. Helena’s chapel-l, the deepest place in the church, we found some young people chanting the Salve Regina in a tone I had never heard. I was able to record part of it and will share it when I can.  

This walk was an unexpectedly wonderful adventure for us. We returned to the hotel full of wonder.  

A Day in Jerusalem

Day Six All about Jerusalem 

The day started early for 23 of us, leaving at 6:00 on When we got to Jerusalem we headed to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. There was. Mass going on at the tomb but the line to Golgotha (Mount Calvary) was short so I shepherded the people there. Others crowded into our queue which was frustrating, but eventually everyone had a moment where they could touch the top of Calvary.  

From there we roamed some streets getting a feeling for the market areas before they opened. We crossed from the Muslim quarter to the Jewish section, passing by the Roman Cardo which gave an idea of the street level t the time of Jesus. We got a quick look at the Wailing Wall before racing back to St. Anne’s Church and the Pool of Bethsaida to meet the rest of the group as we started the regular tour day. I was delighted to reconnect with. Previous guide, Tony, who was leading another large group that day.  

St. Ann’s commemorates the birthplace of Mary. It is a crusader area church which has extraordinary acoustic qualities. We sang there and visited the grotto of Mary’s birth (by that tradition) and looked at pool of Bethsaida, a truly authentic site. (john 5).  

Next we moved up the Via Dolores, the way of the cross. We stopped at each station and read and sang using our Magnificat books. It was a very good experience. We each took turns carrying the cross, four at. Time. The final five stations are in the church itself; since it would be difficult to do that, we completed It outside the church. Then we went inside to celebrate Mass using the Franciscan space just off the church proper. I had never had Mass in that chapel. It is perhaps the only quiet place in that church.  

After Mass most of us stood in line to enter the tomb. It was a little more than an hour wait. We prayed a rosary together during that time, and I’m sure other prayers were said as well. It was only 20 seconds or so in the actual tomb, but I felt it was worth it. When I was a student there we could visit around 4:00 p.m. and all the tourists were gone. We could have several minutes there by ourselves. It is more than the tomb; it is the place of the resurrection. We need to believe the gospel, “You look for Jesus the crucified; he is not here. He has gone to Galilee before you.” 

After lunch we had a short time of shopping. I will have to build in more of that for future groups. Or so I am told. 

In the afternoon we walked through extremely crowded streets to get to a north-south corridor that would take us outside the city walls to Mount Zion. The mountain was named this by the Crusaders. There we visited the Upper Room. It was built by the Crusaders in 1100 above the tomb of David. So much happened in the place commemorated there: the Last Supper; the morning Easter night appearance of Jesus; Pentecost. It was a place to celebrate the institution of the Eucharist, arguably that of Penance, and also the Priesthood. I had asked that the people say a prayer for me while they were in there. They surrounded me and prayed an Our Father together.  

Another memory of that site this trip: Usually I have been in there alone or just with the group and possibly one other. This particular afternoon it was crowded with many large groups. But as I walked in, I had a sense that is was indeed Pentecost again. The murmur of many languages tumbling over each other was impressive. 

From there we walked down to the Church of St. Peter Gallicantu (St. Peter of the Cockcrow.). This is quite probably built over the site of the home of the High Priest, and Jesus would have been taken there after his arrest in Gethsemane. It is near the bottom of the hill, and not far from the Kidron Valley, and faces the Mount of Olives. There is a dungeon there as well. It also features what is known as the Holy Stairs, a set of stairs that was there at the time of Jesus and was the most straightforward route from Mt. Zion to the Mount of Olives. It is almost certain Jesus would have traversed those stairs, and quite possibly did it both on the way from the Last Supper to the Garden of Gethsemane and again after his arrest. The church itself has many mosaics (recent, from the past century) depicting scenes from the arrest and denial by Peter. It is a quiet meditative place and worth visiting.  

After this we went back to the hotel and had supper. But there was more that evening: we had a tour of the Western Wall Tunnel, and visited the Wailing Wall. The Wailing Wall, or Western Wall, is the western side of the retaining wall that makes up the Temple Mount, the large space on which the Herod’s version of the temple was. That temple was destroyed by the Romans after the Jewish revolt of 66-70 A.D. Two mosques, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aska mosque are there now. For years, up to the six-day war of 1967, it was the farthest Jews could go, and that was just on certain days. After the 1967 war they demolished some buildings there and created a broad plaza leading to the wall where many people pray each day and many pilgrims leave notes in cracks in the wall. 

The Western Wall Walk is a tour of excavations done over the past few decades. It goes for 500 meters, some of it at the level of the streets at the time of Jesus. He may have walked that street and put his hand on the wall; we don’t know. Some of the blocks are enormous. One has been found that is 10 feet high, 15 feet deep, and 50 feet long. That is 7,500 cubit feet of rock, all in one block. And it is on the seventh layer of the retaining wall. Along the walk we found some people praying at that spot which would have been the closest to where the Holy of Holies of the temple would have been. This was a part of the tour I had never been on, and I was fascinated by it. As a preparation for the actual walk, our guide Joseph used the models and computer presentations available to give people a clearer understanding of what the Temple Mount was and how it was made.  

A long day, very fruitful. It only missed a nightcap at the King David Hotel.  

Sent from my iPad

Day Eight: A Day in the Jordanian Desert

Thursday, November 15. In Jordan: A great hotel, Wadi Rum, Camel Ride, Petra, and a long road to Amman. 

The previous afternoon we had said goodbye to our guide Joseph and our driver Mo and crossed the border in the south of Israel. The crossover into Jordan was not too difficult, but it all takes time. We are now in the what is officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. This is, like Israel, a small country. We will go from nearly the southernmost point to one of the northernmost points in our two + days here. 

“Hashemite Kingdom” refers to the town of the origin of the dynasty of kings who have ruled here since around 1953. King Hussein is the most remembered, for his long reign until his death in 1999. His son is now the king.  

Our Hotel, the Intercontinental, was fabulous. We stayed in Aqaba, a Red Sea port and resort area. The food was great, the service even better, and the rooms very pleasant. In the morning a number of us just gathered along the shore enjoying the beautiful morning.  

After breakfast, our baggage was loaded onto the bus and we headed out. Unfortunately, one of our number had taken ill late the previous afternoon and stayed behind with her sister. They found other transport to Amman and met with us there. She is still not well as of the evening. 

As we motored to our first stop, our guide, Ace, told us why Jordan can and should be considered part of the Holy Land. The land we visit appear in the Bible in various ways - as the land of Gilead, to the north, where Jacob fled in Genesis 31:17-25. Amman is a continuation of the land of the Amonites. And south of that is where Moab was found. Moab and Amon were sons of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. That sordid story is found in Genesis 19. For most of the Bible they were considered enemies of Israel, but David’s great-grandmother, Ruth, was a Moabite. 

Our guide Ace is a Muslim as are most people in Jordan (91%,) 6% are Christians. As such, he has an expanded idea of what a prophet is, but lists these people as prophets who were from or lived in what is now Jordan: Aaron (buried near Petra), Moses, Lot, Jacob (aka Israel), Joshua, Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, Judah, John the Baptist, Jesus (baptized in the area and at times was in Bethany across the Jordan) Esau (Jacob’s twin) and Mohammed - many centuries later.  

Our first stop was Wadi Rum. Wadi means valley or gulch; Rum means gigantic, referring to the height of the mountains around it. Or so we were told. Other sources translate it as Valley of Light, in the sense of light soil. It is also known as the Valley of the Moon. It is in the SW corner of Jordan, just an hour or so from Aqaba. This really has no connections with a religious pilgrimage, but we participated in the Christian virtue of joy. We loaded into trucks for a ride through the desert. There are three stops along the way. The first is to climb a dune to a rocky height to give a panoramic view of the valley. The second stop is to see petroglyphs left by the Nabataeans who were traders who traveled by camel through the Silk Road. They eventually developed a small empire which lasted for some centuries around the time of Jesus. They also gave the world the wonder of Petra. The final stop has some charmed images, including that of T. E. Lawrence, “Lawrence of Arabia” who passed through the area several times during the Arab Revolt of 1917-18 against the Ottoman Empire. This stop also includes a small Bedouin gift shop which we visited after being offered tea - which connoisseurs deemed excellent.  

What made this visit especially great for some of us is that many of us chose to ride camels between the last two stations. I hope to attach pictures and videos of this extraordinary place when I get home. 

From there we drove to Petra, another two hours away. After a lunch we headed down the one mile gorge to the ancient city of Petra. Those who are familiar with Indiana Jones In Search of the Holy Grail know about the treasury building at Petra. On 7/7/2007 the Seven New Wonders of the World were announced. Petra was one of them. You walk through a siq which is a very narrow gorge. At times you can barely see the sky above you. Suddenly you see the city of Petra seeing first what is known as the Treasury Building. It was probably a tomb of some sort. All the buildings in Petra were carved out of sandstone. The city goes on for a mile. It is believed that there are 20 feet of city below what is typically seen. There are also rooms or buildings at higher levels. It includes a theater for several thousand people. Channels were cut into the walls of the gorge to bring water into the city. Other than the doggedly persistent peddlers, it is a wonderful experience. 

From there we drove to Amman, the capital of Jordan. The sun had already set when we left Petra, so the three hour ride was used by many for some sleep. Most of us had logged over 18,000 steps for the day. We checked into the hotel around 9:00 for a late supper. We noted that this hotel had been awarded 7 stars! But we just crashed for the night.  

Day three outline

Day Three, Saturday, November 10

Morning walk with 11 people.  

Jim buys some bread for two dollars

visit the caves again, but it becomes crowded

walk a different way, see some the residential areas, and find our way home!

Leave for Caesaria Maritime; long trip

See the theater, the palace, the hippodrome, some go into the Med Sea.

Up to Haifa for the Mass, at Stella Maria.  

Elijah’s cave.  

beautiful view, beautiful day.  

Skip Acco. We just can’t get it all done.

traffic in Nazareth

Basilica of the annunciation

St. Joseph Church

Mary’s well

on to Cana

wedding was going on!

renewed the vows of 8 couples

get to Tiberius and check in.  

Seemed like a long day! 

ALL SAFE

 We have seen on CNN some news about the tension on the Gaza-Israeli border. We are safe in Jerusalem, and will be here tonight and tomorrow night and then go to Jordan. We do not anticipate any trouble here or anywhere we will be. My primary concern is that you may be concerned about us.  

Day two: Around Bethlehem

Day 2 – around Bethlehem

Bethlehem, the City of David is now a very busy place. About the only way you can experience “O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.” is by getting up very early and visiting the Church of the Nativity and walking about town. So this morning Nancy McGrew and I started out at 5:30. We were able to go down into the caves below the Church of the Nativity, and no one else was there. There are a series of caves. In one of them Jerome translated the bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. This is known as the Vulgate edition, the translation into the vulgar, or common language of the day, Latin. He was commissioned by the Pope to do this. 

In addition to these caves, of course, is the grotto in which Jesus was born. This grotto is occupied for several hours each morning with Masses at the manger by Catholic, or at another altar by the Greek OrthThis grotto is about 12 feet wide and 30 feet long. Throw out all concepts of a wooden stable. That concept comes from St. Francis of Assisi who began the nativity displays in the manner it would have been in Italy. In Bethlehem there was very little wood, and it would not have been spent to build a barn. If you ever visit the Holy Land around Christmas, you will see the nativity displays in churches featuring caves. 

The lines to visit the grotto have become enormous. Our guide, Joseph, managed to arrange for us to attend Mass in the Grotto at 7:30 a.m. I had hoped I could concelebrate, but that was not to be. A group of Italians had the Mass, and there was a bishop and four priests, and the manger area cannot accommodate more. Further, for a time the bishop did not want any others than his group attending Mass. Serious negotiations were undertaken, Joseph appealing to the agreement made the day before. We were finally allowed to attend, cycling people through a bit with the rest sitting on steps that lead out of the cave. This allowed us to visit the place where Jesus was born without waiting in line as long as many people did. In the afternoon some of our people saw lines reaching well outside the church many yards into Manger Square. We heard some groups had to wait in line for over three hours. Once again, I just can’t get over how many people are here on pilgrimage.

After this we toured the church itself. It has undergone significant restoration since my last trip almost six years ago. The columns in the nave had been black from candles and grime over the centuries. They were cleaned and paintings of saints were found underneath. They included a few European saints, which tells us at least some of that work was done by the Crusaders. Mosaics on the walls were brightened, and more were discovered under plaster. 

While most of the group went back to the hotel to freshen up, a few of us made a quick visit to the Milk Grotto Church, a place commemorating a legend about Mary nursing Jesus as they fled to Egypt. This is just a few blocks away. In recent years this church has become a place to pray for infertile couples. 

We are staying at the Manger Square Hotel, just a block or so away from the Church of the Nativity. This is a great location!

We left from there to go to Shepherd’s Fields. This commemorates the visit of angels to the Shepherds tending their flocks. (Luke 2) we had Mass there, in a cave which has been used by shepherds over the years. There is no way to say the original shepherds used it. I preached a bit about the episode earlier in the day, when there was no room in the inn – or grotto – and that was determined by the powerful. But we have great power as well, and need to welcome people rather than say there is no room. It would have been nice to spend more time there. There is a lovely chapel with great acoustics. I am putting a video in of Cindy, our liturgist on the trip, singing a chant from the 4^th Sunday of Advent there.

Manger Square

From there we went to Bethlehem University, the only Christian University in the West Bank. It is run by the Christian Brothers. Readers from the Twin Cities area will know them for schools such as De La Salle and Cretin-Derham Hall high schools there, among others. We had a tour of the chapel, which has a statue of Jesus as an adolescent. Its walls are painted with children saints from around the world. After that we had two of their students talk to us. Both were Christians, which make up 31% of the student population of about 3,000. Christians comprise only about 2% of the population in the West Bank, mostly concentrated in the Bethlehem area. They told of their lives as students and Palestinians in the current climate, challenges of crossing into Jerusalem, etc. 

After lunch, which was a special Palestinian dish a bit akin to our “hot dish” (see picture) we went on an organized shopping trip. I have mixed feelings about these. They do help support a community of Christian olive wood carvers. If you want some of the very best of that craft, this is the place to purchase it. However, if you want some simple items as gifts they can be purchased elsewhere for less.

After a break, where many tested the smaller markets up and down the street, we want to a dinner in a restaurant called The Tent. It is a rather extraordinary tent but tries to give the sense of eating in a Bedouin tent. We had a great time, and our travel agency bought a drink for each of us. Once back, some people walked a bit and shopped yet again. It was the end of a good day. 

Day 4: A Great Day in Galilee

Day Four – Sunday, November 11, 2018. Around the Sea of Galilee

Today was a great day! The weather was perfect throughout the day, and God arranged some marvelous sunshine rays and a gorgeous sunset. 

We began the day with a drive up to Caesarea Philippi north of the Sea of Galilee. It is very close to the Lebanon border, and near Mt. Hermon, which is mentioned in the Bible a number of times.

It was at Caesarea Philippi that Jesus asked his disciples, “who do they say that I am, and “who do you say that I am?” along with Peter’s witness, “You are the Christ.” It has variants; including where Jesus says you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church. (See Mark 8, Matthew 16, Luke 9). In addition to its Biblical importance, it is a beautiful spot with a dramatically rising cliff, the headwaters of the Jordan River, and the site of a pagan temple dedicated to Pan, Zeus and Augustus. When it is the rainy season, there is a gushing waterfall as well. 

From there we headed back south to the Mount of Beatitudes. After a brief look at the 8-side church, which features the eight Beatitudes, we celebrated Mass outside in one of the chapel areas. The gospel, of course, was Matthew 5:1-12, the Beatitudes. We used the first reading from the readings of the universal church this weekend, about Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. (I Kings 17:8-6) which tied in with the visit to Elijah’s cave at Stella Maria in the Carmel Mountains yesterday. The stay in this wonderful place was a little too short, but much appreciated by all. There is now a large guesthouse there. I might have to inquire about using that for lodging in the future. I’m afraid it is booked up long ahead of time.

Lunch was not far away. It is traditional to eat St. Peter’s Fish on a trip to Galilee. I’m sure there is a real name for this fish but I don’t know it. It is usually served with head and tail still on, but some of our group ordered it filleted. 

After lunch we went to Tabgha, also known as Heptapegon, which means “seven springs.” It is an area with seven water springs. This particular site commemorates the feeding of the multitude, the only miracle that appears in all four gospels and is actually told six times. This spot has been reverenced as such since the third century, but one cannot really say that this was the actual spot. The church features mosaics going back to 480. At the base of the altar is a famous depiction of two fish and a basket of bread where four loaves are seen. The fifth would be on the altar itself.

Our next event is a great highlight - boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. At many sites we read the scripture connected with that place, so here we read passages, first from the multiplication of the loaves, since we had little time to do it there, and then what happens immediately after in several accounts: Jesus walking on the water. We also read of the calming of the storm. The ship is in the shape of those which would have sailed 2000 years ago. The Sea was as smooth as glass, and as you will see, the sky was wonderful for us. 

We continued on to Capharnaum, where Jesus lived for a time. It was also the home of Peter, and that house has been very likely identified. An ancient synagogue is there as well, built over the synagogue Jesus would have taught in. (Mark 1). We were able to wander the site for over 30 minutes, taking in the way people would have lived as far as making olive oil and fishing, praying and living. 

Our final stop of the day is a place called The Primacy of Peter. See John 21, the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to seven of his disciples. Here also was the questioning by Jesus, asking Peter three times, “do you love me.” Here we can actually enter the Sea of Galilee, and many of our people did.

In the evening, after supper, several of us wandered around Tiberius for a while, and then along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Its beauty stays with us. 

Our first full day

Our First Full Day: Ain Karem, Yad Vashem, and the Garden of Gethsemane.



I am having some trouble getting updates into this blog, but we will get it worked out.



My day started a bit before some of the others in our group of 37. While many of us were awakened by the sound blasting from a miniret calling Muslims to prayer around 4:30 this morning, I felt quite refreshed from our day of travel and went out for a walk through Bethlehem. I saw the Church of the Nativity as dawn came, wandered through it for a while and then said my morning prayer and office of readings there. I went through some streets for an hour and then came back for our huge breakfast and getting for the day. The very early morning is about the only time you can honestly sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” for it is not always still.



The day’s events did not really reflect the original schedule. This happens often in the Holy Land: weather, crowds, opportunities or a better plan affects things. So we headed out of Bethlehem, though the security check at the wall that separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem. This massive wall virtually encircles Bethlehem. In some fashion or another it goes on (or will eventually be – it isn’t clear to me) for almost 500 miles. In much of that it is simply a fence. The goal on the part of Israel is safety; it also has divided natural neighborhood, grazing areas and more. In some places land has been confiscated, borders changed, and orchards destroyed and replaced by Jewish settlements – towns created in those spaces only for Jewish people of Israel (there are also Christian and Muslim people in Israel.



Our first was Ain Karem. This is in the hill country of Judea, just west of Jerusalem. It is considered to be the birthplace of John the Baptist, and so the place of the Visitation and where Zechariah’s and Mary’s canticles (Luke 1) can be found. We held a short prayer service there. I am amazed at the number of pilgrims who were there. This is a “second rung” site; I don’t always go there and have never seen more than one other group there at the time. Today there there 4-5 groups there.



(Things are more crowed overall here. When I first came in 1990, I think there were about 4.5 million people in Israel. There are now over nine million. Jerusalem was then about 250,000. Now it is over 900,000 in the area. Tourism is much higher. A good year was 2 million tourists. Last year it was over 4 million. When I first led a group here in 2004, the final year of the second Intifada, they numbered less than 1.5 million, and not many of them were Americans. Now the U.S. has the most tourists. )



From there we went to Yad Vashem, the official remembrance of the Holocaust. It is a difficult visit. The museum itself focuses on the NAZI campaigns to eliminate Jews in Europe. You zigzag across in a long narrow building filled with testimonies and artifacts of this horrific part of world history. Your final room in the museum is “the hall of names” which houses many thousands of black binders with the names and biographical information about those who were killed or put into concentration camps. They are still gathering data, and the are still shelves to fill. This is all displayed in a circular room with a pit in the center. It is a haunting place. As I left I signed the book, commenting, “a place of pain.”



Among the other buildings at Yad Vashem is a remembrance of the 1.5 million children who were killed in the concentration camps. There is very little light here. You shuffle along a circular path and see tens of thousands of lights reflected about you, as if lost in the universe, while the names and countries of the victims are read aloud.



From there we went off toward the Mount of Olives, stopping at a restaurant for a choice of falafel or shawarma. From there we went to the Mount of Olives itself, and got a great view of the Old City of Jerusalem. We walked down a very steep road which would be similar to that which Jesus took on Palm Sunday. The Kidron Valley lies between the Mount of Olives and the walled city of Jerusalem. We stopped for some time at the area which houses Dominus Flevit, a church built to commemorate Jesus weeping over the city of Jerusalem. There we got an extended lesson on the mountains that make up the area around Jerusalem (such as Mt. Moriah, where the temple was, and where Isaac was to be sacrificed), Mt. Calvary, or Golgotha, the site of the crucifixion; Mt. Zion, a bit more to the south side of Jerusalem, and, of course, the Mount of Olives. The city of Jerusalem itself is mentioned first in Genesis as Salem, where Melchizedek is its priest and king at the time of Abraham. Even 800 years later, at the time of David, it was a small city, outside of the current walls of Jerusalem. And indeed, the walls of Jerusalem were changed many times over the centuries as its fortunes changed. Calvary, now within the city walls, was not within it at the time of Jesus. In David’s time the city was only 13 acres (about the size of a domed stadium) The walls now encompass many times that, and the city was once larger.



We then moved down to the Garden of Gethsemane where we celebrated Mass in a private garden outside. The weather today was perfect, in the low 70s, with no wind. Aside from some traffic noise, it was fabulous. We sang some Mass parts and two hymns, and our musician Cindy played the flute as well. I reflected in part about the other side of the mountain, where the Judean desert begins. It had been pointed out to us. If Jesus had wanted, he could have slipped over the crest and in 30 minutes he would have been impossible to track. But he stayed, prayed and followed the way it had to be. His troubled prayer was answered; he rose able to face his betrayer and the night and day that followed.



Our last stop of the day was the other part of the garden which has trees that might be 2,000 years old, olive trees that might have been there at the time of Jesus. Gethsemane means “olive press” such as that used to crush olives for the oil. As to just where Jesus prayed, we cannot know, but the general area, within a 100 yards or so, is certain. The Church of All Nations, so named because funds were raised from people of a dozen nations to built it, was our last visit. Its columns are made to look like palm trees, and stars on the ceiling peek through the branches, all in mosaic.



We returned to Bethlehem by a different route and had dinner at 6:30. A few of us headed out for a short walk and a look at some shops in the Manger Square area.



Happy Birthday to Judy Hovanes, one of our group. She and Jesus celebrate their birthday in Bethlehem.

Sent from my iPad