We were awake well before the wakeup call and
enjoyed an early breakfast. By 8 am we
were all on the bus and headed off in the bumper to bumper traffic to the Mount
of Olives. It took us at least thirty
minutes to travel the short distance that on the Sabbath would have taken only
minutes. The Mount of Olives is outside
the Eastern Walls of old Jerusalem above the Jewish Cemeteries.
During our ride we did several things. First, as soon as we arrived to the bus the
games began with the name changes that Darlene gave us last night. Lots of fun and many mistakes! Jacques and Claudette Germain, our new names,
confused even me! Richard is Stanley at
the suggestion of Father Paw who told the story about the “Flat Stanley” that a
school boy had him bring on a previous trip. If you have not heard of this;
school children are assigned a project of making a large paper doll and then
finding people to take “Flat Stanley” on trips.
When they return they bring photos of him at all the places they visited
on the trip. This is shared with the
class.
Secondly we sang happy birthday to our song leader,
Roberta, who celebrates her sixteen and a half birthday today! We practiced our hymn for this morning and
Raouf gave us information on today and tomorrows activities. I also collected email addresses for those
that had requested photos of themselves at the Dead Sea yesterday while they
were covered in mud!
The Mount of Olives is covered with graves as they
believe that the Final Judgment will begin on this site and they want to be the
first ones. Also, people who visit
graves here leave small rocks for two reasons:
1) they were late in arriving and missed the funeral and the rock is to
witness that “I have come”; or 2) they believe in the Day of Judgment and want
the person who will get in first to “remember me”.
The cemetery for Christians is at the bottom of the
Mount of Olives in the olive grove and is much nicer. Newer and graves are spaced far apart instead
of being up against one another as in the Jewish Cemetery; partially because
they are newer and there are fewer! In
the slideshow you’ll see a pyramid in the cemetery that I can’t remember the
story about but nearby is the grave of Oskar Schindler from Germany, a
Christian who moved to Israel after the war when he saved thousands of Jews from
the Nazis.
Soon we’d arrived amid hundreds of other pilgrims;
each bus vying for a good parking place.
Quickly out of the bus with nothing but essentials; we walked down the
hill to the Dominus Flevit Chapel that celebrates the site where Jesus wept over
Jerusalem. We had reserved the chapel
for a Mass that was celebrated with Deacon Joe Garza assisting. An interesting symbol on the front of the
altar was a Rooster with his wings spread for the baby chickens
underneath.
We sang Amazing Grace for our entrance hymn and I
have posted the video I took on Facebook; only the singing and the image is
focused on the icon of the Virgin Mary on the wall. Our singing is quite good at times thanks to
some very good voices in the group!
After Mass we sat on the wall overlooking Jerusalem
from the north. There Raouf continued to
instruct us on the history of the city.
There are four walls; one in each direction. There are two gates on each side. On the North side you have the Gate of Saint
Stephen, also known as the Lion Gate where we entered last night; and the
Golden Gate in the Tower in the center.
But that gate is locked and they built Muslim Cemeteries in front of it
because of the fact that the Jews believe that during the Final Judgment they
will enter the Holy City through the Golden Gates.
The Old Jerusalem City is divided into four
quarters: Christian, Jewish, Muslim and
Armenian. Because the Armenians were
scattered to the winds they were welcomed here in Israel. The Armenian Church shares custody of the
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem with the Greek Orthodox Church. Something we learned over the phone from
Jim’s sister as her daughter-in-law is Armenian. Raouf said that there are two thousand
Christians, three thousand Jews and the rest are Muslims within the old walls.
From there we continued walking down the hill
through narrow walled streets between the Jewish Cemeteries until we reached
the Chapel of Ascension where it is believed that Jesus ascended to heaven from
a rock that has been protected over the centuries. Today it is a Muslim Mosque but they allow
the Christians to visit the site by paying a fee to enter. On Ascension Thursday, only one day a year,
they allow the Christians to celebrate Mass in the Holy Site.
A short walk down a very steep street brought us out
to Akram and our bus. From there we
crept along in heavy stop and go traffic for nearly half an hour to go the
short distance to the Church of the Pater Noster. Exiting the bus we rushed down another steep
path without anything on our person but our cameras (if we listened to Raouf)
as we were assaulted every step by vendors attempting to sell us things. When we arrived at the site Richard had lost
his cell phone that he was using for a camera.
It was in his breast pocket; the pickpockets are very quick! Fortunately is was an IPhone and he’d
connected it to the cloud so his photos were safe in the electronic sky! We all learned a lesson about listening to
Raouf when he tells us to leave things on the bus.
The Pater Noster is so named because it is the cave
where Jesus taught his disciples to say the Our Father. Jesus was asked how does one pray to
God? And Jesus responded “Our Father who
art in Heaven…..” The walls inside and
out are covered with the prayer of the Our Father in one hundred seventy four
languages from around the world. I have
put photos of many in the slideshow.
While we stood in the cave we joined hands in prayer as we said the Our
Father together.
Back on the bus for another short distance but very
long drive (because of traffic) to the Dung Gate into the old city. There we walked to the Western Wall of the
Temple Mount that is commonly known as the Wailing Wall for the Jewish
Faith. It is the only remaining wall of
their temple and until the coming of the Messiah when they will rule Jerusalem
and rebuilt their Temple; this is as close as they can come to worship in the
ancient city. We walked through
security, women on the right and men on the left before entering the common
area. As we approached the wall we again
split, the women on the right and men on the left. We were able to approach the wall, touch it,
say a prayer if desired and leave notes in the wall on tiny pieces of paper. Interestingly, the women stood on chairs to
see across the fence to the men’s side so that they could participate in the
many Bar Mitzvahs that were happening on the men’s side. They would all cheer and toss candy at the
group of men surrounding the boy!
We walked past many groups celebrating even though
it was a Monday; lots of music with the groups as they walked towards the
Wailing Wall. We even saw one ram’s horn
being played. Back out to Dung Gate to
the waiting bus for our ride back to the hotel.
We each enjoyed eating out on our own today. Some walked the old city while others climbed
on the city trams for a tour of the newer sections of the city. And a few of us have enjoyed an afternoon off
to relax and enjoy our hotel. Lunch for
some was in a very nice restaurant in the American Colony Hotel; and others
found a fast food place nearby for Pita bread sandwiches. We even found our bus driver Akram getting
his lunch there. Raouf was off to visit
his sister who lives an hour north of the city he told us. Tonight’s dinner will be in our hotel. It has been nice having the opportunity to
write my blog before dinner! I’m looking
forward to an early to bed as in two days we will be on the airplane for fourteen
hours.
Hope you enjoy the slideshow:
