FRI, June 22nd

Friday, June 22nd

Hello and friends and family. Today we were blessed with many special graces. Our wake-up call was at 5:15am. We walked through Jerusalem to the Holy Sepulcher church. This church is shared by six denominations within our faith. On a side note, we could not agree who would have the key to the church so it belong with the elder of a Muslim family and they come to open the church every morning and lock it every night. When you enter the church you see many candles hanging over a slab. This is the slab the body of our Lord was laid on after He died to be wrapped known as the Anointing Stone. You can smell the perfumes as you walk in. By God’s grace we were able to celebrate mass in the chapel in the site above the tomb of Christ. It was a small dome, that barely fit our group but one of the most memorable experiences ever! Afterward we were able to walk around the church while it was still pretty empty. It was so beautiful. We walked upstairs to the spot of calvary were Christ was crucified. It is underneath an altar so you have to be on your knees to touch it. How humbling! I really could not even begin to understand what I was touching! We continued to walk around. There were several altars with various pieces of art above depicting the crucifixion and the sufferings of Christ. Then we came to the pillar where our Lord was scourged...I can’t explain the intense sadness that came over me...

The cross of Christ is in Rome, however we were able to walk down below the church to a grotto where they kept all the old crosses and nails. When St. Helen, Constantine’s mother, claimed the church for the christians and restored it, she searched for the cross. In this room there were several crosses and they took a man who was paralyzed or dead( it is the same word in greek) and laid him on different crosses. The tried a few with no result. I think it was the fourth cross the tried healed him and they knew this was the cross of Christ.

We left the church and walked to the church of St. Anne and the birthplace of Mary. It is different to think of her as a child. I have not meditated on this much, but I should. I wonder if Saint Anne was still alive when Jesus was born. It is interesting to think of her as Jesus’ grandma. 

We walked to the pool of Bethseda. This is where Jesus healed a man who was paralyzed for 38 years. Jesus asked him, “ Do you want to be well?” It seems like a obvious question. The pool had healed many people, so why didn’t this man ever go in? Tony explained it to us that he was in short charging people on their way into the pool. Jesus when he was 12 and on his way to and from the temple with His parents would have passed through this town and see this man. Now he returns as a man and sees him still here. So really Jesus is more or less asking him, do you want to live a different life? Are you ready to let go of this and be healed and start anew? When I meditate on this question it doesn’t seem silly at all. I think it is very real for us all the time. Sometimes one of the reasons we continue to live in sin is because it’s comfortable. It is not that we want to sin but that we are afraid of change. This is exactly what Jesus is addressing. Are you ready to change? Do you want to be healed.

Upon leaving the pool we started our walk on the Via Dolorosa, the way or the stations of our Lord. It was hard to absorb all that we were seeing and trying imagine what truly took place here. I hope that I can return to this experience often in meditation. It was very hot out and we were walking all through city streets. We sang, Jesus remember when You come into your kingdom as we walked. The streets are now filled with shops and vendors. Some stations had a small church, some just had a sign that you could easily miss. The final stations are within the Holy Sepulcher. By this time the church was packed. I tried to revisit some of places inside the church. I spent some time reflecting in the room where the cross of Christ was found and at the pillar. Several people are said to have heard whipping sounds from the pillar so many people lay their face on the altar to listen. By the end of our time here I was spiritually exhausted.

We journeyed on foot the church of Dormition. This is the church by tradition where Mama Mary was assumed into heaven. It was beautiful. I found peace here after the sadness I experienced at the Holy Sepulcher. I have a great love for our Lady. She took on the suffering of her Son, but in silence. The silent suffering. I pray and pray that I may have the Fiat of our Mother written upon my heart. She said yes truly and with her whole being to God without every asking what it would entail or even a though of what she would endure. What faith! Such selfless obedience! Let us all ask for her intercession! She will truly lead us closer to her Son.

We continued to the site held by tradition to be the upper room. We ended where the Passion began. At one point this site was converted to a mosque so you can still see the remittance of this. Almost all our holy sites and churches were destroyed or converted to pagan places of worship at one point. It is wonderful to have a picture of a place to go back to when you read about these places. 

This last place we walked today was the western wall or the wailing wall. This is the most sacred place to the Jews. Their is a checkpoint just to get in. Once we were inside Tony said that if we wanted to go up to the wall we would have to cover our crosses. One women patrolling told Fr. Gabriel that his cross (the one hanging from his rosary) was too big. You could sense the tension in this place. I walked down to the wall and I did not cover my cross. People asked if I was going to put an intention in the wall. At one point I was going to, but I prayerfully discerned not. My intentions and my honor will remain with Jesus Christ. By the way, all your intentions went with me on all our travels. They have been blessed and touched to many holy sites. But ultimately my friends and family, it is by our faith that our intentions will be answered. (by God’s grace!) On a side note as were we sitting on some benches waiting for our whole group we heard some shooting sounds. My heart skipped a beat. Apparently it was fireworks for a Muslim wedding...I really think fireworks should be outlawed in tense places like this. :) As we walked out through the check point we were so thankful to see the familiar face of Walid, our bus driver. I’ve never been so happy to be on a bus after the walk of the day. Yet we still had some energy to have a little fiesta on our balcony overlooking Jerusalem.