Jerusalem is wonderful; Had fun "skyping" last night.

Hi everyone.
Last night was great for me. I hear from Walter Carrier and Grace Medeiros saying that they thought everything went well. It really is difficult to teach to a machine. I did not have the visual of the congregation's faces for feedback. That is such an important part of preaching and teaching. Thanks to Pastor Dave Hammett and the good people at Pilgrim United Congregational Church for their technology and their hospitality. I hope that there were some things for everyone to think about as we approach the mid-point of our Lenten pilgrimage.

Because of last night's presentation, I did not get the chance to post a blog for yesterday. Therefore, this one may be a bit longer. I just downloaded 86 pictures from my camera for the past two days. I know there won't be many in the posting. But it still takes time. So here goes.

After our breakfast at the Notre Dame Center we boarded the buses to travel to Bethlehem. Rami, our guide is a Christian Arab and let us in on many of the issues plaguing the Israel/Palestenian conflict. He lives with his wife and 2 year-old son in the Jerusalem. But if he lived in the Palestinian territory, he would never be able to leave. Before arriving into Bethlehem, we had to pass through Israeli security check-points at the huge wall that Israel has built around the Palestinians. There are Palestinian people in their young 30's who have never left Palestine because they are prevented from traveling by the Israeli's. Even the border between Palestine and Jordan is controlled by the Israeli's. The residents of Bethlehem are prevented from travelling to non-Isreali territory by the Isreali's. The wall built by Israel and paid for largely by us Americans is a blight on the land. It hearkens back to the Berlin Wall. It creates a kind of ghetto containing the mostly Arab Christians in the same way that the Jews themselves were contained in ghettos in their own recent history. The prices are being driven up by the restriction of transport of goods through the border. And the Muslim arabs are doing little because these Bethlehem Arabs happen to be Christian. It is a terrible situation.

All of this as we prepare to enter the birth-place of the Prince of Peace.

Our first stop of the day was the church of the Nativity. This holy site is controled by the Greek Orthodox church. You have read in my blog when I have written about Constantinian churches built after the time of Christinaity's decriminalization. Constantine's mother, St. Helena, was sent to the Holy Land by her emperor son to collect relics and begin the construction of many churches at the holy sites. And so Helena came upon the locations where the local oral tradition placed events in Jesus' life and ministry. Major basilicas rivaling those being built by the emperor in Rome were built in the Holy Land. In particular, the birth of Jesus, and the events of Jesus passion, death and resurrection - the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. All of the churches built in the Constantinian period were destroyed by the Persian invasion in the early 600's. The only one to be spared was Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. The reason it survived was because the Persians noticed a mosaic depicting the three magi travelling to adore the Christ child. They recognized the clothing and other details to be Persian. Because of this, they spared the church from destruction. Here are a few pictures.



The main entrance to the Church of the Nativity. You will notice three doorways. The first large sqaure lintel is the original Constantinian doorway. Next you see the outline of the pointed arch in the wall. This is Crusades period construction when the church was fortified to be used as a fortress. And finally, the small square opening. I ought to have taken a picture with a person standing beside it. It is only about 4 feet high and requires that an adult bend down to duck under the doorway to pass through. This was built after the crusades to insure that soldiers could not enter the church on horseback, or loaded down with weapons. Subsequent tradition says that it requires a person to bow in reverence as he enters the church.



The main nave of the church showing the sanctuary and the iconostasis. All Greek Orthodox churches have a screen built across the entrance of the sanctuary. Only the priest may enter at the time of the consecration and a door is closed or a curtain drawn that prevents the congregation from seeing the moment of consecration. The Greek Orthodox believes in the Eucharist as we do. In fact they are permitted to receive Holy Communion in our liturgy but we cannot receive in theirs. 1000 years ago, they excommunicated all Latin Rite Catholics and the Eastern Rite Churches who remained faithful to Rome.

The 4th century mosaics that saved the church from destruction.

This is the grotto under the main altar that is reported to be the place of Jesus' birth.

This is our guide Rami. He is one of the best guide I have experienced. As an example of the bit of information he offered that I never knew before has to do with the detail of Luke's infancy narrative of the fact that "there was no room at the inn". "It was not because of overbooking", he said. The innkeepers would have taken one look at the very pregnant Mary, about to give birth and they would not have let her enter in case she gave birth that night. A Jewish woman becomes ritually impure for 40 days after giving birth. She cannot enter the temple, and people cannot enter her house or they become impure as well. If Mary had given birth in the inn, they would have to close down for 40 days. Rami said that is the case in his culture as well. His wife has to go to church 40 days after giving birth to be purified. The gospel tells us that Mary did that too.  

After visiting the Church of the Nativity, we went next door to the Latin church maintained by the Franciscans. In the crypt of this church there is the grotto of St. Jerome. St. Jerome was a contemporary of St. Augustine. Jerome was the one who translated the Bible from the Hebrew and Greek into Latin, and so made the Bible accessible to more people. We celebreated Mass in this crypt chapel in the Franciscan church.

The Franciscan church in Bethlehem next to the church of the Nativity.

Fr. Don Brownstein as principle celebrant in the St. Jerome crypt chapel.

Bishop Donald Kettler of FAirbanks, Alaska, serving as lector at Mass. Bishop Kettler has been a wonderful companion on our pilgrimage. He has spent the time with us as a brother priest which we all appreciate very much.

Not all the art in these ancient places is ancient. Here is a very contemporary window in the St. Jerome grotto chapel depicting St. Jerome and Jesus as Jerome translates the Bible.

Photo of our whole group after celebrating Mass together in the St. Jerome grotto chapel.

After our visit to the church and Nativity and Mass, we went to the Shepherd's Field. This is an area that is located among many caves in the Bethlehem area. These caves have been used by shepherds as homes, and stable for their sheep and livestock. There is a wonderful church built Labruzzi. This is the second church of his that I visited. I am enjoying his work very much. Liz Lev, he art historian who has been giving the fantastic tours in Rome is polanning on writing a book on Labruzzi's work. That will be a must in my library when it comes out.

A simple church under a dome that has perforated roof. From inside it looke like the stars of heaven.

The dome from inside of the Sheperd's Church

There are three frescoes in the church. The first shows the shepherds hearing the message of the angel. The shepherds are shown to be afraid, even the dog is growling. The center frescoe shows the shepherds arriving at the manger. The last one depicts the shepherds returning home in joy. Now the dog is even smiling next to the shepherd boy who is running with joy at the sight of the newborn Messiah.

The fearful shepherds hearing the good news of the birth of the Messiah.

A detail of the growling dog as the angels appear to announce the Good News.

The shepherds at the manger.

The shepherds returning with joy. Notice the star of Bethlehem already showing in the sky.

Detail of the joyful boy and his happy dog after visiting the Christ child.

Excavations of new caves found under the ruins of an 8th century Byzantine church in the shepherds field. Could these be the real caves of Jesus birth? They keep digging.

Enjoying lunch together.

Left to right: Fr. Frank from North Dakota, Fr. Mike Wensing, Director of ITCE and out leader, Fr. Mike Sullivan from New Zealand.

Left to right: Msgr. Ron Wayland, Washington DC, Msgr. Jim Dixon of Miami, Florida, Msgr. Anthony Sherman from Brooklyn.

After lunch, we visited the Shrine of the Book, a museum devoted to the Qumran scrolls and other historic writings of the Jewish faith. The roof in this picture covers a building in which the Qumran Book of Isaiah is displayed unrolled around the building. The roof is shaped like the covers of the pottery jars in which the scrolls were found.

At the Shrine of the Book, there is this scale model of the ancient city of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. It gives a bird's eye view of the city as Jesus would hae seen it and walked though it.

After the visit to the Shrine of the Book, we visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. I am still processing this one in my head and heart. Of course there are no photographs allowed. I'll save this for a few homilies now and then.

The remainder of the day was spent in final preparation for the Skype talk last night - or should I say this morning.

Monday, March 31:

It was a short night's sleep barely 5 hours, and we were of again. This time to the MOunt of Olives and the Stations of the cross along the Via Dolorosa in the old city.

We visited several sites on the MOunt of Olives. This is where Jesus had to pass everytime he wanted to visit Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany. It is also the location of Gethsemane.

I will finish this tomorrow. We have a relatively short day tomorrow and we were promised that we would be done by noon and have the afternoon free. But we are losing an hours sleep tonight. Israel changes the clocks tonight. They cannot do it on Saturdy into Sunday because of the restrictions for work by the Muslims and the Jews. Operating a clock is considered work that is not permitted.

So I need the sleep after last night.

Shalom