"O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!
How often I wanted to gather your Children together, as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" (Mt 23: 37)
This was the view I
had from the Chapel Dominus Flevit (The Lord cried). Jesus
lamented over Jerusalem before entering into it one last time to die there.
This stunning
panorama captures the view Jesus had of Jerusalem as he lamented. The Dome of
the Rock is now where the Temple was then.
I began the day
considering the Death of Our Lord in Calvary located in the Holy Sepulchre
Church. There I met a saintly German contemplative, Corina, whom I had the
grace to pray with daily since I have arrived. I went to confession just a few
paces away from the Crucifixion Altar. I imagined that this confession was the
closest one I would have to Jesus' Death since He had really died there. Mass
was in Latin and I enjoyed returning back to the Gregorian Chant. Two of the
men at mass begin ridiculing the priest and the sacred worship and had to
ushered out by guards. I'm glad I hadn't seen them myself as I would have been
highly tempted to do more than usher them.
I visited the
Dormition Tomb of Mary which was located Near Joseph and Anne and Joachim's tombs. Where has Mary
been all this time any way?
I came back to
Gethsemani and this time I had the chance to enter into a grotto believed to be
where Jesus was arrested. I could see how it could be there and not in the
Garden of Gethsemani Church since he was "a stone's throw away as he
prayed with greater intensity" (Lk 22).
I walked down to the
Pool of Siloam and climbed up onto the City of David. I got to see where David
would have looked down upon Bathsheba as she bathed and later committed
adultery.
Along the way was
Absalom's tomb as well as some other ancient monuments.
I walked through the
Muslim burial site along the Temple/Jerusalem Wall to let the Jews know (as
they believe that the Messiah will be entering into Jerusalem through that
wall) that He would not be a "Clean" Jew by walking in.
The Ramadan
worshippers were legion. I felt that I had returned to Rome to some measure. It
felt like a Papal Mass exodus but in this case with an even older city.
After spending more time in Prayer at Calvary and enjoyed a
respite and some long needed food: Hummus and their version of Tortillas: Flat
Bread. I could see Jesus eating this bread.
I went back out to
see the Sabbath beginning at the Western Wall. It was crawling with all sorts
of Jewish men and women. I joined in in Worship and prayed some. Later I joined
in at a Local Synagogue but found myself nodding off and heading back home. All
in a day's work in God's Holy City.