Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Ein Karem




We began the day in the small village of Ein Karem (which means “Spring of the Vineyard.”) One of my Palestinian students from UTC has family who live here, and this is where St. John the Baptist was born.  According to the Bible, Mary “traveled quickly into the hill country, to a city of Judah,” where she visited her cousin Elizabeth (who was pregnant with John the Baptist) and her husband Zechariah. We visited the Church of St. John the Baptist which is believed to have been built above the remains of ancient mosaic floor and cave where John was believed to have been born.
After spending some time in this Church (which is maintained by the Franciscans with financial support from Spain), we passed the Spring of Mary along the way to our climb up to the Church of the Visitation. The ancient sanctuary in the Church of the Visitation is built on the site that was believed to be St. John the Baptist’s parents’ summer home where Mary visited them. It is built around a large rock known as “the stone in which John was concealed.” As the story goes, King Herod (who had heard a new King of Jews was to born) had heard about John’s unusual birth, so Herod wanted John killed for fear that he might be the new King. His parents planned to flee to Egypt so John would not be killed, but when Elizabeth saw soldiers pursing them, she begged God to help them escape. Reportedly, she hid baby John behind a rock, and the sun reflected off the rock so brightly that the soldiers were temporarily blinded, and John and his family were able to flee, thus saving him from death. The sanctuary of the Church of the Visitation is built around this rock.
After this stunning adventure we moved on the Israel Museum. Among the really fantastic things we were fortunate to see here were the Venus Berekhat Ram, which is a carved female figurine that is believed to be the oldest artwork in the world. The museum also houses the Shrine of the Book, which is home to the Dead Sea Scrolls. We also got to see some of the clay jars in which the scrolls were found.

After lunch at the museum, we moved onto the Church of All Nations, which is also known as the Basilica of the Agony on the Mount of Olives. It is believed to enshrine the bedrock on which Jesus is believed to have prayed before his arrest. Monsignor Al and Father Rich celebrated Mass with us on the altar as we all gathered around this “Rock of the Agony.” After Mass, Tony put his foot on the rock as we said a prayer for healing together. It was amazing to listen as Father Rich spoke the Eucharistic Prayer and got to the line “At the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his Passion,” I got chills realizing that Jesus was betrayed on or near the rock right in front of us!  It is called the Church of all Nations because many countries helped contribute to his design and its construction, including: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Ireland, Australia, the US and the UK.

After Mass, we moved across the street for some prayer time in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is the garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives where Jesus prayed and his disciples slept the night before after his arrest. Gethsemane is the garden where the Virgin Mary was buried and was assumed into Heaven after her domition (“falling asleep”) on Mount Zion. One of the olive trees in the garden looked like it was offering me a loving hug. As a few of us were waiting to leave the garden, we got to watch a herd of goats run down the street followed by a car playing rap music. It was quite a juxtaposition!

After a long day of walking in the hot sun on a beautiful day, we came back to the King’s Palace (out quaint little guest house in the Old City) for dinner. All the food here is hearty and delicious. Dinner was followed by a presentation by Catholic Relief Services, and they discussed some of their humanitarian work in the region.

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