Well, we’ve finally reached the end of the road for this pilgrimage. Hopefully the next one will be soon. Maybe you’ll join me (or I’ll join you.) I wasn’t sure that I would be able to write a final blog entry, but I am sitting in the Zurich airport waiting to fly to Vienna, so I thought I’d try to get one more out while I can. Let me just say that I have thoroughly enjoyed writing for you. I actually have despised writing all my life (perhaps it was the writing punishments I received as a kid), but I’m glad that I was able to chronicle this pilgrimage for you (and me.)

Dominus Flavit

I actually visited this church twice in the last few days. It is at the spot where Jesus is believed to have cried over the impending destruction of Jerusalem. It is on the Mount of Olives, just a little way up from the Church of Gethsemane. Barluzzi (remember him, one of my new favorite architects) designed it in the shape of a teardrop. The altar used to face east, but now it faces west, with a clear window behind it so that you can look out onto the Old City of Jerusalem. It definitely has one of the best views of any churches in the Holy Land.

Old City Walls

As you may know, the city of Jerusalem is famous for its walls. They have had such a storied history, being built and rebuilt countless times (well, someone’s probably counted.) Now, one can walk the top of the wall. I did it yesterday, trying to get it in before the end of my time in Jerusalem. You enter at the Jaffa Gate, which is on the west side of the Old City. You can then go south around the city or go north around the city. I hoped to go all the way around, starting north, but eventually, after an hour, I got to the Temple Mount and could go no farther. I went back to the Jaffa Gate, stopping at 4:55 to make a quick sketch. This meant I got to the gate at 5:04, right after the exit was locked. I eventually made it off the wall, but I had to go another 10 minutes back to find an exit only.

Being on top of the wall gives one a good view of the city, but most of the high profile churches and other buildings in the Old City are not near the walls. It was worth the trip, but I would not recommend doing it one the last afternoon when you are short for time.

Pater Noster

This is a church further up from Dominus Flavit. It is at the spot some believe to be where Jesus taught the Our Father to His disciples. It is a nice, simple church and complex, with the Our Father in scores of languages on big mosaic tile displays.

The Lutheran Church

There is a Lutheran church and hospital that sits on the highest point in Jerusalem. It was a trek, but my friend John and I made it up there. Then we scaled the bell tower and were treated to an amazing view for miles and miles in every direction. You’ll just have to believe, since I have not really been posting pictures.

Russian Orthodox Mary Magdalene Church

This church is also near Dominus Flavit (see a pattern?) It has gorgeous painting and icons inside and is only open for four hours a week. We made it to get in and see. It was very nice. It is called the Onion Church because it has five or six gold onion shaped domes.

Well, I am running out of time on my internet connection, so I’ll send this off. Again, I have really enjoyed writing this blog and I am so very thankful that you were willing to take the time to read some of it. I hope you learned a lot and that you too will one day be blessed to visit this (I mean that) wonderful Land.

Stay close to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pray for Christ’s peace to reign in the Holy Land. Pray for vocations. And let us pray for each other. May God bless us all. Bye.

I am having trouble believing this, but we only have four days left here in the Holy Land. Four days. To quote my friend Pam, “Sad times.” After spending nearly 70 days here, we are down to our last four. For certain, there is a part of me that is ready to go home (“come home” from your perspective), but I have no idea when I will make it back here. I hope to make the most of the next few days here, which unfortunately includes finishing a 15 page paper and taking an oral final.

In case you didn’t know, I am not going to be coming straight home. Next Monday we leave from Tel Aviv and stop in Zurich. About half of the guys will go back to Chicago, and the other half will take advantage of our break before school to travel to other places. Most are going to Italy, but I am flying to Vienna. Austria has always been on my list of places to visit, so I thought I’d take advantage of this trip and make the stop. I will begin the time in Austria with a 5 day diaconate retreat at a Cistercian monastery south of Vienna. The place is called Heiligenkreuz. You should look it up online: www.stift-heiligenkreuz.org . After my retreat, I will spend another four days in Vienna, seeing the sites.

But you didn’t come to this blog to hear about Austria. I know that I promised you Zionism in my last entry, but it will have to wait. Here are a handful of experiences from this last week.

Alone in the Tomb

There is an interesting tradition at the Holy Sepulcher. If you get the permission of one of the many different Orthodox/Catholic church groups that “co-own” the Holy Sepulcher, you can actually spend the night locked inside. On most nights they lock up at 7pm and don’t open the doors again until 4am. If you are in, you’re in. Saturday night is the only exception in that the doors open again at 11pm. This was the night that I chose to “spend the night.” There was one other seminarian and a very tall, pious, nun-like woman that got locked in as well. There were some construction workers and some monks who passed through a little, but for the most part the three of us had the whole place to ourselves.

The two spots of interest are the spot of the crucifixion and the tomb. So, in an unspoken coordination, we rotated between the two spots. This meant that I got to spend a good half an hour in the tomb by myself. I had been in once before, when I served a Mass in the tomb, but this was really the first time when I could go in with nothing else on my mind. As soon as I walked in, my whole body was overcome. I know I can fabricate such an experience, but this one hit me without my help. It was brief, but powerful. I then proceeded to kneel at the stone and pray there for awhile, including praying for all of you.

It was an amazing experience. I have not found any other place so far that drew my spirit so. I didn’t want to leave. It was very similar to the experience I had when I first walked into St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. There, I immediately felt like I was at home, and others have shared with me that they felt the same way at St. Peter’s. I ended up spending four hours there the first time I went. I wish I had four hours at the tomb, but the night would not be long.

At 11 the doors were opened and people starting pouring into the various chapels. Most people that came in were Orthodox. Then, every different group had night prayer, which many of them started by incensing every one of the altars in the church. It was quite a sight, especially so late. I ended up leaving at 12:30 because I was sick, but the time I did get to spend will always be cherished as a rare spiritual treat.

The Election

Moving to more mundane subjects, the Israelis just had their election. Yesterday, armed with a big box of olive wood items for people back home, I walked the mile down to the post office, only to find out that they close their post offices on Election Day. My fellow seminarian and I had to bring it all back to the hotel and go back today. Oh well, the exercise was good.

Israel has a parliamentary system of government. There are 120 members (12 tribes times 10) from about 16 different political groups (another 20 groups don’t get enough votes.) There are several different ministries (like Education, Interior, Agricultural), and the groups divvy these up based on how many members they have in the parliament. Some of the smaller groups don’t worry so much about the big stuff, but want to have control of some of the other key ministries, like Interior or Education. The biggest group chooses a prime minister, and then they try to team up with other groups to form a coalition government. The current parliament couldn’t form a coalition, so they called for these elections last year. The timing of the Gaza strikes was probably not coincidental with this election. The result was that the groups that are more hard line (in favor of a hard stance against Gaza and the West Bank) gained more seats and more power. The largest group is in favor of working with the Palestinians to find a real solution, but they probably will not be able to get enough other groups to join them in a coalition, especially since the hardliners gained seats.

Well, even with the result, hopefully the new government can bring about a peaceful, viable solution. Keep praying.

Architectural Walk

This afternoon, after a day-and-a-half of much needed rain, the skies cleared and I decided to go walking to see some of the architecture in the New City. Now, the New City is huge, so I was just scraping the surface, but it was still fun. I took a ton of pictures. The best find was a Waldorf Historia under construction (note that construction actually happens in Jerusalem, where people can get permits, unlike in Palestine.) This hotel is being built in a spot where there was a 18 or 19th century hotel (I think.) They have decided to maintain the façade of the original building, but have a completely new building besides. What makes this even more complicated is that they dug down forty feet to add, I presume, some parking. This meant that they had to not only brace the façade, but also support it forty feet in the air. I was able to find a hole in the fencing to see into what they were doing at the foundation level. I was like an engineering kid in a foundation candy store. It was great.

Well, I hope to send a few more of these before I leave on Monday. On the off chance that I don’t, though, please know that you have been in my daily prayers. Interceding for others is a passion of mine, so I certainly tried to bring all of you with me here in my prayers. Till next time, be good.

Things are beginning to wind down for us now. There still have been some points of interest beyond me washing my black socks in the bathroom because I didn’t want to go to see the Latin Patriarch with black shoes and white socks. So, now that I’ve piqued your interest, let’s begin:

St. Anne’s

We obviously are not told in the Bible where the Virgin Mary was born. In fact, the canonical gospels don’t even tell us the names of her parents. We get the names of Joachim and Anne from the Gospel of James, one of the apocrypha gospels. Regardless, there is a tradition dating back to at least the 4th century that Mary was born in Jerusalem. The location, near the present day Lion’s Gate on the east side of the Old City, was originally commemorated by the Byzantines with a large cathedral dedicated to St. Anne.

Like all of the Byzantine churches (save the Church of the Nativity – see the posting for January 2nd) this one was destroyed. The ruins were impressive. Apses and some arches were still standing. The foundation walls were enormous and deep.

The real treat was the Crusader church that is still in use today. It is the typical Romanesque style that was typical of most Crusader churches, but the interior is nothing but bare stone. It was a Crusader church that was “Modern” 700 years before Modern architecture infected the world. The blank walls and simple geometric windows create pretty much all negative space, which lets the cross, tabernacle, and two statues really stand out in contrast.

There were two highlights of the church. First, to the left of the entrance, there is a statue of Anne teaching Mary. It reminded me of my goddaughter Mary Ann, showing her two patron saints. The other highlight was the acoustics. They were excellent for singing (but a challenge for speakers.) The reverberation of a simple chant lasted 6 seconds. That’s a long time in reverb terms. It would have been nice to have done some more singing there, but it gave the Mass we had there a definitely beautiful, solemn tone.

Western Wall (Wailing Wall)

For those of you keeping score at home, you’re probably pressing the red buzzer right now and screaming, “Hey, you’ve already talked about the Wailing Wall.” Well, congrats for paying attention, but ease off the buzzer as I add some more stuff. A quick recap, though, for anyone who missed it: the Western Wall (preferred name for Jews, though Wailing Wall is what we know it as) is just the foundation wall of the Temple Mount built by King Herod. Though the Temple and upper Temple Mount walls were completely destroyed by the Romans, the foundation walls, including this wall, still remain. The Jews pray there often, with many praying for the restoration of the Temple.

Today we went to the wall at sundown. As you know, Sabbath (Shabbat) starts at sundown on Friday. Most Jews in Israel, but especially the Orthodox, do not do any work on Sabbath. Many will quit their business a half hour before sundown to make certain they don’t accidentally work on the Sabbath. They then make their way to the Western Wall to begin the holy day by praying the Psalms. As it slowly got darker this afternoon, the area around the Wall began to swarm. Before it got heavy, though, I went to the wall with my Bible to pray a few of the Psalms. The first one I prayed was Psalm 122, which says in reference to the Temple: “For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will say, ‘Peace be within you’.” That seems so appropriate now that I have lived in the land for 9 weeks, growing in “brethren and companions” who long for a real peace.

There were different groups that came in masse to the area. Young Reformed Jews came in a big swarm. They divided into men and women and spent about fifteen minutes dancing and singing. It was like watching a Christian Youth Rally. They then made there way to the Wall. The Orthodox did the same thing, though with fewer numbers. At the Wall itself, though, the Orthodox Jews comprise well over 3/4th of the crowd. It was very interesting to watch their ritual of prayer on the holiest day of the week. (Actually, Shabbat is the only day that has a name in Hebrew. The other days are the first, second, etc. This is because they are named after pagan gods in other cultures, so they rejected any possible honor to these false gods.)

Latin Patriarch

As I said earlier, we visited with the Latin Patriarch this morning. The Patriarchate here includes Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Cyprus. So, this is what Patriarch Fuoad (pronounced Fu-odd) is in charge of now. There are certain issues that weigh on his mind that are so much different from our US bishops. For instance, yesterday he and many of the other bishops in the area went to visit the Christians in Gaza. Israel knew that they were making this journey, and yet they still were delayed for two hours going in and another three hours coming out. The dogs even sniffed his car, which is a designated diplomat car. Two Protestant bishops were rejected. Anyway, he shared with us some of the challenges he faced here. The most striking thing he said, though, was that the Christians here touch the Cross every day in the struggles they face. Though things need to change, he acknowledged that we are all called to carry our cross and not to flee from it. So, pray that the Christians here will have the grace and courage to stay and witness to Christ’s peace.

Not much else has been going on. I am trying to get to the Holy Sepulcher each morning for Mass. Today it was at the Golgotha altar and it was sung completely in Latin. It was very nice.

We had some talks this week by Jewish intellectuals. Both work for peace in the area in their own ways. After hearing from them, I figured it would be good to give you all a primer on Zionism. We’ll try to do that in one of the next posts. Till then, shalom.

To the four people who still read this blog, I am again sorry that it has taken me a while to add an entry. There are two reasons, neither of which you care about, but both of which I will hide behind right now. First, the remaining period here is getting short and I am finding that I need to spend an increasing amount of time working on papers and other school-related items. Second, we haven’t visited too much that is new. I don’t want to discourage you from reading my subsequent entries, but they will probably focus less and less on sites. Instead I probably will be discussing primarily both the people I’ve met and the subjects that have been broached by teachers and guest lecturers. To be certain, the people and lectures have helped to make this pilgrimage extremely eye-opening for me, but they may not be as exciting for you as the holy sites.

Recently, the focus has been on the group of donors who have joined us on the pilgrimage. As you may know, every year we have a large banquet in downtown Chicago called the Evening of Tribute, which is the main fundraiser for this pilgrimage. Every few years the donors have the opportunity to join the seminarians for a small portion of the ten week pilgrimage. This, I believe, is the first time that the donors have gotten to visit the seminarians in the Holy Land. Before 2006-07, the pilgrimage quarter was in Turkey, Greece, and Rome (the “Footsteps of Peter and Paul”) instead of the Holy Land, thanks to the second intifada. The donors visited a few groups in Rome during those years.

So we have had a few days to spend with them. On Friday we had a little reception for them with reflections and entertainment. I served as emcee for the evening. It was fun, and I think they enjoyed themselves. On Saturday we did make a site visit.

Bethany

The town of Bethany is not too far away from the city of Jerusalem. In fact, it is here that Jesus apparently stays for the first few days of the week of His Passover. His good friends Martha, Mary, and Lazarus lived in Bethany, which perhaps is why He decided to spend some of His last evenings alive there (my speculation.)

The town now has a church dedicated to Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. It is shaped like a Greek Cross, with a big dome and mosaics portraying some of the documented encounters that Jesus had with these three folks. There is also a tomb up the street believed to be Lazarus’ tomb. You can climb down stairs and crouch your way into the inner chamber of the tomb. It’s so tight that I don’t know which was a bigger miracle: that Jesus raised him from the day or that he was actually able to get out of the space. Perhaps four days without food helped.

I wasn’t really in the right spiritual disposition to truly meditate on the location. It would be nice to contemplate the true wonder it would have been to be a close friend of Jesus, as they were.

Obviously, I don’t need to be in Bethany to meditate on this. This brings up a point worth mentioning. If for some reason the Spirit strikes (or struck) you in reading any of the descriptions of locations in this blog, I encourage to follow His promptings and spend time meditating on the site, on the scene, on the passage. There will undoubtedly be spiritual fruit waiting for you to pick.

We did very little with the donors on Sunday, but on Monday morning, we accompanied them through the Via Dolorosa. It was nice to go through the Stations of the Cross again. The Stations are something that has to be experienced over and over. I know that when I do them back in the states in a chapel or along an outdoor path, I find something new to chew on each time. They are an endless source of spiritual inspiration.

On Monday night we had a reception and dinner with the donors, and I had a nice long discussion with a female donor from Chicago by the name of Monica. We talked about Gaza, the Church in America, getting Catholics back to Mass, and all the other problems of the world.

On Tuesday morning, I joined the donors for Mass at the Holy Sepulcher at 6:30am. This is the high, sung Mass with the Franciscans, who sing much of the liturgy. I ended up being the reader, which I thought was pretty cool. I can now say I have served and read at the Holy Sepulcher and sung in St. Peter’s in Rome. Problem is, the donors were supposed to be the readers and I just absent-mindedly stepped on their toes. We are so used to filling all of the ministries that I spaced the fact that they too had been fulfilling ministries in their own Masses. Nice job, kiddo.

Alright, I’m going to try to see them off at 3:30 tomorrow morning, so I need to get to bed. I pray that you are all doing well.