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.

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