Two ‘Mass’ Hold-Ups!

Any of you who have had the privilege to visit the holy land will be aware of the queues and busyness in some of the major sites, such as the church of the Holy Sepulchre. So a group of us decided to get up early and head to the church, hoping to try beat the crowds and visit this remarkable place. 

It was a very different experience walking through the old city at that time of the morning, the shops of the souk were closed, and it was very quiet. When we reached the church, it was quiet and peaceful, and we thought we would be able to simply walk into the chapel housing Jesus’ tomb. But… we had to wait, not for the crowds this time, because a Mass was being said! After the final ‘amen’, we were able to visit. 

After a brief detour onto the roof where there are small, hermitage-like cells of the Coptic monastery, we headed back to the college, grabbing some saffron bread on the way.

The first item on the official agenda for the day, with a lecture on images of Mary, as the nativity was a large part of her focus today. We then headed out, just a few miles outside Jerusalem to the village of Ein Kerem, well, Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth and her husband, Zechariah lived. We walked up to the church commemorating Mary’s visit to Elizabeth when both were pregnant, enjoying the views en route. We took time to look at both chapels and the artwork, and paused for a time of guided reflection.

There was a welcome ice cream stop on the way back to the coach ~ it’s been particularly hot and humid today! Then we headed around the south of Jerusalem to the checkpoint into Bethlehem.

Just inside the city, we walked alongside the separation wall for a few minutes, looking at the graffiti, including the Banksys, most of it, very powerful in its images and messages. The walk took us past Banksy’s ‘Walled Off Hotel’, but sadly there wasn’t time to visit.

Then drove to the edge of the Aida Refugee Camp, where we dropped off. We walked through part of the camp to reach our lunch destination. Aida is one of a number of refugee camps, housing, Palestinian families who were displaced in 1948. Since then the camps have developed with very dense, poor housing. Many families are now in the fifth or sixth generation, passing on the keys to the home they left to the next generation. Hence the symbol for the camps and the refugees is a key.

Our lunch was provided by Noor. Noor means light in Arabic, and is a project created by and for refugee women from two camps who have children with disabilities. They seek to empower themselves and find ways forward with the challenges they face. A large part of the project is to offer cookery schools, hence we enjoyed a really lovely Palestinian lunch. Islam, the coordinator of the project, took time to share her story and about the project. It was very sobering and moving, and also incredible and hopeful, as these women do what they can…

As we walked out of the camp, we popped into a tiny shop selling jewellery and other items made out of tear gas canisters…

We moved on into Bethlehem city centre, and visited the Church of the Nativity, with the help of a lovely local guide, who is Syrian Orthodox. He guided us through the complex, talking to us as we waited to go down to the cave and the place where Jesus was born. For the second time today, we had to wait until a Mass was finished!

Our final site for the day, well nearly(!), was the church of the milk grotto, a beautiful modern building with an ancient chapel underneath. After the busyness and bustle of the church of the nativity, we all really appreciated the peace and quiet here. There is a chapel of perpetual prayer, where one of the sisters is always in the chapel praying, 24/7. 

We had had various reflections during the day, at the sites in on the coach, thinking about Elizabeth and Mary; also Ruth, who came to Bethlehem with Naomi; the horrors of the slaughter of the innocents; and other women, including Rachel. Rachel’s tomb is on the outskirts of Bethlehem, but is now in Israel. She was buried here millennia ago, and twice later in the Bible, we read about Rachel weeping for the pain of the people of Bethlehem. There’s certainly a lot of pain in Bethlehem today.

To finish on a lighter note ~ there was one more location at the very end of the day. Before we left Bethlehem, there was a little bit of free time, and a number of us visited an olive wood factory. I found this wonderful and moving because I visited the same place on my first visit back in 2007. 

On that occasion, a group of us walked into Bethlehem, from where we were staying, and ended up at this olive wood factory. The owner, Jack, could see we were interested in his situation, so shower us the factory, and took us up on the roof to enjoy the incredible views. We spent about 45 minutes on the roof, talking with him as he shared the huge challenges he faced. I bought an olive cross from him, which he signed on the back, which is hanging up at home. It was fantastic to revisit this place… I spoke with Jack’s son and told him, and he was moved too ~ a special way to end the day.