Divine irruption

Yesterday was supposed to be the feast of the Annunciation but because it is octave of Easter, the feast is postponed to next week. And it was also my 16th anniversary of my ordination. Fr Giovanni Loche our youngest archaeologist was hebdom and he said a prayer for me during the intercession at Mass - and some friars were surprised .... like duuuuh .... don't they know I was ordained????? Anyway it was nice to have support and encouragement from my community here - which happens to be very small at the moment because it is still the easter holidays and many students and professors are still away.

So what did I do for my ordination anniversary? I cleaned out the birdcage! It was messy. And with the 4 pairs of canaries separated in different cages, feeding and cleaning takes a lot more time. And those silly canaries don't know how to make nests! They put the cotton all around but lay the eggs on the bare plastic containers - which happens to be quite cold this evening (it's been 36 degrees for the past few days but its getting cold again). So I don't expect any chicks this year. Each canary has laid 3 to 4 eggs.

I'm still unpacking all the stuff the HK group brought me. And the Singapore grp also left me 3 bags of stuff that I had to collect at Knights' Palace where they stayed. Yes it's really a Crusader Knights' Palace within the Old City and today part of it is the residence of the Latin Patriarch. Beautiful ambiance, full of history. The Singapore grp. found out how expensive it is to actually live here in Israel so out of support and charity, they left many stuff that we can use here and save on money.

Oh and today we launched the website of our Duns Scotus Bible Centre. It's http://www.dsbiblecentre.org/ so go check it out. I taught a lesson via video-conferencing today to HK but the group was small.

The Dean asked me to deliver a sermon in italian to the participants of our Bible Conference on St Paul (3 day event) but I was not prepared ..... pretty scared actually. And anyway I really want to get started with my thesis again. Ooops and I have one article to prepare by next week - panic!!!! It's supposed to be in italian too!!!

Sister Maria Ko is now in Jerusalem and I met her at Emmaus the day before. She's professor of patrology in Rome and was my professor in HK 20 yrs back. Hope to have dinner with her next week - my birthday is coming up (hint, hint).

Anyway today's readings at Mass gave me alot to think. The first reading has Peter healing a cripple and the Gospel has Jesus meeting the 2 disciples on the way to Emmaus (love the place - I was substitute parish priest there in 1995. During the Emmaus feast 2 days back I met the gardener Ashraf who was only a 12 yr old boy when I was parish priest there. Now he's getting married and he wants me over to his house to have a meal with his family and meet his future wife - next week. It's good to see these guys growing up despite the difficulties of living in an occupied land). The former story has a man who lost his faculty and physical capacity and the latter has 2 guys who has full faculties but still handicapped - incapable of recognising Jesus. For me it tells of our human condition - we're all handicapped even if we possess all our faculties. We're so limited and flawed, yet the good news is that healing and Jesus himself will come, will irrupt into our lives. Let the irruption begin!!!!!