Met the Custos

Another hot day. But I enjoyed the morning because I got to meet with the Custos (hope you haven't forgotten who he is). The Via Dolorosa was blocked with a couple fo groups making the Way of the Cross so I decided to walk outside the City walls. It was hot but being the morning sun (9am), it was still bearable and many vendors took advantage to sell their wares. It was like the old days - packed with bedouins and people from the villages selling everything under the sun (all made in China). And of course the veggies are fresh. Besides the figs, I also saw mint, hyssop and other herbs for sale.

I had my 15 minutes with the Custos (actually 5 minutes extra as we started out early). We talked on serious topics, but also joked and laughed. It was good to see him. We figured how old we had become. He's got white hair - even his beard is white, and he's 2 years younger than I. Anyway it made my day just to be able to talk to him again. We were pretty happy to have met up.

Got home to do some work. The heat tires everyone out. I managed to connect the VC to HK for class today, and after that I fell asleep. Had this really weird nightmare that scared me. real weird. Like out of a TV show (no I haven't been watching TV. In fact I've never watched TV here in Jerusalem in all the years that I've been here.) It was so weird and the place looked like my monastery and loads of people, some of whom I recognised. Woke up in a shock.

By the way there'll be some changes in my summer vacation plans...... hmm bet you want to know. Only thing I'm letting out is I'm trying to avoid long haul flights. And by the way my nose was bleeding for 2 days. Weird ... maybe it's the heat.

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of the Chinese martyrs and today we celebrated the martyrs of the Holyland. Today we hear from Hosea about God's love. We read the famous verse that St. Matthew uses in his Gospel about God calling Israel out of Egypt just like a child. But the bad news is Israel continued to think it was the idols who did it. But God will not give up on Israel. He says the famous words "I am God, not man ....I have no wish to destroy". This not only says alot about God's life-loving quality but is an indictment on humanity's destructive nature. Time to stop all this destruction. We were created in God's image so we should have inherited this life-loving character as well. Instead we destroy and destroy and destroy.