Gethsemani

So I found out what type of fish it is - a parrot fish. Now what I need to know is what it eats! It's not eaten for 2 days but has torn apart the crytocoryne (an aquatic plant) that I put inside. And its name will be Mr. P (I think it's a "he"). Anyway I already got an offer from one of the students, Jobi from India, to keep him. I don't mind. But he wants Mr. P only after the Easter holidays. So I'll have to babysit Mr. P till then.

Yesterday we had the annual pilgrimage to Gethsemani. The Wednesdays of Lent are commemorated by the friars of the Holyland by making a pilgrimage to the various sanctuaries associated with the Passion of Christ. So last week was Dominus Flevit ("The Lord wept") midway up the Mt. of Olives; yesterday was in the Basilica of the Agony (Gethsemani at the foot of the Mt. of Olives) and next week will be the Flagellation Chapel (my place across the Mt. of Olives in the Old City of Jerualem). We sing solemn Vespers together with Mass and lots of local christians and religious come to join in. I didn't concelebrate as I already celebrated Mass in the morning at the Sisters of Ivrea convent.

It was a solemn celebration with lots of latin hymns. Fr Artemio who preached the homily reminded us of Christ's commitment to do the Father's will, and our responsibility to imitate him. After Mass, I went to the Rock of the Agony - a huge piece of mountain rock in front of the altar where tradition says Jesus knelt there to pray, sweating blood. So I knelt down there -with alot of difficulty and the nuns had to help me up on my feet afterwards - and prayed. I prayed for all of you, every single one of you, all you who are alive now and all those who have died, for all your pain and sufferings, all your problems and difficulties, for all your darkness and confusion, that it may be joined to the suffering of Christ here on the Rock; and that you may receive the consolation Christ received here from the angel.