Feast of St Augustine

Today is the first Friday of Ramadan. Last night the streets were packed with muslims shopping and going to the Al-Aksa mosque for night prayers. Military security has been stepped up as expected: soldiers everywhere, but generally the mood was friendly and the soldiers were chatting and laughing with the local folk. This morning helicopters kept flying over the Al-Aksa and Dome of the Rock. It;s making the place pretty tense as we do not know why it's around. Anyway we heard that the soldiers are going to bar muslim men under 45 yrs to enter the Al-Aksa and Dome of the Rock today, something they've been doing for the past years. It'll definitely cause tension and those barred from entering will hold demonstrations at all the mosque gates as well as Damascus Gate, blocking traffic. This year we also noted a change - even young girls like 10 yrs old must wear the covering from head to toe in order to enter the mosque. This was not practiced in the previous years and shows a swing towards conservatism.

But for us, today s the feast of St. Augustine. He became a great saint but only after years of his mother St. Monica crying for his conversion. Her feastday was yesterday. It shows how family influence children's religious education is important.