Exaltation of the Cross

Today is a big feastday for us - the exaltation of the Cross. There was a solemn Mass on Mt. Calvary at 8am. I guess lots of people were there because this morning at Mass there were only a handful of us at our place.

The weather today is cloudy and very damp. But no drizzle so far. We hope there'll be just a little rain before the drought begins. Please God.

As Yom Kippur nears (the Day of Atonement), Jews are spending these few days in deep reflection over the past year. One of the biggest issues being discussed/argued is the forced deportation of 400 (a few thousand more in the waiting line) children born of foreign workers here in Israel. These include many chinese and indian children born here and speak only hebrew. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/expulsion-eve-thoughts-1.313489 Will the powers relent or will they go ahead with this cleansing of the land ... with gentile children made scapegoats?

Now that there is no Temple and Altar, Jews celebrate Yom Kippur by placing their sins on a chicken and slaughtering it (they use to do that to a goat - the scapegoat); but now a leading rabbi has come out against this practice because it causes pain to the chicken hence not kosher. See http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=188041  and http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/leading-rabbi-joins-animal-rights-group-s-campaign-against-kaparot-1.313459

Well there're so many things wrong in this land, yet there're so many things that we should be grateful for in this land. Perhaps Yom Kippur this year has coincided with the Exaltation of the Cross for a reason that we should deeply reflect - the atonement of sins for us Christians was once and for all completed on the Cross. And that alone is worth all the thanksgiving in this land.