Yesterday's feast

Yesterday was the Feast of the Chair of Peter - an image of the Primacy or authority of Peter. The weather had surprised everyone: the day before was winter, cold and wet, yesterday it was summer, hot and sunny. I left early in the morning with the Custos to the Sea of Galilee. We went to the Church of the Primacy ("Tabgha") after a 2 hr drive to greet the superior and wish him a happy feastday. Then we went to Tiberias city for the festal Mass at the Church of St. Peter and the inauguration of Casa Nova Tiberias which is now runned by the Community of Koinonia of John the Baptist. A lovely buffet lunch was served to all who attended the event. Now visitors and pilgrims can live in the beautiful ambience of the Casa Nova directly next to the Sea of Galilee and right in the heart of Tiberias centre. The church of St Peter served as the centre of pilgrimage visits for many years until Capharnaum and Tabgha were excavated and themselves became pilgrimage centres. St. Peter's in Tiberias eventually fell into disuse until now. A statue of St Peter - identical to the one in the Vatican -  is situated in the centre of the courtyard of the church and it's right toe is worn down by thousands of pilgrims who once came to touch it in commemoration and prayed - exactly like in the Vatican.

The violence in Libya is reaching boiling point as we listened yesterday in utter amazement at Gaddafi's televised call to his supporters to attack and kill the protesters. He has practically incited civil war. What is needed is more high level defections to convince the military not to attack. Otherwise more people will die. Morocca, Algeria, Yemen and Bahrain are facing more protests. Practically the whole of the Arab world east to Israel is shaken by internal revolt - to the west of Israel, Jordan is in political tremors but the king is deftly managing the situation, to the south of Israel, Bahrain and Yemen is in turmoil. We stand in the middle of this political/social earthquake and fear the worse. When these arab countries try to unite its people and deflect home problems, they create an external common enemy - Israel. Nothing like attacking an enemy to unite the people, pull the economy together and reorganise itself. A war against Israel is quite likely in the coming future. We are praying it will not happen, but history seems to teach us a different lesson.

Let's pray for the victims of the New Zealand earthquake victims. There're still lots of people trapped under rubble. Hopefully all will be rescued. And there were earthquakes in the Philippines a short time later, and a Petaling Jaya (Malaysia) building shook, scaring people into the streets. What's happening to the world? And meantime a general strike is called throughout Greece after weeks of sporadic strikes by various sectors of its society. If you're visiting Greece, call it off. The airports will be closed. The country will be at a standstill.