Feast of the Holy Innocents yesterday ... the solemn Mass in Bethlehem would have been memorable if not for the fight between Greek Orthodox monks and Armenian Orthodox clergy. It's the annual brawl that never fails to draw journalists. In fact the fight was broadcast almost immediately on BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera!!! The Orthodox celebrate Christmas in a week's time and they must do the annual cleaning of the basilica which they stole from the Franciscans about 100 years ago. One particular wall is ultra sensitive as both greeks and armenians claim ownership over it. So the result - fight. Brooms hurled and punches pulled. Palestinian police had to come in and restore calm. What a fiasco. Talk about Holy Innocents ... they must be having a good laugh in heaven. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16347418
That fiasco has only added more entertainment to the Christmas spirit of the Western christians ... ironically. They're having a real good laugh at the ridiculous situation. Anyway here are a couple of photos of how the streets in the Christian Quarter look like this Christmas. Pretty tacky ... but what the heck, it's only once a year and it does cheer up the arab christians from an otherwise miserable existence in this land.
Yesterday should have been the feastday of Sr. Innocentina. She died last week at a ripe old age of I think almost 90. She used to work in our kitchen 20 years ago. Also I cannot forget that it's just one year since Sr. Rania died in the car-crash, killing also Srs. Salvatorina and Valeria. It's been a sad Christmas for me.
At 5pm yesterday there was the annual Christmas greeting with the Custos. The few of us who are home had to go up to S. Saviour's to exchange greetings with him. He spoke for a while and noted that this year we had many funerals. How true ... we lost so many this year. 2011 was not good ... not least for me. We lived like the Holy Innocents ... victims of circumstance. Wrong time, wrong place.
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