Stromata

Piglets in baskets

Another violent couple of days. Yesterday evening I was on my way down to the 3rd Station to buy some Shoko (chocolate milk) to soothe my ailing tummy when lots of soldiers were running toward Damascus Gate. My security friends told me there was a stabbing: an arab from Bethlehem with an axe against a policeman. The latter was wounded in the leg and the former was shot and arrested. Today all the alleys in our Quarter are blocked off by soldiers and only the main roads were opened to traffic. That's the price we all have to pay for one person's crime. Collective punishment.

Gaza has been firing missiles into Israel and today Israel fired back. Everyone thinks it'll crescendo sooner or later towards the Yom Kippur / Sukkoth feasts. What a dreadful autumn ... and speaking of autumn, people are saying autumn has arrived. The sun rises much later at almost 6am and sets early at 7.45pm. We had a very short summer but it was very hot and intense. But autumn doesn't seem very promising either.

On a nice note: a group came bringing me a dozen piglets in baskets - chinese cookies! Lots of my friends have been very curious about this since I received (and ate) one a month ago. Now I can share it with them. I hope it's kosher!

Carmelites from Haifa and
Nazareth making the Way of the Cross

And yesterday was a big celebration at the Bethlehem Carmelite Monastery to commemorate the canonisation of their founding sister, the arab St. Miriam Bouardy. I heard it was very crowded so that the Mass had to be celebrated in the garden of the Betarram Fathers next door. Carmelite nuns from Haifa, Nazareth and Jerusalem also attended. Today some of the nuns came to visit the Old City and make the Way of the Cross. It's the first time for all of them to visit Jerusalem even though they have been in Israel for several years now. That's the cloistered life.