Transitus of St. Francis

We just finished celebrating the Transitus of St. Francis of Assisi. That's the passing away (transitus) which occurred on the night of Oct. 3rd. The solemn celebration took place at our provincial house at St. Saviour church. The relic of St. Francis was taken out for veneration. And our young friars renewed their temporary vows during the ceremony. It was nice. The whole event was live broadcasted on Youtube.

Last night I had to go to the chinese convent for dinner. Actually I forgot all about it and was asleep when the sisters called to say what time I would arrive. Rushed 1km uphill to their convent ... feeling extremely tired and sleepy. I think I must have dozed off when I arrived. The sisters eat very simply: one boiled potato, half a boiled carrot, half a boiled sweet potato, a quarter of a boiled cabbage and a dozen leaves of boiled lettuce. That's for 5 people to eat!!!!!

3rd road block at
Ecce Homo

The roads were closed in East Jerusalem and coming home I found myself blocked out of my home. Within the 40 meters from Austrian Hospice (opposite the 3rd Station of the Cross) to my house there were 5 road blocks ... one every 8 or 9 meters. Utterly unbelievable!!! One in front of Austrian Hospice, then less than 10m at the parking lot behind the Armenian Catholic Church; then again at Ecce Homo convent, then one in front of our garage and another less than 5 meters at the entrance to Herod's Ascent which runs north along our property to Herod's Gate. Security was super duper tight. All because it was the Jewish New Year and the govt didn't want any terrorist attacks. Well much as they try, violence will occur like every year. It always does. It begins when jews enter the Al Aqsa Mosque compound on the Feast of Tabernacles to tear down the Golden Dome Mosque so that the jewish Messiah might come. That always sparks violence. No exceptions this year. been there, done that.

Road block at
Herod's Ascent

News is out that Prince Charles, after the State Funeral of Shimon Peres, went to the Mt. of Olives secretly to visit the tomb of his grandmother, the Princess Royal, Alice of Battenberg (later the family changed it to Mountbatten during the 2nd World War because of the German/Nazi link). She was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and was married to the Russian royal family. She converted to become Russian Orthodox, founded a congregation of russian nuns, saved russian jewish families and when she died, she asked to be buried in Jerusalem in the convent of the nuns she founded. I've been to see it twice. Well Charles and to go secretly because the british royal house has limits regarding visits to Israel.

Anyway my shoulder still hurts a lot. Right now. It's keeping me awake. I think I have a fever as well. I wonder when this will end. Chop my right arm off maybe.