Cold weekend

Cold lonely walk
to the Holy
Sepulchre

The winter continues to bite hard on us. For many in our region, it is one of the most difficult periods where there is either no shelter, food, heat and medication, or it costs too much. For the record, I have never asked for a fund-raising for the Holy Land or for anyone; nor asked anyone to do so.

Strangely while it's 12 degrees outside with the sun shining brightly, it remains very cold in the shade and indoors. For us working indoors, it means wearing stacks of sweaters. Well the forecast for the week is sunny till Thursday when rain is expected again. Nights continue to be 2 degrees while daytime the temp. may rise to 15 degrees.

And in this cold weather I had a very hard day yesterday, beginning at 4am and finishing past 9pm. It was just work right through, with classes and work in the 2 libraries and several meetings in between. And it included running (or hobbling in my case) 2 kms from school to the library in 40 minutes.

Mass inside the
Empty Tomb

Early yesterday morning I had to celebrate Mass in the Empty Tomb for the American Franciscan sisters. It was a very dark and cold walk up to the Holy Sepulchre Church. I walked slowly as I didn't want an asthma attack. The Mass was beautiful because there were only 2 sisters and myself in the Tomb. There was space and silence. And I could take some photos that I would not usually be able to do. Remembered you all during Mass in the Tomb.

Meanwhile there was a massive police presence in the Old City and outside as well. This time in a reversal of roles: to protect arabs from jews. This is because the court ordered and the soldiers enacted the forced evacuation of jewish settlers from occupied private arab land. Pro-settlers are enraged and we expect some revenge attacks by them on arabs and on our churches. It has happened many times before. They call it "price tag" attacks. So the soldiers were here to protect us. Let's hope they do a good job.