Feast of St. Joseph

A Judas tree still in bloom near
Mamilla neighbourhood

The local Church, while keeping the Lenten rigours, celebrated today the Feast of St. Joseph. Of course it's a big deal ... Joseph is a local boy from this Land. I celebrated Mass at the Armenian Cathedral ... I didn't manage to go to the Vigils last night as I was very tired by 10.30pm. So I prayed for you all at Mass at the Armenian place. I'm glad some of my students come to help me there ... 2 as acolytes, the others as readers and choir. Not an easy job as I have to teach them and the organist how to sing the armenian hymns and prayers. But it's all worth it when the Armenian Catholic families come back for Mass. Today we had half the crowd made up of Armenians and the other half foreigners. Not a big crowd .... only 20 persons or so. But it's a big improvement from one Armenian and 2 nuns.

One scary news is that Syria is receiving missiles from North Korea. Yesterday the Israeli airforce bombed a convoy of these missiles in Syria.  http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/middle-east/israel-and-the-middle-east/idf-attack-target-north-korean-missiles-in-syria-27306

Homecooked
noodles

One surprising good news is that the Vatican has offered half a million dollars to help with the renovation of the Holy Sepulchre ... and another similar sum for the renovation of the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem. So far all the costs are covered by the Franciscans' benefactors on behalf of the Catholic Church. Nice gesture.

I'm keeping a vegetarian diet this Lent. It's not that difficult as vegetables and fruit are plentiful. They're still relatively cheap ... well almost. 5 stalks of chives cost US$1.50. Is that expensive? Anyway yesterday I managed to boil some noodles and spinach ... and added some leftover vegetable dumplings I cooked for Matthias. Simple meal but satisfying. St. Joseph always provides.