St. Augustine Day

Greek Orthodox confession at
the Holy Sepulcher

It's the memorial of St. Augustine of Hippo today. Not that I'm a great fan of his theology. He was quite a testy guy and had several clashes with St. Jerome - a dalmatian by birth and temperament - hence it was quite heated.

The Haj (pilgrimage) to Mecca is beginning for the muslims. The feast itself - eid al Adha, the sacrifice of Ishmael by Abraham - falls on the evening of August 30th and ends the evening of the following day. While the main event will be in Mecca, and we are told that 2 million have already arrived, local muslims who cannot make it there will celebrate it at the Al Aqsa mosque. Sheep will be brought into the compound and slaughtered. Part of the meat is eaten by the family and the rest is offered to the poor. After the Haj to Mecca, many pilgrims also stop by Jerusalem to visit the Al Aqsa. So we can expect a crowded week ahead in the Old City. Security you can be sure will be super tight.

Meantime news is out that a tourist has died at the Dead Sea. In fact most tourist deaths occur at the Dead Sea ... more than any other place in Israel. It could be the combination of the intense heat, the fatigue, the sulfuric fumes ... all play some part in tourist deaths. And to add to the trauma, transporting the body back to the country of origin gets even more complicated. Non-jewish people must be hired to carry the body on board the place from the mortuary as jews do not want to handle a gentile dead body. http://www.timesofisrael.com/uruguayan-tourist-collapses-and-dies-at-the-dead-sea/

Yesterday while at the Holy Sepulcher, I witnessed a group of Greek Orthodox nuns confessing to a priest. Though I've studied how they celebrate this Sacrament, I've never actually seen them do it. Yesterday was my first life experience.