Winter is ending

The first almond
blossoms

It's Sunday again. Today I had to preside the liturgy at the Armenian Catholic church at the 3rd Station. The congregation was a little larger than usual ... about 20 people. Several pilgrims and the rest are local armenians. It's not a very big community of armenian catholics but many have gone to other churches because there has been no resident armenian priest for a very long time. We had an armenian franciscan, Fr. Talatinian, who helped out on Sundays for many years but he died at the age of 103 several years ago. Since then an armenian priest comes occasionally from Rome to celebrate the major feast days. For the rest of the year it's up to 2 of us to preside the liturgy ... and I am the only one who knows a little armenian to do parts of the Mass in that language.

Kitten on a sill

3 degrees again last night and this morning. Even people from eastern Europe say it's cold. AT noon it was 10 degrees and should feel a lot more warmer ... but because the sun is shaded by dark rain clouds, it feels as cold as 3 degrees. The ground is also wet. I saw a kitten sitting way up a windowsill  of a pharmacy to stay dry. Not exactly a cat on a hot tin roof ... rather a kitten on a cold wet sill.

I saw the first almond blossoms just outside the Old City ... in the abandoned lot below Notre Dame Centre. That's a sure sign Spring is coming ... the almond tree always blossoms in the last weeks of winter and the Joshua tree blossoms in the first weeks of Spring.

Not everything is so cheery though. We've had 2 "price tag" (revenge) attacks by jews on arab property south of Jerusalem. It's a frightening escalation of confrontational violence, tit-for-tat attacks which we saw as starters to an intifada.  http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Jerusalem-hit-with-second-Price-Tag-attack-in-2-weeks-539965

So the cold will continue for the next few days. The Municipality has issued guidelines to follow in case of bad weather. That's very helpful as many foreigners and locals don't know what to do or who to contact. They also have guidelines in case of earthquakes.  http://www.janglo.net/index.php?option=com_adsmanager&page=display&catid=99&tid=435596&utm_content=buffer09b3b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Am already dreading having to wake up at 3am for class in 2 degree weather. I'll be frozen. Can I have a better start to the week?