Ash Wednesday

Noodles to end my 27 hr fast

Another Ash Wednesday. I'm responsible for the liturgy this week so this morning I had to preside the Mass. It took some preparation yesterday for the liturgy to go smoothly and this morning it well better than expected. I preached a 5 line sermon ... the shortest that I've given and it was effective. Everyone appreciated it ... in fact I think I heard some sighs of relief. Some people here can preach 20 minutes of nothing ... and we're terrified of it. A group of italian pilgrims came to join in the Mass so our chapel was packed. Most of our community was also present. Because of the crowd I had to ask another concelebrant to help with the distribution of the ashes. Anyway everything went fine.

Almond blossoms at
Damascus Gate

Most of us fasted today. I ate my last meal yesterday at 3pm and today I only had half a cup of coffee at breakfast and another half cup at 2pm. By 6pm, 27 hours without food I was still not feeling hungry though I was a little faint. I happened to pass by Mandarin restaurant and went to say Happy New Year to Ah Ling the manager. She said there was leftover noodles and insisted I took them home to eat. So my fasting ended after 27 hours. Others who ate dinner last night will end their fast at midnight. We take fasting seriously here.

Well Lent has begun so the Lenten rigours are in force. On Saturday midnight we'll have to go to the Holy Sepulchre for the Office of Readings and procession around the Empty Tomb. It'll end around 2pm and most of us will come home for a few hours sleep before celebrating Sunday Mass at 7am.

The onslaught of ultra-orthodox jews on other jewish denominations continue. One town's rabbi says mixed gender swimming pools are worse than incest. Another rabbi from another place called the reformed liturgy as rites for dogs.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/go-hold-bar-mitzvahs-for-dogs-orthodox-lawmaker-tells-reform-jews/
and
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-mixed-gender-swimming-makes-waves-in-kiryat-arba-1.5821287

On a different happy note, the first ever Israeli diplomats attended a UN Conference in muslim Malaysia. A nice thaw in relations.  https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-israeli-diplomats-attend-un-conference-in-malaysia/