11/11 at 11.11

Sunset over Mt. of Olives

It was a lovely Sunday. I had the Armenian Mass at the 3rd Station and the armenian twins came to help me. They are our seminarians and everyone is very proud of them. Identical twins who speak and read armenian. But they don't know the armenian liturgy so I have to teach them the hymns and Creed. But they are rally a great help because they can respond during the Liturgy and help sing the hymns and prayers while I can get on with the priestly parts. The armenian Catholic laity were very delighted to have young armenian vocations and chatted with them for a long time after Mass.

The desert toward Jericho

Then at 1pm I went for a long walk away from Jerusalem ... specially up the Mt. of Olives. It was a very cloudy day ... at times it almost looked as if it would rain but didn't. The walk was therefore not as difficult given the weather. It included a walk down the Kidron Valley then up the Mt. of Olives to the Lutheran Augusta Victoria hospital. A total of about 3 km. From the back of the hospital, you can see the entire Jordan Valley and the desert stretching from the Herodion (King Herod's palace where he died) in the south to the mountains of the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan (ancient Moab) in the east and Jericho desert to the north-east.. It's amazing.

Mt. of Olives looking southwards

I went there with Bro. Leo ... we wanted to celebrate our feast day in quiet reflection away from the noisy City. And the hospital was the perfect place. Leo and I talked about the Gospel of Mark for 2 hours while overlooking the immense desert. Then we walked back to the City, passion by the Nunciature. We went through the Rockefeller Museum into East Jerusalem as we bought some necessities for the week. Then Leo came to play with Buddy and Chilli while our Indian sisters pampered him with indian food and goodies. And so our feast day celebration ended.

Today is 11/11. I watched for a few minutes the remembrance celebrations of the end of the First World War. Though Israel didn't exist back then, our PM was at the Paris Peace Forum with other heads of State for this event. A divided world killing each other out of fear and unfounded hatred ... nothing was learned. 20 years after the WW1 there was the WW2 and the horror of Nazism and the Holocaust, and the Japanese atrocities in the East. Will humanity ever learn?