Christ the King

Tabernacle of the
Flagellation church

Yesterday was the Solemnity of Christ the King. The previous days I was very busy preparing the chapel of the Flagellation (and the Crowning of Thorns) for the feast. Our chapel which is the 2nd Station of the Cross is the center of this feast because it was here that Jesus was crowned with thorns and mocked as a king and where ... as in yesterday's Gospel reading ... Pilate questioned Jesus if he were a king and Jesus answered "yes". Unfortunately the rest of the Church has forgotten our little chapel that lies in the midst of aggressive muslim neighbors and anti-christian jews who pass by and spit at our door every single day. Christ the King continues to be derided and suffers.

On the tabernacle door of our chapel is the suffering face of Jesus wearing the Crown of Thorns. But above is a glorious jeweled Crown. In between is written in latin "Rex Cordium" ... King of Hearts. A very touching reminder for us all.

After Mass I cleaned my room for the coming Advent and in the afternoon I went to the park looking for pine cones for Advent decorations. The first park just had its grass cut and cleanly swept so not a single pine cone could be found. The second park was almost just as empty. I only managed to get a dozen or so of old broken cones. The 3rd park was equally empty. What a disappointment.  I'll have to tell our sisters that I can't find any. They were hoping to use it as decorations in the church.

Flagellation/Crown of Thorns chapel
on Christ the King solemnity

Wow so a small queue of overseas dignitaries have been making their way to our country. It looked like a little background support for the PM who only last week had to face the resignation of 1 minister and threats of other resignations and the collapse of his coalition govt. after he agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza. Anyway a regime change here would spell disaster as the surrounding region is in flames .... so no one wants that. On the other hand, a ceasefire in Gaza only prolongs the death throes of a crippled and helpless population due to the blocked of food and medicines, When a population is convinced that death is a relief from such an existence, then they fear nothing and that becomes Israel's greatest adversary. Your greatest enemy is the one who does not fear death.

Meantime jewish hate-crimes have been on the rise in arab villages. And the jewish extremist who burnt down the 5 loaves and 2 fish church in Tiberias issued an act of remorse and asking to lessen his sentence of 5.5 years in jail. Newspapers touted that he was repentant and should be granted early release. But I read the entire statement and nowhere did he ever said he regretted burning the church. NOWHERE. You read it in the link below. It's another great example of how these anti-christian culprits get away from justice, with the help of rightwing media.     https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/anti-arab-slogans-scrawled-in-palestinian-village-in-latest-act-of-vandalism-1.6680935?fbclid=IwAR3aHci5IJNBxPDSH0uM1EsNiQ8w8KWhEHIeOVXvffgpVX2xHlnADjcKDNA
and
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5413692,00.html?fbclid=IwAR3I88O_LenXh1ymHcLBP21OmIk8uJUnkyy4NBKsdIWnTstar8q6fn0ld3o