Onomastico

One floral arrangement

The morning started early with Mass at the Empty Tomb at 6am. The filipino group from Jaffa that booked it came late so I started the Mass with the 15 filipino priests whoa re here on pilgrimage with the 4 chinese sisters. During the sermon the Jaffa group came ... and they were so many the Tomb was packed and several had to stand outside. Giving out communion was a challenge. Anyway I offered the Mass for your intentions and prayed for you all.

2nd floral design

Then I had to give a recollection to the same filipino community. It was a good talk. 40 minutes. Then   I rushed home to pick flowers from our garden to make 2 floral arrangements for our dining table.  The plumbago bush and Salvia bushes are all blooming like crazy so I picked lots of flowers. And the color scheme is perfect ... pastel blue on indigo. It's my feast day today ... Pope St. Leo the Great ... so there's a lunch celebration. The cooks made 2 cakes for me ... one black forest and one blueberry cheesecake. Both my favorites. The cook also made beef shawarma for the main dish and tagliatelle for starters. All in all it was nice. We use the greek term "onomastico" to refer to our patron saint's day. It's usually celebrated in place of birthdays.

There's a viral video on the flash floods in Petra, the ancient Nabatean city in Jordan. A major tourist spot, everything came to a halt when waves of water and sand and stone flowed down into the archeological park. 8 were killed and many injured. I guess there'll be lots of repair work to do and the site will be closed to tourists for some time.  https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Three-Israelis-lost-communication-in-Jordan-floods-571520?fbclid=IwAR0BgdVWVLIzPosW8UGxPWxga0YseatHTRvFcP27kQE9nz9VRRknGSeIyzQ
and
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-46162772/deadly-flash-floods-hit-jordan-s-iconic-city-of-petra?fbclid=IwAR0KB8cqOSDmXsnj1fIvZKtU22IwEwjeS4NzlLfUEk9O90kbPEQZtBIOb_U

Here we are hoping for more rain but Jerusalem is not getting it's share of it. Let's hope the coming months will be more promising to us.