Old

Sunrise today

Well I've never felt so old as I did today ... and it's because of our tradition whereby in the absence of the superior and his vicar, the next oldest in religious profession has to lead the prayers and give the final blessing at dinner. Since over 4/5 of our community is away on summer holidays, we're down to 9 guys ... and when it was time for the prayers and blessing, there was silence and everyone looked at me. I was the oldest. Oh my gosh ... I had to give the final blessing of the night to the community. I am actually that old. Bring out the walking stick and wheelchair!!!!

An enigmatic cat
contemplating the
full moon on an arch
of the Muristan

It was a very busy day as I had early Mass at the Ivrea convent at 6am then preached a retreat at 9am and a meeting with nuns from Syria at 10.30am. I had to prepare many packs of medical stuff which the sisters will bring back to Syria to help the poor refugees and persecuted christians. Rushed home but was late for lunch. After lunch I had a couple of hours free to do my own work and then I had to preach a conference with eucharistic adoration and confessions from 4pm to 6.30pm. I had hoped to visit the rest of the Nablus Road Open Day institutes but there was no time. I begin my hebdomedarius turn this week so at 7pm I had to lead vespers for the vigil of Corpus Christi. Then as hebdom I had to serve the dinner table and do the washing of dishes and prepare the table for tomorrow's lunch. Then the sisters and I practised some humans in english for tomorrow morning's Mass which is in english. Had to photocopy 2o sheets of music. Now I'll have to prepare 2 homilies for tomorrow ... the english Mass and the armenian Mass.

New is out that fruit and veggies have saved in prices ... so high that Israelis have stopped buying them. The economic situation is not good as salaries are not catching up with the very high cost of living. A plate of fried rice costs US$20. Frightful.

News is out that Trump is revealing part of his Deal of the Century which includes US$50 billion in palestinian infrastructures. Well money is not freedom. But there will be those who're more attracted to money than freedom. Everyone agrees at the end, there'll be no Palestinian state.