All Souls

Mt. Zion cemetary yesterday

Yesterday was All Souls Day and it was very busy for me. The morning was spent cleaning tombs at our cemetery at Mt. Zion ... behind the Last Supper Room. Carrying bottles of water, sponges and flowers was hard work and I had to walk 1.5km to get to the cemetery. Luckily there were 3 american students from the Franciscan Umi of Steubenville who volunteered to help me. The cemetery was a little crowded at 9am ... families sitting by the graves of their loved ones offered us sweets and pastries. It's a local custom. I blessed their tombs in return.

Student volunteers 

We cleaned up a couple of tombs ... especially the one of our Hong Kong student ... and we prayed and laid flowers. Many jews also came and laid stones on the grave of Oscar Schindler ... whose tomb is close to our HK student's. Later at 9am all the franciscans came to pray and bless all the tombs.It was very crowded by then. Holy Water was dispensed and thuribles of incense were waved over every tomb. For many people, this was a necessary closure.

Later at 5pm the few chinese priests here were joined with chinese catholic migrant workers to celebrate Mass in chinese. It was a small group but everyone appreciated the Mass ... they being so far from home. To offer a Mass here in the Holy Land for the souls of the departed is a privilege which these workers realised. They were very touched.

In between the cemetery and Mass I had class. Believe me I had no time in between to rest ... it was one big rush from one part of the City to another. By night I was too exhausted to even eat ... so I slept.

This morning it was Mass at the armenian church and then meeting the profs and students of Uni, of S. Africa. It was good to see Prof. Magdel again and some of the students I've met before.