Pentecost

Archbishop at the Abbey

It's Pentecost ... the end of Easter. And also the end of the month of May. The annual Marian Mass took place as usual in St. Saviour's monastery courtyard with the Archbishop presiding ... but seats were spaced and limited to 50 people. Then today the Archbishop presided Mass of Pentecost at the Dormition Abbey next to the Last Supper Room - which is occupied by Israel as a museum even though we hold the title deed. Every feast since Lent has been low-key ... and as the Archbishop said in his sermon, we must get used to the changes because things will never return to the same. That's the challenge of the Holy Spirit ... to open new horizons.

This morning I had solemn Mass at the remaining Catholic church ... my pastoral mission. Solemn means a little more singing and lots of incense. There was a small congregation ... limited to 10 plus organist. We managed to do a few more parts of the liturgy in armenian. I'm quite happy to be honest. I've spent most of lockdown time learning armenian and coptic ... and now I can read armenian liturgical texts at a basic level. That's lockdown well spent.

Pigs trotters and noodles

In the afternoon I went to encourage some friends - Ah Ling of Mandarin Restaurant and Linda of Mian restaurant. Poor Ah Ling is owed hundreds of thousands of shekels from travel agencies which have either closed or gone bankrupt. But she reopened 3 days ago as the govt has allowed sit-in patrons. I went to encourage her and she cooked stewed pigs trotters with ginger/chives noodles for me to eat. I don't eat pork but out of deference, I ate it between mouthfuls of coca cola. It was very nice of her anyway and I gave her a blessing. After that I went down to Mian restaurant to visit Linda and the cook Leo. Billy the owner is recovering from a brain haemorrhage and his wife Linda is running the restaurant with Leo cooking and Mohammed washing up. Billy is getting better and we chatted up a lot after 3 months of lockdown. Everyone was well and happy ... so I went home knowing my friends are ok.

Marian altar at St. Saviour courtyard

The number of infections in schools have risen and the govt ordered last night for all schools with infections to be closed. And the PM has declared that the rise of infections show that the summer heat does not kill or slow down the infections. Still in East Jerusalem 90% of the arabs there don't wear masks or keep distancing. In 2 months they will know if a 2nd wave of infections will come akilling. In West Jerusalem more people are wearing masks but still  distancing is not observed.