Mass at the Tomb

Sr. Marina &
Fr. Abraham

 It's Easter Thursday ... I was able to celebrate Mass in the Empty Tomb this morning. It was a privilege because this week, all Masses in the Tomb are totally booked. The superior there kindly squeezed me in in a 20 min slot before the Tomb was transferred to Greek Orthodox guardianship at 8.45am. It was a last-minute arrangement for Sr. Marina, who is here for a sabbatical leave but was stuck in the pandemic lockdown. Next week she will return to her mission in Taiwan. I got a fellow filipino priest to preside as he never had the chance to celebrate inside the Tomb itself.

Sr. Marina was very touched. I gave her a crucifix with a relic of Mt. Calvary as a reminder of the Holy Land. Hopefully she will return safely to her mission and share her experiences. I also remembered all of you at Mass and prayed for all of you.

Then I had to rush off immediately after Mass to Bethlehem to celebrate another Mass for the MC sisters there. The 4 sisters are elderly and care for 12 mentally-handicapped men. To relieve their stress of work and going out for Mass (not priest comes to their convent), I decided to go today. I also brought 12 sacks of clothes, shoes etc... for the poor there. Then in the afternoon I went to the MC convent in Jerusalem for Adoration and confessions. So it has been a very busy day running between 2 countries. 

Ma'amoul ... Easter cookies

One nice thing though ... some people made ma'amoul  for me. It's the Easter cookies eaten by locals. It's made from samolina and date fillings. That for me is a typical Easter celebration. I must have ma'amoul for Easter!

Today is also Holocaust Day. At 10am a 2 minute siren was sounded and everyone stood still. I was in Bethlehem though. Next Tuesday will be Memorial Day which commemorates all the soldiers who died since the founding of the country. But this year it coincides with muslim Ramadan. It will be very tense and I'm expecting road closures, neighbourhood lockdowns etc. I'm not sure if it'll affect my workers from coming to work. I'll have to reassess it and make a last minute decision if the libraries should close.