Flowers

Preparing for confessions

Summer weather is slowly creeping in. Daytime is sunny and temp rises to 26 degrees. But evenings and early mornings are still cool, around 11 degrees, and require a jacket if going outdoors. The muslim call to prayer is getting earlier each morning ... about 4am now. At the height of summer, it's as early as 2.30am.

Yesterday I had to go to Jaffa to hear confessions. There were 2 others, all Indians, who helped out. About 200 people came for confession and it took us over three hours to hear it all. That's a big difference from last year when only less than 50 confessed.

Backyard flowers

It was also a good occasion to catch up with the parish priest, an old friend from 30 years back. He and his wife stay in the parish house - it's a Greek Melkite parish and they have married priests - though his home is still in Jerusalem. The backyard of the parish house was full of wild flowers and I plucked many for our chapel back home. The Municipality had told them to cut it all down by next week for some reason or other (mosquito breeding?) so the parish priest and his wife told me to cut as many as I want before they mow it down. 

Holy Week is a week away. Security is being stepped up in the City as believers celebrating their feasts will cross paths in certain gates and streets, a crowd control has to be place if any traffic jam is to be avoided. As with every year, there'll be a police block on both sides of our main entrance as crowds tend to gather around here. No going out, no coming in.