Yesterday night as is traditional here, everyone was re-assigned with a spiritual mission. That means getting a new patron saint for the year, a virtue to cultivate and a deceased friar to pray for. My patron for 2008 is St Peter of Alcantara - an extremely austere spanish friar who was spiritual director of St Teresa of Avila. My virtue to cultivate: daily examination of conscience. Deceased friar to pray for: Fr Scarrica; he died 3 years ago. Hope I'll hold out for the rest of the year with this intention!
Now you won't believe this but I bought a book from Amazon.com but when it arrived at the Post Office, I was taxed US$20 for it! This is terrible! Do you know of another country that opens your mail and then taxes you for things you buy legally overseas? That's why I tell you guys when you post things to me not to send them in big packs as it attracts attention and I'm slapped with a tax. And the worse thing is I need the books for my studies! I think what I can do is get Amazon.com to ship the books to HK and then a grp can bring it up to me; but this means waiting for a couple of months and I need the books immediately!
Urgent Appeal: I've been told by our Franciscan Corner/Bookshop guy that lots of migrant chinese workers come weekly to pick up any free chinese language magazines that I leave there. They really need some reading material in chinese. So can you guys be good enough as to send me yesterday's newspapers (chinese only) and Kung Kao Po that I can leave at our Center for thee poor blokes. They are so alienated from Israeli life and language and we're the only place they can gather and read something in chinese. Another nice thing you can do is sponsor - give me a gift subscription to Kung Kao Po or any other magazine/newspaper in chinese and I can then place it in the center for those guys to read. It makes them feel at home and know alittle more news about China. Please think about this ok?
Monday, January 7, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Happy Epiphany
Yesterday evenings Vespers was solemn but the organist kept getting the wrong tones - sort of funny but I didn't laugh. I really wanted to relax as I was so exhausted, so went to sleep early after dinner, sometime at 10pm. It was sort of exciting though as I was thinking about Epiphany before I fell asleep: The Magi came all the way to adore the infant Jesus, to Bethlehem just 11 kms awa from where I lived. And the miracle of Cana took place up north where I just visited with my group only a few days ago. Yes it is so fortunate to be living in the land where all these Gospel events took place.
Agnes wrote to say the weekend is a good opportunity to rest - like yeah...maybe in another planet! I had to preside at Solemn mass this morning - all in italian and latin except for a communion song sung in chinese by the Melbourne Chinese group. Mass went well and I was pretty pleased, though I was as usual very panicky about it. Then immediately after Mass I brought the Melbourne group out to visit the Princess Tungduk's palace (she was a Mongolian from the Yuan Dynasty), the Southern Wall excavations (south of th Wailing Wall where many ancient things from the time of Christ still stands), the ancient City of David, the Siloam Pool, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. Then we had a nice local lunch at Nafoura's in the Christian Quarter. I like the food there. It's well done, clean and the atmosphere is quaint Turkish/British colonial turn of the century architecture). After lunch we visited the Ethiopic and Coptic Orthodox churches as well as various areas inside the Holy Sepulchre. Then we walked home, but on the way back we passed by a petshop in the Suk (market) and I noticed a forlorn Siamese Fighting fish (Betta) in a small plastic bottle. It's horrible how people keep bettas in tiny jars like that. It was not the best looking specimen, a sad sallow colour and absilutely transparent fins and tail. I thought of buying him home to give him a happier and bigger tank but when I thought of Rex and Regis and how I have to give them up when I leave, I thought I couldn't go through the trauma again. I really really miss the two boys.
So now back home I'm totally exhausted again (and my ankle is still swollen. It was so pain last night I had to bandage it. maybe it's the cold). But I can't rest - time to prepare for vespers tonight. And tomorrow is another day ........
Agnes wrote to say the weekend is a good opportunity to rest - like yeah...maybe in another planet! I had to preside at Solemn mass this morning - all in italian and latin except for a communion song sung in chinese by the Melbourne Chinese group. Mass went well and I was pretty pleased, though I was as usual very panicky about it. Then immediately after Mass I brought the Melbourne group out to visit the Princess Tungduk's palace (she was a Mongolian from the Yuan Dynasty), the Southern Wall excavations (south of th Wailing Wall where many ancient things from the time of Christ still stands), the ancient City of David, the Siloam Pool, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. Then we had a nice local lunch at Nafoura's in the Christian Quarter. I like the food there. It's well done, clean and the atmosphere is quaint Turkish/British colonial turn of the century architecture). After lunch we visited the Ethiopic and Coptic Orthodox churches as well as various areas inside the Holy Sepulchre. Then we walked home, but on the way back we passed by a petshop in the Suk (market) and I noticed a forlorn Siamese Fighting fish (Betta) in a small plastic bottle. It's horrible how people keep bettas in tiny jars like that. It was not the best looking specimen, a sad sallow colour and absilutely transparent fins and tail. I thought of buying him home to give him a happier and bigger tank but when I thought of Rex and Regis and how I have to give them up when I leave, I thought I couldn't go through the trauma again. I really really miss the two boys.
So now back home I'm totally exhausted again (and my ankle is still swollen. It was so pain last night I had to bandage it. maybe it's the cold). But I can't rest - time to prepare for vespers tonight. And tomorrow is another day ........
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Mummy terror!
The rains kept coming - sometimes heavy, sometimes drizzle. You can hear the local people in the streets saying "Alhamdullila" - Thank God! Hopefully this rain continues for the next months so the land can soak up this life-giving water and regenerate everything.
And this is so significant now in Christmas time - the Son of God came to give life; "I am the Living Water".
But the streets are very slippery though and I was scared stiff when I had to bring two bags of books up to our Franciscan Bookstore near Jaffa Gate. I managed to get Marco the Mexican to come with me. I have this terrible fear of slipping and falling - after all I did sprain my ankle last August when I fell in Bethlehem. And its still pretty swollen.
Yesterday was Fr Dobromir's feastday - he was the previous superior of this monastery when I was doing my studies between 2004-2005. He's 2 years younger than I but he is a 7 footer! Makes me feel like a dwarf. Anyway he called me up to go to his office (up the hill at St Saviour's Monastery)- he's been promoted to Economo (treasurer) of the Holyland Custody. We chatted for 2 hours and when I got home it was already 6pm - cold, wet and very dark. And I was very hungry. Funny thing was I was surrounded by food packs all round my room but I was simply too tired to eat - the fatigue from the last group is now catching up.
Tonight I begin my turn as hebdom (remember this word? No? Check back on the previous blogs!). Angelo Fusto is my cantor but he's still on holidays in Italy. Marco is my 2nd cantor and is going off to Bethlehem tomorrow for Epiphany (like everyone else is going except 4 of us). So tomorrow's Solemn Mass will be very small, just 4 of us, the 3 nuns (a new one came last week! She's Sr. Irmina - late 60s and matronly. I guess she's never seen a chinese before because everytime she sees me, she starts giggling and bowing) and the small group of Melbourne Chinese studying next door at Ecce Homo. That's less stress on me. Aah but Sr Irmina scared the hell out of me yesterday morning. Being the first in church at 6am, I had to open the church doors as well as our main gate for anyone who was coming for Mass. Then as I was crossing the courtyard (remember there's a mummy somewhere there?) in the dark and rain, I saw this black figure rushing towards me. nearly had a heart attack. Too scared to even shout. It turned out to be Sr Irmina running to church as she was waiting out in the rain. Rosary in one hand and breviary in the other, she bulldozed into the church safe and sound: and me recovering from trauma. She reminds me of the poem "I'm a little kettle short and stout..."
I'm working like crazy on some articles and have no time to unpack other stuff so my room is officially designated "disaster area". Evrything is everywhere. I'll get to it sometime - as they say here "Inshallah" - "If God willing..."
And this is so significant now in Christmas time - the Son of God came to give life; "I am the Living Water".
But the streets are very slippery though and I was scared stiff when I had to bring two bags of books up to our Franciscan Bookstore near Jaffa Gate. I managed to get Marco the Mexican to come with me. I have this terrible fear of slipping and falling - after all I did sprain my ankle last August when I fell in Bethlehem. And its still pretty swollen.
Yesterday was Fr Dobromir's feastday - he was the previous superior of this monastery when I was doing my studies between 2004-2005. He's 2 years younger than I but he is a 7 footer! Makes me feel like a dwarf. Anyway he called me up to go to his office (up the hill at St Saviour's Monastery)- he's been promoted to Economo (treasurer) of the Holyland Custody. We chatted for 2 hours and when I got home it was already 6pm - cold, wet and very dark. And I was very hungry. Funny thing was I was surrounded by food packs all round my room but I was simply too tired to eat - the fatigue from the last group is now catching up.
Tonight I begin my turn as hebdom (remember this word? No? Check back on the previous blogs!). Angelo Fusto is my cantor but he's still on holidays in Italy. Marco is my 2nd cantor and is going off to Bethlehem tomorrow for Epiphany (like everyone else is going except 4 of us). So tomorrow's Solemn Mass will be very small, just 4 of us, the 3 nuns (a new one came last week! She's Sr. Irmina - late 60s and matronly. I guess she's never seen a chinese before because everytime she sees me, she starts giggling and bowing) and the small group of Melbourne Chinese studying next door at Ecce Homo. That's less stress on me. Aah but Sr Irmina scared the hell out of me yesterday morning. Being the first in church at 6am, I had to open the church doors as well as our main gate for anyone who was coming for Mass. Then as I was crossing the courtyard (remember there's a mummy somewhere there?) in the dark and rain, I saw this black figure rushing towards me. nearly had a heart attack. Too scared to even shout. It turned out to be Sr Irmina running to church as she was waiting out in the rain. Rosary in one hand and breviary in the other, she bulldozed into the church safe and sound: and me recovering from trauma. She reminds me of the poem "I'm a little kettle short and stout..."
I'm working like crazy on some articles and have no time to unpack other stuff so my room is officially designated "disaster area". Evrything is everywhere. I'll get to it sometime - as they say here "Inshallah" - "If God willing..."
Friday, January 4, 2008
Thanks for the stuff!
Thanks for all the great stuff you guys sent to me. There was lots of medicine, food, books and stationary - everything is a big help as it helps me save on money. The pilgrims who came last week will tell you how expensive things are here. The money for Fr Vincenzo also arrived safely and I'll pass it to my superior to hand it to him.
I lost all track of time and kept thinking that today is Monday when it actually is Friday. Went out to Salahaddin Street and found all the shops closed. My professors kept telling me to take a full day rest after the guiding the group - "Go to sleep" was the constant phrase. But my mind was working overtime though my body was a wreck. So I spent yesterday slowly unpacking 20 bags of stuff from HK, sorting out the books, food, medicine and electronic equipment (for other friars mind you, not mine!).
The Melbourne Chinese Catholic Community people are living next door to me - horrors! Some of them are here for a study tour organised by Yarra Theological Union and the Sisters of Zion (Jerusalem) at the Ecce Homo Institute. They asked if I could give them some lessons in chinese in the evenings when they have free time. Thinking that it is only Monday and I still have another week's holiday, I said "yes". Now I realise school starts in 3 days' time!
I lost all track of time and kept thinking that today is Monday when it actually is Friday. Went out to Salahaddin Street and found all the shops closed. My professors kept telling me to take a full day rest after the guiding the group - "Go to sleep" was the constant phrase. But my mind was working overtime though my body was a wreck. So I spent yesterday slowly unpacking 20 bags of stuff from HK, sorting out the books, food, medicine and electronic equipment (for other friars mind you, not mine!).
The Melbourne Chinese Catholic Community people are living next door to me - horrors! Some of them are here for a study tour organised by Yarra Theological Union and the Sisters of Zion (Jerusalem) at the Ecce Homo Institute. They asked if I could give them some lessons in chinese in the evenings when they have free time. Thinking that it is only Monday and I still have another week's holiday, I said "yes". Now I realise school starts in 3 days' time!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Christmas with a difference
Celebrating midnight Mass in Bethlehem was magic. The night was frosty and the stars were out. The numerous groups that had gathered earlier in the evening had left and the Shepherds' Field was quiet with a few smaller groups huddled in prayer. We celebrated the Mass in a Byzantine oil-press facing the vast Judean desert - hauntingly beautiful with a lone barking of a dog somewhere in the Bedouin camps far below us. You can imagine what it was like 2000 years ago. The loneliness, emptiness, silence, cold, darkness - and the Son of God was born amid all these. No fanfare, no pomp and pageantry, no commercialism. It only highlighted the grandeur of the Incarnation.
Christmas Day in the Basilica of the Nativity was quite the opposite. Literally thousands of people, not seen since 2000, flocked in and out. We said Mass at the Altar of St Joseph which is beside the Grotto of the Nativity. Cardinal Martini was lined up for Mass after us. The group spent the day reflected on the Incarnation, and read a homily by Pope Leo the Great on Christmas Day 1500 years ago. Just the day before Christmas I brought the group to the excavations of the City of David and the pool where Isaiah prophesied the coming of Emmanuel. For me it was an impressive moment to spend those two days in the actual places where the Scriptures spoke about - and of course I remembered you all at Mass.
The day in the desert was also fantastic. We visited the Herodian Fortress where many believe King Herod the Great died and was buried. We studied the Bible regarding this person. Then we journeyed south to visit Tel Arad with its ancient temple to Yahweh before reaching Mamshit - the Bedouin camp. We had a Bedouin lunch and we studied the text regarding the Magi. Some scholars believe the Magi were Nabateans and Mamshit was a Nabatean city. Then on our way back to Jerusalem, we made an unplanned stop at Hebron to visit the Tomb of Abraham & sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah, the forefathers of Jesus as noted in the genealogy of Luke and Matthew. We practically covered the Infancy narratives on the spots that were related to the texts. It was great. I'm sure for the group of 41 people, it was a Christmas with a difference, an unforgettable Christmas. Wish you guys were here!
Christmas Day in the Basilica of the Nativity was quite the opposite. Literally thousands of people, not seen since 2000, flocked in and out. We said Mass at the Altar of St Joseph which is beside the Grotto of the Nativity. Cardinal Martini was lined up for Mass after us. The group spent the day reflected on the Incarnation, and read a homily by Pope Leo the Great on Christmas Day 1500 years ago. Just the day before Christmas I brought the group to the excavations of the City of David and the pool where Isaiah prophesied the coming of Emmanuel. For me it was an impressive moment to spend those two days in the actual places where the Scriptures spoke about - and of course I remembered you all at Mass.
The day in the desert was also fantastic. We visited the Herodian Fortress where many believe King Herod the Great died and was buried. We studied the Bible regarding this person. Then we journeyed south to visit Tel Arad with its ancient temple to Yahweh before reaching Mamshit - the Bedouin camp. We had a Bedouin lunch and we studied the text regarding the Magi. Some scholars believe the Magi were Nabateans and Mamshit was a Nabatean city. Then on our way back to Jerusalem, we made an unplanned stop at Hebron to visit the Tomb of Abraham & sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah, the forefathers of Jesus as noted in the genealogy of Luke and Matthew. We practically covered the Infancy narratives on the spots that were related to the texts. It was great. I'm sure for the group of 41 people, it was a Christmas with a difference, an unforgettable Christmas. Wish you guys were here!
Blessed New Year 2008
Wow! It was the pilgrimage to crown all pilgrimages I've ever led! 10 solid days of visits, bible study and prayer - and we saw some of the rarest sights tourists ever visit. We visited Solomon's pools, the Herodian fortress (to see the so-called newly excavated tomb of Herod), spent a day in the desert, Magdala, midnight Mass in Shepherd's Field, Christmas Mass in the Grotto, interviewed by Italian Telepace and Brasilian TV, celebrated Mass for the Feast of the Holy Family in the House of the Holy Family (Nazareth), visited the sanctuary of St Joseph of Arimathea, and the climax was visiting Hebron with its Tombs of the Patriarchs. And there's alot more. Can't remember all!
Wahib our driver told me at the end of the trip that this was the most punctual group we have ever taken. Everything and everyone was on time. And the crowds were incredible - at any given day there were at least 800 chinese visiting the same church, and many more Indonesians. Anyway I'm dead tired now so I'll write more after I've rested.
Wahib our driver told me at the end of the trip that this was the most punctual group we have ever taken. Everything and everyone was on time. And the crowds were incredible - at any given day there were at least 800 chinese visiting the same church, and many more Indonesians. Anyway I'm dead tired now so I'll write more after I've rested.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Thanks from Musky
Thanks to the following for the generous offering to the Musky children:
Charles & Charlyn, Sarah Chan, Irene Wong, Maria Kwok, Harold & Cansis, Natalie, Vanessa & Anthony, Alice & Yuk Yan, Anna Cheng, Vincent & Angela, Caitlin & Justin, Anthony Cheung, Kong Pai Bor, Tam Wing Tat, WOng Chi Chew & Alice Cheung.
If I've left out any names, please email me to let me know. Thanks!
Charles & Charlyn, Sarah Chan, Irene Wong, Maria Kwok, Harold & Cansis, Natalie, Vanessa & Anthony, Alice & Yuk Yan, Anna Cheng, Vincent & Angela, Caitlin & Justin, Anthony Cheung, Kong Pai Bor, Tam Wing Tat, WOng Chi Chew & Alice Cheung.
If I've left out any names, please email me to let me know. Thanks!
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