seeking novelties

Another very hot day - wiltering! Did some work on my paper again, checked through some books in the library - oh, and yesterday morning I had a VC reunion with pilgrims from the Dec 07 grp and some from other grps. It was good to see everyone again. And I also learned how much they had journeyed in their spiritual lives after their pilgrimage: many involved in parish work or Bible study etc...

Yesterday morning Pavel also defended his thesis. Pavel is our polish student doing his Licentiate (Master's). He did a good job and the final grade he received earned him a "Summa cum Laude" which is the highest accolade you can get. For lunch he offered ice-cream and cherries ... real nice in this hot weather. Later in the evening he invited some professors and friends out for dinner at Amigo Emil, a local restaurent in the Old City. Lovely ambiance. I was invited too. I hope Pavel will come back to do his doctorate. I always joke with him because he spends alot of time in the library - I say he practically lives in the library. The only time we see him is prayers and meals. Well now he can leave the library and see some sun and breathe some fresh air (if you can find it in the Old City).

Khalil our cook boiled more herb tea (bay leaves, rosemary, lemon leaves ... ) for my asthma. It must be working because it is not so severe these two afternoons. It's the early mornings that kill me - like 3am I wake up and cannot breathe. I hate that.

This morning as usual I was at the Holy Sepulchre at 5am celebrating Mass and praying for you all. I decided to go up to Mt Calvary to pray instead of the Tomb as there was a huge crowd - mostly koreans. Somehow despite the gloomy darkness and endless noise, the Holy Sepulchre remains my favourite Church here in the Holyland.

And "Under the Fig Tree" has about 40 members now coming from North America, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Remember it's meant more for your own prayer and reflection of the Sunday Mass readings than a bible lesson. It's a simple way of preparing to encounter the coming Sunday's Liturgy of the Word and therefore making your Sunday Mass more meaningful. And you can always leave your questions, comments or reflections on the blog.

Yesterday's reading from 2Timothy struck me - "The time is sure to come when people, far from being content with sound teaching, will be earnestly seeking for the latest novelty and collecting themselves a whole series of teachers according to their own tastes; and instead of listening to the truth, they turn to myths". Now is that happening right now or what? Now before we start pointing fingers at other people and novelties in our faith expressions, let's honestly ask ourselves where we messed up in the first place; where we stopped treasuring the richness of our faith tradition and creating a culture of ignorance and indifference that eventually leads to seeking novelties to replace the empty space left by the rejection of these ancient treasures.

spift

Strange weather - terribly hot afternoons about 37 degrees and suddenly as the sun sets a very cold wind blows. It's an westerly. And its cold! I had to cover the canaries like in winter again!

Now that Sr Irmina has left, I help Sr Geronima to dry the dishes while she washes. But tonight she decided to do the cleaning up of the food area. That left me with the washing up - which I wasn't prepared because I was wearing my habit and the long sleeves get in the way. Luckily Fr Bissoli was there to help with the drying up. We managed to finish the work before 9pm - which is a record!

Yesterday's Way of the Cross left me spift (no it's not a word but it's the only one I can think of right now). I know that tensions are pretty high this year during the Way of the Cross when we have loads of soldiers and police to accompany us, but today was impossible. Megaphones blaring to drown out our prayers from stations 1 to 8; and at station 7 there were youths whistling and shouting to disrupt our devotion. Why all this intolerance? We don't do this to them when they pray, why must they do it to us? I was spat on at the 2nd station by two kids as well, and they threw a bottle when they were far off. The level of intolerance is getting worse and I can see more problems cropping up unless we Christians stand our ground; otherwise we'll soon lose our rights, our land, our religion. For too long we have been passive and see our future drain away. And all we do is moan and groan about it. it's too lame. It's time to stand up and be counted. And you guys living in comfy-land, think for one moment of what we have to go through everyday. Then make a brave decision and COME TO THE HOLYLAND to show solidarity with us. So get moving already!

Thanks!

Many thanks to Lina Lee, Georgiana Chow, Aster Tam and Kong Pai Bor for their generosity in helping the Holyland; and thanks also to Stephan Tang and Angela Leung for helping the Kassis family. May I just add that the Kassis family was evicted from their Bethlehem home and now have to rent a house in a muslim village - not an easy life at all in this complicated country.

Once I have time to settle the accounts, I'll let you all know how much we've collected for our 3 projects. God bless you all.

Thanks

Thanks to Jeannie So for helping the Musky kids and the Kassis family. Please remember that I'm still raising funds to help Musky, the Kassis family and the sponsorship of Fr Paul Sun and Sr Maria Jiang to study in Israel. Every little bit helps. Thanks again for your generosity!

Gaza news

Good news for some Gaza students: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7436553.stm
but only because of world concern and Israeli court decision: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7432742.stm

Meantime the horror in Gaza. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7379993.stm Pray for the poor Christians in there.

Hot day

Yesterday was a very hot day - 37 degrees. It was stuffy as there was no wind and the sun was beating down mercilessly with no cloud to soften the sky. Ice cream and soft-drink vendors made alot of sales! And the night was equally hot and stuffy. I could hardly sleep. Luckily he roof is very high so it keeps the room a little cool. I was told that a hamsin (dry desert wind) will blow from tomorrow (meaning it'll last for a couple of days) - now that's not good for my asthma. I'll lock myself in my room. Luckily I have the "hot air fan" that doubles as a normal fan as well.

Sneiad (yes I know! - it's an irish name! imagine coming all the way to the Middle East here and finding an irish girl with that name - and speaks with an irish lilt as well!) is the secretary of our Secretary of our school - and she found her office so stuffy she asked for a fan. Well what Sneiad wants, Sneiad gets - the largest fan in the school! She showed it to me today ..... hhmmmm the largest fan in the smallest room ... I'll have to convince her to exchange fans with me. Anyway Sneiad belongs to a lay community called Koinonia of John the Baptist (Koinonia means community in greek).

Our beloved Patriarch Msgr. Sabbah will officially step down on June 21st. He will install his successor Msgr Fouard as Patriarch of Jerusalem, successor of St. James in the basilica of Gethsemani. Then the next day June 22nd the new Patriarch will officially enter the Holy Sepulchre and celebrate his first patriarchal Mass at the Tomb of Christ. The day after he'll officially enter Bethlehem and venerate the place of the incarnation. Lots of activities. I'll see if I can follow them all.

Today's 1st reading from the 2nd Letter of Paul to Timothy says "You must keep to what you have been taught and know to be true; remember who your teachers are and how you have ... known the Scriptures..." I think this describes very well the fundamental criteria of a Catholic - to keep to the doctrines that we have been taught; to firmly believe them to be true; to know that our teachers ultimately go back back to the apostles themselves; and to know the Bible. 4 points in all. How would you rank yourself in each of these points? How Catholic are you?

Time for goodbye

Yesterday was a very hot day. Tried to do some work but only managed to check some information in the library. Also read parts of a book that I need.

The asthma is becoming such a problem, I think I need to go back on steroids to stop it. But I hate the side-effects. And I haven't still gone to see Dr ben Daniel - well the very thought of walking up the hill (1km) to see him just puts me off; and in this heat as well.

But there was a nice surprise yesterday morning - Fr Terence Crotty came to use our library. I met him at the Dominican Ecole Biblique when Fr Thomas Chui invited me over for dinner. Both he and Terence are students of Fr Adrian Schenker (the famous bible professor, remember? I invited them all for lunch at our monastery the day after.) Well Terence is leaving Israel soon and will be studying German this summer before going on to Fribourg (Switzerland) University to do his doctorate under Fr Schenker. Terence is very brilliant and very gentlemanly. He called my room a few minutes ago to say he's leaving and "I wanted to shake your hand". I went down to the library to oblige. I'm sure he'll do well.

Ooops William just called. Wants to pop by my room in 15 minutes. He's leaving Israel too by the end of the month. Will stop here with the blog and resume later when he leaves.

So William came and left. Another nice surprise today. He bought ice cream and we ate them in my room - we sat on my new stools...a little low but at least we can now sit! He's a very serious young friar with high ideals. That's good. If he's mediocre, then that's a problem. But he's very intense and he knows himself. I hope he'll be happy in Rome. We promised to catch up one last time after his exams and before he leaves Israel. Another goodbye.

So the exams are finishing and the summer holidays are beginning - time to say alot of goodbyes. In a way it's sad, but then again it's a new adventure for many: a new beginning.