Ethiopic wedding

Abiba and Berhe exchaning rings

I had a late night last night ... didn't plan it that way but things happen. I had a wedding rehearsal to attend but the couple and the liturgy leaders, who came from Tel Aviv, arrived at my office only at 8.30pm. I don't understand amharic, and the couple don't know it either. They speak a dialect tigrina and so had difficulty reading the vows in amharic. Luckily I had my former student Girmay who did all the translation for us. I had to learn at least to understand the vows so that it would be a valid sacrament. We finished late and I got home to sleep just before midnight.

These few mornings I have to wake up early to open our gate. The lock is broken and can be opened only from the outside. So every morning at 5.30am I have to go out through the garage and open the gate 15 meters away from the street. If not the sisters and laity from around our neighbourhood will not be able to come for Mass.

Birdseye view of the
wedding

I then had the wedding at 8am. The little chapel of the Salesian monastery was packed with the local ethiopic community. The choir sung traditional hymns, with the thumping of the huge ethiopic drum. I like ethiopic songs ... they're very melodious and soothing. So parts of the Mass was in english and parts in amharic. Very interesting. The vows went well ... the documents were signed. So Berhe and Abiba are married. And one of my students was my deacon while Girmay was my acolyte.

Now it's back to work with the M.C, sisters. Then I hope an early night.

Pączki

Buddy steals my pączki 

It'a Friday and the usual crowds of muslims entered the Old City to reach the mosque. Police to have been numerous as well. But I doubt there'll be any trouble here. We've seen the general mood by now ... no one here wants trouble. So when 2 policemen came to our gates this afternoon, there was great distress ... police and soldiers are not allowed in religious buildings because they carry weapons. The doorman called me down as the police wanted to see me. When I got down to the courtyard, the police opened their bags and brought me chinese medicine from a druze friend from the north of Israel. These 2 policemen were from the same village and are stationed here in the Old City so they offered to bring the medicine to me. Everyone was laughing with relief.

The 7 fruit of the Bikkurim feast

This morning I completed an 8 day retreat/conference for the junior MC sisters. We studied the jewish feasts which the jews are celebrating these few weeks and its significance for us. At the end of the programme, the sisters prepared the 7 species of choice fruit which the feast of bikkurim require to be offered at the Temple. They did a simple paraliturgy which was very nice. The fruit are figs, dates, olives, grapes, pomegranates, wheat and barley.

The sisters made pączki (ponscki - the jam filled doughnuts) because I like it. One of the sisters is polish so she knows how to make it. Or so she thought. They forgot to fill it with jam!!!!! Now I'm eating it with a jam jar nearby ... one scoop of jam with every bite of pączki.

After that I went to work till 1pm and then I had 4 precious hours to rest before I meet an ethiopic couple to prepare them for wedding tomorrow morning. It's a bit complicated as they celebrate the ethiopic rite liturgy and I do not know the rite nor the language. Ethiopic seminarians will be helping me through the liturgy. Well I hardly rested for the past 8 days so these 4 hours I really wanted to sleep. Tomorrow after the wedding I'll start another 8 days of conference with another group of MC sisters from the war regions. Then after that another 8 days of silent retreat with the large groups of 20 sisters. It's all back-to-back so I am and will be exhausted. The only break I have is this 4 hours today.

Cats

Stray cats waiting for breakfast

I have gave a talk on Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Did alot of researching through jewish sources and talmudic teachings. It was very interesting. There were many aspects I still was not aware of. I learned alot these few days while researching. It was a good experience.

This morning at 5.30am I made my usual walk to the Ivrea convent for Mass. Nearing herod's Gate, I usually say hi to the Israeli security guys guarding a house ... most of them also work at the tunnel exit in front of my house so it's the same buddies.  This morning one of my best friends Baruch was working there. He saw me before I saw him ... he was shouting out to me and I had to look around to see where he was. Nice encounter of friends. Then at the next corner is the gang of stray cats ... there're a dozen of them. Every morning they gather just inside of Herod's Gate in fort of a shop. The owner always throws some food for them to eat. Walking through them is quite a hazard as the cats snarl and spit and scratch because they think you're stealing their food.

Extremist Jew dressed like muslim

Yesterday I visited Mt. Zion - the Dormition Abbey where Mary died, the Last Supper Room and the Franciscan Chapel of the Last Supper. Said a prayer for you all. All these churches noticeably had more security cameras and higher metal fences. Jewish attacks on these churches have increased, more anti-christian graffiti are sprayed  and more vandalism on church property. The rise of extremist judaism is very apparent in Jerusalem. Just yesterday evening I saw a woman dressed like a muslim ... totally covered ... with no eye-slits even. It's the Brevslau sect of Jews who are known to be extremely ultra-orthodox. Other sects and groups are aggressively anti-christian ... they spit at us and threaten us. Churches have been burned and religious have been attacked. Yes there is persecution of christians here .... it's just that no one wants to talk about it.

Midweek

Umbrella street in
the christian quarter

The days are getting shorter and the nights longer .... autumn is upon us. Last night was cold enough that I had to wear a light hoodie to stay warm while walking to the Ivrea convent for Mass this morning. The day is still hot though ... but you can feel the change in the season.

The umbrellas in the Christian Quarter are very nice ... they copy the ones in the jewish Nachalat Sheva but they're a lot nicer ... they're plastic transparent so they cast colored shadows on the ground at midday ... something that the Nachalat Sheva ones do not. A little summer fun.

Renovation and conservation works continue in our church and courtyard. The constant banging and chiseling can drive you crazy but luckily I'm out of the house working most of the day so I don't get to hear it. The mosaics in our chapel have deteriorated badly since it's installation in 1929. Now experts have come to refill the missing mosaics. In the courtyard the low separating wall between our courtyard and corridor have all been demolished so more crowds can enter. I'm not in favor of that ... but I'm a minority voice.

Re-paving the demolished walls in
our courtyard

Locally the demolition of the Bedouin village in Khan al Ahmar is heating up. Protesters have joined the bedouins by setting up tents around the village but the Israeli army began bulldozing them down. Several foreign protesters and human rights activists are there as well. However strangely no one in Jerusalem is interested at all. I doubt there'll be trouble in Jerusalem over this incident.

The feast of Yom Kippur is coming ... on Sept. 17th. Security will heighten once again in our area.

Bomb scare in Holy Sepulchre

Religious jew on
New Year day

At noon I received news that the Holy Sepulchre was evacuated because a suspicious package was found inside the basilica. Everyone is shocked that this should even happen ... in the holiest site of christianity. We have no news or followup. Let's see what happens in the next few hours.

The New Year holidays continue today. The Old City yesterday was flooded by migrant Chinese workers ... literally hundreds upon hundreds. They work in construction along the coastal cities and yesterday they probably organised a tour to Jerusalem. They had no guides and they floated from place to place in small groups, not knowing what they saw. Pity.

Religious jews flooded the Damascus Gate area to get to the Wailing Wall for prayers today as well. I noticed most of the men wore white. Secular jews came on tours to visit the Old City. With the chinese and other groups .... our streets were packed with people. Another pilgrim group that was numerous was the Ukrainians. 100 of them made the Way of the Cross at 5.30am yesterday in front of our door. I couldn't get out to celebrate Mass at the Ivrea convent. Nightmare ... luckily I was given the key to our backdoor a day before so I could get out.

New chalice and
paten from India

I met up with some of my ex-students who returned from their summer holidays .... mainly Indians and Sri Lankans. I had asked them to help me buy chalices and monstrances because the sisters of M. Teresa needed them for their convents in Gaza and Nablus. And happily several people in Singapore and Hong Kong offered to sponsor the sacred vessels. Thanks a million for your generosity. The chalices and monstrances are cheaper in India than from Europe ... as much as one third of the european price. Of course the gold plating isn't as heavy as the european ones ... but it's ok for us. We can't afford the european prices. Well one set of chalice and paten arrived last night with one of my students. I'm expecting 2 more chalices and one monstrance.

Locally there's a growing tension as the demolition of a bedouin village near Jericho goes underway in order to build houses for jewish settlers. There's fear that anger and violence might spread from the desert to the cities.  3 arab east jerusalemites were also arrested for suspected arson ... burning a large area of nature reserve along the Dead Sea.

New Year 2

Pomegranate season

It's the jewish New Year today ... the country came to a standstill. At least on the western side of Jerusalem. All shops and offices closed, no public transport. But in the east, life goes on as usual. Religious jews have been congregating by the thousands to the Wailing Wall since dawn. Security was equally high in and around the Old City. Shofars (ram's horn) were blown and will continue to be blown by jews throughout the next weeks till Sukkoth (feast of booths). In fact the Bible never calls the New Year "Rosh haShanah" but the "Feast of trumpeting" (blowing the horn). The pomegranate is the traditional symbol of the New Year ... firstly because it ripens at this time, and secondly it's many seeds symbolise the abundance of good things that will come in the New Year.

I on the other hand was busy preaching the retreat to the MC nuns and bringing them around the Old City to visit the Holy Sites. This afternoon we visited the foot of the Mt. of Olives. That included the Sanctuary of the Stoning of St. Stephan, the Tomb of the BVM (Assumption site), the Grotto of the Betrayal (Judas's kiss) and the garden of Gethsemane.

Adoration at the hermitage chapel

The superior there was kind enough to let us enter the Hermitage behind the Basilica. We spent an hour and a half in eucharistic adoration plus an hour of lecture in the Hermitage Chapel. It was a great experience for all of us. There's still another week of this retreat, then another retreat for 8 days and then another retreat for another 8 days. It's all back-to-back. I will be very very exhausted by Sept. 30th.

New Year 1

Rain clouds in the morning

The weather has continued to be dark and damp this morning ... well in a way it should be getting like that but only after the feast of Sukkot, ie after the autumn harvest. The last day of the feast was once (2000 yrs ago) celebrated with the offering of the water libation and the prayer for rain. And after 10 years of drought, we really need the rain. The municipality workers are preparing for it because for the past week they have been clearing out the drains. I certainly hope it'll rain very hard this winter ... never mind if it floods ... we need the rains very much.

Soon kueh and Ku Chai kueh

I sprained my back muscle very badly early this morning ... or rather it was cramping very badly. And it hurt very much. I could not get out of bed or stand. I wonder what happened. I just woke up and the right back muscles spasmed. I cannot reach back to put ointment so I just had to live with it all day. Disaster. It was 4am and I wanted to warm up so Singapore breakfast .. as I have done every Sunday in summer. It's a little consolation for me as I don't get a vacation from work. This morning I managed, with much pain, to steam some Soon kueh and Ku Chai kueh. That's bamboo shoots and garlic chives respectively. It was really very nice ... and a little comfort for the pain in my back.

The jewish New Year begins tonight and we expect alot of blowing of the ram's horn as stipulated in the Bible. The City will stop for 24 hrs and resume daily routine only on Tuesday. Not all tough ... the more religious ones will stay closed as it's days of repentance leading up to Yom Kippur in 10 days time. Apparently there were plans by terrorists to disrupt the feast days but were thwarted by the israeli military.   https://www.timesofisrael.com/liberman-weve-thwarted-terror-attacks-in-recent-days-meant-to-disrupt-new-year/

And in the south, trouble in Gaza is seen as ongoing though Israel understands the gazans themselves are tired of war and don't want trouble. Nevertheless the army chief expressed support for building a port in Gaza so the livelihood of the gazans would be improved. Now that's humanitarian.  https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-southern-chief-says-quiet-in-gaza-isnt-in-the-cards-but-a-port-might-be/

And up in the north the army is in active drill in case of a war with Lebanon. It's pretty unlikely but flexing the muscles once in a while reminds the enemies what potential resistance they will face.   https://www.janglo.net/index.php?option=com_adsmanager&page=display&catid=99&tid=452905

Frankly despite all these posturing, no one is serious a war will break out. No one wants one.