Toil

Canaanite tunnel

It's Monday and there is no words to express how exhausted I am. Woke up at 3am to prepare for class. Then immediately after it was work in the library till 8am when I went to teach at the White Fathers' Sabbatical programme. At noon I rush home for half an hour lunch and then off to the other library to work till 3pm. Then it's an excursion to the Gihon Spring and the Pool of Siloam ... 1km at the lowest valley in Jerusalem. There is a Canaanite tunnel which leads to the Spring and it's very steep. It's an 80% angle. Climbing up and down was tough. Walking home uphill at 6pm was the ultimate test ... I was too exhausted as it was, and I had an asthma attack. People older than I were supporting me to climb uphill. They were very nice and caring. I made it to the Wailing Wall and felt much better on flat land.

The violence in Hong Kong this morning is unprecedented. There is no turning back. Now that the sanctuary of a church has been broken and live bullets are freely fired ... it is the end of the freedom Hong Kong once enjoyed.

Night crowd at Damascus Gate

In Gaza a brother self-immolated in protest as he could not care for his younger sibling. Both slept in the streets and had no food. The Hamas govt nor the Fatah govt won't help. Their corruption is wonton and they don't care for the people. This travesty must be addressed. If only the 2 bothers knew how to go to M. Teresa's sisters for help ... for food and clothes. Such a pity.

Leo the Great

Sunset from the Mt. of Olives

The unusually hot weather was today declared a heatwave not seen since a decade. And it will last for another week. The cold from lat week just disappeared and yesterday I even had to turn on the aircon!!

Fruit-tart and sunflowers for myself

This afternoon I had to walk up the Mt. of Olives to meet the group of profs and students. It was a difficult walk but I made in it 40 mins ... in the heat. I gave a quick explanaiton of the archeological sites seen from the panorama at the top of the Mount ... then we hurried down to Dominus Flevit and the Garden of Gethsemani. It was a good visit and everyone learned something new. At the garden of Gethsemane they had the chance to pray in silence as the basilica held it's daily Eucharistic Adoration.

Nadia's cheesecake

Today is my feast day ... St. Leo the Great. I missed the community Mass as I had to celebrate the Armenian Mass at the 3rd Station. After that I went to buy myself a fruit-tart that I really wanted to eat ... and 2 sunflowers for the Madonna statue in our refectory. I didn't think anyone would remember my feast day. Quite pathetic really. But Nadia our cook was making a blueberry cheesecake for me when I got home. She made the cheese last week and used it specially for the cheesecake. Loved it!!!!  And we had appetiser for lunch .,.. which means they were celebrating my feast!! We had raw salmon with cream of tartar. Then Nadia made a fantastic lasagna for pastasciuta ... and all the students were saying nobody had never had lasagna on their feast days. Then there were 4 roast chickens stuffed with rice. It was really a big meal! Appreciated all the hard work in the kitchen today!

Saturday

Our exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci ended last night and we cleared the exhibitions. It was very crowded the night before. Anyway all in all we are very happy with it.

Autumn colours

Today I have most of the day free as there was no class. I had Mass at the Empty Tomb at 7am and then a bible class with the filipino community of Jaffa who had come for the Mass. Then I was free so I spend my entire morning gardening. I rather enjoyed that. It was hot ... 24 degrees. I repotted many plants. And I added fertiliser to many of the plants as they begin the winter dormancy ... it fortifies them so in Spring they will grow profusely. The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning the courtyard and cleaning my room. Tomorrow class with the U. of S Africa group starts again. I need to rest this evening.

And ... my blog is definitely being hacked and manipulated. One day there were 197 views ... yesterday less than 20. Just sounding out to you all that's all.

This weekend is a memorial to Kristalnacht ... the beginning of the Holocaust. That was the night when german nazists rampaged through Germany destroying jewish property. It was the trigger. The tragedy then toppled down like dominoes. It was terrible.  https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Kristallnacht-The-shattering-of-illusion-607211

And the govt is again warning of an impending earthquake. There was a small earthquake in the north yesterday ... and the warning comes in its wake. Hopefully everyone will take it seriously.  https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5619988,00.html?fbclid=IwAR2tcqSWbutLnyPsrTiRy2LZXJYAzif1pgE3qnXjPAwEryXQgQdRk-n9bVs

Weekend

Chapel of the Afr. Miss. centre 

The weekend is upon us. Our exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci will end this evening. It's been a very rare occasion for us to bring out our ancient books on science and technology for display. I'm sure many of the visitors appreciated this educative exhibition.

Classes continue at the African Missionaries' centre ... I'm teaching 23 priests and sisters. I'm not used to 50 minute lessons and find it very exhaustive since it's 3 lessons in sequence every morning. I hope they follow my lessons as I speak rather quickly and those whose mother tongue is not english might have difficulties. 2 more weeks to go.

Children's choir

In the afternoons it's archaeological and history class with the students of the U. of S. Africa. It's long walks around the City visiting archeological sites and explaining its history and significance. Some new areas have been opened such as the Forum of Aelia Capitoline below Damascus Gate. It's very interesting as the pavement is still intact. While on the way to visit it, there was a choir of muslim children singing songs at the cavea of Damascus Gate and a recording team was filming them.

Today is the feast of Duns Scotus ... our illustrious franciscan theologian who proposed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception more than 400 years ago. He was silenced and condemned by the dominicans as heretic and the teaching was not studied till the apparition in Lourdes. There the Madonna called herself the Immaculate Conception. A few decades later the pope proclaimed it as a dogma and the franciscans won the day.

In the local news, much is reported about the schism in Israel's largest ultra-orthodox community. The incumbent leadership, known for it's absolutism, was challenged by some and a split occurred on Simhat Torah feast. Now the incumbent group is using threats, extortion and excommunication to stop the schismatics. Big news.  https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5612060,00.html

News coming in that Turkey has attacked christian areas in Syria. It's terrible. But what's worse is no christian country is talking about it. Christians are doomed to death because all over the world they are persecuted ... and nobody cares. Especially fellow christians.

Busy

Exhibition of 15th century books

It's been an unbelievable 3 days so far ... working 17-18 hours flat with no meals or toilet breaks. Teaching 3 hours in the morning, 4 hours in the afternoon, other class about 2-3 hours a day, work in the library and exhibition, masses in Bethlehem ... I'm collapsing literally. My legs are jelly, my mind is confused and I need so much to sleep. And there's 2 more weeks to go. I might just cancel everything and go to rest in hospital.

The exhibition celebrates the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci. Books on science and technology from the 15th century conserved in our library were displayed. Leonardo da Vinci had as a close collaborator in his studies a franciscan friar called Luca Pacioli and a copy of his writings was donated to our library and displayed at the exhibition.

U. of S. Africa prof & students

Meantime the morning class is to 23 African missionaries at the White Fathers' programme of renewal and the afternoon class is to the U. of S. Africa profs and students excavating at an archeological site here. It's fun to be with them but the exhaustion is creating chest pains.

News just coming in that a terrorist had stabbed several mexican tourists in Jordan. Appalling. Tourism will slump for the next 5 months and that will hurt the Jordanian economy. Let's hope the violence won't spread.

All Souls

Mt. Zion cemetary yesterday

Yesterday was All Souls Day and it was very busy for me. The morning was spent cleaning tombs at our cemetery at Mt. Zion ... behind the Last Supper Room. Carrying bottles of water, sponges and flowers was hard work and I had to walk 1.5km to get to the cemetery. Luckily there were 3 american students from the Franciscan Umi of Steubenville who volunteered to help me. The cemetery was a little crowded at 9am ... families sitting by the graves of their loved ones offered us sweets and pastries. It's a local custom. I blessed their tombs in return.

Student volunteers 

We cleaned up a couple of tombs ... especially the one of our Hong Kong student ... and we prayed and laid flowers. Many jews also came and laid stones on the grave of Oscar Schindler ... whose tomb is close to our HK student's. Later at 9am all the franciscans came to pray and bless all the tombs.It was very crowded by then. Holy Water was dispensed and thuribles of incense were waved over every tomb. For many people, this was a necessary closure.

Later at 5pm the few chinese priests here were joined with chinese catholic migrant workers to celebrate Mass in chinese. It was a small group but everyone appreciated the Mass ... they being so far from home. To offer a Mass here in the Holy Land for the souls of the departed is a privilege which these workers realised. They were very touched.

In between the cemetery and Mass I had class. Believe me I had no time in between to rest ... it was one big rush from one part of the City to another. By night I was too exhausted to even eat ... so I slept.

This morning it was Mass at the armenian church and then meeting the profs and students of Uni, of S. Africa. It was good to see Prof. Magdel again and some of the students I've met before.

All Hallowed feast

Eucharistic adora-
tion at St. Peter's

It's November .... and we begin the month with the feast of All Saints. I went to join our Jaffa community for the solemn Mass. And I left very early ... at 4.30am because I wanted to arrive by 6am when they start Eucharistic Adoration. Mass followed at 7am with Gloria and Creed. After that we went to the refectory for breakfast. I brought arab bagels for the community which they really like. It was good to meet them all again ... a very international community. Superior is Mexican, Vicar is Polish, one Ukrainian chaplain for Byzantine catholics, one Indian chaplain for the Syro-Malabar rite, one eritrean chaplain for the ethiopic rite catholics. We bantered and laughed ... then they all went for a swim at the beach below the church. I stayed back to clean the aquarium and Marco our filipino seminarian was in charge of the sacristy. Both of us had a good chat and then the rest came home for lunch. Although its a solemnity, we're still pretty strict here so no meat but fish only. It's Friday today. But it was salmon ... so it's festive. No lentil soup ... thank goodness.

Lone beggar at Damascus Gate

On my way out this morning at 4.30am ... it was still very dark but lots of muslims were entering the City for Friday prayers. There was a slight mist and it was cold ... about 11 degrees. A couple of bedouin women were carrying their veggies to sell while at Damascus Gate there was a lone beggar loudly crying out for alms. The ground was all wet with dew. It was a typical early winter sight. Once in Jaffa, the temp difference was obvious. People wear shorts and T-shirts ... it was at least 10 degrees higher than Jerusalem. Then once I got back home by bus ... the hoodie jackets were out again. And the worst thing was I was seated in a very crowded minibus next to an arab who was coughing his head off. Obviously he has the virus .... I hope I have enough immunity not to catch it. People here never learn to cover their mouths when coughing and never ever were masks. It's a hygienic stone age. I'm going to need the prayers of All Saints to protect me from getting sick again.

There's rising tension between Israel and Jordan when Israel arrested 2 jordanians ... and Jordan arrest an israeli. Looks like a tit-for-tat diplomacy. It's not very assuring when this happens while we're watching our northern borders with Lebanon dissolving in social disorder and a collapsing govt ... and our southern border where Gaza is picking up its missile strikes.