Lenten Vigil

Lenten Vigil

Time has passed so quickly it's a week since I updated the blog. I'm very busy since my librarian went on sick leave a month ago. I'm doing everything here ... from cleaning to shelving and advising students regarding their research. And with my poor health, I'm alot slower.

Last Saturday I joined the Lenten Vigil at the Holy Sepulchre. It starts at 11.45pm. We sing the Office of Matins in latin in solemn form. It begins with an invitatory psalm and then a hymn and then 3 psalms with its antiphons and prayers. Then a Scriptural passage follows, and a reading from the Fathers of the Church. A prayer is then said and then we begin singing 3 biblical canticles. The last canticle is the Benedictus and there's a procession with lighted candles around the Empty Tomb. The procession returns to our Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament where another prayer is said, intercession of the faithful are prayed and a final solemn blessing. Everything in Latin.

Procession around the
Empty Tomb

Unlike previous years before Covid, the crowd was minimal ... some 30 people joined in. I prayed for you all there ... all your intentions, the living and the dead. There is nowhere else in the world where this ritual is celebrated. My health is getting bad and the Superior of St. Saviour's Monastery asked me to join in the Vigil as I may not be able to so in the future. I thought so too ... so I went.

Coming back to my office at 1.30am when it ended was very difficult. There are many steps to climb up and I was not able to do it. 2 seminarians helped me by supporting both my arms. It took quite a while to reach the library and since it was already 2.30am when I reached my office, I decided not to go home but slept 3 hours on the chair and started work at 6am. A younger me would have taken it all in stride but a now-me take it as good penance.

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Fasting together

Ramadan at Damascus Gate

Can't believe a week has already passed since my last update. Time flies. It's March now and we're in the 1st week of Lent. This year it's a big confluence of calendars: our Lent coincides with the Orthodox Lent and the Muslim Ramadan. So everyone fasts this month. That's solidarity.

Ramadan celebrations are on the way. The cannon is fired at 4.45am to start the fast and at 5.50pm to end the fast. Prior to the start of the fast, every family is up and eating. People go to the mosque and the streets are crowded. But once the cannon fires, everyone goes home to sleep. Then prior to the end of the fast, restaurants and hawkers selling cooked food do very big business. Once the cannon is fired, everyone buys food and goes home to eat. Other shops will close for an hour so the owners can eat.

The snake guy & son

Damascus Gate is a lot more busy after 9pm than last week. The snake guy is there like every Ramadan. He has an albino python which ever since I first saw him, has grown very big. Because it's cold, like 9 degrees, the snakes are very quiet and sleepy. Now the guy's son is out with 2 small pythons as well. People would go and take photos with it.

There're other hawkers at Damascus Gate selling kebap, fruit and toys. Kebap is cheap (15 shekels for a pita with 2 sticks of kebap) so most people can afford. Times are still hard for most of us ... so Catholic, Orthodox or Muslim, we go buy a pita kebap at sunset to break the fast that we all are keeping.

Memory lost

Great Lent fasting foods

Ash Wednesday today, started badly for me. After feeding the wild doves and sparrows, and watering the plants on the terrace, I went off to work. I decided to take the shorter route today (1km) as I'm fasting  and I didn't want to stress myself and faint walking an extra 1km. Everything seemed normal. The uphill climb was difficult as usual and I always walked slowly at that area when it gets steepest. Reached New Gate, greeted the workers standing around waiting for instructions regarding where they will work today. Entered the library and then I realised I didn't have my backpack on me. I panicked. I searched the whole library surroundings, then walked back 1km to Damascus Gate checking the pavement and park. I re-entered Damascus Gate and asked the old man who sold newspapers if he saw my backpack. No. Walked back home in total panic. I could I not realise that a 4kg backpack was missing on me? This is the 2nd it has happened. I reached my room and found it on the floor inside there. It's a very scary experience. I really think dementia or Alzheimer's is starting to work in my brains. I'm scared to walk back to work ... also because I was already exhausted. Our janitor decided to drive me there instead.

Yesterday my Armenian Catholic parishioners came to visit me as Lent will start today. The eastern rite Churches especially here in the Holy Land, eat nuts and dates and dried fruit during Lent. No cooked food. That's what the ancient Desert Fathers also ate during Lent 1,500 years ago. My parishioners gave me fried fruit and bags of nuts, wishing me a fruitful Lent. It was very nice of them. The Church closed 4 years ago during Covid and now these parishioners join the Roman Mass or the Armenian Orthodox liturgy. But they still remember me. And luckily I remember them. My memory isn't totally lost .... yet.

Cannon fire

Quiet Damascus Gate

The cannon fired 5 times at 7pm to announce the start of Ramadan. We were told that Jerusalem would celebrate Ramadan a day late because the new moon cannot be sighted. Then unexpectedly the cannon fired. So the 30 day fast has begun, It coincides with our Lent that begins on Wednesday. So there'll be less accusations of insensitivity about eating in public while others fast. That was a flashpoint of conflict several years back in our Quarter. Back then you couldn't even carry a bottle of water in your hand and walk in the streets.

Damascus Gate which for centuries had been the heart of Ramadan festivities, was very subdued. Festive lights have not been put up since Covid struck 4 years ago. Shops and hawkers were practically non-existent last night except for 2 stalls. Very few people were in the streets compared to the massive crowds that caused pedestrian jams of up to 40 mins. There's a heavy cloud of sadness and tragedy. You don't see people laughing as much as before.

Cold and rainy morning

An unexpected shower fell on us early morning at 4am. It was cold ... 4 degrees. But nobody expected a shower. It was good for the muslims as they started the fast at 4.30am, which means they go to sleep the day off. It's good for the Jews as it's Sabbat so they can sleep in as well. Only Christians were out in the streets going to work. And also lots of police. They'll be ensuring security at today's noonday prayer when thousands of muslims go to the Al Aqsa to pray and Jews go to the Wailing Wall to pray.

Frost

Frost covering the grass

The weather is gradually warming up from minus one to 4 degrees now. There's still forecast for rain next week, with temp falling to 1 degree again. This winter -Spring is much colder than the previous years though little snow has fallen. We need the rain to avoid a drought year, so we're willing to bear with the cold if it brings in the rain.

The 2nd semester has begun for many schools. The library is busy again as students begin to write their term papers. It's good that they do some academic work now because once ordained, they'll never touch books again! A little training of mental discipline is good now as a foundation for their pastoral ministry in the future.

Brittle frost grass and leaves

My heart tests have shown that I've ischemia (again). Now I'm waiting for my cardiologist to recommend a plan of action. In the meantime the number of medicines I'm taking a day has risen to 23. I feel like a walking pharmacy. They make me tired and disoriented at times; unable to focus. 

When the temp was minus 1, there was a layer of frost that coated the grass and weeds in the park. From a distance it's a sheen of white. But on closer inspection, it's glistening in the sunlight. The leaves were cold and brittle but they looked very beautiful, like made of glass.

Snow

Just when everyone was disappointment that the long awaited snow didn't come, it started to snow this morning. Not much ... flakes falling but not enough to cover the ground. Still it's snow. I was on my way to work at 6.30am when outside the City Walls I thought some feathers were falling from the birds roosting on the electric lines. Instead it became quite a lot and I realised it was snow. People going to work also stopped and videoed the sparse snowflakes like I did. It's a different atmosphere when it snows. The hustle and bustle stops. School children are less rowdy in the streets ... they get to go home at 9am today because of the snow. There's no shouting of hawkers to sell their goods. Tensions dropped several notches down.