School starts

Inauguration Mass

It's Friday and it's tense throughout the country and in the Old City. Yesterday's violence at Gaza and the other borders has caused the entire country to be nervously expecting some clash. The muslim crowd is coming by the thousands into the Old City to pray at the mosque. It's a ripe situation for a riot.

We had the inauguration Mass for the new school year at St. Saviour's parish. The nuncio's secretary was the main celebrant because all the important clergy are in Rome for the Synod. The grind of academic work begins again ... the paper chase ... and another generation will graduate in the next 300 days. Time flies.

Lunch at Cenacolino

I had to continue work after Mass and then the superior of the Cenacolino (Last Supper Room) invited me over for lunch. It was very nice of him and I noted the fraternity there has grown. More students have been sent to stay there because the seminary is crammed full of seminarians and there are  no more rooms. We've started to move the final year students to other monasteries. That way new students get to stay in the seminary. Anyway lunch at the Last Supper Room is so nice because it's simple. We abstain on Fridays so the sister who cooks in the kitchen steamed fish and fresh salad. But because yesterday was the Feast of St. Francis and today is the inauguration of the school year, we had drinks and ice cream.

The Russian meddling in all the world's politics is frightening everyone here ... from american elections to Malaysia's downed flight MH75. It's scary how the russian tentacles have spread ... and here we're worried about russia's influence in the syrian war. By sending russian missiles to intercept israeli drones and rockets is going to be a game changer. But on the side I'd say watch out for China which is more prudent and quiet and even more powerful than russia. Now the news says that the Chinese head of Interpol has gone missing. Scary.

Angela Merkel on the otherhand has left Jerusalem today. She was here for the past 2 days and roads were closed and security was super tight ... in a phrase, our daily life was disturbed again. That's life in the City ... we put our lives on hold when big shots come.

St. Francis feast

Relic of St. Francis

Today is the feast of St. Francis. Most from my house went to the solemn Mass at St. Saviour's church. But I was at the Ivrea Convent for Mass. Then after Mass I had to help our Indian sisters unpack some gifts which the Ivrea sisters sent to us. Besides several cartons of drinks, they also made a huge tiramisu cake which was absolutely fantastic. They are very good bakers and every Christmas and Easter they make fantastic pastries for us. Anyway we had them as dessert for lunch ... and I really liked it.

Our indian-style altar decorations

After helping the sisters, I watered the courtyard plants as the sudden heat of yesterday had dried out many plants. The cool weather that we were experiencing had suddenly turned very hot and humid. I tried to rest after work as I was so very sleepy. I needed to catch up with so much lost sleep but I had to go down for lunch. Then I finally could sleep for an hour before the MC sisters called me to go for their confessions and eucharistic adoration. Now 7.30pm I am finally over with that and am home and ready to sleep. Dead tired.

There's been on-going tensions at the Gaza border today. I think one teen was killed. Tomorrow being Friday, it'll probably get worse.   https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/gaza-tensions-israeli-military-to-boost-forces-along-border-1.6529897?utm_source=Push_Notification&utm_medium=web_push&utm_campaign=General

Meantime the tensions in Jerusalem are also high. Besides the rise of attacks on arabs by jews, now the settlers have bought over an arab pharmacy behind our house. The neighbourhood which is arab, is very unhappy but the fault lies with the arab owners of the pharmacy. Why did they sell the place? Its all about money. The arabs have themselves to blame.  https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/reaping-hatred-in-jerusalem-1.6517588

And the misfortune of Sulawesi is the talk of town. Earthquake and tsunami killing over a thousand people .... now a volcano erupts. Could any thing worse happen? Knock on wood.   https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/volcano-erupts-on-same-indonesian-island-as-earlier-quake-1.6528492

Transitus

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It's Transitus right now ... that's our simple ritual to recall the last hours of St. Francis and his death. I'm sure it's very crowded as the entire franciscan family - friars and nuns and laity - come together for this liturgy at our Custody house. I'm home arranging flowers in the refectory because the sisters asked me to. They're busy preparing the altar and sanctuary for the feast tomorrow morning. With only 7 african daisies I was supposed to arrange 7 small flower pieces on our dining tables plus the central service table. Mission impossible. In order to make the central piece larger and more eye-catching, I had to reduce the dinner table florets to 5. And without any decorative leaves, I had to cut our ornamental shrubs to supply. And here's my product - the central piece. Miserable.

Old nun with funky
cellphone

I still have to say early Mass at the Sisters of Ivrea convent ... Mass is at 6am so I have to start walking out at 5.30am. That means I'll miss my community's feast day Mass. But I might still make it to our Custody solemn Mass at 9am ... if I still have an strength left. Today I've been so busy running about with documents and meetings and then buying flowers in the New City and coming home to arrange them .... I might just sleep through the whole morning after I come back from the Ivrea Mass. I am utterly utterly exhausted. Since I finished the M. Teresa's sisters retreat and conference, I have not rested at all. I need to recuperate.

Well on a light-hearted side, on my way home today I saw the old greek orthodox nun again ... the one who wears funky headphones listening to music while walking down the street. Today she had a funky red cellphone .... like wow!!! That was very funny and made my day a little happier ... to be able to laugh.

Like every year, when the jewish feast of Sukkoth ends, ultra-orthodox jews get violent and attack non-jews. It's their expectation of the messiah's coming during the feast day and they believe the messiah is not coming because the land is filled with pagans and impure idolatrous peoples hence the ultra-orthodox jews are justified in attacking and expelling these non-jews. Some arabs were badly beaten.  https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-fists-chairs-and-tasers-jerusalem-sees-three-attacks-on-arabs-by-jews-in-one-week-1.6515912?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Riot

Crowds gathering to fight

So the news reported the reason for the strike yesterday: it was on the anniversary of the 2nd Intifada and a protest against the Nation-State Law. Did it make any difference? no ... except school children had a free day and we couldn't buy food or medicine. Anyway its over and nothing came out of it. In fact only one newspaper reported the event. There were more violent protests at the Gaza border but nothing more than that.

Sharma shop set on fire

This evening on my way home I witnessed a violent altercation between 2 shopkeepers at Musrara. Hundreds of supporters both sides got into a fight. Fire was set on the shwarma shop and its tables and chairs were thrown and smashed. In return the shwarma shopkeepers threw fireworks into the rioting crowd from the 2nd floor. Police intervened at least 5 times and only succeeded after some time in arresting a few trouble-makers. No stun grenades were fired ... the police were not armed with stun guns. But after some 2 hours things quietened down with arrests. Well the greatest enemy of the arabs are themselves.

We're all preparing for the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Tomorrow evening it's the Transitus at sunset when we celebrate the death of St. Francis. Then on Thursday we'll have the solemn Mass of the feast day. In order to prepare our chapel, our sisters needed to buy lots of flowers but they don't know the shops yet. So I had to bring them to the arab florists and bought 200 shekels with of flowers. Tomorrow I'll have to help them arrange the flowers in the Church and our refectory.  It'll be a long day.

Everything closed

East Jerusalem on strike

What a start to the week ... everywhere everything is closed. West Jerusalem continues its no-work jewish holy day while arab East Jerusalem went on strike ... probably over the killing of 7 Gazans but I could be wrong. Anyway it's a love-hate situation. We love the quiet streets on both sides of the City ... but we hate no being able to buy food or medicine from both sides of the City. The Christian Quarter continues mostly untouched. Christian shops closer to the Muslim Quarter are forced to close but those on the Christian side are all open. Thank goodness.

Emergency lunch

There was a video I found on Facebook that showed the notorious swastika vandal caught red-handed. For the past 2 weeks swastikas have been sprayed in public monuments and private properties. It drew the ire of the jews who are deeply offended by this nazi symbol. Everyone was out to hunt this culprit. And he was finally caught on security spraying on doors in the Old City of Jaffa .... and in the last clip of the security video, he very clearly sprayed a huge swastika on the Vatican Nunciature (embassy). I quickly sent the video to the Archbishop but he is in Rome for the Synod. He told me he'll send the video to the nuncio (ambassador) who actually lives in Jerusalem on the Mt. of Olives. I also sent the video to the superior of our Jaffa monastery because the nunciature occupies the ground floor of our monastery. He went down to check and found out it was already cleaned up by the police but traces can still be seen on the door. He was told that the culprit has been arrested. Thank goodness. See how quick the police can catch culprits? Now jewish vandals on church property ... they haven't been caught for like 5 years now. How come?

Well I'm back to work routine ... alot of running around to get 2 visa applications, payment for magazine subscription, then off to our bookshop to check if our order of books arrived, settling the cargo landing bills and all the bureaucracy of importing books for our libraries. That took 5 hours in all. And I was very hungry as I hadn't eaten dinner last night and only a cup of coffee and a banana this morning. Luckily the chinese sisters were home and cooked noodles for me. All the shops in east and west Jerusalem are closed today .... just my luck.

One dreadful news which is quite regular in summer time, a child was stung by a scorpion and is in critical condition. In the heat snakes and scorpions hide inside houses and shoes and become a danger to people. Thank goodness winter is coming ... now we'll just have to watch out for snakes and scorpions hibernating in our houses and shoes.   https://www.timesofisrael.com/toddler-in-critical-condition-after-being-stung-by-scorpion-in-negev/

End of holidays

Musrara night market goes on
as usual

Today is the last day of Sukkoth ... a solemn day whereby no work must be done. The streets in West Jerusalem are empty of traffic ... which is nice. But so are all the shops and offices. However the jewish crowds are flowing by the thousands toward the Wailing Wall for the close of this 8 day feast. Then once the final prayers are recited at sunset, they start another feast Shimini Ezret and another feast Simhat Torah ... 2 feasts on the same day. The autumn season can be quite a stress if you're celebrating all these feasts. The country has practically stopped for 25 days. But finally the holidays are over.

Salak from Indonesia

Tomorrow evening life will go back to normal in West Jerusalem. The Eastern part which is arabic is still with its hustle and bustle despite the tight israeli security cordon. Well let's hope the security will lessen and everyone get back to his routine. We all want to live peacefully. But of course there's Gaza in the south ... but that doesn't seem to bother us like before. There's warning of an impending war with Gaza and the border clashes yesterday was bad ... 7 dead if I'm not mistaken. Still we don't see any interest from the Jerusalem arabs. They don't want to be involved.

This morning after one month of preaching the conference/retreat to the MC nuns, I could finally sleep a little longer and steam some Singaporean kueh for breakfast. Then an Indonesian student gave me 3 salak that an Indonesian group brought for him. It was nice ... I haven't tasted one in 3 decades.

Something fishy is happening on my blog. The usual readership is 40 to 80 each day. But 2 weeks back it went up to 700 in one day. Then it went up to 1800 on another day. I think I'm being hacked. Or bugged. Or both.

Stromata

Sunrise over East Jerusalem

Yesterday saw violence at the Gaza border as tensions grow in the Strip. 4 killed including, as reported, 2 teenagers. I guess as the last and most important day of Sukkot approaches (tonight) - the last day of the 8 day feast - all the borders with Palestine and Jordan will be closed. Hopefully no trouble will boil over the borders.

Winter is upon us as the sun rises only after 5.30am and the nights are colder .... 18 degrees or below. Daytime is still hot but the days are getting shorter. Tomorrow on the last day of Sukkot, back 200 years when there was a Temple, the jewish priests would offer the water libation and prayed for rain. That's the beginning of the rainy season. Well we certainly hope it'll rain hard this winter. The rain and cold usually sees a stop to clashes and violence. The weather plays an important role even in war.

Dead climber

Despite the violence in the south, life in Jerusalem goes on as usual ... or as much as it can under the circumstances. I'll need to rest for a few days after the month long retreat / conference for the MC sisters. But I've run out of medicine so I'll have to go to a pharmacy in East Jerusalem to buy it. I'll also have to buy food for Buddy and Chilli ... the 2 boys eat alot now that they're grown. Buddy is 3 yrs old now and Chilli is almost 2 yrs. However Chilli is still chewing everything he can fly to ... unlike Buddy who's stopped his chewing phase. Anyway I'll have to do these chores quickly before the shops close. And I really do intend to sleep and rest after the intense month long talks. Soon I'll be due for my 2nd operation this summer and I need to be strong for a quick recovery.
2 weeks ago while workers were removing several low separation walls from out corridor in the courtyard, they destroyed the roots of 2 ancient climbers. These 2 plants have been there since as long as I can remember. Their old gnarled trunks twist and turn all the way up to the arches of the 1st floor and the green leaves provide nesting for lots of birds. Now they're dead and yesterday the workers came to remove them. Sad ... another piece of history gone.