All Saints Day

St. Peter's church by the sea at 6am

All Saints Day today. Though it's my turn to preside at our community Mass, this morning I was excused because I had a hospital appointment in Tel Aviv. I woke up at 3am to prepare myself ... but despite all that I still to bring my passport. At 4.55am I went out to Damascus Gate to get the taxi for Tel Aviv but not before buying fresh arab bread called "kaik" which my Jaffa community loves to eat. Arrived at St. Peter's church in Jaffa at 5.55am ... but because it was cold both in Jerusalem and Jaffa ... I caught a dreadful cold. But I could concelebrate the Solemnity with my community in Jaffa before going off to the hospital for my appointment.

Checkup was quick and it's good news ... the bone graft is growing and anchored. However the doc said I need to clean up a few cavities so as to avoid any infection spreading. Now that was painful. I have to get back to painkillers again. Anyway all I wanted to do was to go home as quickly as possible ... so I took the bus home. The mini-bus drivers are crazily dangerous as they speed down the highway to Jerusalem. Once home I slept the rest of the afternoon as the cold was making me quite weak.

Tel Aviv at 6am

Anyway the rest of the Holy Land was celebrating All Saints Day ... not sure where the main celebration was. Tomorrow is All Souls Day and the friars will have Mass at our cemetery and bless the tombs. The chinese priests and religious will have Mass at the Last Supper Room, which I organised, and then we'll visit some tombs in the cemetery before going for lunch. We're celebrating Sr, Teresa's earning her Diploma from the Salesian University and the arrival of Sr. Clara.

On a national level, the mayoral elections are over ... with some surprising results in the northern cities. Jerusalem though is stuck with a tie vote ... so another round of elections will be underway. Then news is out that Israel's airforce attacked Russian military bases in Syria ... a very risky move as it might inflame the region war. In the south, Gaza's military factions have vowed to keep the ceasefire with Israel but the renegade groups armed and supported by Iran will definitely not honour this ceasefire ... and get everyone into trouble again by a new wave of bombings.

Eve of All Saints

Our chapel this
evening

After 4 months of having our boxes of books sent back to the publishers by Customs office, today ... we finally received our first pack of 3 books. It took over 10 days meeting our lawyers and workers in  our technical and legal offices, negotiations with the Post Office etc... to get this pack arrive in our library. Well let's hope things will get better these next few months otherwise our library will have no new books.

This morning I had to go buy flowers for our sisters to prepare our chapel for All Saints Say tomorrow. Bought over 300 shekels of flowers. But I had no time to help the sisters arrange the flowers as I had class from 2pm to 4pm. Just saw the arrangements during Vespers ... could be better. But I can't demand too much as our sisters were not trained for this.

Palm Plaza at 6pm

This evening at 5.30pm there was a small exhibition on Pope St. Paul VI and his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1964. All the vestments he wore, the chalices he used and lots of photos are exhibited in our Curia Hall. Just gesture in recognition of the 1st Pope after Peter to walk in the Holy Land. Next week our library will be exhibiting our oldest Bibles in conjunction with the Inaugural Speech at the opening of our academic year.

Well winter is certainly started. The sun sets early ... at about 5.45pm. People are asking where is the sun ... a good joke that summer had passed too quickly. Temps continue to fall ... and soon it will be Advent. We look forward to that.

Tomorrow I must go back to hospital to check on my transplant. Will have to leave at 5am so I'll have to wake up at 3am to prepare. I guess I should sleep early then.

Election Day

Birds feeding at Damascus Gate park

Yesterday I was feeling really unwell ... with the pain in my head and dizziness. There was still some documentation work that I had to complete with the lawyers for the arrival of 3 books. It is tedious ... the postal service is now a nightmare. Then for the rest of the day I tried to rest. On Thursday I'll be going back to the hospital for a checkup ... to make sure I don't have an infection or whatever.

Bedouin women
prepare to sell their
veggies

Today is Jerusalem Election Day ... local citizens get to vote for their mayor. It's a day off for municipality offices and schools but restaurants and other places of entertainment are opened ... because whole families will be out enjoying themselves after they have voted. The streets are quite crowded with people. We're hoping the new mayor will not be anti-christian and give us alot of trouble. But most probably the pro-ultra-orthodox candidate will win as the ultra-orthodox voters hold the balance of power in any election.

The arab residents in East Jerusalem on the other hand will continue life as usual today. Not many are Israeli citizens and have not right to vote. The markets continue to open, work is as usual ... only the Israeli banks on this side of the City are closed.

Tonight is Halloween night. It's not a popular celebration as it's frown upon by judaism. For us it's a preparation for All Saints Day ... which will be a big feast in all our houses.

The killing at the Pittsburg synagogue was atrocious. But response to it from the Chief Rabbi in Israel has stirred up more division when he refused to mention the tragic place as a synagogue because he does not recognize it ... it being a conservative synagogue and not ultra-orthodox. The ultra-orthodox do not consider the conservatives as true jews and their marriages are not valid according to ultra-orthodox law. This morning the PM affirmed that it is a legitimate synagogue, thus clashing with the religious power in Jerusalem. Like I've said many times, this implosion will be the greatest disaster to befall Israel.   https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Slamming-Ashkenazi-Chief-Rabbi-Netanyahu-says-all-Jews-are-one-570619?fbclid=IwAR3XbwBut3ceSk7_yP80AZgCUUsExOqdpLZIxCj3sEk_K-cNiT2bG2ocZeE

And it's just been revealed that Israel had sold millions of dollars of sophisticated spyware to the Saudis ... which is ruffling some feathers in the wake of the killing of the saudi journalist. Most likely this news will be quickly swept under the carpet as Israeli-Saudi ties have never been so close as before.  https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Report-Israel-sold-250m-of-sophisticated-spy-systems-to-Saudi-Arabia-570539?fbclid=IwAR3nAlNVRO7-B5UjJ9r-nGgp0Q8vvzvk9EjQXjRWyvP2P-LrYb2EJX1sBb4

Cold Sunday

Palm Plaza on a cold Sunday

Another cold day with cold gusty winds. I stayed most of the morning cleaning my room. Then after lunch I went out to do the weekly shopping. Not that I bought anything much ... but I did get a small heater for our new Indian seminarian Leo because it gets very cold at night and he's not used to it. New students from equatorial countries are never prepared for winter.

Tonight the community is having a barbecue dinner in our courtyard. I didn't go. I can't eat the meat which requires chewing.  Luckily I bought a tub of vanilla ice cream so I can eat that in my room.

Old City at 7am

There's a flash news saying 2 gazans killed in clashes at the border. Looks like the ceasefire didn't work out. There's a report that children who experienced the bombing blitz the evening before are now suffering panic attacks and trauma.

Then there is the surprising news that our PM made a secret visit to Oman where he was warmly welcomed... a country that Israel has no diplomatic ties. The arab States are having better relations with Israel and this will consolidate peace in the region and solve the Palestine problem.

Then there's constant news of the dreadful famine in Yemen that's killing off thousands of children. The war is terrible. A proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia ... where innocent tennis die for nothing.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-45964795?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=facebook&ocid=socialflow_facebook

Cold Sabbath

Empty street on
Sabbath

The temp. dropped to 12 degrees this morning. Wow it was cold and the rain has stopped ... and I had a nice walk out to the New City at 6.30am to meet a family of friends. It was such a lovely walk on Sabbath because hardly anyone was on the streets. And I've not seen them for a very long time. The kids have grown so much. It was good to them all ... and for the first time the entire family together.

The walk back was equally pleasant ... the cold fresh winter wind and bright morning sun. Feels like Christmas. Which is another thing that got me all excited yesterday ... I remembered Advent was coming and that means I get to put up the Advent wreath and decorate my altar for Christmas. It's exciting ... because it's a break from routine. Our new seminarian from India Bro. Leo was also excited. It's his first Christmas here and it'll quite an experience for him. Well we decided to go Christmas shopping together ... a small christian shop in East Jerusalem.

Chinese pilgrims venerating the
relic of the True Cross

Tourists are coming like a plague ... the streets are so packed it's almost impossible to walk. I dread going out but there's work to do. I try to time myself so I can come home without any injury from pushing and elbowing. The last thing I need after my op. is someone push into my wound.

Despite the ceasefire worked out by Israel and Gaza, yesterday saw some of the worst violence yet. Gaza fired a barrage of rockets into Israel and Israel's army bombarded Gaza in 87 targets. 4 gazans were killed. Israel is blaming Syria and Iran for arming Gaza ... and they're probably right. They use Gaza as a proxy. Utterly dreadful.  https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5381004,00.html

Meantime jews have been on the rampage on revenge attacks on arabs. Already our catholic cemetery had tombstones broken last week.  https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5380507,00.html

Storm

Storm over the Mt. of Olives

What a storm we had last night ... winds over 100 km per hour, strong cold rain all night. It was something we all wanted ... but still people were not prepared or did not heed warnings. 20 students died in flash floods when they went to the desert for an excursion in Jordan. Israeli and Jordanian armies jointly searched for bodies in the Dead Sea. In Israel in the Negev Desert a bedouin toddler was drowned by flash floods. Let's hope no more tragedies will take place as people lear to be more cautious during this raining season.

Storm over the city

I stayed mainly at home because of the weather. My face is less swollen but the pain is bad. I think too much anesthesia has gone into my head ... 3 weeks with a total of 15 injections. My brain is messed up. And twice I was very dizzy and almost fainted .... it's the balance problem in the ear. For brunch I ate some rice and boiled veggies ... the doc joked that I shouldn't eat for 2 weeks so I can lose a few kgs. I guess I should ... but already these 3 weeks after the 1st operation even students have noted that I lost weight.

Some good news ... the Gaza govt. and Israel have reached an agreement brokered by Egypt to halt the violence at the border. Let's hope this ceasefire will hold so people can get their lives together.  https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5380207,00.html?fbclid=IwAR1ndbBbdpOxKOjzdIr_GZMJcaGQG-_g4mTRVPiwNHSgWnovGr7IAIPtpw0

Well for sure the storm will take the energy out of this violence. You can't burn tires and fly incendiary balloons in this rain. Mother Nature has a way to deal with us when we can't handle ourselves.

Our Lady of the Holy Land

Full moon over St. Peter's Church

The rains have come ... all almost. The sky in Jerusalem is very overcast with dark rain clouds and the suburb of Givat Shaul was drizzling. A thunderstorm would be great .... but it looks unlikely now as the sun has suddenly broken through the clouds. But we're all still hoping. I was told that the next few days should be rain in Jerusalem. But weather-forecasters are seldom accurate in our region ... except for the drought forecast.

Vanilla ice cream today

This morning I had to leave very early for Tel Aviv. I had an appointment with the doctor to check on the operation, but before that I went to our church in Jaffa to concelebrate solemn Mass with my community at St. Peter's Church. The hospital visit instead turned out to be a 2 hour surgery. The bone graft is growing quite well, as the x ray showed. But I think they had to reposition the bone and also to deal with the surround teeth so that I don't catch an infection. Today I was alone and I had to take the bus home ... and walked 1km from the central bus station to my home. Good thing about this was I could buy a tub of vanilla ice cream to cool the wound. Half my face is drooping from the 4 injections ... and by the way they took out another 2 stitches. Anyway I'm half numb. Awful and tiring experience so I guess I'll rest for the afternoon and cancel my appointments.  

Today is the Solemnity of Our Lady of the Holy Land. Previously it was called Our Lady of Palestine ... but due to political developments, it was changed to Holy Land. I think the bishops had gone to the parish of Our Lady of the Holy Land in Deir Rafat in the central plains. It's an annual pilgrimage for local catholics during this feast.