Celebrating the Fourth of July in Israel

I have managed to by in foreign countries on the fourth of July numerous times in my adult life. I can almost always find a group of Americans to celebrate with adn this year was no exception. It was quite a busy day on whihc we got a lot accomplished. Just a brief rundown:
1. After Mass and Breakfast, we headed to the Rockefeller Museum to see some artifacts from Jericho in light of our visiting Jericho this week
2. We all got haircuts - Everyone should have the Arab Barber experience once or twice in their lives.
3. We met a Professor friend of Fr. Gregory's and went for an American Meal Experience at a restaurant that caters to American Tourists - that means it is open on the Sabbath and serves bacon - we had Bacon Cheese burgers (blue cheese - to die for!)
4. After a post-lunch nap, Frs. Carl and Steve and I headed over to the American Colony Hotel for drinks and then to the DUblin Pub for buffalo wings.
5. All this was capped off with a milk shake - another American contribution to world cuisine. We listened to the NPR reading of the Declaration of Independence and Sang Lee Greenwood and Niel Diamond's Coming to America... badly... which is our right. Happy Fourth of July from the Holy Land

Being a Part of Two Jubilant Crowds on Friday Evening

After a long week of classes, on Friday afternoon, my classmates and I decided to participate in the Franciscan's weekly procession in the Via Dolorosa. Each week hundreds of Pilgrims gather to pray the Stations of the Cross on the route that established that devotion and eventually lead to virtually every Catholic Church in the world having their own mini Way of the Cross surrounding their worship space. As part of our Pilgrimage day two weeks ago, we prayed the stations by ourselves ( I wrote about that here: http://frbartjerusalem.blogspot.com/2009/06/church-of-singing-chicken-jesus-last.html), but we had never participated in this official devotion. To tell you how important this is to the Franciscans who manage the Catholic world around here - dozens of them show up week-after-week and the Stations are lead each Friday by the Custos - that is, the head Franciscan in charge of everything Catholic in all the Holy Land - He is literally one of the most powerful men in the Middle East and he takes time out every Friday to lead this important Franciscan devotion.

Geographically and textually, the Stations were the same that we prayed 2 Tuesdays ago, but that is where the similarity stopped. There were probably 200 pilgrims participating in the Stations and they moved as a unit through the crowded streets of the Moslem souqs that currently occupy the Via Dolorosa. I was impressed at the deep prayer of a number of the pilgrims, some of whom were in deep prayer and even tears. We made away quickly through the streets - the first 8 stations I was distracted by the crowding and the secular activities going on around us - worried about the mixed emotions - anger at the disrespect of those who continued talking and even yelling all around us, seemingly trying to disrupt the prayer - but feeling sorry for the people displaced by this throng moving through their places of business.

Then as the procession began the Ascent of Mt Calvary after the 8th station, we were no longer surrounded by the commerce and my mind and heart turned to prayer. The 9-14th stations are in and around the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the crowd ascends the steps to Golgotha's chapels. I waited downstairs by the anointing stone, but could still hear and join in the prayers. Once again my heart was lifted up by the history - this devotion has been going on in the Church for nearly 800 years - Christians have remembered and commemorated the way of the cross and the crucifixion of the Lord all the way back to the beginning of the Church. How many millions of men and women have walked this way? How many have taken part in this very devotion this year alone? this decade? in the last century? the last millennium? Thank you Lord, thank you for your sacrifice on the cross. Thank you for consecrating every Friday forever by your death on that day and thank you for bringing life through your death.

The Last stations took place at the tomb of Jesus - At the end we prayed the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Gloria Patri for the Pope's intention and then the Custos gave a special pilgrims blessing to wrap everything up.

I had an interesting experience while in Church of the Holy Sepulcher. A young woman heard me speaking English to Fr. Steve and asked me if she could ask me a question. She asked me "What is this place?" We were in the Gologtha Chapel and I assumed that was what she was asking so I explained that we were on top of the hill on which Jesus was crucified. She then asked some other questions and it was clear that she had no idea about the entire building. She was joined by several other young women and I began to explain various things and answer questions. "Is that the tomb of the Virgin Mary?" one asked. 'Oh no, that's over on the Mount of Olives..." Then one of them said to another "that's over where grandma lives..."

Wait - your grandmother lives on the Mount of Olives??? It turned out they were from Michigan but are here visiting their grandmother (for the first time). SO I asked if they were Palestinian. Yes. Christians? No, Muslims. Wow! That was a wonderful encounter. These young Palestinian Americans were soaking up everything they could on their first visit to the Holy Land. I was happy to be their little tour guide for a few minutes and share the richness of our faith with them. I have been here long enough that I am answering questions and giving directions on a regular basis -especially when I am in the Old City in my habit. I love that...

After Stations we also met a fascinating couple from San Francisco. I had spoken with them before Stations and was interested in how they experienced the stations. They were not Catholic and had some questions - they were moved by the reaction of the crowds. But I was blown away by their story: She is the daughter of a flight attendant who flies on "buddy passes" - they went to the airport for vacation not knowing where they were going to end up. They were hoping Peru, but it all depends on open seats on flights - so they ended up in Israel instead - no reservations, no plans, not even the right clothes for the desert. And they were having a great time. They were gonna stay for another week and then head over to Cairo. Oh to be so young, so carefree, so flexible...

We had heard from a number of people that the place to be on Friday evening in Jerusalem was the Kotel, the Western Wall - that the atmosphere was one of great celebration and jubilation. Knowing that things would get going around sundown, we stopped off for dinner at our favorite restaurant in the Old City. (El Buraq is located in the Muslim quarter just outside the North gate to the Western Wall Plaza, it is built into a stone vaulting beneath the buildings below. The food is great and not terrible expensive. If you are planning a trip, this place is a must. IT is the only restaurant in the Old City that I have returned to for a second try, and indeed I have been there for a third and fourth...)

After dinner we arrived at the Kotel just as the services for the beginning of Sabbath were ending. The plaza and the Wall were more crowded than I have ever seen them. It was clear that there were Jews of every kind (reformed Americans to Ultra-Orthodox) both on the Plaza and down at the Wall itself. At first glance it looks like organized chaos - there are bar-mitzvahs going on, much davening at the wall, there is both a communal experience and some who are caught up in their own individual prayers.

I was a spectator, but I was also swept into the spirit of prayer too. Inside the Sacred precinct on both the men's and women's side, there was also a great deal of dancing - dancing and singing in circles - a little more subdued on the women's side, but definitely there. I noticed facial expressions on some of the more "serious" men that was clear annoyance at (perhaps) the frivolity of the dance, bu there was room for everyone. As minutes passed the jubilation of the dance spread and the atmosphere was definitely one of great joy.

On the Plaza, we noticed large groups of soldiers leading the dancing and spear-heading the festivities out there. There were large dancing circles there as well - men being lead by a soldier and a young man waving an Israeli flag - not knowing what is and what is not traditional, i wasn't sure about these young people - it resembled a group of fraternity boys in the spirit of the big game bumping chests and leading cheers. They the young women soldiers also lead the young women in dance and song. No one could have stood by watching this and not be swept into the spirit.

At some point a huge number of young soldiers started pouring the gates into the plaza - all young men and women. What was this? Were they expecting some trouble? But wait... these soldiers aren't armed, but there were probably 200 or 250 of them standing in one area of the plaza. Soon a man that I can only assume was a rabbi moved into the crowd of soldiers and began talking to them. It was in Hebrew so I cannot be sure, but it seemed to be some kind of a pep talk. When he was finished, the soldiers spread out and many of them moved down to the Wall and joined in the dancing and the festivities there. We were able to move in closer. There was an odd mixture of nationalism and religious fervor mixed in this celebration (Americans tend to be uncomfortable with such a mixture - I am) but it was infectious.

We ran into our friend Cynthia who is leading a group of students on an archaeological dig. She is one of the people who had told me about Friday night at the Kotel and she was there letting her students experience it. We talked a little about impressions and experiences, then went our separate ways.

Then a small group of soldiers approached us and introduced themselves to us. Speaking broken English they wondered where we were from and what we were doing here. When they found out the other guys were from California, they were very impressed and wanted to talk about Arnold Swartzenegger. :) We asked them about the large group of soldiers that had come in an hour before. They shared that they were Officer candidates who had just finished their training (they would be commissioned on Monday.) and they were brought here as a unit for what they called "education Saturday." They would be spending the night in Jerusalem and returning to their base on Saturday. They found out that Fr. Steve had been a Naval officer and worked with the Marines and they asked him lots of questions about American military training. With the exception of language, these young men could have been any group of young men I had ever encountered on campus. They were great ambassadors of their country and went out of their way to engage the strangers in their midst. They were interested in hearing our impressions of their country and were glad that we were going to Masada next week. They were enthusiastic about their service of their country and excited about taking their place as new officers. They were also thrilled to be celebrating at the Kotel. I asked one who told us he was from Galilee how often he had come to Jerusalem growing up - not often. That surprised me a little, but he was glad to be there that evening. Eventually, they were called away by their comrades and we excused ourselves too.

By this time the crowd was thinning, it was near 10 and people were breaking up and saying goodbye to their friends to go to their homes to observe the Sabbath. What a beautiful and communal way to begin it. I have attended a number of Friday evening Sabbath services in my life and they are always special celebrations, but I felt that Friday night I saw it at its best and most complete. Judaism in the diaspora is always twinged with a longing for Israel. And tonight I saw why... Shabbat Shalom.

Bringing the Prayers of my Tucson Community to the Kotel

Much was made in recent months of the visits of Pope Benedict XVI and (then) Presidential Candidate Barach Obama to the Western Wall. And I must admit that, as the time of my own Holy Land sojourne approached, the Western or Wailing Wall has been one of those places that has held a certain romantic mythology for me. I have often seen images of pilgrims inserting small slips of paper into the cracks beneath the massive stones that make up the only remaining portion of the Wall of the 2nd Temple that was destroyed by the Romans in punishment for Jewish revolts in the late 1st Century of hte Common Era.

The reality is that the portion of the Temple Mount Wall that is visible and exposed on th eWestern Wall Plaza is part of the expansions of hte Temple Precinct expanded by Herod the Great during the 1st Century BCE. There are other Herodian stones visible on the South and South Eastern sectionsof the Temple Mount Wall. So why has the Western Wall attained to this particular pride of place in the 20th Century? And it has only sense the establishent of the modern State of Israel that the Holiness of this section of the Wall has been declared. But there is strong evidence going back as far as the 4th Century that Jews were allowed by Byzantine Christian Emperors to return on the 9th of Av every year to pray in lament for the destruction of the Temple and that those prayers were carried out at the exposed stones of the Western Wall. In the 16th Century, the Muslim ruler Suleman the Magnificent guaranteed the right of Jews to pray in this place and built accommodations for these prayers there. But why here?

This portion of the Wall is very near the center (south to north) which is closest to the actual situation of the 2nd Temple (which is roughly where the Dome of the Rock sits now). Jews believed that the "Glory of God" (Shikinah)resided in particular way in the Holy-of-Holies in the Temple. That glory has never departed from the Temple, even with its destruction, so they want to get as close as they can to the actual place, believing that the Glory of God still dwells there. This appeals to the Catholic sensabilities as well. The whole of the Temple Mount would be Holy, but this is the exposed section of rock from the 2nd Temple Period that is closest to the actual site of the Holy-of-Holies- so it is holiest. The Jewish Community has turned it into a great open-air synagogue. Christian and Jewish Pilgrims come here by teh thousands each day to offer prayers and to leave votives.

In the weeks leading up to my departure from Tucson, I invited my parishioners at St. Thomas More Newman Center in Tucson to write prayers that I would deliver for them to the Wall. That was successful beyond my wildest imagining and I arrived here with more than 300 slips of papers with prayers for the wall! I am not a superstitious man at all (in fact I rail against what I consider superstitious customes within Catholicism), but I love many fo the sacramental customs of our faith. They are the means by which we use ordinary stuff (water, oil, ashes, bread, wine, etc.) to encounter the Holy. This is what the Wailing Wall is to me. It is a gigantic sacramental! Not wanting to be arrested for littering, I have been taking the prayers of my friends to the walls a little at time. So each time I go to the Kotel (as the Jewish community called the Western Wall), is also a time for connection with my friends in Tucson. I usually read some of the Psalms there and offer my prayers for our little community in Tucson. On Thursday I spent most of the afternoon in the Jewish Quarter and a little time at the Kotel. On Friday I was there again (I will write about that fun experience in another post). I plan to go again on Sunday. It has become one of my favorite places in Jerusalem. It is always busy with people and there is a certain social character to the plaza that surrounds the Kotel, but the Wall itself is a place of prayer - always and only. To those of you reading this blog who wrote prayers that I brought to Israel, know that I am diligently getting them there and I thank you for the opportunity to stay connected to you in this little way.

Shabbat Shalom!

Only a bunch of real Church nerds would think this was a cool picture. But I think this is a really cool picture! This was how Frs. Steve, Carl, and I initiated the sabbath after a long week of studies: relaxing with a cold beer with good friends on the roof next to the neo-romanesque Church here at St. Stephen's. It also seemed an appropriate way to celebrate what Fr. Carl called "First Vespers of the 4th of July." I'm drinking a Palestinian Beer called Taybeh - a little sweeter than I usually like but it is cold and refreshing. We are the roof of the 1 story building between our residence and the Church. The only light for our little party was the lights that illuminate the beautiful Church at night.

This was a good end to a busy day that began with Mass at 8 AM, followed by a full morning of class (this time focused on Jesus' controversies witht he religious leaders of his day), participating in the Franciscan procession on the Way of the Cross this afternoon, and attending the celebrations for the beginning of the Sabbath at the Western Wall this evening. It was another busy and enlightening day.

Halfway: Some reflections on our studies

I would not want anyone reading this blog to forget that my primary reason for coming to Jerusalem was to study scripture. The book and classroom work does not produce pretty pictures or stories of great adventure, but they are the reason I came and have an excitement all their own.

Anyone who knows me knows my great love for the Bible. In many ways, I am aware that this is a holdover from my Protestant roots and I am grateful for it. One of my real joys when in seminary came from the hard-core academic reading of Scripture. I loved looking at the texts systematically and tearing them apart to get to deeper and deeper meaning. Greater knowledge of the Scriptures has lead me to greater knowledge of God, which has in turn, lead me more deeply to God. As a preacher, the Word itself is the starting point and ending point of every homily, every sermon I preach. Preaching preparation is what demands an ongoing study of Scripture in my ministerial life.

But preaching preparation is not systematic Biblical study. It's "situational" and can lead to a kind of chopping the Scriptures up to focus on this or that little fragment of the larger text. And, in the midst of busy Pastoral life, there often isn't the time to do more. That is why this summer is such a gift and why, for me, the real adventure is in the classroom and in the studies. What a luxury to have all this time in the WORD!!!!! And it extends beyond the classroom - when we are at meals, when we are traveling to archaeological or Biblical sites, when we are in the sacristy preparing for liturgy, every question turns into a seminar. Ostensibly, we are here to study the synoptic Gospels. But one cannot study those texts in a vacuum. They lead us to the Hebrew Scriptures, to St. Paul, to Eschatalogical texts, to extra-Biblical works. And at the end of each day, I have much about which to ponder and the luxury of time to do so!

The approach we are taking to the Texts of the Gospels is comparative. Each class day, we approach a particular themewithin the Gospel tradition (healings, exorcisms, feedings and table fellowship, controversies, etc). in preparation for class, we have been given a list of texts from the Gospels to read and prepare for discussion. Discussion does not mean "what this text means to me in my Christian life..." We are using the tools of textual, historical, and editorial criticism to analyze these texts. We are looking at the theological themes and how each of the evangelists uses the particular stories or sayings or teachings to advance his theological project. We look at textual differences between the evangelist's retelling of the same events. The ultimate question addressed by each of the Evangelists is "Who is Jesus?" This is the same question every Christian must confront over and over again in our living of the Christian life. This systematic approach to the textual tradition of Christianity is helping me re-focus on that all-important question. The picture of Jesus that emerges from this kind of systematic analysis is amazing! Throw in the mix an ongoing education in the history and culture that produced the Gospels (from our travels and site visits) and, as you might imagine, I will never be able to read the Bible the same again. The hours spent in preparing texts and discussions in our seminars are intense, but what a gift! What a gift!

Throughout our time here, of course we don't get a"break from religious life" - we re living in community with all the demands of our community life. Among those demands is to take our turn celebrating Mass and preaching. For the English Mass we celebrate each day, these duties rotates among me and my classmates. I am already experiencing a rejuvenation in my approach to homily preparation. Even for daily Masses (remember, I am preaching to preachers) I am spending a lot more time in the text. Each day the name of a place that we have visited or a text we have studied emerges in the liturgy. And the wonderful richness of our textual treasures comes alive more.

I was asked by a friend the other day if I was homesick. I answered "no." The reality is that I haven't had time to be homesick in the month I have been away. Every experience is a new one and every corner provides a blessing. If I am honest, sure I miss important people in my life, but I am so enjoying the blessings of study, that I am not anxious to give it up. I still have another month here and there are some exciting travels still on the horizon (the Dead Sea, Masada and Qumran, Galilee, and Jordan). But the real adventure is in the Text and while I will take great memories of Jerusalem with me when I go home, I can't take Jerusalem with me , or Galilee, or Qumran, or Petra - but I CAN take the Scriptures - and in that, I know that the adventure will continue.

Thanks for all of you who are reading this blog and for those who take time to comment. I promise that there are many more adventures to write about in the next month!

Archaeological Fun in Our Own Back Yard

The Ecole Biblique is located in Arab East Jerusalem one block outside the Old City - one block from the Damascus Gate. Jews have always buried their dead outside the City. Subsequently, all around Jerusalem the areas just outside the walls are dotted with cemeteries and complexes of tombs. Our little plot of land on Nablus Road is no exception. The Dominicans established their Priory and Archaeological Institute on the site of a previous byzantine Monastery that had long been associated with St. Stephen the Protomartyr. (it is not the traditional site of his death - that site is on the Mt. of Olives just opposite the Temple Mount and is occupied by the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Stephen)

The 1st chapel of the Original Monastery had been in between two of the tombs that occupy the property of the monastery. I have already made reference to these tombs in another post - the protestant pretender for the tomb of Jesus - the so called "Garden Tomb" is part of this same complex) The picture here shows the friars' funerary chapel inside the tomb complex. Behind the altar, you can see the entrance into the ancient tomb complex. Inside there are several burial chambers. Each has a "bed" on which the body of the deceased would be placed in a simple shroud. Sometime later, after the flesh had decomposed, the bones would then be placed in the ossuary beneath the "bed". Those ossuaries are still there and still filled with bones.

We were invited by Fr. John Baptiste Humbert to tour the tombs of St. Stephens on Saturday Afternoon (I neglected to write about this sooner, but it's kinda fun!) We were shown two different sets of tombs, one that has been maintained well because of the funerary chapel there as well as the tombs of the Dominican Friars who have lived, worked, and died here. The other... well, not so much. Fr. Jean-Baptiste explained quite carefully why these tombs are from the late Hellenistic period (and not, as has been proposed by some Jewish archaeologists working for the State of Israel, from the era of the 1st Temple). We saw the bones of Monks who were buried in these tombs in the Christian era. But make no mistake about it, these were not originally Christian Tombs.

After we were finished with the tombs, Fr. Jean Baptiste invited us to the Archaeology Dept. where he wanted to show us something rather remarkable that had been excavated here at St. Stephen's. There on the wall of his office hangs a shirt of chain maille dating from the middle ages (the crusader era). Though rusted, it is in remarkable shape and bears the holes which mark the entry and exit wound of the blow that likely killed its owner. Fr. Jean Baptiste invited Fr. Steve, the smallest of our little group to try it on - Steve, who loves all things martial, was in archaeological heaven! The shirt weighs more than 35 pounds and it took two dressers to help him into it. While wearing it, he remarked how flexible it was and though heavy, not unwieldy. It fit him like it was tailor made for him. This picture shows Fr. Steve in the Chain Maille with Fr. Jean Baptiste. The photo below shows Fr. Steve holding a "ballista" a round projectile from the Roman or Byzantine era. Such a stone would have been catapulted. Every archaeological site we have visited is littered with these things in various sizes. Steve is still trying to figure out how to sneak one out in his luggage. Fr. Jean-Baptiste explained that the Maille shirt was found buried here on our property. He proudly said that it is date to the time of St. Dominic's life (13th Century) and that it is extremely high quality. He also said that it was worn, not by a Christian, but by a Muslim warrior of that era. There are a lot more photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/FrBart/StevePlaysCrusades.

and more of the tombs at: http://picasaweb.google.com/FrBart/ArchDeptAndTombsAtEBAF.

Thanks, Jana!

This is a photo of me with Jana, the woman who found my wallet and went out of her way to track me down and return it to me. She was as happy to have found me and to give me back my wallet as I was to receive it. She is a Russian Immigrant who works in the Souvenir shop at Beit Guvrin Archaeological Park. I had bought an ice cream from her within the hour of her finding my wallet so she knew I was somewhere nearby. I am so grateful not to have had to cancel credit and debit cards or to get e new driver license. Jana is MY HERO!