Israel – Day Five – Jerusalem

First the exciting news – in a grocer’s shop near our hotel in Jerusalem I discovered a supply of M&M Chocolates. This is a tremendous find for any chocaholic travelling in hot countries; they really are ‘the chocolates that melt in your mouth and not in your hand.’

Today we travelled from Tiberias to Jerusalem, a journey of just over two hours on fast motorways. Again, it was a tale of two parts: first, Galilee was lush, tropical, with bright flowers and fruit trees; then, after an hour, the plantations of date palms slowly gave way to sand, rock and small stunted shrubs as we entered the Judean wilderness.

 

This area was popular with monks back in the fourth to seventh centuries, men who treasured the solitude and the silence. Alas, Persian invaders in the seventh century wiped out the monasteries. Now, apart from the occasional Bedouin camp at the road’s edge, the area is deserted.

We entered Jerusalem by Mount Scopus, enjoying a panoramic view of the city, the golden Dome of the Rock glinting in the bright sunshine. I was reminded of the last time we saw it, at night, just two day earlier, when Fr. Mark read a prayer and played a recording of The Holy City as we drove past Mount Scopus on the way back to Bethlehem. Our pilgrims sang along and the words ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, lift up your gates and sing…’were sung with tremendous fervour and anticipation; a magical moment.

Our first stop was at the Mount of Olives – which no longer has olive trees since the Romans cut them down in the first century. We stopped at the Church of the Paternoster, a small and simple one next to the ruins of an earlier one built by order of Emperor Constantine in the fourth century.

Outside is a grotto where Jesus allegedly taught his Disciples the Paternoster or Our Father, which is displayed on tiled panels in the courtyard and in the church – in more than 60 languages – including, to my great delight, Scottish Gaelic!

Then we walked downhill, along a narrow and steep paved road. This was the route followed by Jesus when he entered Jerusalem to the shouts of Hosanna! and the waving of palm fronds.

 

 An enterprising gentleman with a donkey (ass?) was waiting at the start and I passed him five shekels to pose for a photo.    

Dominus Flevit, which means ‘the Lord cried’is the name of the next church we visited. It’s a small, modern church run by the French Franciscans, built in the shape of a tear drop, commemorating the spot where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. It was built over a seventh century chapel and the immediate area was a burial site between 1,600BC and the fourth century, with an ancient tomb complex visible just before you enter the chapel.  

 

Frs. Mark and Ephraim co-celebrated Mass and at one point the strains of midday prayer drifted in to us from a mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. Appropriately, Fr. Mark commented on the richness of prayer life in the City, with three major faiths all worshipping God in the same place, and sometimes at the same time.

 

The view from the church is simply spectacular, with the Old City spread out before us. In addition to the view of the City, there is a great view of the Jewish Cemetery of Mount Olive, supposedly the largest and holiest in the world, with over 70,000 graves. As we walked past it, we noticed the Jewish custom of visitors leaving small stones (rather than flowers) on the graves.

Our guide discoursed for some time on Jesus’ last journey into Jerusalem, pointing out each location from His entry on Palm Sunday to His crucifixion at Golgotha. Each step of the route can be followed with a fair degree of accuracy and it was illuminating – and moving - to contemplate His last journey through Jerusalem to the cross on Calvary. The guide also explained the mechanics of crucifixion and it is hard to imagine a greater torture.  

 

The Allegro Café of Notre Dame of Jerusalem Centre proved the perfect haven for a quick bite, many nearby eateries being closed as it was the Sabbath. The hotel itself is quite a spectacular building.

The Basilica of the Agony in Gethsemane is also called the Church of All Nations to commemorate the 12 nations that contributed financially to its building. A modern church built upon fourth-century ruins, it contains before the altar an outcrop of rock from the original Byzantine church.

This is believed to be the rock upon which Jesus prayed in His agony. The church is dimly lit, its purple glazing and sombre interior combining to create an atmosphere of sorrow. Like the many other pilgrims, I queued to touch and kiss the rock before the altar and stayed to pray for a few minutes.

Outside, there is a small garden with the remains of the original Garden of Gethsemane. There are a number of olive trees, eight of them very twisted and gnarled, obviously very old, certainly hundreds of years old. While olive trees can live for thousands of years I doubt these particular trees date from Jesus’ time; the Romans would hardly have spared them…but it’s possible I suppose!

We were short of time when we reached St Peter in Gallicantu (meaning ‘cock crowed’ in Latin). This church is supposedly built over the site of Caiaphas’ Palace, the place where Jesus was imprisoned overnight and where Peter denied Him three times, his third denial followed by the crowing of a cock. The conjecture that this particular site is indeed Caiaphas’ Palace is not unanimously agreed on; the earliest church on the site probably belonged to a sixth century Armenian monastery and there is at least one other potential contender site.  



St Peter denies Jesus

 
Nevertheless, it made an interesting visit, with its ancient dungeon (in which Jesus would have been held if it was indeed Caiaphas’s house). Outside, Fr. Mark read the Gospel (John 18: 13-27) and – with absolutely marvellous synchronicity – a cock crowed three separate times during the reading!!!

There was a tremendous view from the church and among the things one could see was the alleged site of the field bought with Judas's 30 pieces of silver, now the site of a Greek Orthadox property.

(Incidentally, avoid the church bookshop; a book priced at NIS60 in Galilee was NIS96 here, and a crucifix was increased from NIS24 to NIS84.)

I had never heard of the Dormition Church before, It commemorates one (of the three) optional ways that the Blessed Virgin is thought to have ended her life on earth; by falling asleep and being taken, body and soul, into Heaven. In the crypt is a statue of the sleeping Virgin, carved from cherry wood and ivory. Above her is a domed cupola adorned with mosaic images of Jesus and six women from the Old Testament.  

On the crypt wall at one end is a painting of Jesus receiving His Mother into Heaven. Amusingly, this shows him as an adult holding a small Virgin in his arms.

Our last visit was to what is allegedly The Upper Room or Last Supper Room (Cenacle). I think I can leave it to the guide book to describe how genuine this relic is…’it can be said with total certainty that this is not the original upper chamber, nor is it likely to be the exact location.’ Interestingly, the room is probably early medieval and even contains a mihrab - the niche on a mosque wall that points to the direction of Mecca. Enough said!

The sightseeing day ended and we went on to our lovely hotel, the Gloria in the Old City, for dinner and a wander in the nearby souk before blogging and bed.