Today we had planned on joining the donors for a walking tour of the Old City of Jerusalem, but that was cancelled, so we were able to spend our time as we wished. Some seminarians chose to attend Mass early in the morning at Holy Sepulchre. A group that went to the 5 am Mass were surprised to find out that it was in English today, and were even more blessed to enter into the antechamber of the tomb because there was such a small crowd. Another group attended Mass at 6 am. The entire Mass was chanted in Latin; it was a very moving experience.
The rest of the day was spent working on papers, taking walks in the city, and hanging out as a community. We are coming to grips with the fact that we have a short two weeks left here in the Holy Land. This means that we both need to get a lot of work done for our classes and also need to fit in everything that we still want to do in the next fourteen days.
We began our morning celebrating the Mass of the Presentation of Our Lord at 7:30 am with the donors. As is the ancient custom on this feast, Mass began around the entrance of the chapel. There we all received candles and had them blessed. With candles lit, we processed into the nave singing, “The King of Glory comes! The nation rejoices!” Jesus entered the Temple carried by his mother and was revealed as the New Temple, the Eternal Dwelling Place of God.
In stark contrast to this, but part of the same mystery, we walked the Via Dolorosa with our donors. There was a line reaching outside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was very ironic that we should all be lining up and crowding in to see the barren rock where Jesus hung and the empty tomb where he lay when his disciples stood afar off at his crucifixion.
In the early evening we were blessed to have Father David Neuhaus, S.J. join us again. He delivered a very insightful presentation on the land in Sacred Scripture. He stressed again and again that the idea of land fundamentally changed with the Resurrection. God’s dwelling is no longer particularized in a strip of land east of the Mediterranean Sea, but is found wherever the community of faith abides.
Our last event for the day was a social with the donor group who are nearing the end of their pilgrimage. It is clear that they have been blessed to visit these holy sites, and it is even more clear that we, as the recipients of God’s gracious gifts through them, are able to enjoy this pilgrimage as well.
Our donors began this morning with an early Mass at the Holy Sepulchre. We were welcome to join them and were blessed to participate once again in Mass at the place where Jesus rose from the dead.
In the morning, we had our classes with Father Lodge and Sister Mulchay. With Father Lodge we discussed more of the Gospel of Mark, focusing especially on the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish and the disciples’ misunderstanding of the Lordship of Jesus. In Sister Mulchay’s class, we continued our discussion of the diary of the famous 4th century pilgrim, Egeria. Today the focus was on the liturgies around the year in Jerusalem. It is amazing to see how much more involved the liturgies were at these holy places.
At Mass, we received the blessing of throats as we celebrated the memorial of Saint Blaise. We used the candles we had blessed yesterday for the Presentation of the Lord. Many of the seminarians were glad to receive this blessing; more than a few are suffering from sore throats and colds. Saint Blaise, pray for us!
Our afternoon was free to study for finals and to work on papers. After dinner, we had the first of two presentations with Father Frank Coady entitled “Presiding Style.” We were first given a short recap on the theology of the lay and ministerial priesthood; after this, we dove in deeply into the meaning of the Mass and the reverence that is called for when celebrating these sacred rites.
A few of us woke up very early in the morning to send our donors off as they left for home. They loaded the bus at 3:45 am in the morning and began the long journey home. We certainly enjoyed their presence here and are praying for their safe arrival back in the US.
Dr. Deborah Weissman joined us to lead a seminar on Judaism for the seminarians and staff. Dr. Weissman is a practicing Jew who helped found and Orthodox synagogue and teaches at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She received her doctorate from the same university after she emigrated from New York to Israel in 1972. Her seminar was entitled Judaism, Ancient and Modern. A large part of her message was that Judaism and Christianity can learn much from each other. In fact, she works much with another of our presenters, Father David Neuhaus, S.J. We were blessed to get an insight into the Jewish faith, present and past, and hope to be able to share these insights with those we serve in the future.
In class today with Father Lodge, we covered the section of the Gospel according to Mark that dealt with much of Jesus’ ministry in Gentile territory across the Sea of Galilee. None of the other Gospel accounts record Jesus spending anywhere near as much time outside of Israel. In fact, Mark records two separate instances when Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes and fed the thousands, one in Israel and one outside of Israel. The focus is on the universality of the salvation that God is offering in and through Jesus.
After class, we walked to the East end of the Old City, near the Lion’s Gate, to celebrate Mass at Saint Anne’s Basilica. This church is built over the ruins which are believed to be the birthplace of Mary, mother of Jesus. The basilica, while lacking in decoration, was beautiful in its simplicity and in the fact that it had excellent acoustics.
Later in the afternoon, Daniel Rossing joined us to give a presentation entitled “Israeli-Jewish Identity and Life.” Mr. Rossing is the director of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations, which promotes peace through programs designed to overcome prejudices and promotes understanding between the Jewish population of Israel and the indigenous Christian population of Palestine. The main way that they do this is by offering educational programs on Christianity to the Jewish population. His main point was to point out many of the paradoxes that make up this land and the people that live here: this is a land that embraces both Western and Eastern ideology; the people here live in the past and the future; they are religious and secular. His talk enlightened us and gave us deeper insight into the complicated issues that make up this land and its people.
Today we were invited to visit the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fwad Twaal. He reflected on the difficulty of having one diocese that covers four nations. Most significantly, he pointed out how difficult it was to gather the presbyterate or to visit his parishes, especially in Gaza. He made it very clear that the Christian community here in the Holy Land knows what it is to carry the cross and follow Christ.
Later in the morning, Father Lodge pointed out how the Christian community here reflects the community for whom Mark wrote his Gospel account: they too had the experience of bearing the cross and following Christ. However, we also studied the account of the Transfiguration so that we could see that bearing the cross leads to glory.
In the afternoon, we had our last class with Sister Mulchay. We began the process of reflecting on the fruits of this pilgrimage, especially with how we have been changed and how we will bring the gifts that we have received to bear upon our ministry now and in the future.
Today was a slow day at the Notre Dame Center for the seminarians. We had Father Lodge’s class first thing in the morning. Following that, we had Dr. Nagle’s Psalms class; today we discussed the psalms of penitence and the vocabulary that came up in them. Those of us who were not yet familiar with the Hebrew language were surprised to find out that there were so many ways of expressing guilt and forgiveness.
We had the rest of the day free, which we took for resting and studying (thought not necessarily in that order). Tomorrow is a completely free day, so some of the men decided that they would spend the night in the Holy Sepulchre. The doors are locked at 7 pm and are not reopened until 4 am. It is a time for intense prayer and reflection on the death and resurrection of Jesus.
A few of the seminarians ventured to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher last evening for an extended period of prayer and reflection, locked in the church. Most stayed until 12:30 am, when the doors where unlocked for Sunday Mass. It is fitting that the church of the place of the resurrection of Jesus Christ celebrates its first Sunday Mass early in the morning.
Many other seminarians attended a later High Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Others went to Mass at Notre Dame and three attended Mass at the Latin Patriarchate. The ones who went to the Patriarchate were treated to a visit with the Rosary Sisters of Jerusalem across the road. They shared Turkish coffee with the sisters and learned about the sisters’ apostolate, which is the education of women and domestically assisting the priests of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
Overall it was a quiet and restful Sunday. Many of the seminarians took the opportunity to rest and some caught up on homework, which was mostly biblical, so it was acceptable Sunday work.
In class today with Father Lodge, we studied the section of the Gospel of Mark dealing with Jesus’ conflicts with the authorities in the Temple in Jerusalem. Now that we have visited the Temple Mount, we have a better idea of what these interactions would have looked like. Most of us imagine that Jesus’ dialogues with the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees were seen by everyone and were very public. Now that we have seen how absolutely enormous the Temple Mount is, we know that it is likely that only a small portion of the people there would have witnessed Jesus arguing with the authorities. It is only his disciples who were with him that were able to pass on these stories and record them later.
In our Psalms class with Dr. Nagle, we did an in-depth study of Psalm 51. This psalm is prayed by the Church every Friday as part of the Liturgy of the Hours. As such, we knew it well. However, it was amazing to see how much more was contained in this one penitential psalm than we had ever experienced before. We began to understand the mindset of the psalmist who simply wanted his sin to be taken away; what was so stunning was how clearly this was a request that only God could fulfill: there was no hope without the Lord’s tender mercy.
Again, we had the afternoon off, so we continued in our studies, working on papers and preparing for our oral final in Mark.
We began our discussion of the passion and death of Jesus in Mark’s gospel for class today. What was made most apparent was the utter desertion of the disciples of Jesus. But what was most important was that Jesus did not abandon his disciples even when they failed him; he predicted that they would all deny him and then gave them his body and blood at the Last Supper for their salvation. It is easy to see where we fit in this story: though we often sin and turn away from God, he always calls us to him and strengthens us with his own body and blood in the Eucharist.
For our last class on the Psalms, we presented our final papers. One of our assignments was to compose a lament psalm from the point of view of someone that we met while on pilgrimage. It was amazing to hear how each seminarian captured the emotions of different people in their struggles and how they related these sorrows to God. Our second assignment was to explain how a particular feature of the land or the people here in the Holy Land helped us to read a specific biblical text in a new light. By presenting this to the class, we were able to share the graces that we have received on this pilgrimage with one another. Some were inspired by the hospitality of the people here, others reflected on the oppressed; still others found meaning in the shepherds of this land and others in the farmers/sowers. Needless to say, we have received untold blessings as part of this pilgrimage.
Today was left free for study. Most of us worked on finishing up our paper for the ecumenism course that we took here; many also took the opportunity to study for the final in the class on Mark’s gospel.
It was fortunate that we had enough work to keep us indoors. This land is finally receiving the rain that it so desperately needs and it is a good idea to go out wandering in the city if you like to get soaked to the bone. A few of us ventured out in the evening last night and turned around and came back after a block: it was not worth running through that weather to pick up a bag of chips.
Today we finished our last class with Father Lodge, which was also the last class of this Pilgrimage Quarter. It was fitting that we studied the last two chapters of the Gospel According to Mark that include the Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection narratives. It is in these narratives that Mark’s story reaches its climax and all of the themes set up in the previous fourteen chapters are fulfilled. This account of the life of Jesus has joined us as another guide on Pilgrimage, walking with us through Galilee and accompanying us in the streets of Jerusalem. “How blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it in their hearts!”
Though there were no classes scheduled today, we took our oral final individually with Father Lodge. There was no small amount of studying going on today to make sure that we knew everything that was possible so that we could hold an intelligent and informed conversation about Mark’s Gospel and the course content for ten minutes. By the time 4:30 rolled around and everyone was done with the final, the sense of relief and joy in the community was palpable.
To celebrate the fact that all of the class-work of the Pilgrimage Quarter was finished, we had a pizza and movie social. The staff here at the Notre Dame Center was kind enough to cater the event, serving pizza, French fries, and salads. We finished the evening by watching the classic film “The Scarlet and the Black.”
We held our last day of prayer here in the Holy Land today. We started with Morning Prayer at our residence and then made our way to Dominus Flevit (“The Lord Wept”) on the Mount of Olives for Mass and silent reflection. It was at this site that Jesus looked upon Jerusalem and wept over its future destruction. The church – another of Antonio Barluzzi’s works – looks over the Kidron Valley to the Temple Mount and the rest of Jerusalem. After this time, we returned to the Notre Dame Center for Midday Prayer and to get our religious articles blessed. We finished the day by returning to Bethlehem for a farewell dinner. There we were able to honor all of those that helped in leading this Pilgrimage, including our contact with the tour company, some of our tour guides, our Pilgrimage Coordinator, Sister Kathleen Mulchay, our resident pastor, Father Frank Coady, and our professors, Father John Lodge and Dr. Elizabeth Nagel.
Our final full day in the Holy Land was spent saying our goodbyes, buying last gifts, and trying to pack everything and keep our luggage under 23 kilograms! Fortunately, we all were able to get everything done and visit the holy sites one last time.
We began today at 12:30 am with Mass at the Notre Dame Center; immediately after, we gathered in the lobby with our luggage and boarded the bus. Going through security at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv was an experience that rivaled the walking tour of David’s City in the need for stamina. However, we all gathered safely and on time at gate B6 and waited for our 5:30 am flight to Zurich.
In Zurich we went our separate ways. Just under half of the group is doing extended travel: some went to Rome, some to Cyprus, others to Poland, and many other places as well. The rest returned to Chicago and began to enjoy their 2 ½ week break before the Spring Quarter begins.