Day 3 - Midnight liturgy at the Tomb of Christ

A path in the Garden of Gethsemene

Day 3

Today we were blessed to experience one of the highlights of our pilgrimage, and maybe our lives: Midnight liturgy at the Tomb of Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  We arrived shortly before midnight, having walked silently through the deserted streets of Old Jerusalem. Once inside the Church, Fr. Sergei administered confession at the site where St. Elena found the Holy Cross.  What a moving scene as we all asked each other for forgiveness, many tearfully.  Later in the evening, our whole group  received Holy Communion together as a Scout family at the Tomb of Christ.  Liturgy was served by a Greek bishop, and Fr. Sergei, along with other priests, co-served.  As we gathered outside the Church after the Liturgy, our whole group joyfully sang “Christ is Risen”. We arrived back at the hotel past 4:00 am, tired but exhilarated!

Since the Liturgy was served mostly in Greek, with just a few parts in Slavonic, many of pilgrims remarked on how it was interesting to see the roots of where our liturgy comes from.  They also had a new appreciation for our beautiful choir singing, versus the Greek chanting. 

After catching up on our sleep, we toured the Garden of Gethsemane.  It is amazing that in such a dry and arid land a garden flourishes with lush vegetation, neatly manicured pots of colorful flowers and cacti.  As we walked along there was a fragrance of cedar and rosemary, and many of our youth were amazed to see peppercorns, lemons, limes, grapes and even pomegranates growing on trees!  

In the Garden we visited the stone where Bogoroditsa threw down her Belt to the Apostles, the remnants of the road on which Jesus, on the donkey, rode to Jerusalem, the cave where the apostles fell asleep as Jesus prayed, and the place where Judas betrayed our Lord.  At the Church of Mary Magdalene, we were able to place our znamena on the relics of Sts. Elizabeth and nun Barbara, as well as on the relics of Mary Magdalene.

We then crossed the border to Bethany in Palestine where we visited a Russian Orthodox school which is run by the nuns of Gethsemane. On the property of the school there is a small chapel in which there is a stone on which Martha and Mary talked to Jesus.  At the school we met with the Headmistress, Sister Martha, whose cheerfulness, love and charisma in telling about the school and the students entertained our scouts.  It was suggested that Sister Martha, with her experience in keeping order at the school might want to visit the U.S. and work with the Belochki for a week!

Another chapel at the school is located in a cave.  There we prayed together, and Fr. Sergei presented Sister Martha with the copy of the Kursk icon.  Sister Martha said that just last week she had prayed for the Kursk icon to visit their convent, since it has not visited in many years!

Our day ended with a few hours of shopping in Old Jerusalem - Everyone had fun bargaining with the merchants!

Church of Mary Magdalene in the Garden of Gethsemane

A few more pictures!

Location of the Crucifixion of Christ - Golgotha

Entrance to the Tomb of Christ - place of the Resurrection!

Our AIR-CONDITIONED bus next to an ancient form of transporatation - one that spits!

In the Cave Chapel of St. Nicholas at the Orthodox school

Fr. Sergei presenting a copy of the Miraculous Kursk Icon to Sister Martha at the Orthodox School

Fr. Sergei serving with the Greek Bishop at the tomb of Christ during Midnight Liturgy at Holy Sepulcher Church

Happy 18th birthday Nicolka Pokrovsky!

Pictures, finally!

Our pilgrims at the Russian Monastery on the Mt. of Olives

Our Scouts at the reception with Abbess, Mother Moisseia

The Church of the Monastery

Enjoying fruit, pistachios, kvass, turkish coffee, and baklava!

Fr. Sergei presenting Mother Moisseia with the Kursk icon

In front of the Bell Tower

In the olive grove on the grounds of the monastery

Message #4

The second day of our pilgrimage, St. Vladimir’s Day, dawned bright and breezy, not nearly as hot as yesterday.  Under the bright blue sky we walked to the Russian monastery on the Mt. of Olives. Although the monastery was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel, it was as though we pilgrims had entered a different world altogether:  peaceful and quiet, with beautiful gardens, olive groves and views of Jerusalem on all sides.  The monastery has on its grounds a tall bell tower that can be seen for miles and is known in Jerusalem as “the Russian candle”, the Church of the Ascension, and a chapel dedicated to the Finding of the Head of St. John the Baptist.  Most importantly, next to the Church is the stone on which the Holy Mother of God stood during the Ascension of her Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

At the Chapel is an indentation in the floor where the head of John the Baptist was found.  Our znamena were placed in the indent, and each pilgrim was able to place his or her head in the indent and venerate this holy place.  The indented floor:

After a tour of the monastery grounds and buildings we were treated to a delightful coffee with the Abbess of the convent, Mother Moisseia.  In younger days, the Abbess herself had been a druzhinnitsa  in Belgium and our group treated her to rousing rendition of “Borodino” and other songs.  To everyone’s surprise, she reached into her pocket for her smart phone to film our impromptu “campfire”.  Afterward, Abbess Moisseia entertained us with a story of an attack on the convent several years ago by three Arab thieves.  In lively detail she described how she was able to defend herself using a hammer!  Fr. Sergei presented Mother Moisseia with a copy of the Kursk icon, with smaller copies for each nun, and she presented each pilgrim with icons from the monastery. 

     

We also visited the place where Christ ascended into heaven, known as “stopochka” because Christ’s left footprint is imprinted on the rock, as well as a Greek monastery where a modern day miracle occurred.  Our pilgrims were amazed by the story that the Abbot of the Monastery told. A church was built with two levels by a Greek priest.  Because he did not have a permit to build the church, the Israeli government sent bulldozers to destroy the church.  After razing the upper level of the Church, the bulldozer began destroying the roof of the downstairs church.  The icon of Jesus Christ that had been on the dome of the destroyed upstairs church rolled in front of the bulldozer, and it broke.  It just wouldn’t start again!  Because of this miracle, the downstairs church was left alone and we were able to visit it, and venerate the miracle-making icon.   

Our next stop was the Church of Mary Magdalene, located in the Garden of Gethsemene.  With the golden cupolas of the Church shining through the tree tops in the afternoon sun, we walked through the beautiful Garden to Vespers, served by Fr. Sergei. As the golden light of the sunset streamed through the windows, the scouts kissed the cross and Fr. Sergei gave copies of the miraculous Kursk Root icon as a gift to each nun who lives in the convent located in the Garden.

After eating dinner we did not forget our camp traditions and sang “Mnogaya Leto”to Nikolka Pokrovsky for his 18^th birthday, and he was treated to “kachanie”.  Happy Birthday, Nikolka!

Our youth are all doing well despite the heat and the fast-paced schedule!  Everyone has been well-behaved,  taking the holy sites seriously, trying to absorb what they are seeing, and are being respectful when meeting with dignitaries.  Parents, you can be proud!

message #3

HOT, HOT, HOT (33C).  This, our first day in the Holy City was packed with a week's worth of experience.  The traditional stop at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to venerate the Holiest of Holy: tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ, Golgotha, Stone of the Anointment...  Then came the visit to the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophyl to obtain his blessing for visiting the holy sites under his domain.  It was then onward according to our schedule, except that as we quickly learned, the order in which we planned to spend our day was really a wishlist dependent on local conditions.  First of all, 3 of the 7 days of the week are observed holidays by one of the major faiths, which means that certain sites are closed.  Additionally  we arrived during the festival of Rammadan, which is not only a period of feasting from 5pm to 5am, but a time when many Muslims from the surrounding area arrive in Jerusalem as pilgrims.  Couple that with multiple pilgrimages of both the Russian Church Abroad as well as Church groups from Russia and you add to the cacophony of the MIddle East.  This of course creates many distractions for us, but if you think of it, it's merely a magnification of the life of every Christian trying to find a balance between the spiritual and the mundane.
But back to the details of the day.  Today we visited Mount Zion, the place of the Last Supper, the place of the Dormition of the Holy Virgin Mary, and also her burial site.  We heard the wonderful story of how all the Apostles except Thomas gathered in Jerusalem for her burial procession and, when Thomas finally arrived and Mary's tomb was opened, her body was not found.  We heard Father Serge tell the amazing tale of the icon of the Jerusalem Mother of God (which most closely resembles the likeness of the Virgin Mary) and recount episodes from his own life history when the Mother of God healed him from a paralysis he developed as a teenager.  We also visited Galikantu, the place where Peter thrice recanted Jesus.
The day ended with a plentiful buffet, followed by a "koster" where we sang and reviewed everything we saw during the day and had the oppurtunity to ask questions.  Everyone is well, drinking plenty of water, and getting ready for a big day tomorrow.

real time location of palomniki

If you want to follow our footsteps, click on link below:http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Aya7HRYKI9qRio7lbKQKHkFWimReqanf

WE have arrived - finally!!!!! - see details below

16 HOURS from JFK - and we are here. Starting with a moleben with Fr Serge and many teary-eyed (in a happy way ofcourse) farewell-bidding parents and siblings the sea of aqua t-shirts left the special port authority press room for the departure gates. Turkish Air turned out to be a wonderful airline - fine Turkish dining prepared by an on board chef, on-time arrival. We were greeted by our guide - a sister from Gethsemene convent - and just finished a fantastic buffet dinner. Everyone is now tucked in (the hotel has airconditioning!) and since the hour is late I will keep this short. Tomorrow - our first day in the Holy City!

Movie "Russian Sites of the Holy Land"

If anyone is interested in watching a movie on the Russian Sites of the Holy Land, just click on the link.  This will give you an idea of some of the places we will be visiting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSbh00e-XdU

Jerusalem Song and video

message #1

Our first message will be posted on July 25 - stay tuned!

Welcome to our blog

Hello to all our family and friends.  Welcome to the blog page for the OPIOP 2012 Palomnichestvo to Jerusalem.  We will try to update this blog as frequently as possible so that you may share with us all the wonderful and beautiful Holy sites we will be visiting.  We hope that you enjoy our posts!