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| 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!
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| Church of Mary Magdalene in the Garden of Gethsemane |
