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.
