I know it’s been a couple of days.  Maybe three.  I don’t know, the calendar and clock in my head is somewhere between intermittent breakdown and full implosion.  I’m on sensory and emotional overload.  Today I decided that tonight I have to write about today, and then try to catch up working somewhat backward until I’ve covered the stuff since Capernaum.  So I might do catchup posts just by the day or I might write a post about a specific site.  I’ll decide as I go and by the end you might be as confused as I.

Today we started our day at the Mount of Olives.  When you read the Gospels, you get the distinct impression that during the days that Jesus and his Disciples spent in Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives, and particularly the Garden of Gethsemane, was a favorite place to hang.  The Garden is at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

This is looking across the Kidron Valley at the Mount of Olives.  The church in the middle of the picture, The Church of All Nations, is in the Garden area.  The French Franciscans look after it.  In the upper right, with the golden dome, is a Russian Orthodox Church.  And up on the horizon, at the very top of the Mount, is the Church of the Our Father.

The are over 180 panels around the church grounds of The Lord’s Prayer in different languages.

The one below is Aramaic on the left, the language spoken in the time of Jesus.

And I picked out a couple of others; Spanish, here to the right, and down below is Lakota.

As you move down the Mount toward the Garden, there is a very large Jewish Cemetery.  In the middle of this photo is the area which was The City of David.  Jerusalem about 1000 years before Christ.  On the horizon, close to the middle, is Mount Zion which is the traditional burial site of Kind David and also the site of the Upper Room.  That’s in our plan for later today.

This photo is looking past the Jewish Cemetery and over the Kidron Valley to the wall of the old City.  That’s the Golden Gate where Jesus entered the city on Palm Sunday, and below the wall is the Muslim Cemetery.   The golden dome is the Dome of the Rock, the historic site of the Jewish Temple, but it’s now controlled by the Muslims.  I will sometimes refer to who has dibs on what sites, but Jerusalem has been fought over for centuries and destroyed seven times.  The history, nuances, and details are endless, so for the most part I won’t go there.  I’d never get any sleep. 🙂

Here’s a couple of shots of the Garden of Gethsemane.  The one below is the oldest preserved section.  It is the area where Jesus and his Disciples came to pray the night he was arrested.  Adjacent to this garden area is the The Church of All Nations which is built over the rock where Jesus prayed.

The oldest olive tree in the Garden.  Could be as old as the time of Jesus, but it’s more likely about 1500 years old.  Olive trees go hollow as they age so you can’t age them by rings.

Our next stop was the house of Caiaphas.  He orchestrated the arrest of Jesus and led the plot to kill him.

After Jesus was arrested in the Garden, he was led across the Kidron   Valley and very likely up these steps to the house of the Chief Priest. When this site was excavated, these stones were dated to about 2000 years.  And the dungeons that we know existed under Caiaphas’ house can be seen below.  They are way down in the bedrock.  It is where Jesus would have spent the night after being questioned by the Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin.  In the morning, the morning of Good Friday, he would be taken to Pilot.     

Other foundational ruins around the grounds of Caiaphas’ house.  An Armenian church is built on this site now.  By the way, in the photo above, the prisoners were lowered into the dungeon with ropes through this hole in the prison caverns.

 

Our last stop of the day was to the site of The Cenacle, or as most people know it, The Upper Room.  It is very certain that this is the site of The Last Supper.

It didn’t look like this back then of course.  These columns are Roman era columns.  The shallow grotto in the photo was added fairly recently.  The Muslims had control of this room last, until the Israeli Government took it over, thus the Arabic stainglass window seen below.

This sculpture was given during a Papal visit in 2000.

Mount Zion is crowded with schools and a synagogue.  The Franciscans were allowed to build a small chapel on this site in the last couple of years, and we were able to use it for Mass.  A special celebration in special and important place.

After dinner we returned to the Church of All Nations for the traditional Holy Hour that happens about three times a week.  It was a special privilege of timing that we were able to do this.  A silent hour of Adoration remembering the words of Jesus to his Disciples when he found them sleeping instead of praying.   “Could you not stay awake with me one hour?”

I’m going to depart slightly from my normal closing.  I feel sluggish from to much eating. 🙂 The food has been amazing and I’ve test driven some that I’ve never had.  I’m also wearing down a little.  An accumulative effect of the pace.  Otherwise, I’m pretty ok.

Oh, and I hope you all are too.