Holy Land-Day 5-Jerusalem-Bethlehem

Thankfully no check out that morning. It was a Sunday and we were going to have communion service in Jerusalem. We left the hotel almost on time and proceeded towards the Palestine border.
We entered Old Jerusalem through the Lion's gate. This is also called Stephen's gate because St. Stephen's tomb is found in the Kedron valley near the gate. There is a carving of 4 panthers at the entrance. We walked towards Bethesda. Over here are the ruins of the old Byzantine church that was built near tge pool of Jesus' time. It is at this pool that Jesus had healed the crippled man on the Shabbath. Near this site is the present day church of St. Anne- an old Crusader church built during the 12th century.


Lion's gate-notice the panthers on the wall



Ruins of the old church built on top of Bethesda pool

From there we proceeded towards Via dolorosa- the way of grief that Jesus took from the prison to Calvary. There are 14 stations of the cross. We got to see most of them (not all). At the IInd station os the Church of Flagellation and it is closer to Lion's gate. Its the site where Jesus was whipped (there are different views for this). The Catholica and Orthodox have a book called 'the Stations pf the Cross'. So at every station, we stopped for those chants and prayers. We walked down to the next station singing and saying those prayers.

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Inside the Church of Flagellation

Googling up, I realise that there is so much more to see there than what we saw. A minimum of half day is required. We were so rushed and that itself took us almost 2 hrs to see just 50%.
Station III is where Jesus falls for the 1st time with the cross. There is an Armenian church there with a stone tablet showing Jesus falling with the cross. We did not enter the church. Also check http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/Via%20Dolorosa.html.

Station III

Station IV is where Jesus met His mother and tells her, "Woman, behold your son"
At Station V, Simon the Cyrene helps Jesus carry His cross.

Station V

As we walk down, there are shops selling practically everything on either side of the small stone roads.
XStation VI is based on Luke 23:27 and the 'Bible Walks"site talks about St. Veronica who wiped the face of Jesus here.

Station VI

At Station VII, Jesus falls the 2nd time. We did not go to the VIIIth station.

Station VII

Station IX

Station X

At the IXth station, Jesus falls for the 3rd time. We then walk through the courtyaed of the Holy Sepulchure church where Jesus is stripped off His clothes and this is station X. We did not see station XI. Jesus on the cross is station XII. By then we were inside the church and went to the mezzanine level. There was a long queue there and we stood for a long time though it is nothing to compared to other times. We finally got a second to see Golgotha. The wooden cross is now a golden one with lot of golden lamps and candles around it. But the whole place is not all that well lit.

Calvary

On the lower level of the church is Station XIII- the stone where Jesus was laid on while the cross was lowered. Everybody kisses the stone and I thought it had a nice smell. Must be the many hands that have touched it.

Station XIII

We then walked around and finally reached the queue that waited at Station XIV-the tomb. No photography allowed inside. This again is a dungeon like place-poorly lit- with a Holy stone in there. Later on I was told that the actual place of the tomb was else where and not the one we saw.

Entrance to the tomb

We then got out and walked through the narrow and busy streets of Jerusalem. After about 15-20 mins, we reached St. Mark's upper room. This is where the Holy Communion was institued and that is where we were having our communion service. A small little church/room that the 80 of us exactly fit into. but it was quite cold in there.The communion part of the service was by Thomas achen. It was different experience for me but I still enjoyed it. There were restrictions about photography in the room cause there is an old painting there of Mary and Joseph that they are trying to preserve. After service, we got black coffee and biscuits.

We then proceeded to the bus. It was a very windy walk. The bus was parked outside the old city and we walked out through the Jaffa gate that we walked in through the previous afternoon. We went back to our hotel in Bethlehem for lunch. We were not allowed to go to our rooms. After a lunch and a quick make-up session, we got onto the bus again. We were off to visit the churches in Bethlehem.

The 1st stop was at Milk Grotto church. We had to walk down a small street to get there and the shopkeepers in the street were calling out bargain deals to us. But we were adviced not to shop from there. The story behind this church is not biblical but interesting. When Mary was feeding Baby Jesus, a little milk spilt and the stone on which it fell turned white!

We went down to Manger Square and entered the Church of Nativity. We waited in yet another long queue(yet not so long!!). After a long wait, we entered David's star and got 2 seconds to see the 'Star". Its the spot of the manger.

David's Star

We then went to the upper portion of the Church of Nativity. That is where service is held during Christmas and the whole world watches it on TV. In one portion of the church is the altar of St. Jerome. He happens to be the person who translated the Bible from Hebrew to Latin. He fled from Rome and came to Bethlehem and dedicated his whole life for this. There is also a cave of Joseph where he is supposed to have had the dream where Gabriel tells him about Herod's plan.

We shopped at a store in Bethlehem and got back to the hotel. One of the appachens with us was celebrating his birthday that day. There was a cake for him and he shared his happy moment with all of us. Did some socialising during dinner and after that too. Had a really late nite but fun too.

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Pilgrimage-Day5-Jerusalem-Bethlehem