Before my account a BIG ‘Thank You’ to all for the HUGE card I received for my birthday……..most touching! Thank you to all who wrote in it and all who have individually sent cards (which have arrived). Fortunately I received a bottle of gin also!!!!

My regular morning coffee after Mass: Rimon's in the Old City just inside the Damascus Gate
(caught on camera by our Oz member!)

In my account last week I mentioned our visit to the Temple Mount (forgot to send a picture so l updated the blog this week!). Sadly the place has continued to be tense, but not as bad as in the past.

The El Aska Mosque on top of the Temple Mount. For Muslims the whole Temple Mount is really a Mosque.

The 'Dome of the Rock' built by Muslims over the Mount of Horeb (believed to be the place where Abraham
was to offer Isaac; the place where the Temple stood; the place where Mohammad ascended into heaven)

Inside the Rock within the Dome of the Rock.

This week has been full of visits:

Tuesday: Mount Zion and the environs: Church of the Dormition (where they celebrate the tradition that ‘Mary went to sleep’ before ascending); The Cenacle or Upper Room (the church built on the supposed site of the Upper Room and the Room of Pentecost); the Holocaust Memorial (founded in 1949): fairly simple and basic displays but for that reason all the more horrific…….there is a marble plaque for every Jewish community destroyed because of the Holocaust (see below); Church of Peter in Gallicantu (Cockcrow): the place where Jesus may have been imprisoned after being arrested in Gethsemane (there are original Roman steps leading up from the Kedron Valley).

The Church of the Dormition which commemorates Mary 'falling asleep' before ascending into heaven.

The original Holocaust Memorial in the City founded in 1949: under the marble with the
names of all the Concentration Camps are ashes of some of the Holocaust victims.

An old cistern in St Peter of Gallicantu (the place associated with the overnight imprisonment
of Jesus after his arrest: Luke 22:54-62): one of our group reading a meditation from a psalm.

Wednesday: Ein Kerem (which is the other side of Jerusalem….now almost a suburb of the city). The Church of the Visitation; also the Church of St John (commemorating his birth); the Convent of the sister of Our Lady of Sion just to have a look; Hadassah Hospital to see the famous Chagall Windows in the synagogue.

Mosaic on the Church of the Visitation in Ein Karem.

Modern depiction of Mary and Elizabeth meeting.

Church of John the Baptism to commemorate where he was born and lived as a child.

The place that commemorates John the Baptist's birth.

Lectures this week have been primarily on Islam by an Islamic scholar: Mustafa Abu Sway (look at his Facebook articles: Google simply ‘Facebook Mustafa Abu Sway’). In the articles you will get an understanding of scholarly Islam and not the fundamentalism that often we read about or hear on the Radio or Television.

Next week (beginning 9th) I am hoping to hang around the Lake of Galilee for a few days if I can sort out some simple and inexpensive accommodation: time to take the gospels and ponder!

From your correspondent…………Vincent!.

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