After two exhausting days--Monday to Bethlehem and the West Bank and Tuesday's day trip to Masada, Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea, Elias and I took a day to unwind and recoup. I had some laundry to do and some errands to run. Elias had to take care of details for his departure today (Thursday). He [...]
If you should attend an Anglo-Catholic Eucharist you would find that it appears (and maybe feels) the same as a Catholic Eucharist. I should point out that Anglo-Catholics are Anglican Christians who like to do things in a Catholic way. Indeed, they are often "more Catholic than the Catholics" in their commitment to fine liturgy, beautiful [...]
Elias was planning to leave on Thursday so we got a couple of day trips in today and Monday. On Monday we went back to Bethlehem and the West Bank. My friend Loai met us at the monastery and accompanied us on a shuttle bus through the border wall the Israelis have built that separates Israeli [...]
Saturday we took a rest day. I wrote an article for Imaginative Conservative and a draft script for the filming we plan to do in England in June. Elias chilled out and visited the Citadel of David near the Jaffa Gate. On Sunday morning after a quick breakfast we hiked over to the Old City to [...]
Today was another colorful and eventful day. I got up early to hike over to the Notre Dame Center--a big hotel and pilgrimage hostel that comes under the auspices of the Holy See. Marcellino D'Ambrosio is leading a pilgrimage here and invited me for breakfast. I first met Marcellino years ago when we still lived in [...]
After a long day we had a somewhat later and more leisurely start. Waking up in Madaba, after breakfast we visited the Ancient Greek Orthodox Church of St George where a 6th c. Byzantine floor mosaic has survived portraying a map of the Holy Land. Madaba is known as the "Mosaic city" and there are lots [...]
We had another early start on Wednesday as we had a lot of ground to cover--literally. We left Petra after breakfast and Yusef drove us North to visit an archeological site I had been fascinated with ever since doing the research for The Mystery of the Magi. Khirbet et Tannur (Khirbet means "ruins") The Ruins of Tannur are [...]
We got an early start on Tuesday with a cab from Ecole Biblique to one of three border crossings into Jordan--the Allenby Bridge crossing near Jericho. The drive takes you down the steep, winding road from the heights of Jerusalem to the Jordan River valley which is below sea level. Along the way there is a [...]
On Monday Elias drove our little rental car all the way from Nazareth to Jerusalem to return it by 10:00. Israeli roads are very congested. Too many cars for a comparatively small nation. Therefore we were grateful also for a dinky little car as we took up less space, found parking places easily and managed to [...]
This morning we crossed the street to the Basilica of the Annunciation and explored for a short time before we were scheduled to say Mass. A Franciscan sacristan from Africa showed me the chapel they had designated for us and Elias represented the whole church--reading the lessons, making the responses and serving the altar for me [...]