Good Evening to all:

This morning was an early morning as we celebrated mass at 5:00 a.m. at the Holy Sepulcher in the  tomb of Jesus. It was a tight squeeze with over 30 of us. The Franciscans have the church from 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for the pilgrim groups who are celebrating mass. After breakfast the english group first had a tour of the museum of the Shroud of Turin. If you ever come to Jerusalem you have to see the exhibit as it is amazing that is right here at the Notre Dame Center where we are staying. Today we had a conference on Mary in the life of the priest. The conferences are an hour long usually. Themes we have had are The cross in the life of a priest, conference on the Eucharist as some examples. This afternoon we went to see the Auxiliary Bishop of Jerusalem who gave talk on Christianity in the Holy Land. He started with the history of Christianity to the present day an informative talk to listen to. The english group went for a walk to Jewish quarter in the Old City this afternoon. There are a few of us that have colds and mine has acted up and more are getting sick so not a good sign. Tomorrow is a free day which is great for those who have been on tours know they can be busy. I will send some pictures with this post.

On Thursday we started the Sacred Triduum where we followed Jesus to his death and resurrection visiting holy places on the path to his death. The pictures are not in order. The first is from Bethpage when he rode the donkey into Jerusalem. Second is the Garden of Getsemani, Third is the Russian Orthodox Monastery of Mary Magdalene and the last is a view from the church of St. Peter in Gallicantu looking towards the wall and one can see the temple square with the golden dome.

Until next time  Fr.Mike