Hello again to all:

It has been a few days since my last post on Saturday. It is Wednesday evening now and a few days with many experiences have happen since Saturday. Firstly I have been under the weather so have not had the energy for a new post later at night or early morning as that seems to be the time that I have found for a new post.

Sunday was a day of rest with no schedule so I went with some of the fellows to a Maronite mass in the old city. It was a compound tucked away a chapel on the second floor. The liturgy we could follow as they had some order of the service in English as it was mostly in Arabic, some french and the archbishop spoke in English a couple of times. The liturgy was somewhat different with the order of the mass and they had a cantor a woman in a side room who canted parts of the mass and people responded with singing. That afternoon our Victoria crew Fr. Stephen and John, myself and a fellow from Washington D.C. went on the light rail system to the Holocaust museum for a few hours. It was intense to see some of the pictures the films and memories of what happened in many parts of Europe prior and during WWII.

On Monday we headed to Qubeibeh in Samaria (palestinian area) where the Emmaus story took place. It was a round about way we had to go on the secondary roads through Ramallah. Once you are in the Samarian zone you sure see the difference as it looks so much poorer the communities. If there are Jewish communities they are on the tops of the hills as this is hill country and they are gated and wired protected communities. The father at the church in Emmaus said you are brave to come here as seldom pilgrims these days. Our next stop was through Nablus to Sebastia as we were heading north through the hill county. We stopped in Nablus on the way back and visited Jacobs Well in a beautiful church. The icons were amazing to see. After returning to Notre Dame we had a conference and dinner and called it a night.

Yesterday was a trip to the Judean desert with a stop on the way in Bethany to see the tomb of Lazarus and celebrate mass in the church. We continued on to Qumran which is heading south along the Dead Sea  where the Dead Sea scrolls were found in some caves in the mountains besides the lake in 1947.  It was fascinating to see the site of the Essene community and how they lived. On down the road we went to Masada. It is a well know site and spectacular  as it sits on a plateau of one of the mountain tops. The fortress was built by King Herod. During the second temple period the Jews revolted against the Romans and they than destroyed the Kingdom of Judah and this fortress was the last bastion of Jews to fall to the Romans. Fr. Kelly one of the fathers who lives here was saying one time while visiting Masada while coming down on the tram a Israeli government official was saying to him that now the government is somewhat sorry that they have chosen Masada as a symbol for the people for in the end after killing those that were left including woman and children the ten men left choose lots and one killed the 9 and than the sword on himself so when the Romans entered the fortress there was no one alive. It is the idea of suicide rather than surrendering. We than stopped a bit further down the lake and some of us took a dip in the Dead Sea where one floats and would never sink. The salt was sure hard on the eyes and water not too warm till one was used to it. It was a full day and today we visited Ain Karen known for the Visitation when Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth and the birthplace of John the Baptist. I will write more about yesterday tomorrow and post some pictures too as I am retiring for the night.

Fr. Mike