Holy Land Pilgrimage day 11 - wailing wall

slept in till 5:45 then went to Calvary. it is difficult for me to pray here. we celebrated Mass in the Fransiscan chapel where Jesus appeared to His mother, appropriate for me today because today is my mom's birthday and i will offer my Mass intention for her.

there were no lines or hubub around anything today so i just got to go into the tomb again and to touch the stone on which Christ gave His life, moments by myself with calm and peace.

Fr. Hurley's homily - we like to compete and be special; let Jesuse love you the way He wants to love you. the empty tomb means we've been wrong about conquoring and competition, He died. take hold of humility and take hold of what God has done in your life. be confronted with your conceptions with the empty tomb. He raises us up, not us.

wailing wall -

this is the outer wall of the Temple area, the last sign of the temple. all must cover their heads to enter the area, so we wore our yamikas and prayed at the wall. this is where i prayed for intentions today, placing the written intentions into a crack in the wall. This is the place where Yahweh dwelt, where His glory abided on earth. i prayed daytime prayer at the wall, where the psalms were written to be sung in praise of God. "is there any other nation whose God is so close to them as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon Him?" - Deuteronomy.

St. Anne's Church -

the birthplace of Mary and the pools of Bethesda where Jesus healed the paralytic. it is cold and windy so we went into the church and the priest invited us to sing with the great acoustics. we sang an Alma and and an Ave in honor of our Lady, it was a privelage. now we are free for the day, our last full day here, Chris and i decided to stay together.

Stations -

Chris and i prayed the stations of the cross, stopping in all the little chapels on the way. it was great. the chapels are small but moving, each taken care of by a different group. the Armenian Church at the 4th station has a beautiful painting of Jesus meeting Mary on the via dolorosa (Mrs. Seward), and the Ecce Homo church is moving. about the 6th station it struck me: as much as i have prayed the stations throughout my life and have been moved by them, Jesus actually went here. this is where He fell, met Veronica, was stripped and died.. it is ridiculous even to think. i was glad to pray with Chris. we walked around the city and now back to the Holy Sepulcher one last time.

Procession - at 4pm the fransiscans make procession around the Church, chanting and praying. Kruse, Finney, Sedor and i got to join in. they commemorate all the altars and the moments of the Passion.