First feast day today for St. John XXIII

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Today is the first-ever Catholic feast day for newly-canonized Pope St. John XXIII.

He was pope from 1958 to 1963, and Israeli flags were lowered to half mast when he died.
Last year, for the 50th anniversary of his death, Jerusalem hosted a wonderful conference which brought together top scholars and high-ranking clergy from Israel and the world.
You can enlarge the photos 2x and perhaps you will recognize the names and faces of some of the speakers.

International Conference: Honoring the memory of Pope John XXIII
The Shoah, the Jewish People & the State of Israel

Day long conference covering topics such as: Roncalli and the Shoah, Roncalli and the Establishment of the State of Israel, John XXIII, Vatican II and Nostra Aetate, and The Legacy of John XXIII for Catholic-Jewish Relations – Europe & the World

See the program of the seminar here, including a video of President Peres' thoughts on "The Good Pope," as Roncalli was popularly known.

 

The large audience got to see the hour-long prize-winning Israeli film "I Am Joseph, Your Brother."

 (Read more about the time the Pope first spoke that  Biblical verse to his Jewish guests.)

The movie's website begins

During the 1960s, Pope John XXIII met with a delegation of Jews and said, "I am Joseph Your Brother" marking the beginning of a new relationship between Jews and Catholics. Inspired by the visit of Pope John Paul II to Israel in 2000, I am Joseph, Your Brother assesses and reflects on the changes that have occurred in the often difficult and turbulent relationship that has existed for centuries between Jews and Christians, Judaism and Catholicism, and more recently, between the State of Israel and the Vatican.

Some of the pearls I remember well from that day:

When the Church assigned Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli to several Eastern European countries during World War II,  he was able to save up to 100,000 Jews from the hands of the Nazis, mostly through what some call "Operation Baptism."

One speaker predicted that when history gets straightened out, Israel may someday have streets named for Pope John XXIII and he will finally be included in Yad Vashem's Righteous of the Nations.

On June 3,  the official day of his death, our Knessent last year  held a special session on Roncalli.

A woods has been named for him in the Galilee, near Mt. Precipice.

It was this pope who convened the Second Vatican Council from which came Nostra Aetate. 
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I must say, in the last decades Catholic-Jewish relations have come a long way, in both directions.
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The Saint of the Day website gives these hopeful last words from Saint John XXIII:

On his deathbed he said: “It is not that the gospel has changed; it is that we have begun to understand it better. Those who have lived as long as I have…were enabled to compare different cultures and traditions, and know that the moment has come to discern the signs of the times, to seize the opportunity and to look far ahead.” 

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Sheep on the shoulders

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I watched fascinated yesterday, June 29, the live broadcast of the Mass from St. Peter's for the great Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.
It was the occasion for the Imposition of the Pallium.

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After they together spoke the prayer of oath, the 34 new (or transferred) metropolitan archbishops individually knelt before Pope Francis as he put the pallium on their shoulders.

Please see  more photos of  woolen pallia here.
And a nice photo of Papa Francesco receiving the three special pins (representing the three nails on the cross) on his own pallium when he became Pope. 

The palllium is a symbol of communion with the successor of Peter; it  shows some shared authority between the Pope and the archbishops.

This is really interesting, as told by Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans:

Each year on Jan. 21, the Feast of St. Agnes, the pope blesses two baby lambs. The Trappists, who oversee a flock of sheep at Tre Fontane, select the two choicest baby lambs from their flock for this purpose. The Feast of St. Agnes has been chosen because Agnes means lamb and the lamb has always been a symbol associated with this Roman virgin and martyr of the fourth century. When the lambs are brought to St. Agnes Church on their way to the pope, one is crowned with white roses to signify her virginity and one with red roses to signify martyrdom.
Every archbishop is challenged not only to a virginal spousal love for the church he serves, but also to be willing to suffer even martyrdom in witness to the faith. 

After the lambs are presented to the Holy Father, they are transferred to the sheepfold at Castel Gandolfo, where a Vatican shepherd nurtures them. Approximately a month prior to June 29, the shearers remove their wool coats. Religious sisters then make the palliums for the new archbishops from this wool. Vatican officials insert the newly stitched palliums into a silver-gilt box located in a special alcove in the confessio of St. Peter’s Basilica overnight before the pallium ceremony. They rest here in a niche that is very close to the bones of St. Peter.
On June 29, the Holy Father celebrates the Eucharist with the new archbishops and, after the homily, places a pallium on the shoulders of each one. This expresses the solemn responsibility which each archbishop assumes to shepherd the flock of Christ entrusted to him. Like the shepherd who carries a lamb on his shoulders, the archbishop is to care for the flock entrusted to him with the care of the Good Shepherd. 

            - Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans

 

You know, I was a shepherd of real sheep in 1996-2002,  part of my livestock responsibilities as a volunteer at the Arkansas ranch and learning center of Heifer International. 

It is much easier to lead a herd than to move an individual sheep. 

Sometimes, rather than dragging a recalcitrant bleating young sheep  on a lead rope to a new place,  I would just carry it on my shoulders. 

Work-campers and visitors seeing this would immediately be transported to  New Testament imagery.

But friends, let me tell you, that hot oily wool pressing on your sweating bare neck is often full of burrs and bugs, dirt and poop. 

You must hold on tight to two hind legs and two front legs, all trying to pull away. 

Sheep protest, they do not always lie passively.

They want off your shoulders, back on the dirt and  back to the herd. 

This experience of mine  helps me appreciate the not-so-different  hard work of pastors in their pastoral work with their flock.   People can be a lot like sheep. 

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The video of the Imposition of the Pallium can be see at http://www.vatican.va/video/index.html , just go to June 29. 

Papa Francesco's good sermon, translated to English, is here. 

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Habemus Papam!

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Ha! Just yesterday I blogged about Franciscans and tonight we have a new Pope who has chosen the name Francis!
Francis of Assisi, after all these centuries, would be pleased.
Poetic justice, I'd say.
And Pope Francesco is a Jesuit!!
Just look at the coat of arms of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
His motto means  "Pitiable but chosen"  or some translate "By having mercy, choosing."

He seems to be a friendly and humble man.
It think we're going to like him!

Mazal tov, Holy Father!  May God guide you in your new life.
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New on Facebook: News.va (i.e. Vatican) !

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The statue of Peter at Capernaum quoting Matthew 16:18:
"Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church."

Following all the grand ceremonies for the beginning of the Church's Year of Faith and the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council has become very easy.
The Vatican just opened a Facebook page called News.va English ! 

They describe it thus:

News.va is a service provided by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, in cooperation with the media offices of the Holy See, including, Fides News Agency, L'Osservatore Romano, the Holy See Press Office, the Vatican Information Service, Vatican Radio, the Vatican Television Center (CTV) and the Internet Office of the Holy See. . . .

If you prefer not to "like" the Facebook page, you can get your Vatican news at http://www.news.va/en instead.

Of course, what we  best remember and appreciate from the Second Vatican Council is Nostra Aetate, the document which revolutionized the Catholic Church's approach to Jews and Judaism and opened the way for dialogue and some mutual respect.
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Capernaum--the glass floor

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At Capernaum, the alpha and omega theme of the railing is reflected in the modern church's glass floor.
Also visible through the glass are the ancient foundations of the earlier octagonal church which was built around the house of Peter, the apostle of Jesus.


From the window, beyond the rack of priestly vestments,  you can (if you enlarge the photo) see a boat passing on the quiet Sea of Galilee.

Posted are the rules for visiting priests, in several languages.

(A post for Weekend Reflections meme. And linking also to inSPIRED Sunday.)

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Tune in to streaming video from Jerusalem church

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This poster and reflection were on the glass door of the Christian Information Center in the Old City.

You can click on it (and click again on the photo that opens) and read about the " 8th Extraordinary Prayer of all Churches for Reconciliation, Unity and Peace, beginning in and proceeding from Jerusalem,"
being hosted by the Armenian Catholics.

You can watch it in live streaming video
--at 6:00 pm Israel time (4:00 pm GMT or 8:00 am California time).
Check on the handy time zone converter timeanddate.com.
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Let's hope their prayer helps the situation.
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UPDATE: It was a nice broadcast of the ecumenical service.
That same Franciscan Media Center that shared it online is a good source for documentary videos on religious life in the Holy Land.
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Well polished

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The squeaky clean windows and body of the Mercedes reflect* the Old City buildings in Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Square.
The diplomatic corps car was turning into the narrow Latin Patriarchate Road.
Maybe the Latin [i.e. Roman Catholic] Patriarch was inside (I didn't want to stare).
It's always fun to see the two little Vatican flags on the car.
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For James' Weekend Reflections.
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Quiet in the crypt!

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Quiet is the key word for today's Q post for ABC Wednesday.

Shhhh, we are descending to the dark crypt beneath the Armenian Catholic church in the Old City.

OK, no talking; the mysteries of faith seldom have an explanation anyway . . . .

A nun in black is behind the glass doors in this unusual chapel.
First read the signs carefully, if you dare to enter.
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(More about the quiet Our Lady of the Spasm Church is here and here, including how it got its rather queer name.)
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This post is also for Our World Tuesday.
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Friday fish

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A good catch at the Mahane Yehuda market.
Enlarge the photo to see the expression on the poor fish's face.

While fishing for a title for this post, I remembered reading that the Bishops of England and Wales decided to re-establish the practice of fish on Fridays, effective September 16, 2011.

The Bishops said that they “wish to re-establish the practice of Friday penance in the lives of the faithful as a clear and distinctive mark of their own Catholic identity.”
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I wonder if you could call the traditional eating of gefilte fish on Friday night (Erev Shabbat) a part of our Jewish identity. hmm . . .
But I think the Bishops meant that abstaining from meat on Fridays and having fish instead is what, for many years, made Catholics feel special and set apart.
Come to think of it, the Hebrew word kadosh, holy, actually means "set apart."
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St. Thérèse's relics on pilgrimage in Israel

. In her life as a cloistered Carmelite nun, St. Theresa never went out from her convent in Lisieux.
But in death, parts of her are making a world tour.
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On the poster you can see the long list of cities in Israel her relics will visit in a 2-week period.
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This Catholic custom of veneration of relics is strange to Jews, so of course I was curious and went to the Old City to find Theresa, The Little Flower.

Alas, the guard at the Latin Patriarchate told me I was two hours too late, that "she" had just left and was on the way to Haifa.

To console me, he showed me in to the empty cathedral.

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I had the whole place to myself! Blessed silence and solitude.

The stained-glass-filtered sunlight gave some pews and the pulpit a rainbow touch.

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I found one remaining copy of the welcoming ceremony at Jaffa Gate, the procession, and the Solemn Vespers at the church.

I sat on a multi-colored pew and read the pages, pretending to understand the Latin.

I thought about young (dead at 24) Theresa and her Little Way which teaches us to do little things with great love.

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So this post was a tour of something I did not see, for That's My World Tuesday

However, the Latin Patriarchate website has short videos of the welcomes given to the reliquary at Ben-Gurion Airport and in Jerusalem (and also articles about the saint).

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"Understanding Theresa's Relics" helps, e.g. "It is a fact that when people stand in the presence of her mortal remains or have some contact with her poor relics, . . . God, who received through her humanity so many signs of love, is pleased in turn to manifest his love through her bodily remains."

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This newspaper includes the fact that one set of her relics was taken into space in the Discovery.

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And Wikipedia has the whole story of Theresa, from 1873 to 1897.

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Feeling welcome at St. Stephen's Monastery

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Many cities in the world have an Open House weekend once a year.

Jerusalem had her Houses From Within weekend last month with over a hundred significant sites open to the public free of charge, some with guided tours.
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But no one anticipated the huge turnout at St. Etienne/St. Stephen's Monastery, home to the prestigious École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem!

Curious Israelis crowded into the basilica, filling every pew and even the monks' choir stalls.

Many had to stand. Or we sat on the floor.

Who ever heard of such a thing?!

In one Shabbat afternoon alone, about a thousand Jews came to see and hear (and that's not counting the morning tours and open house)!
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One lone man stood in front of the throng and without a microphone explained this place, his home. He somehow made himself heard, and he also make himself understood and appreciated.

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Thank you for your gracious guidance, Fr. Jean-Michel de Tarragon, O.P. [Order of Preachers, i.e. Dominicans], priest, friar, scholar, teacher, photographer, and the in-charge of a huge old photo archive from glass plates.
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I see on the Internet that yesterday the Catholic Church had a day to honor men and women religious, those called to the vowed life, the monks and nuns of the cloistered and contemplative vocation. Pro Orantibus Day (For Those Who Pray).

God bless all the monastics, of whatever kind, in every country.

This post is for "That's My World," and I must say, without these Brothers and Sisters our world would be a poorer place.

In case you missed Frere Jean-Michel's guided tour, you can enjoy a 12-minute video walk through St. Stephen's and the Ecole here.

Great photos and info in French here.

And other posts and links are under my label "Ecole Biblique."

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Inn reflections

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Friends Kristine and Mark and I looked for a modest place to stay for one night in Tiberias last month.

The pilgrim inn that we found was built in 1907 by ANSMI, the Associazione Nazionale per Soccorrere i Missionari Italiani.
For its first decades the building served as a school for children.
Since 2001 it has been the Oasis San Francesco, and now Oasis Emmanuel, run by the Emmanuel Community which is part of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

Kristine popped out of her room at 7:00 p.m.
She and her door are reflected in the full length mirror.
The big wardrobe looked so old and mysterious that I dared not open it, fearing I would be pulled through into Narnia. ;)

I did, however, take a look BEHIND the wardrobe and found--no, not a lion--but a nest!

So THAT'S why the pigeon was pacing nervously by the rail, waiting for us to go away.
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At 6:55 a.m. the already-risen sun, playing with clouds, was turning the Sea of Galilee silver.

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As the non-native-English webpage of the Oasis so charmingly says,

"The simplicity of the rooms is compensated for the eyesight overlooking the lake and Golan Heights."

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I was happy to find these reflections for our growing group at James' Weekend Reflections.

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Shabbat shalom.

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Birthday and birthplace of John

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Come, join the tourists.
Come into the Church of St. John the Baptist (or St. John Ba Harim) in the Jerusalem suburb of Ein Kerem.


The Franciscans built the present church in 1674 over the remains of the Crusader and Byzantine era churches.
 Further work was done in the 19th century.

Walk forward in the basilica and turn left. Go down a few stairs.


The grotto--the most revered part of the church!

Not because of the marble altar donated by Queen Isabella II of Spain.
Not just because of the lit-up "Benedictus," the first words spoken by Zechariah after the birth of his son and today recited daily in the morning prayers of Catholics.

The crypt is holy . . .


. . . because this is considered to be the exact birthplace of John.

Here--enlarge the photo and read the declaration yourself.

I'm guessing at the Latin but I believe it means "The precursor of the Lord was born here."

There will be a big celebration here--June 24 is considered by the Church the birthday of John the Baptist.

Happy birthday, Yochanan!

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(Linking to inSPIRED Sunday.)

Menorah in Magdala

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Where are archaeology volunteers taken on their weekly field trip?
To other digs, of course, to be guided around by the director of the site!

Don't mind the sign "Archaeological excavations. DANGER -- NO ENTRY."

Our group drove 4 miles south of Tiberias, along the Sea of Galilee, to Migdal.
Migdal in Hebrew, Magdala in Aramaic.
Readers of the New Testament will know that the town was most likely the birthplace or place of residence of Mary Magdalene, a devoted follower of Jesus.

Something like a scene from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" greeted our expectant eyes.
A stone box-shaped object literally under wraps, hidden by a heavy cloth and white sandbags.
It stood in the front of a 1st century synagogue. The basalt benches still in situ!

As he uncovered it, the archaeologist in charge cautioned us not to take any close-up photographs of this very recent and very spectacular find.

I compromised and sneaked a shot of only half of the stone structure. The carved decorations are different on each side and on the top.
They think it is the base of the table used 2,000 years ago for reading the Torah scroll.


In this Photo from the Ministry of Tourism, you see what the whole country was excited about!

You will enjoy reading the authoritative article about the discoveries at Migdal, available here.

This is the paragraph about the menorah:

According to the excavation director, Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the IAA, “We are dealing with an exciting and unique find. This is the first time that a menorah decoration has been discovered from the days when the Second Temple was still standing. This is the first menorah to be discovered in a Jewish context and that dates to the Second Temple period/beginning of the Early Roman period. We can assume that the engraving that appears on the stone, which the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered, was done by an artist who saw the seven-branched menorah with his own eyes in the Temple in Jerusalem. The synagogue that was uncovered joins just six other synagogues in the world that are known to date to the Second Temple period.”

Ironically, this synagogue would not have been found if ground had not been broken by the Magdala Center, a Catholic pilgrim center planned to be built by the Legionaries of Christ/ Regnum Christi Movement. The Israel Antiquities Authority stepped in to do its always-necessary survey (before anything is built) and were so surprised to find all these treasures.

The Center will eventually be built around, not ON, the antiquities. But can you imagine how a synagogue from the time and place of Jesus will draw vast numbers of visitors of all faiths?!
Don't you just love how these things work? :-)

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The first stigmatic's secondary feast day

The painting "St. Francis receives the stigmata,"
in the monastery church

Today, September 17, Franciscans and Traditional Roman Catholics celebrate a feast called The Impression of the Stigmata of St. Francis, Confessor.

My neighbors the Franciscan brothers are still licking their wounds after Saturday's fire inside the monastery grounds (as reported in my previous posts). I hope they can relax a bit today and enjoy the feast day in honor of their founder.
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Welcome to Jerusalem!

The Vatican flag flies under Jerusalem's sky.
And in May Pope Benedict XVI will be flying to the Holy Land! From Jordan he will arrive in Israel and visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth. He comes as a pilgrim and not as a head of state; he will try to make it a spiritual journey, not a political one.
We welcome His Holiness.
This big Vatican property is the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center. (More information at my earlier post.)

The building dates from the 1880s.

Here's the view of Mary and the baby from inside the pilgrim hostel, top floor.

I'll do my best to catch sight of Pope Baruch during his five days with us in the Holy City and, God willing, I'll bring you some once-in-a-lifetime photos.

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Other skies await your visit at the weekly SkyWatch Friday. The blogger sky watchers invite you.

Switching off, tuning in

Abstain from Internet, SMS texting, iPod, etc. for a few days during Lent??
That's the big world news today, that a few dioceses and bishops in Italy are recommending that Catholics give up one or all of such practices for the next month. Well, maybe only on Fridays.
(There is a report here and an interesting opinion piece here.)

A friar phoning
A monk checking messages

Why do I always need to surpress a giggle when I see a monk or nun multi-tasking with a cell phone in Jerusalem? Something about the monastic habit coupled with high-tech gadgets just looks incongruous to me. But it shouldn't. It isn't.

Well, if you happened to read my posts about the Pope as blogger and about the Vatican's new dedicated channel on YouTube, you know I have some kind of fascination with this.

What do you think about the Italians' idea of switching off? Could you do it?

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P.S. I don't even have a cell phone to turn off.

Rome and Jerusalem

Today is the Vatican's 80th birthday.
Yes, really, only 80 years old. It is an official holiday there today. Vatican City became a sovereign state on February 11, 1929 after an agreement between Pope Pius XI and Mussolini led to the signing of the Lateran Treaties.
Enlarge this photo of the Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center and you see the Vatican flag flying. Imagine, stepping into Vatican territory in the middle of Jerusalem!
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Notre Dame received its first pilgrims in 1888. The building's history is at their website.
I found this paragraph the most interesting:
"Large groups of pilgrims began coming to the Holy Land in 1882 under the direction of French Assumptionists. . . . Notre Dame de France Pilgrim Center met the requirements for the new types of large pilgrimages in which 500 pilgrims would arrive and depart at the same time on special ships equipped with chapels. At Notre Dame de France, the pilgrims found accommodations commensurate with their numbers. The Assumptionists assisted them spiritually and served as guides as they visited the Holy Places."
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So, happy birthday Vatican City.
Hey bloggers, have you checked out the Vatican's new dedicated channel on YouTube? Click here and see daily videos of what Pope Benedict is up to.