A blessing on your house!

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City Daily Photo bloggers have to choose one of their own photos at the end of each year as their Photo of the Year.
You can see who chose what at the CDP website.

My picture has a message for the new year!

PAX HUIC DOMUI  --  Peace be to this house

It is the wish and the blessing of all who enter this wonderful Swiss house built in the 1700s or maybe even earlier in the tiny hamlet of Grandchamp in western Switzerland.
Now the house, named l'Amandier,  is part of a monastic community of nuns from the Reformed churches of Europe.
I lived there these past two months as a volunteer.
See my room and the whole building in an earlier post.

On December 31, on Facebook,  poet Jan Richardson shared her poem-blessing  that seems to be speaking about my beloved l'Amandier as well as about the new year.
Here is what she wrote:

"A blessing for you, from me, in this turning of the year. May this new year hold solace and hope; may it—through us—hold welcome and grace. Deep peace to you."

THE YEAR AS A HOUSE
A Blessing

Think of the year
as a house:
door flung wide
in welcome,
threshold swept
and waiting,
a graced spaciousness
opening and offering itself
to you.

Let it be blessed
in every room.
Let it be hallowed
in every corner.
Let every nook
be a refuge
and every object
set to holy use.

Let it be here
that safety will rest.
Let it be here
that health will make its home.
Let it be here
that peace will show its face.
Let it be here
that love will find its way.

Here
let the weary come
let the aching come
let the lost come
let the sorrowing come.

Here
let them find their rest
and let them find their soothing
and let them find their place
and let them find their delight.

And may it be
in this house of a year
that the seasons will spin in beauty,
and may it be
in these turning days
that time will spiral with joy.
And may it be
that its rooms will fill
with ordinary grace
and light spill from every window
to welcome the stranger home.

—Jan Richardson

A city in a garden

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I had planned to post an altogether different photo for ABC U-Day, but that was before I encountered the useful knife sharpener of yesterday.

Still, I beg to inform you that URBS IN HORTO, meaning "city in a garden," is the motto of the great City of Chicago.
Chicago, that beautiful and friendly city by the Lake, city of my birth, place of my first 22 years of life.

Imagine my surprise when, among the hundreds of exhibiting companies and institutions at the 18th International AgriTech in Tel Aviv, I came upon a booth of the State of Illinois.

I just stood gazing at the photo--had it included just a few more blocks, our apartment would have been visible.
Ah the memories--swimming and fishing in Lake Michigan, climbing the lake's snow mountains when it froze, riding my bike on the cycling path, riding horses on the bridle path . . .
Where else could a kid have such fun in nature in a city of millions?

And now that I know Chicago's motto, I heartily agree that Chicago is an urbs in horto.
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Palmach, Parabellum, and pacem

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For ABC Wednesday, P is for Palmach, Parabellum, and peace.
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The Palmach Cave is a heritage site (and active tourist site) in Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek in the Jezreel Valley.

This cave became the training place for the Palmach's special units, for example, the German Unit.

Established in 1941, the Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine.
By the outbreak of the War for Independence in 1948 it consisted of over 2,000 men and women in three fighting brigades and auxiliary aerial, naval and intelligence units.

The display shows some of their various weapons.
Unfortunately there were not enough, and not every Palmachnik went into battle with a gun.

An old Pistol Parabellum is on the wall.

The pistol's name comes from the old Latin adage Si vis pacem, para bellum , meaning "If you wish for peace, be always ready for war."

As Wikipedia says, "this is usually interpreted as meaning peace through strength—a strong society being less likely to be attacked by enemies."
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"I am the door"

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Here's a very tall door for Monday Doorways and some words of explanation for Our World Tuesday.

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Enlarge* the photo to enjoy the Latin words in gold.
Latin scholars out there, can you translate? I think the words are based on passages from the Gospel of John.
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I'm just guessing here, but maybe it is

EGO SUM OSTIUM + DICIT + DNS +
I am the door, says the Lord,

SI - OVIS SITIT VENIAT + AD ME ET BIBAT +
if the sheep thirst, let them come to me and drink.

Here is the door from afar, to the right of the smaller door.

The church is from Crusader times, 12th century.
We have talked about this church and Benedictine monastery in Abu Ghosh quite often lately.
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*UPDATE:
Dear readers, I am sorry the photos no longer enlarge when opened.
Blogger has changed the photo viewing system just recently and everyone hates it.
See the discussion here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=73493b0be3a4116d&hl=en
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UPDATE 2: Thanks to blogger Martus for solving the mystery of what is written on the door. Please see his comment near the end of the Comments section.
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Quieta non movere -- Don't move settled things

Latin proverbs are always good for the difficult Q Day of ABC Wednesday.

Quieta non movere means "Don't rock the boat" or "Let sleeping dogs lie."

But in the context of these photos from Susita, the proverb's literal translation is best:
"DON'T MOVE SETTLED THINGS."

The architectural elements toppled by the great earthquake of 749 are left in situ as a silent testimony to the devastation that put an end to the city of Susita / Hippos.

Some of the columns are of smooth granite imported from Egypt.
Granite was common in the construction of pagan temples
As we have seen in my two previous posts, Susita was at first one of the pagan cities of the Decapolis.

It is probably this city on the hill that Jesus sailed across the Sea of Galilee to.
The news of his driving the demons out of a man spread fast.
The next re-use of the temple columns was for Christian churches, 3 or 4 of which are excavated.
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The flat foundation in the photo above has holes for posts of the Byzantine church's chancel screen.

Still half-buried quiet things. . .

Here the archaeologists just couldn't resist just a little reconstructing, it seems!

The pillar with remnants of unusual plaster decoration and the elaborate Corinthian capital begged to be set upright again after all these years.
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Initial excavations were done in the early 1950s. But then Susita was right on the border with Syria and it must have been quite dangerous.
Digging was resumed in 1999.
Since then, teams from the universities of Haifa and of Warsaw have come every summer.
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UPDATE Sept. 2014:  See http://blog.bibleplaces.com/2014/09/new-evidence-for-ad-363-earthquake-at.html

UPDATE Dec. 4, 2015: Don't miss this great BAR article on Sussita, with aerial photos!
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Knights Palace

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K-Day today at ABC Wednesday.

At the end of Freres Street, next to the Latin Patriarchate, near the New Gate, in the Christian Quarter, inside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, is a small hotel.

It's the Knights Palace!

Before the middle of the 19th century, Jerusalem had no hotels. Only after mid-century, when tourism per se began to the Holy Land, were hotels built.

Pilgrims who came on pilgrimage had hostels for their meagre needs, but wealthier tourists from abroad wanted more comfortable accommodation.

Knights Palace dates mostly to the 1880s.

Even the restrooms in the lobby go with the knightly motif.

Some of the 50 hotel rooms (on the right, not the left!).

The Knights Palace website is here.

For a time, the building served as a theological seminary.

As you might guess from the KHS Knight's photo on the wall, the building is also the base in Jerusalem of the Knights of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

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AND . . . today is Michaelmas, the Feast Day of the Archangel St. Michael and All Angels!

As Nestor writes in his blog Every Day's A Holiday!, "Perhaps because of his position as the leader of the army of angels in Revelation, Michael became the patron saint of knights, whom fighters called upon in times of battle."

Happy Michaelmas to all Christians who are celebrating the feast day.

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