Ascension

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The incense was ready for today's Feast of the Ascension.

These are my pictures from 2012  but it is the same ritual every year at the Chapel of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives.
Click a few times on the photos to enjoy the details.

For more about the holy site and about the holy day, please see previous posts.
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The Franciscans now have a nice article about last Wednesday/Thursday's celebrations:
http://www.terrasanctablog.org/2014/05/30/feast-of-the-ascension-together-disciples-of-christ/

UPDATE:  See a little video of this year's celebration: http://www.terrasanctablog.org/2014/06/03/ecumenical-ascension-in-jerusalem/
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Magi arrive today with frankincense and myrrh

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IMPORTANT UPDATE:  Read here  how botanist Dr Elaine Solowey is currently nurturing a fragile frankincense tree sapling in Kibbutz Ketura, after the plant has been absent from Israel for 1,500 years!
 

". . . And there it was—the star they had seen in the east! It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was.  
¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed beyond measure.  
¹¹ Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped Him. 
Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh."

--Matthew 2

January 6, the Feast of Epiphany, the day the Wise Men arrived in Bethlehem. 

Happy Epiphany, Christian friends! 

These days frankincense and myrrh are readily available in spice shops in Jerusalem's Old City. 

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You're welcome to see my older posts:

T.S. Eliot's "Journey of the Magi"

and

Epiphany at Abu Ghosh monastery

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UPDATE: I realized I didn't know how they were made.  Here is the answer from How Stuff Works:

"Derived from tree sap, or gum resin, both frankincense and myrrh are prized for their alluring fragrance.
Frankincense is a milky white resin extracted from species of the genus Boswellia, which thrive in arid, cool areas of the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa and India.
The finest and most aromatic of this species is Boswellia sacra, a small tree that grows in Somalia, Oman and Yemen. . . .
Myrrh is a reddish resin that comes from species of the genus Commiphora, which are native to northeast Africa and the adjacent areas of the Arabian Peninsula. Commiphora myrrha, a tree commonly used in the production of myrrh, can be found in the shallow, rocky soils of Ethiopia, Kenya, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. . . .

The processes for extracting the sap of Boswellia (for frankincense) and Commiphora (for myrrh) are essentially identical.
Harvesters make a longitudinal cut in the tree's trunk, which pierces gum resin reservoirs located within the bark.
 The sap slowly oozes from the cut and drips down the tree, forming tear-shaped droplets that are left to harden on the side of the tree. 
These beads are collected after two weeks."
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The fascinating article continues here with more about the historical AND modern uses of frankincense and myrrh!
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Happy Ascension Day

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It was a day of much incense on the Mount of Olives this morning!
Greek Orthodox, Russian, Armenian, Coptic, and Syrian clergymen were all swinging incense in the smallish walled area surrounding the Chapel of the Ascension.
For this one day of Ascension Day the Muslim owners of the chapel let these historical Christian communities erect altars and tents in order to conduct their separate Divine Liturgies concurrently, side by side.

It was all very colorful and when I've made order in my hundreds of photos I'll be showing you the clergy in their best vestments.

The present chapel is about 800 years old, although the first Byzantine rotunda was there already in the 4th century.

As you see in the "wall" painting on the wall of one of the tents, the apostles were sky-watching on this very spot almost 2,000 years ago as the right foot of Jesus took his last step of earth.

The New Testament book of Acts (1:9-11) says

He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

And inside the Chapel of the Ascension the faithful kneel and kiss the stone that (tradition says) bears the footprint of his right foot.
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(Linking to inSPIREd Sunday.)
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Empty tomb in the edicule

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The clergy of the different Churches keep a pretty steady wafting of incense going into the edicule.
The edicule is the structure built over the tomb of Jesus inside the rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.


E for edicule is a gift to ABC Wednesday and the door is for Monday Doorways.
Even though the grave is empty, I think the taphophiles over at Taphophile Tragics would be interested in this, the world's most famous and revered tomb.
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Spice is the variety of life

See the variety our planet has to offer by clicking on the That's My World banner.

You are welcome to join in and share your home place.

(Photos can be seen full screen by clicking on them.)

Shalom and welcome to Jerusalem's Old City. This is Rechov HaShalshelet (in Hebrew) or Bab el Silsileh (in Arabic), a main bazaar street in the Muslim Quarter.

Come into the spice shop, a pleasure to the nose and eye. What here is labeled "coffee spice" is cardamon. In Arabic and Hebrew it is called hel. Ahh, so fragrant added to Turkish coffee, and healthy for the heart too.

Spices from near and far! The owner must have a fortune invested here.

And he sells incense too. Remember how the three Magi/Wise Men brought frankincense and myrrh to Bethlehem for Christmas? Here it is!

Need some nard? It smells heavenly.

Shelves full of spices. Or perhaps you buy a hooka/nargilla/shisha, yes Madam?

Then you can put that (some of these leaves) in your pipe and smoke it. :)

Then too, there's essence. So many oils.

This is a picture of what I love about Jerusalem, the Old City, the Street of the Chain, and this shop: you literally rub shoulders with residents of every religion and with visitors of every color from all over the world. And as we all know, variety is the spice of life.
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