The smells and bells of The Church

.
For today's Feast of the Assumption I took my visiting American friends to the Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion.
We were greeted by the joyful pealing of great bells.

After the festive Mass (in German, English, and Latin) in the magnificent church (over a hundred years old),

we all went down to the crypt and there were some more prayers, with the new Father Abbot (from Ireland) and his Benedictines facing

the reclining figure of Mary in her dormition.

The monks gave everyone a little bundle of greenery, symbolizing the beauty and joy of God's creation.
.
For more photos and impressions about this place and this feastday, please see my labels below (Mary, Dormition Abbey.)
.
Bonne fête!
.

New Abbot at the Dormition Abbey

.
It's not every day you get to see a Rite of Abbatial Blessing.
Yesterday the Dormition Abbey was packed with monastics, high-ranking clergy, ambassadors, and many guests for this very special Mass.

We were asked to "resist the temptation" of taking photos during the prayer.
The spoken and sung word was in Latin, German, and English.

The Benedictine monks of the Dormition elected Father Gregory Collins OSB, a monk of Glenstal Abbey (in Ireland), to be their sixth Abbot.

The Glenstal website says
"While Benedictine monasteries nearly always elect one of their own monks as superior, the monks of Dormition have a tradition of calling monks from other abbeys to serve as their Abbot. Abbot Gregory is the first native speaker of English to be chosen.
He has been elected for a term of eight years."

The service began in 3 pm sunlight and ended in evening semi-darkness.
As the organ played and the recession began . . .

. . . suddenly a flower rain began from the center of the high dome!
Heavenly!

But it also reminded me of the saying "I never promised you a rose garden."
This new Irish abbot will have the special and heavy added responsibility of trying to keep and even add to the fragile peace of Jerusalem.

Indeed, the little icon picture souvenir of the occasion and the booklet for the Mass both had in a large font:

"pray for the peace of Jerusalem".

What a gorgeous doorway for Monday Doorways.

Everyone exchanged happy greetings in the courtyard and then headed for the generous buffet tables and bar inside the hall.

Special banners were twirling around in the evening breeze.

For more about the bell tower, monastery, and church (also known as Hagia Maria Sion) please see my earlier posts.
.
The Order of St. Benedict has existed 1500 years.
This part of yesterday's Abtsbenediktion was very moving:

Presentation of the Rule
Bishop Shomali [of the Latin Patriarchate]:

Take this Rule
which contains the tradition of holiness
received from our spiritual fathers.
As God gives you strength
and human frailty allows,
use it to guide and sustain your brothers
whom God has placed in your care.

Presentation of the Pontifical Insignia
Bishop Shomali:

Take this ring,
the sign of faith and commitment
so that sustained by firm courage,
you many keep this monastic family
in the bond of brotherly love.

The bishop puts in silence the mitre on the head of the new abbot

Bishop Shomali:

Take this shepherd's staff
and show loving care for the brothers
whom the Lord has entrusted to you;
for he will demand an account
of your stewardship.

UPDATE:  See the official photos here:  http://dormitio.net/aktuelles/fotos/showGalerie/index.html?entry=galerie.36

The people of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church

.
 As promised in yesterday's post about Jerusalem's Ethiopian Church, here are photos of some of the Ethiopian Christians and  icons there.

I think the little one was taking a break from the 4:00 p.m. prayer service going on inside.

Monks and nuns live inside the church complex.
It is called Dabra Gannat, which in the Ge'ez language means Mount of Paradise.
The  high wall surrounding the compound was added in 1897.
.
An Israeli website says that the Ethiopian monks (in this church and those who live on the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre)   " live, as it were, on an island where their lives change very slowly--an island to which they have been drawn through faith and where they have found a degree of contentment. Asked why he had come to Jerusalem, one elderly monk at first seemed to fail to grasp the question. Then he burst out 'because it is Jerusalem' -- an answer he felt quite sufficient, as indeed it is."

The  FolkArt Gallery site says
"The purpose of Ethiopian art is to describe in color, the drama of the gospels. The icons have been used for devotional purposes, both as objects of power and as votive offerings. They are believed to be permeated with the spiritual presence of the saints and in particular of the Virgin Mary. Prayers made to an icon are offered directly to a specific saint or to the Virgin herself. The icon can elicit either a blessing on the righteous or punishment to wrongdoers."

 Some of the church's icons are hundreds of years old.
Many of them show Ethiopian saints like this one, an old desert monk called Abba Samuel.
He lived among large wild animals and learned their language.   He is usually pictured being transported on the back of lions.
I read that Ethiopians  believed that it is possible to receive a promise of protection for anyone who invokes Abba Samuel's name.

Saint Aregawi (Argawy) founded a monastery on a high butte surrounded by steep cliffs, which to this day is accessible only by rope.
A friendly python helped the saint ascend and descend. 
Or so I read online today.  I think this is the painting of them.

St. George, Ethiopia's  national patron saint, is  frequently depicted rescuing a princess from the dragon,  which represents evil.
Do you think that's a princess on the back of his saddle?
George is considered the special friend and messenger of Mary, so their icons are often  positioned to face one another.
.
A good article to read about the story of the Ethiopian Christians in Jerusalem is at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
.
If  any of you in the USA would like to visit an Ethiopian Orthodox church, Betsy Porter gives this partial list:

- New York City:  Church of the Savior (meets at Riverside Church,
Harlem); www.angelfire.com/ny2/medhanealem/
- Washington, DC:  St. Mary of Zion Ethiopian, www.dskmariam.org
- Los Angeles:  St. Mary of Zion, www.ethiopianorthodoxchurch.org
- Oakland, CA:  Mekane Selam Medhane Alem Cathedral,
www.msmedhanealem.org
- Dallas, TX:  St. Michael Ethiopian Church, www.stmichaeleoc.org
.
If you do, let me know!
.

Κύριε ἐλέησον

.
At the center of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands this edicule, and inside is the tomb where Jesus was buried (according to Catholic and Orthodox tradition).

This is a rare photo of the edicule with no crowds standing in line to enter it. Early morning today.

But yesterday this same place was much more colorful, with red vestments bringing to mind the red tongues of fire.
The Orthodox churches were celebrating Pentecost.

The prostration is because of the liturgy of the day.

The Greek Orthodox have three sets of kneeling prayers for Pentecost.
The first is a prayer of great repentance; the second prayer is a call to the Holy Spirit to help the faithful follow the right path during their life; and the third prayer is to remember those who have gone before.

Some selected lines from the liturgy:

DEACON: For those who incline their hearts as well as the knee before the Lord, let us pray to the Lord.
CANTOR: Lord, have mercy.

DEACON: That He will accept our act of kneeling as incense before Him, let us pray to the Lord.
CANTOR: Lord, have mercy.

. . .

DEACON: Again, on bended knees, let us pray to the Lord.
CANTOR: Lord, have mercy. Kyrie eleison.

.

(For views of other worlds by other bloggers please visit That's My World Tuesday.)
.