Roman paving stones on the Via Dolorosa

This is how the narrow lanes of Jerusalem's Old City look today. Modern pavement. This big improvement was made in 1977.

Some tourists walk on this plaque in one street without noticing. But it gives great news!

During the Jerusalem Municipality's development work in 1977, they discovered Roman paving stones on a lower level. Stones from the 3rd or 4th century!

They were brought up and incorporated into the present street level in a few places. Brilliant! Now you really feel like you are walking on history!

This land was part of the Roman Empire from 63 BCE to 313 CE.

The Romans made grooves, striations, to prevent horses from slipping.

But the smooth stone of both the old and the new pavements is slippery, especially when wet.

Walking on Roman pavement is just a normal thing for the Old City residents, but I still get excited every time my feet touch them.

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That's My World Tuesday bloggers are guiding in other places of the world today. Join the tour!

Coresh Street, Jerusalem

Blogger Meead has done it again--a great post showing the tombs of the kings in Shiraz, Iran--exquisite tombs cut into the cliff walls! AND he combines it with the Bible story of Daniel in the lions' den and even finds a connection to Jerusalem. Don't miss it!
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Last Tuesday a friend and I were (almost) running across town to reach the Pontifical Mass in time. Then I spotted a street sign and exclaimed "WAIT, I have to take this picture for Meead!"
Who is Coresh, you ask? Coresh or Koresh is Hebrew for Cyrus.
So who is Cyrus, you might ask? None other than the founder of the Persian Empire.

But let Ronald L. Eisenberg, author of The Streets of Jerusalem, tell it:

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"Coresh (Cyrus) . . . (reigned 559-529 B.C.E.) was one of the great conquerer-kings of the ancient world. When Cyrus took Babylon in 539, he found the descendants of the Jews who had been led into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar decades earlier. In keeping with his general policy toward all conquered peoples, and his respect of native religions and customs, Cyrus permitted the Jews to return to the Land of Israel. According to Isaiah (45:1 ff), who clearly foretold the defeat of Babylon at the hands of the Persian conqueror, Cyrus was the Divine instrument of redemption, 'anointed' by God to save Israel and enable the people to return to their land and rebuild the Temple."

p. 77, The Streets of Jerusalem, Who, What, Why

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Birds watching

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Only the birds are alert in the noon heat and haze of a summer day in Jerusalem.
These three birds are looking north from the Promenade.
The Arab village of Silwan, then the walled Old City with its golden Dome of the Rock Muslim shrine, and on the horizon the Mount of Olives.
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Other bloggers' animals are being posted today over at Camera Critters Sunday.

Final post on our big day with the Pope

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This whole week has been exciting, both in Jerusalem and for this blog, having Pope Benedict XVI in town.
Tuesday the blog showed him celebrating Mass.
Today we continue showing the mood in the flock who came to the Kidron Valley.

Click on any of the photos to see them full screen.

We had three hours before Mass began.
Meanwhile, the Arab Catholic Scouts marched and played lively music on the bagpipes and drums.

The tradition, hundreds of years old, is that several Muslim men like these in the old Ottoman Turkish garb lead the way for special ceremonial processions of Christian clergy, tapping the ground with their staffs as they walk.
They are called kawassim. 

I'm not sure this man is a monk, at least not yet.
He had no full recognizable habit on. And the tonsure on the head is not done much these days.

These monks are from a monastery not far from Jerusalem.

The Carthusian order lives in silence and solitude. This event was a real field day for them.

Just above the two Carthusian brothers is a surprising sight: someone waving an Israeli flag and a Vatican flag bound together on one pole, with a little Palestinian flag on the top.

More nuns! (The others are in Thursday's post.  And for full coverage of this papal visit see all my posts here.)

Israeli TV televised live to the world every appearance of the Pope.
 (He was at 22 different sites in Israel in only 5 days.)
Two big screens let us see close-ups of the clergy near the altar.

A few viewers sat in olive trees, reminding me of the Zacchaeus story in Luke 19.

This is a freebie I missed. It must have been the Ministry of Tourism that gave the T shirts "I'm with the Pope in Jerusalem."
 For the Papal Mass yesterday the shirts said "I'm with the Pope in Nazareth."
 Whether the Palestinian Authority gave out anything to commemorate Wednesday's Mass in Bethlehem, I cannot know since I am not allowed into Bethlehem.

This cameraman from Pax TV, Lima, Peru, was directing the local kids.
 All were having fun.

Behind the long boom with the TV camera, you can see the Magnificat Choir.

Security personnel were everywhere, but in an unobtrusive manner.
These two men are police sappers.
Thank God that all went perfectly this week.

As the sun got lower and lower, the gold crosses on the Russian Orthodox Convent and Church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives began glowing with blinding light.
As if saying Shalom to the Catholic Pope below in the valley.
Symbolic of this blessed week of ecumenical  and interfaith dialogue.

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Hardhats at prayer

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Artist and blogger Pasadena Adjacent commented on yesterday's post:
"When I saw that first picture of the nuns I thought they were wearing hardhats. Now that took me by surprise."
Hardhats! This reminded me of a sermon a pastor friend preached a decade ago in Perryville, Arkansas. He quoted Annie Dillard, and so will I:

"On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return."

Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk, Harper & Row, 1982

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(See this post to understand where the motorcycle helmets in the photo are.)
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Here's looking at you

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Click on the photos and enlarge your viewing pleasure!

Pope Benedict XVI is our guest in Israel this week and everywhere he goes, the surveillance balloon floats above him.
Israel's biggest-ever security for a VIP was code-named by the police "Operation White Cloak."

Here the observation balloon hovers over the wall of Jerusalem's Old City as we gathered in the Kidron Valley.

These pictures above are for SkyWatch Friday. Welcome Skywatchers; if you would like to see the Pope himself, please see the previous two posts.

Some 6,000 managed to get invitations to the Pontifical Mass last Tuesday.

This is the booklet of the liturgy, in Latin and Arabic.

Seating on chairs was limited, only for the handicapped or for VIPs like high clergy and members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

The rest of us sat under, or even ON, the olive trees.

BYO--bring your own stool was preferred by the nuns pictured above and below.

If you're wondering why nuns (and almost everyone else) are wearing white baseball caps, it is because the Benedict souvenirs were freely distributed.
 A necessity in our hot bright sun.

These Benedictines were well grounded.

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If you are wondering where the monks are, please come back tomorrow.

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Getting there is half the fun

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My post of yesterday wanted to throw you right into the arena with the Christians.
 No no no, not with lions!
I mean, straight into the Pontifical Mass in Jerusalem.
But today it might be fun for you to come along and share the travails of just getting there, and getting in.
You know, like they say, "God is in the details."

So our first hurdle en route was a roadblock in central West Jerusalem.
 Pope Benedict was at a meeting nearby in the Great Synagogue with the two Chief Rabbis of Israel.
Everyone stood for 20 minutes until the Pope moved on and the police opened the road.

Please click and enlarge any photo to see those DETAILS.

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The way they block traffic is by parking the buses of the Pope's delegation in the middle of the street. Clever, eh?

This is Paris Square (with a gift fountain from France) at the intersection of Rambam (=Maimonides) and Ramban (=Nachmanides) Streets.

A good sign for us when the men in black who had been at the Pope's meeting emerged from Heichal Shlomo and waited for their bus driver to take them to the Pope's next stop (the Upper Room in the Old City).

We walked the several blocks to the Old City's New Gate.
It too was semi-closed by then.
I think the police let me through because I was with a nun bearing Mass tickets.
 We crossed the whole Old City and came out via St. Stephen's Gate on the east side.

This sign is probably from the Jerusalem Municipality.
 "In the Spirit of Unity and Peace" it proclaims, and "Jerusalem--something special for everyone!"

Here we are looking down at the "stage" that was built especially for the Mass.
The lovely setting among the olive trees [don't mind the graves] is the Kidron Valley, also known as the Valley of Josaphat (Yehoshafat).
To its right, the old wall of the Old City; to the left, the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane.
What could be better?!

The gates opened at 1:00.
The privileged Franciscans had an entrance all to themselves.
 After all, they are the Custodian of the Holy Land.
 But they were not spared the security check.

We, the hoi polloi, had to line up for a long time in the hot sun to wait our turn to put our bags through the X-ray machine and to walk through the metal detector.

Mercifully, hats like this beauty were passed out before any of us really passed out.

A line of ambulances was parked just behind, just in case.

As we reached the bottleneck where police officers and young security guards stood, the press of humanity was felt.
And how!
 Foreign pilgrims, local Arab Christians, men and women religious, and a very few Israeli Jews like me were all squished together.

This is "the holy grail," the limited edition (less than 6,000 available) invitation to the Solemn Pontifical Mass in the Holy City. Each one numbered.

Really, enlarge this photo.
See the round hologram sticker?
It is the papal emblem within a star of David!
Can you believe that??

The stamped Hebrew says "Israel Police" and the date.

The police checked our Identity Card and/or passport and carefully scanned the barcode sticker into their database.
As we used to say, half-laughing at the early German-Jewish immigrants to Israel, the Yekkes, "Ordnung muss sein."
One must have order.

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Then, suddenly we were inside and free, free to stand around or sit on the earth for three and a half hours until His Holiness the (German) Pope arrived and Mass began.

More about the fun we had while waiting in tomorrow's post, God willing.
 Hope to see you!
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Happy Pope, happy pilgrims

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Here comes Pope Benedict!
The Popemobile is coming down from the Mount of Olives to the Kidron Valley where Mass was celebrated this afternoon.

I was lucky to get a ticket. There was room for only about 6,000 in the outdoor place that was quickly created for this occasion.
 It was an experience never to be forgotten (and I'm not even Christian)!

Please click to enlarge the photos.

Trust me, the Pope is in there, behind the glass. You can see his nose and one eye between the two hands on the right, below the little Palestinian flag.

Benedict XVI has been in Israel since yesterday, and very busy; but today was the first time I've seen him smiling, waving, eyes shining, happy.
The crowd was cheering, and he was about to celebrate Mass--he was in his element.

The Mass was sung and read in Latin and Arabic.
The Pope's homily and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal's message were both in English.

Eucharist.

White umbrellas appeared in the crowd as a sign of where to go to receive Communion.

The Mass is ended. Pope Benedict goes in peace.

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UPDATE: Almost forgot what day it is. So to make this post suitable for Q day at ABC Wednesday, how about this Latin proverb? --
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur. Translation: "Anything said in Latin sounds profound."
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