Luke Chapters 1 and 2

Today, our excursion took us to a Garden Tomb (this is not included in today's title), Ein Karem, and Bethlehem. The garden tomb itself was... nice. But it felt like a farse. One of my trusty guide books gave me this information. 

This tomb in a quiet garden is venerated by many as the tomb of Christ: it conforms to the expectations of simple piety and it is outside the walled city. It is much easier to pray here than in the Holy Sepulchre. Unfortunately there is no possibility that it is in fact the place where Christ was buried.

Murphy-O'Connor, Jerome (2008-02-28). The Holy Land:An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 (Oxford Archaeological Guides) (Kindle Locations 3044-3046). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

He goes on in the guide to talk about the fact that there is no archaeological evidence but you can check it out if you are interested. The only reason I say this is because there is already a Church of the Holy Sepulchre that has been in existence since the 3rd century and before that was venerated as the site. No offense, I just will stick with the original.

After our time at the "garden tomb" we took a short trip to Ein Karem - which means "spring of the vineyard." Here we visited the site where St. John the Baptist was born as well as where Mary visited Elisabeth. You can see the exact site they believe John was born at as well as the beautiful chapel of the Visitation. 

Hic praecursor dominus natus est - Here the forerunner of the Lord was born 

Mosaic on the facade of the Visitation Church

The Church of the Visitation was the site in where Mary proclaimed the greatness of the Lord

From Ein Karem, we had a major shift. Instead of our tour guide Tal, we made a switch and met George, a Christian, as we passed into the West Bank, where Bethlehem is located. We did a lot. But you know you can't do a lot on a empty stomach so we first got a small dose of Americana with pizza, chicken sandwiches, and hamburgers. Ahh... it's good to get a taste of home.

Shepherd's field was the next place we went. There we looked at the caves the shepherds would have lived in and the chapel built over the place where the angels announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds.

Last of all, we visited the Church of the Nativity. Some cool facts about this Church: it is the oldest surviving Church in the Holy Land - the reason is that the Persians, when they invaded and conquered the land were destroying all the buildings with images. However, when they came to the Church of the Nativity, they saw the three wise men in an image on the outside and they recognized one of them as Persian. Because of this they spared the Church. Inside the Church is split into Greek Orthodox, Armenian, and Catholic sections. We were blessed to be able to celebrate Mass in the Chapel of St. Jerome where tradition says Jerome translated the bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin which was to become the Vulgate, the official bible of the Church.

The Original Church

The Gate of Humility - names so because you have to duck low to enter - and made small to keep rampaging hordes from coming in and sacking the Church. 

The Iconostates at the front of the Church, over the site of the birth. 

The site where Christ was born!

Me, Fr. Kristopher, celebrating Mass. 

Bethlehem Square

Once we had seen the holy sites of Bethlehem, we then moved on to shopping and did what we could to supporting the Christians by our purchases. This might sound a bit odd but from everything I have seen, the Christians in the Holy Land are not doing well. They are struggling. The reason for this is manifold and would take more explanation than I am willing to put here. Simply put though, the Christians in Bethlehem are lumped in with the Muslims in Bethlehem and all of them are looked at suspiciously, almost as if they may be terrorists like the Muslim Jihaadists. I know now that more than ever we need to pray for them. Otherwise their presence will disappear, and we will lose the holy sites we have fought so much for. With that in mind, take a look at the wall separating them from Israel - which many of them may never cross again.