Jerusalem - May 9

This morning we returned to the Mount of Olives to the Church of Pater Noster .  A cave below the church is celebrated as the place where Jesus taught the disciples the Lord's Prayer.  Large stone scrolls of the prayer of the Our Father written in dozens of different languages line the walls around the church.  They were just amazing!

Next, we bussed over to Mount Zion.   In a courtyard outside King David's Tomb, Father Jerry "high-fived" with a group of Israeli school children on lunch break. Above King David's Tomb on the first floor of a building facing the courtyard is the Cenacle, the site celebrated as the location of the Last Supper.  Actually, the upper floor was a mosque. In Jerusalem, buildings come and go depending on who is in charge - a synagogue, numerous churches, and a mosque stood at this site. So, I found it a little more than difficult to connect the room with the Last Supper of Judean 1st century, the  Italian renaissance of the 15th century, or anything else.  Looking at the wall (see pictures), the big stone bricks at the bottom were laid down by Jewish people, the medium sized bricks in the middle by the Crusaders and the little bricks at the top by the Muslims.

Next up was Mass at the nearby church of  Saint-Peter-in-Gallicantu where we renewed our wedding vows.  The church is located where Peter is believed to have denied Christ three times at the house of a high priest, Caiaphas.  Below the church are caves one of which may have imprisoned Jesus before his trial.  The website linked above shows a number of excellent photos of the church.

After lunch we walked into the old city through the Lions' Gate to the Pool of Bethesda where Jesus healed a crippled man.  The road through the Lion's Gate becomes the Via Dolorosa. We bypassed the First Station of the Cross and entered the Convent of the Sisters of Zion. Stone slabs making up the floor of the basement were once the floor of a forum and before that the pavement of the Antonia Fortress where Jesus was condemned by Ponitus Pilate. So this was our First Station of the Cross.

We continued to follow the Via Delarosa to the Fifth Station of the Cross and turned to make our way to the Western Wall. The wall is no longer called the Wailing Wall because the Jewish people have no reason to weep at the wall anymore.

The men and women pray at separate sections of the wall. Soon a third section will be added for couples, a development that the ultra orthodox are not happy about.   The men pray at the wall closest to place where the Temple stood on the other side. The Romans burned down the temple in 66 AD and the Muslims built a mosque at the exact same spot in the 7th century.  Jews and Christians are not allowed in the mosque called the Dome of the Rock so the wall has to do.

We slipped prayers for relatives into crevices the wall, mine in the men's section and Joanne's in the woman's section.

Security gates guard each entrance to the Western Wall area. Notice in the pictures that one of the young girls in uniform carries an automatic weapon.  

We exited the area, found our bus and returned to the hotel for dinner and bed.