In the Footsteps of Jesus: Gloria in Excelsis Deo

After a hearty breakfast, we crossed the checkpoint to go back into Palestinian Territory to visit Bethlehem which is only 5 miles from Jerusalem. The checkpoints are manned by Israeli soldiers with machine guns who basically control who comes in and out of Israel.

We had an opportunity to walk a couple of blocks through the streets of Bethlehem and it looks like a nice town with a lot of shops. We celebrated Christmas all day today.

School run by the Sisters of St. Joseph

This bread looks so good.

Roasted Chicken at 8 AM

A Little Bit of Home

Popemobile from Pope Francis's
visit to the Holy Land

We arrived at Manger Square and took in this most ancient and holy site. Its not always been accessible to pilgrims due to the perennial conflict in this area. For more than a month in 2002, Israel Defense Forces tried to capture some Palestinians and they along with a lot of other innocent people took refuge in the church until a peaceful solution was reached.

Church of the Nativity and Manger Square

The church is the oldest in the world since it is one of the few from the Byzantine era that was not destroyed.

At the other end of the square sits the Mosque of Omar, the only Mosque in Bethlehem.

Mosque of Omar

In Manger Square

Door of Humility

The Church is entered through the Door of Humility which I described this morning.

Columns have Holy Figures painted on them
that date from 1100 AD

This mosaic floor dating from the 4th century was discovered
under the wooden floor in 1934.

This column has Egyptian Figures

The Greek Orthodox love their lamps. They
all had Christmas balls on them.

The ceiling and roof have just been
replaced after leaking for a long time

The three photos on the left side show the recently restored mosaics in the church. They were covered over and heavily damaged by rain, but they restored the pieces that survived and they are a rare glimpse into the early church.

The mega chandeliers were donated by Russia

Iconostasis separating the sanctuary
from the nave

A side altar in the Nativity

Courtyard Between the Churches

After visiting the main church we paid a visit to the Church of St. Catherine which is right next door. St. Catherine's is where Christmas Mass is televised every Christmas Eve all over the world

St. Catherine

Tree of Jesse, a large bas-relief given to the Church
by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009

Blessed Mother shrine

Underneath the two churches are caves, the most famous is the cave where Jesus was born, but next

to it are the caves of St. Jerome where he lived for many years translating the bible we read to day from the original languages. The various caves have been turned into altars where Masses can be said for pilgrims

Our Mass for the day was in the caves. The blue bag at the base of the altar contains all of your prayer intentions. One of us brings it to each holy site we visit.

Notice the blue bag at the base of the altar

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After Mass we traveled back to the church to wait for our turn to go into the grotto. It was very crowded, but we were there before it opened so that our wait was not too long.

Entrance into Jerusalem mosaic

Entrance into the cave

Ida kneeling before the place of Jesus birth

Come to Bethlehem and see
Him whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King

Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

The fourteen pointed star in the floor marks the spot where Jesus was born in Bethlehem

Priests celebrating Mass over the
manger across from the star

Area above the star

Its a small area inside the cave down 14 uneven steps. You only get a few minutes inside but its an experience of a lifetime.

Ida with Thick-It

We did some shopping at the Kando Store run by the famous Catholic family in Bethlehem. The grandfather of the store's owner is the antiquities dealer that bought the dead sea scrolls. One of the jars that held the scrolls is in this store in the picture on the right. The others are in museums. The store supports some 70 Christian families through the work they do enabling them to live in Bethlehem.

We brought to the store from America, Thick-It powder, which will be used by an orphanage here to feed children who have trouble swallowing. They have a hard time getting it, so this is a small way to help.

Kando Store

The separation wall between Israel and Palestine is just outside the Kando store. There is grafitti on the Palestinian side. The one on the far left in the middle of the picture is of Trump. The wall is not helping things. As Pope Francis said, we should build bridges not walls.

Shepherd's Cave

After lunch we traveled to Shepherd's Field where the angels appeared to the shepherd's field. The caves where the shepherds lived are still here and we were able to visit to them. The stairs getting to them were pretty treacherous and one of our fellow pilgrims fell into a hole at the bottom. Fortunately she's fine.

Hole at the bottom of the stairs

Cave

Shepherd's Field

This is the Church of the Angels which was built in the shape of a shepherd's tent.

There was a group from a Latin America country singing a carol when I went in. I didn't know the words in Spanish, but I sang along in English.

The chapel is small, but the murals are fantastic.

We went back tot the hotel for a rest and we got to visit the chapel there as well as to see the Shroud of Turin exhibit the hotel has.

The Shroud

The Crown of Thorns

Our tour company runs a very special program with the Kando family, called Sharing the Bread. Instead of eating the buffet dinner in the hotel tonight, we traveled back to Bethlehem and broke into three groups to eat dinner with a Catholic family from Bethlehem. Six of us ate dinner with Jawdatt (Jaw) and Jeany Facouseh.

It was a moving experience for all of us that I am not going to be able to find the right words to describe. Our meal was delicious. We started with a salad and had rice with pork, potatoes, mushrooms, and pickles! We finished with desert and a delicious tea with fresh lemongrass. We discussed many things, but the most moving was hearing them describe how difficult things can be at times because of the political situation. The checkpoints we went through today with relative ease can be extremely difficult for them so they are trapped behind the wall. There are no movie theater's here or even a post office. They want a good life for their children so they are thinking of emigrating but they have strong family roots here. Jaw's family is the third oldest in Bethlehem. We left with a better understanding and strong empathy for the plight of all people living here.