Souls in Samaria

Today we traveled from Nazareth in the north through Palestinian Territory in the West Bank.

Our days are long starting with breakfast at 6:30 and we're out by 7:30.  Today, we had Mass in a small chapel on the grounds of the Basilica of the Annunciation.  Back home its Corpus Christi, but we celebrated that feast on Thursday (the traditional date), so today we celebrated the feast of the Annunciation.  Tomorrow, when we go to Bethlehem, we celebrate a Christmas Mass.

Ida and I were lectors for Mass again, so it was special to read on the very site where the Annunciation occurred.   Father spoke of how the world changed when Mary said, "Yes".  

We boarded the bus and crossed a checkpoint into Palestinian territory traveling to the middle of no where.  In Jesus time, people avoided Samaria and here we are two thousand years later and its still a very, very poor area especially the first part that we saw.  There is no much here in government services, so there seemed to be a lot of trash.  It gave us an opportunity to see first hand what life is like for Palestinians.

Entrance to Church Courtyard

The first place we traveled to was the town of Burquin to see the Greek Orthodox Church of St George and the ten lepers.  It's one of the oldest churches in the world, built around the same time as the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem sometime in the fourth century when Christianity was first allowed.  The oldest part of the church was a cave where Jesus healed the ten lepers and Christians began worshiping here in secret.

Steep Climb

Stone Iconostatis

Our guide says that not may tour groups come here because of its location, maybe one in a hundred.  We had to hike up a steep hill in the middle of a very poor Muslim town, but it was a unique church.  They only have 68 Catholic families who worship here, the other 8,000 residents are Muslim.  Their Sunday Masses are on Fridays since that's when a priest is available to come here.

Sanctuary Entrance

In the picture above, the Iconostasis separates the nave from the sanctuary since the Greek church kept the separation that the Jewish faith had in the temple where only the priest went into the Holy of Holies.

The entrance to the santuary is flanked by icons of Mary and Christ.

Original cave part of the Church

To the left, Father is standing in the original cave part of the church.  When they replaced the floor a few years back, they found three monks buried there.

The original altar is on the right.  Imagine how ancient that is.

For such a small church they had a pretty large Baptismal font.

Baptismal Font

The Greek Churches have many incoms

The stone chair of the Patriarch

Icon of the Ten Lepers on the Top and
 St. George on the bottom

Lighting a Candle

We made a donation to help them out since there is really such a small community to support this church.

One of the many mosques
we've seen

Palestinian Farm

Our next stop was in the Samarian town of Sebasta.which I described in the earlier post today.  Again, in the middle of no where.  Once upon a time it was the capital of the area and where Herod Antipas build his palace.   We saw the ruins there which are now used as an area where camel rides are given to the few tourist groups that show up there.

We made an arduous climb up the side of a mountain to see more ruins, a Roman theatre and the ruins of the Crusader Church of St. John the Baptist.

Camel Rides Among the Ruins

Ruins of Herod's Palace

Where Salome Danced

A Donkey

Roman Theatre

A Tomb

Several Civilizations of Ruins

Olive Trees

Wildflowers

Entrance to St John's Church

Wall of St. John's Church

Samaria Restaurant

Lunch at Samaria Restaurant

 We had lunch together at the Samaria Restaurant.

We had soup followed by Middle Eastern appetizers which consisted of a large round bread which you dipped into various things- hummus, olive oil, a tomato thing, etc.  The main dish was chicken and rice followed by watermelon for desert.  Apparently watermelon is a specialty of Palestine.






Our next stop was near the larger town of Nablus which is a commercial center of the Palestinian Territory.  It was a bigger town, more affluent, but still poor.  They could use some urban planning.

Interior

We visited the Greek Orthodox site of St. Photina which contains Jacob's Well in the basement.








The well was 1800 years old at the time of Jesus, so its now nearly 4,000 years old and still producing water.  In my earlier post I described the story of Jesus asking a Samaritan woman to draw water for him, so I got to drink that same water.

At the well

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In 1979, a Zionist threw a hand grenade into the church and when the priest ran out he was murdered by the zealot with an axe.  The priest, Philomenous, is now a Greek Orthodox saint and his body is in a glass and wood casket in the corner of the church.

We met the current guardian of the church who has been in place since 1980.  Read his story here  and here. He has painted many of the icons that appear throughout the church.

Many icons are in the church

Ceiling

Hanging icons and lamps

Dome Interior

Jar of the Samaritan woman

Atop a column in the church in a glass case is the jar which supposedly was carried by the Samaritan woman.  The jar used to be in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, but was taken during the Crusaders and sent to Roman.  It sat collecting dust in the Vatican for some 800 years until it was recently returned to the church by Pope Benedict.

We then completed our journey into Jesusalem pictured below.  The Golden Dome of the Rock shows in the first picture in the center and the two gray domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchue appear in the top left of the bottom picture.

We checked into the very large Notre Dame Center where we will spend the rest of our time.

Its been modernized, but our room is very simple.

Holy water font

Lounge Near our Room

Our hotel is just outside of the walls of the old city, so after dinner we went for a stroll through the New Gate below into the ancient town.   Most of the shops were closed so we did not venture far.

New Gate

Street