Author: alwaysbridging

Cousins across three faiths

What an absolutely remarkable day! We visited the Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre, a school for Palestinian children who have disabilities. We walked the stations of the cross along the Via Dolorosa worshiping as we remembered Jesus making this very journey. And we met two fathers from Parent Circle, one Palestinian and one Jew, who each lost their school-age daughters in the conflict and now tell their story as friends who seek peace. Each experience could make for a post in itself.

What struck me most deeply though was in the morning when we stepped onto the Temple Mount, a sacred spot venerated by Jews, Christians and Muslims. Airport-type security checks were required first. My heart swelled as I stood in the coolish sunshine and noticed the cast of delicious characters of three faiths, all descended from Abraham, all monotheistic.

Later, after praying at the Western Wall, I waited in the bathroom line behind two elderly-and-wrinkled Jewish women. We began laughing as we tested the doors to find the next available stall. While I couldn’t understand their words, we related in our quest to find an open door. Imagine our shared delight when this was the first one that opened as I turned the handle:

Sharing our human condition over basic needs with laughter…what could be better?

Thank God for levity

As the bus pulls away from our hotel each morning, Father Steve tells us a joke. Here’s an example: “Why does Jesus like donuts so much? They are usually not self-centered, unless they’re holy, that is.”

Laughing at myself is available too, like when I read a sign wrong and did my business in a private stall in the men’s restroom. I didn’t discover my error until I walked out and saw the women lined up to enter the other room, a line I had conveniently avoided.

It’s a good thing the giggles abound because again today we encountered some tough realities at Saint Vincent Orphanage as well as the West Bank barrier wall.

We are laughing and crying as we roll along.

Postscript

Jesus Wept – John 11:35

In the morning we dipped into the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized by John and in the afternoon we experienced the City of Light for the first time on our pilgrimage.

On the bus ride into town our guide, a Palestinian Christian, walked us through thousands of years of her homeland’s history. After dinner we heard from Dawod Nassar of the Tent of Nations, a family farm dedicated to bridging, located near Bethlehem.

The situation here is, in a word, complicated.

I am humbled to write more, to write at all.

I am utterly grateful to be here now.

I returned to my room and wept.

*Photo by Deborah Person

A Woman’s Perspective

I hemorrhaged once too like this woman, immediately after my son was born. We spent days in the hospital together, me with dangerously low hematocrit and him yellow-skinned. I sang and prayed us through those days. And learned to soothe myself by rubbing the tops of my feet on the bed sheets.

Yesterday we visited five or six churches (I lost count) in northern Israel where Jesus walked and healed.

Today, I woke early stroking the tops of my feet on the sheets. Was I caressing myself? Or deep in the sense of what Christ, in His Body, had given me?

Mark 5:29 – Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.

Postscript

Taken Blessed Broken Given

Sometimes it writes itself: Immediately after the service at the outdoor chapel between the Sea of Galilee and the Church of the Multiplication, I posted this with fresh pomegranate juice in hand and e-juice on the bus.

During his homily, Steve encouraged us to live “eucharistically.” Literally, this word means “giving thanks.”

Some days it’s easy to do.