Hectic pace in Jerusalem

Visiting the holy sites in and around Jerusalem is a much more frenzied affair than doing so around Galilee. This partly because of the traffic, partly because of the complexity of a quite divided city, and partly because of the scrums of people in the narrow streets and at the churches.

The ideal would be to follow the story in chronological sequence, but for all the above reasons, as well as time constraints, this wasn't possible for the Kilcullen group on the first of a couple of hectic days of church visiting.

In Galilee we had got used to the idea that every key point in the new testament narrative had had a church built on it, sometimes more than one because of the interests of different Christian denominations. In Jerusalem it was the same, only more so. There are churches beside churches, and churches over churches of older eras. Because Jerusalem is, in the words of Abie, 'the most destroyed city in the world', with millennia of conquests, capitulations and sackings and reconquests in its timeline, you often have to dig very deep to get to Jesus's era.

Thus most are modern church buildings, built since the early part of the last century. Before them there were those built in the times of the Crusades, around the 12th century. Most were subsequently destroyed or very badly damaged. Inside and under these you'll find the remains of churches built around 400 years after Christ, when the Romans had converted to Christianity. Finally, in many cases there are grottos and caverns with reputed connections to the holy stories. It is a bit like opening those painted Russian wooden dolls, where you keep finding smaller ones inside.

In a way we began at the finish, at the Basilica of the Dormition on Mt Zion, just outside the bullet pock-marked Zion Gate into the Old City. This magnificent church was built by the Benedictines before WW1 and recalls how, according to the new testament, Mary the Mother of Jesus was assumed into Heaven following her death. The eastern church calls this the Dormition, and the crypt in the bottom has a wooden effigy of Mary 'asleep' under a canopy which features other women from the old testament.

Around the crypt are altars donated by six different countries, each in a style reflecting their own cultures, and the mosaics used are all magnificent in their different ways.

After a time for thought here, the group then went around the corner to the location of the 'upper room' where the Last Supper is believed to have taken place. The building of which it is a part was a 'caravan inn' where those travelling the trade routes from the east stayed when they arrived too late to enter the city of Jerusalem itself and needed a secure refuge. The room itself is actually from the 12th century, rebuilt by the Crusaders. That didn't stop a group of vocal Christians from America leading a loud prayer meeting in the medieval hall. Below the courtyard is said to be the burial place of King David, who lived a thousand years before Christ.

"This place was where the first Pentecost took place," Fr Murphy told the Kilcullen pilgrims during a short break for reflection in the courtyard. "It is also the location of the greatest confluence of worship between the Jews and the Christians."



Then it was time to go to the Mount of Olives over which we had arrived to Jerusalem the previous day. There, mass was celebrated in a cavern grotto where the wine press that gave the Garden of Gethsemane its name is said to have been located. It was converted as a place of worship by the very early Christians and has been in the care of the Franciscans since the end of the 14th century.

"This is where Jesus sweated blood and prepared himself for a dreadful end," Fr Murphy noted. "It is a most sacred place. The places that we are seeing are the most sacred places in the Christian world, and these few days here will be the most precious in our memories when we look back on them in the years to come."

After mass there was a visit to the modern garden of olive trees itself, beside the modern Church of All Nations. One of the three back-altar artworks here represents the traitorous Kiss of Judas and was apparently funded by the Irish state. A large rectangular rock in front of the main altar is believed to be where Jesus suffered the agony of preparing for his death by crucifixion.



Two further nearby shrines were visited before lunch. The tiny circular chapel which marks the spot from where Jesus ascended to Heaven. There's a rock outdropping inside with what is said to be an impression 'similar to that of a footprint'. The place is owned today by Muslims, who also believe in the Ascension. The other was the Church of Pater Noster, a small section of which is dedicated as the spot where Jesus taught his disciples The Lord's Prayer. The main building is unfinished, without a roof, and the walls are decorated with ceramic tiled squares on which are written the prayer in more than 60 languages. These include one in Irish, using the old Gaelic form. The group read it aloud to mark being there.



After lunch it was back to Mt Zion and the House of Caiaphas, where Jesus is reported to have been imprisoned after his arrest. Below the modern Augustinian church are Byzantine church remains, as well as stables and a water cistern cut into the rock which had been converted into dungeons. In a section known as 'The Pit', Fr Murphy led the group in a reading of the psalm with the apt lines 'Your furies have encompassed me, your terrors cut me off ... darkness is my only friend'. They then climbed back up the hill on ancient steps by which Jesus might have walked to the point where the cock crowed following the third denial by Peter of knowing Jesus.

We subsequently entered the Old City via the Sheep's Gate, near where the only complete Crusader Church still stands, under the care of the White Fathers. It is known for its superb acoustics, and the group sang 'Star of the Sea' to make a Kilcullen vocal imprint, however fleeting. Beside the church are the excavations of pools from Roman times, believed to be where Jesus met and cured the man who had been paralysed for almost four decades.

Finally it was the time to follow the footsteps of Jesus on the Via Dolorosa, the Way of the Cross. Because of time constraints it wasn't possible to actually do the stations properly, a mission that was deferred to the day before the group left for home. The stations are marked by small discs on the walls of the buildings along the street, and the way goes through the shops and businesses of today which probably only differ in what goods they have for sale from the activities of two thousand years ago.

The journey ended at the Church of the Holy Sepulchure, which holds within it both Golgotha, the Place of the Skulls where Jesus and the thieves were crucified, and the Tomb of Jesus itself. A mosaic showing Jesus being nailed to the cross is behind one of the altars, while the Crucifixion site itself is marked by a Greek Orthodox altar under which a silver disc represents the hole into which the cross was placed.

Underneath it is the Chapel of Adam, showing park of a fissure said to have occurred during the earthquake which happened as Christ died. According to legend, the crack went all the way down to the burial place of Adam, an event which symbolises the forgiveness of mankind's sins by Jesus.

The tomb itself, provided by Joseph of Arimithea, is encased in a timber structure within the church and again time was against the Kilcullen group, who deferred their chance to enter the tomb until another day.

Reported from Jerusalem by the Accidental Pilgrim.