Today we left for Bethlehem's church of the nativity, the oldest surviving church from the era of Constantine the Great, around 330 a.d. An immense structure, it was spared destruction by the Persians who invaded and destroyed all of our holy sites in the seventh century. The people of the church barricaded the door of humility, a door that is only about a meter high. The Persians, upon arriving at the church, saw the icon of the nativity (the icon showed the events of the first two years after Jesus' birth) with the three magi dressed in Persian attire. The Persians considered this as an indication of the veneration of the people of the church of the Persians, a type of worship or honoring of their culture. They thus spared the church.
We held service in the cave where Jesus was born and then had a substantial tour of the cathedral complete with the Armenian monk vs Greek monk debacles that happen every year. YouTube it, it is an amazing show of how religious zeal and jealousy enter the hearts of individuals who are meant to do the work of a loving and forgiving creator.
We then went to the monastery of saint Savas, deep in the west bank. There we witnessed the body of saint Savas whose feet still show his veins. This is pretty miraculous seeing as he laid to rest seventeen centuries ago.
We stopped by the monastery of the Poimenes, which was built at the place where the shepherds heard the doxology of the angels and then went to bow down to Jesus at Bethlehem.
We came back to Jerusalem without any problems and then went to the vespers at the church of the holy sepulcher. They started at 2:30 and lasted about an hour.
Midnight mass starts at 11 tonight at the church of the holy sepulcher and will last until 2:30, then I will grab a little shuteye before the divine liturgy starts at 7. Seems way more hectic then what it feels like. Time here passes much slower than elsewhere.
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Location:Jerusalem
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