The Manger, Now with Baby Jesus Lying There

Today is the feast of Stephen. I chose this great saint and first martyr of the Church to be my patron at my Confirmation. So, that makes it my feast day as well. This morning I went down to the Church of the Nativity to see if maybe things would be a little quieter and I could pray. As I walked down to the Church I could tell that all the people of the last few days were gone and things were already back to normal. I was able to go down in the grotto of the church and sit next to the manger for a few hours and pray. They have placed a statue of the infant Jesus lying in a crib in the manger now. There were a few groups of pilgrims that came through while I was there it is often moving to see the great faith of the people that come. I was particularly taken by a couple groups of families from Korea. The father gathered all the children together with his wife and they all prayed together at the manger. There were also many more small children coming today and it was neat when the little kids would climb up into the manger to see the Baby Jesus.

 
Baby Jesus in the Manger

As I prayed this morning, my thoughts again returned to the shepherds, the first visitors to the manger. After receiving the message of the angel they had to go search and find the Christ child. What joy they would have experienced when they finally arrived at the cave and found the Holy Family. I was reminded of my own search and desire to find Jesus. For a while this morning I was able to share in the joy of the shepherds as I sat there and contemplated the miraculous things that took place here. The shepherds left the cave full of joy and wanted to go and tell everyone what they had seen. Their message has gone to the ends of the world now. This morning, following in the footsteps of those first humble shepherds, I and many others came to see the place where the Child was laid. Praise God for the wonderful Christmas gift of His Son.

St. Catherine’s Church Decorated for Christmas

See All The Pictures

Today, in the City of David, a savior has been born for you who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11)

Today was a very special day in Bethlehem. Christmas began with Midnight Mass followed by a wonderful reception with the Christian Brothers and the local community at Bethlehem University. We had a very nice mix of traditional English carols as well as some Arabic ones that I’ve become rather fond of now. After sleeping for most of the morning I made my way down to Manger Square. I was able to get into the grotto in the Church of the Nativity and kiss the star where Jesus was born. It was a little hard to envision the quietness of that first Christmas with all the people that were crowding into the cave, but it was still an amazing experience to be there at “ground zero” on Christmas Day.

Midnight Mass with the Papal Nuncio at Bethlehem University

As I walked the streets of Bethlehem today there were many more people out and about. It was nice to finally see a change from the normal day to day experience of Bethlehem that I’ve grown so used to in the past month. I have been waiting and waiting for “all the pilgrims” to show up. I even did my Christmas shopping early last week to “beat the rush.” However, it is somewhat sad to report that almost no tourists came. The local merchants were hoping for around 10,000, with that even being way down from previous years. However, as I walk the streets, I have seen almost no European looking faces. There were definitely more people in town yesterday and today, but they were all locals from right around Bethlehem.

You would think that Bethlehem would be the place to be on Christmas, but I think the fighting this summer caused a lot of people to stay away. One shopkeeper said that there were more Christmas lights hung this year than he can remember and yet he was very sad because no one came. I bought some nice little olive wood sculptures from some of the local Christian stores as my own kind of Christmas present to them, but it’s clear that the joy of Christmas is a bit subdued for many of the people here. It’s sad to say that the message of peace announced by the angels 2000 years ago is not at all the daily experience of people here in the Holy Land.

The Crowded Streets of Bethlehem on Christmas Day

On a more positive note, we all got invited by a local family here to have Christmas dinner at their restaurant. It turns out that this is one of the best restaurants in Bethlehem and we had a magnificent traditional Palestinian Christmas dinner. Everyone was in such good spirits and we had a wonderful celebration. I do have to say that I found myself looking at my watch from time to time throughout the day and was thinking about what was going on back home. I thought of my family gathered on Christmas morning and the big gathering at Grandma’s house. I’ve never spent a Christmas away from Kansas and things definitely felt different this year. Yet, this was a very special Christmas and one that I will never forget.

Now, don’t forget that Christmas just started! Despite the fact that I’m sure the stores back home are getting out their Valentine’s Day candy and your neighbors threw their Christmas tree to the curb already this evening, don’t you do the same. The Advent time of waiting and expectation is over and now it’s finally time to really celebrate the season of Christmas. I will be celebrating here in Bethlehem.

Here, of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ was Born
Come Let us Adore Him

Melkite Church Where We Had Mass This Morning

The sun is setting here in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve and there’s a great sense of anticipation. There were many people out and about in the street today. Most of the excitement surrounded the arrival of a certain you know who all dressed in red. That’s right, the Patriarch has come to town. His Beatitude Michael arrived just this afternoon in preparation for Midnight Mass tonight. The Patriarch of Jerusalem is the Catholic Archbishop of what is basically the Holy Land. It was really something to behold. There was a big parade with many of the local scout troops playing drums and bagpipes and marching in procession. I enjoyed seeing the scouts from all over. We heard them practicing all week. I almost wanted to put on my uniform and join in.

Parade for the Arrival of the Patriarch

The Patriarch will be the celebrant tonight at St. Catherine’s (The Church of the Nativity is Greek Orthodox and it’s not Christmas yet for them…long story…tell you later). Unfortunately the Mass at St. Catherine’s, which is at Manger Square, is for ticket-holders only and you basically have to be a major political dignitary to get in. Everyone else just gets to stand in the square. So, instead of standing there without getting to go to Mass we will be having Mass in English with the Papal Nuncio at Bethlehem University. I and some of the other seminarians will be singing in the choir and it should be very lovely. Then, tomorrow morning we will go and have Mass down in the grotto where Jesus was born. It is really quite a priviledge to be in this holy place at this special time of year. This will be a Christmas that I will not soon forget and hopefully one that I will be able to share in many Christmas homilies to come. May the peace of Christmas come to the Holy Land and to you and your famlies this Christmas night.

The Patriarch Arrives in Bethlehem
(He Really is in the Car…I Saw Him)

See All The Pictures

This morning we did what you might call a service project that turned into an absolutely wonderful time for all of us. Today we hosted a Christmas party at a local orphanage here. We brought bags of stuffed animals and toys with us to give as gifts. We had a huge wrapping party last night to get everything ready. These kids are mostly all orphans, although there was also a mix of some daycare kids. We played games and sang songs. The kids had prepared some little skits and songs of their own and they were just adorable. It was so great to be able to bring some Christmas joy to these kids. They were ages 1 to about 5 or 6 I think. I spent some time playing with a little 2 year old that reminded me a lot of myself the way he just wanted to make noise with his toys rather then use them “as designed.”

Present-Opening Time

We didn’t speak the same language as far as Arabic goes, but I think we spoke a language that they understood just fine. They were so happy to have people there to play with them and communicate that they are loved. There were many smiles all around and much fun had by all. I think some of us are planning to go back more regularly while we are still here to play with the kids. What a merry Christmas we had today. Now, I’m off to another Christmas concert tonight. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to update this site next. So, I pray that you all have a very Merry Christmas and I will be praying for you especially from ground zero here at the Church of the Nativity.

 
Some Cute Kids Dressed as Shepherds and Various Things

Today we had a rather unique opportunity to attend a special ecumenical gathering at Bethlehem University. The heads of the various religious denominations in England were in Bethlehem on pilgrimage and were having an ecumenical prayer service together. The distinguished pilgrims included:

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster
Rowan Williams, Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury
Bishop Nathan Hovhannisian, Primate of the Armenian Church in Great Britain
David Coffey, Moderator of the Free Churches

They were hosted by Archbishop Fuad Twal, the Coadjutor Archbishop of Jerusalem

Distinguished Ecumenical Pilgrims from England

It was a nice prayer services as far as those things go. There’s only so much you can do when you can’t celebrate Mass. The highlight, I would say, really came after the prayer service. The university Olive Branch Choir gave a wonderful Christmas concert that really helped put me in the Christmas mood. I still felt a little chill when they were singing “Hurry to Bethlehem” and “O come ye to Bethlehem” and I had to think…O ya…I’m actually here this time!

Later tonight I went to an orchestra concert at St. Catherine’s. This was entitled a concert for Life and Peace that was televised all over the world and is apparently a pretty big deal. It was a very nice concert and the church was packed. It wasn’t Christmas music, but if was very nice. Manger square is starting to look like Christmas with lights everywhere. There still don’t seem to be many tourists thought. One bit of good news (for the locals anyway) was that it finally started raining today. That will be a nice Christmas present for a desert.

Concert for Life and Peace

Today I noticed that they are starting to “decorate” the city for Christmas. I’ll hold off on the pictures until they finish whatever they’re doing, but they are hanging lights in trees and such. I’ve even seen some Santa Clause statues. They very much try to make the westerners feel welcome for Christmas. We did actually get an artificial tree for our residence where we’re staying. So, I guess you’d say it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Bethlehem.

Tomorrow we are heading to Galilee for three days to visit Nazareth, Cana, Mt. Carmel and a few other places. I don’t know what the internet situation will be there, so you may not get an update until we get back on Tuesday. We’ll be going to Galilee for three more days later on, but it will be nice to able to visit the Church of the Annunciation in preparation for Christmas. This has been the greatest Advent ever. I should definitely feel prepared to celebrate our savior’s birth this year. It will be interesting to see how many more pilgrims will have arrived this week. They are hoping for a lot here and we will do our part in celebrating. Now, I’m off to dinner and I’m going to try to do better than the Blues Brothers this time. You are in my prayers.

It’s hard to believe that it was two weeks ago today that I left snowy Chicago for the little town of Bethlehem. I’m starting to kind of feel at home here now. We had a Jesuit come speak to us today about how a Christian could read the Qur’an. Our learning about Islam is a nice compliment to our study of Luke and spirituality. This is really a comprehensive pilgrimage. The weather so far has been beautiful, but they say that the “rainny season” is overdue. This is a desert here, so the locals are very much looking forward to rain, but I’d just asume that if it’s going to rain that it do it at night.

I see by the number of people that are coming to my site now that there are quite a lot of people following my pilgrimage. I’m so happy that people are enjoying my pictures and stories. You really have to be here to experience it, but I’m glad that maybe I can share a little bit with people back home. Let me know if there’s anything you’re interested in that you want me to write about or get a picture of.

View of Bethlehem from my Bedroom Window

Today was basically just a class day. In addition to our two morning classes on the Gospel of Luke and The Spiritual Pilgrim we had an afternoon session on Islam. We had a Muslim come talk to us who specializes in explaining Islam to Christians. It was an extremely informative presentation. I’m learning so much about Islam since I’ve been here. One thing that you can’t miss if you come to Bethlehem is the “Call to Prayer” that is sounded over loudspeakers five times a day from all the Mosques. One of the pillars of Islam is that they pray prescribed prayers five times a day. If you’ve ever seen a Mosque, they have tall towers on them called minarets. In previous times a specially designated person, called a Muezzin, would climb to the top of this tower and chant an invitation to let people know it was time for prayer. This is not unlike the use of bell towers for us Christians to call people to prayer. In some ways, it’s like the angelus. However, in modern times the Muezzin has been replaced by a recording that is broadcast loud enough to be heard for miles and this does, in my opinion, make it way more annoying than the sounding of bells. As kind of a funny story, after being woken up at 4:30 each morning for the first couple nights, one person in our group jokingly exclaimed in frustration, “We have got to convert these people!” In fairness, even the Muslim who did our presentation said that he thought the pre-dawn call to prayer is rather insensitive to the Christians in the area. I do have to say though that I’m not really so bothered by the call to prayer. I actually kind of like the idea. Every time I hear it, I know that they are praising God for everyone to hear. If you think about it, we are constantly bombarded with noise in our Western culture. Here, the noise is just proclaiming how great God is and that it’s time for prayer. When the call to prayer wakes me up at 4:30, it’s a good time to pray the Office of Readings. After all, Christians have been praying five times a day in the Liturgy of the Hours long before the Muslims started. I bet they got the idea from us (and we probably stole it from the hours of offering in the temple). After singing some verses from the Qur’an, the Muezzin sings the following call to prayer

God is great; God is great (Allah Akbar!);
I attest that there is not (another God), except God;
I attest that Mohammad is the chosen of God;
Arise! (Come) to prayer;
Arise! (Come) to salvation (at Dawn – prayer is better than sleep)
God is great! God is great!
There is not (another God), except God.

That doesn’t really sound so bad now does it? Admittedly, it can sound like quite a cacophony when every Mosque in the city is playing this as loud as they can at the same time. However, when I remember that they are just yelling how great God is, then it kind of makes me feel good.

Allah Akbar! God is Great!

 The Mosque of Omar at Manger Square

We had Mass this morning at the St. Catherine’s Catholic Church which is connected to the Church of the Nativity. This church functions as a parish church here in Bethlehem and so the Mass was in Arabic. I was hoping for some Latin at some point so I could pray along, but the only words I could recognize were the Kyrie and Hosanna. After Mass the priest met with us to talk about the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. The Franciscan order has been taking care of all the holy Christian shrines ever since the time of Francis. It seems that his peaceful nature made him acceptable to both Christians and Muslims. After this talk I went down to the cave of the nativity and spend about 2 hours just sitting by the manger and praying. It’s such a luxury to be able to have time to do that here. We’re not tourists that have to run on to “see” the next thing right away. For a while it was just me down in the cave praying. We’re starting to see other pilgrims starting to arrive now so I imagine things are going to start to get busier. All the merchants and shop keepers are really counting on many people coming for Christmas. The whole economy here is dependent on tourism and recent times have been tough. I pray that many pilgrims will come.

St. Catherine’s Catholic Church

Today we had our “official” tour of the Church of the Nativity with a professional guide. As we walked to the church she pointed out the various places in the city where they really fixed up the buildings in honor of the visit of John Paul II in 2000. Unfortunately, there was a big Palestinian uprising after that and now everything is in bad shape again. As you visit the Church of the Nativity you can’t help but run into the complicated issue of what is known as the “Status Quo”. Basically, there are at least 5 different altars in the church to accommodate all the different Christian rites. The “Status Quo” refers to the system of rules that govern who can say Mass where and who can say what prayers here or there.

When Pope Benedict recently went to Turkey he referred to this separation among Christians as a scandal to the world and it is very evident here. In the cave where Jesus was born there are two altars. The Orthodox and Armenians are the only ones allowed to use the altar over the star and the Catholics are allowed to use the altar by the manger. There’s a certain little area that the Catholic priest has to stay in so as not to cross into the Armenian territory. It borders on the ridiculous. There are so many Muslims here that you would think the Christians would be a pretty tightly knit group. However, it seems that perhaps the greatest signs of division here are not between Christians and Muslims, but among the Christians ourselves.

After our tour of the church I went to Bethlehem University with a number of other seminarians to play volleyball with the students. It was a great time. We are really coming to value the friends we have made at Bethlehem U. This was our night to go out to dinner so we thought we’d sample the local food. We ended up having cheeseburgers at a restaurant named Bonjour that was playing Spanish music while we watched the Blues Brothers on TV with Arabic subtitles. We’ll have to do better next time.