January « 2011 « See The Holy Land

The first recorded pilgrim to the Holy Land was a bishop named Mileto, from Sardis in Asia Minor, around AD 160. The 4th-century Church historian Eusebius relates that Bishop Mileto visited the holy places “where the Scriptures had been preached and fulfilled”.

What follows on this page are glimpses of the experiences of some of the men and women, both ancient and modern, who have followed Melito’s example. Their words may inspire you to visit the Holy Land — or enable you to make a virtual pilgrimage.

Pilgrims up till the Middle Ages

• The anonymous Bordeaux Pilgrim of AD 333 (so-called because his itinerary began at Bordeaux in France), in the earliest surviving description of a Christian traveller in the Holy Land, visits the place of Christ’s crucifixion and Resurrection:

“On the left hand is the little hill of Golgotha where the Lord was crucified. About a stone’s throw from thence is a vault wherein his body was laid, and rose again on the third day. There, at present, by the command of the Emperor Constantine, has been built a basilica, that is to say, a church of wondrous beauty, having at the side reservoirs from which water is raised, and a bath behind in which infants are washed [baptised].” More >>

Image of Egeria (Wikimedia)

• The ever-enthusiastic and energetic Egeria (around 384), possibly a consecrated virgin from Spain, was a woman of unbounded curiosity, whose guidebook was her Bible during a three-year pilgrimage. Here she climbs stone steps up Mount Sinai:

“They are hard to climb. You do not go round and round them, spiralling up gently, but straight at each one as if you were going up a wall, and then straight down to the foot, till you reach the foot of the central mountain, Sinai itself. Here then, impelled by Christ our God, and assisted by the prayers of the holy men who accompanied us, we made the great effort of the climb. It was quite impossible to ride up, but though I had to go on foot I was not conscious of the effort — in fact I hardly noticed it because, by God’s will, I was seeing my hopes coming true. So at ten o’clock we arrived on the summit of Sinai, the Mount of God where the Law was given, and the place where God’s glory came down on the day when the mountain was smoking. The church which is now there is not impressive for its size (there is too little room on the summit) but it has a grace all its own. And when with God’s help we had climbed right to the top and reached the door of this church, there was the presbyter, the one who is appointed to the church, coming to meet us from his cell. He was a healthy old man, a monk from his boyhood and an ‘ascetic’ as they call it here — in fact just the man for the place.” More >>

Historical image of Bethlehem (Vasily Polenov, 1882)

• The aristocratic Roman widow Paula, who travelled to the Holy Land with her daughter Eustochium in the 4th century, contrasts the wealth of Rome with the poverty of Bethlehem:

“Where are spacious porticoes? Where are gilded ceilings? Where are houses decorated by the sufferings and labours of condemned wretches? Where are halls built by the wealth of private men on the scale of palaces, that the vile carcase of man may move among more costly surroundings, and view his own roof rather than the heavens, as if anything could be more beauteous than creation? . . . In the village of Christ . . . all is rusticity, and except for psalms, silence. Whithersoever you turn yourself, the ploughman, holding the plough handle, sings Alleluia; the perspiring reaper diverts himself with psalms, and the vine-dresser sings some of the ballads of this country, these are the love-songs, as they are commonly called; these are whistled by the shepherds, and are the implements of the husbandman. Indeed, we do not think of what we are doing or how we look, but see only that for which we are longing.” More >>

Sinai landscape in Felix Fabri’s pilgrimage journal (Wikimedia)

• The German Dominican friar Felix Fabri, on the first of his two pilgrimages to the Holy Land in 1480, gets his first glimpse of Jerusalem:

“Casting our eyes to the right, lo! like a flash of lightning the oft-mentioned and oft-to-be-mentioned holy city of Jerusalem shone forth. The part of it which we saw was that which adjoins the Mount Sion, and we saw the holy Mount Sion itself, with all its buildings and ruins. Above all we saw the citadel of Sion, fortified with exceeding strong walls and towers, in such a clear light that the lofty walls and towers of the citadel seemed to enclose the whole city, and the pilgrim, or stranger who had never seen Jerusalem could not but think that the walls of the citadel of Sion were the walls of Jerusalem, which however is not so. When we beheld with our eyes the long-desired holy city, we straightaway dismounted from our asses and greeted the holy city, bowing our faces to the earth . . . .” More >>

Pilgrims in modern times

Historical image of Jerusalem (Hubert Sattler, 1869)

• Patty Parma, a licensed professional counsellor from San Antonio, Texas, discovers in 2004 that there are Living Stones as well as ancient stones in the Holy Land:

“As I met the Palestinian Christians in places such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Mount of Beatitudes, and Birzeit, I met the Living Stones. Their faith is ancient and rock solid. In their eyes, I saw the wisdom of Christ; in their hearts, the love of Christ; in their spirits, the peace of Christ. I returned from the Holy Land with my bags filled with the weight of many ancient stones. I expected that. What I had not anticipated was returning home with a heart filled with Living Stones. These Stones are not a weight, but a joy that lifts my spirit and brings a smile to my heart.” More >>

• David Guthrie, moderator of Plymouth Church in downtown Seattle, Washington, is inspired by the Sea of Galilee during a 2005 pilgrimage:

Pilgrims dipping their toes in the Sea of Galilee (Seetheholyland.net)

“I simply cannot put into words how inspired I was to see, feel, and wiggle my toes in the Sea of Galilee. Just to imagine this was once the stumping ground of Jesus and his disciples. This was where Jesus fed the thousands with the miracle of the loaves and fish. This was where Jesus walked on water, called Peter, James and John, told them to cast down net even after fishing nothing for all night, pronounced Peter as the head of the Church, and fed them breakfast after the resurrection.” More >>

• Pilgrimage leader Günther Simmermacher, editor of The Southern Cross newspaper in Cape Town, South Africa, reflects on being a pilgrim during a 2006 visit to the Holy Land:

“At its core, a pilgrimage is a journey to God. But even as all pilgrims share a common itinerary, each one’s route takes unique twists and turns. Graces can be found at unexpected moments: through an accident, a bidding prayer, a sudden spiritual emotion, a moment of illumination, a poignant homily, the experience of receiving the Body of Christ in a special place, in sharing moments with fellow pilgrims who only days before were perfect strangers, even in the vexing snores of a roommate.” More >>

Olive trees on the Judean Hills (© Israel Ministry of Tourism)

• New Zealand author Joy Cowley, during a pilgrimage in 2007, discovers a new dimension to the Holy Land:

“Christians in Israel call the Holy Land ‘the Fifth Gospel’. They say that Jesus speaks through the landscape, thus opening up the other four Gospels. We found this true in ways we’d not expected.” More >>

• Heather Zempel, pastor of discipleship at National Community Church in Washington, DC, describes “The Lost Art of Pilgrimage” following a visit to the Holy Land in 2009:

“Two Presbyterians, an Episcopalian, a Lutheran, a Baptist, and a rapper named SaulPaul board a plane —sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, doesn’t it? And yet my travels with this eclectic band of sojourners may have forever changed the trajectory of my own faith journey . . . . Everywhere I travelled, I was drawn into the massive adventure that God is writing. I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the Story, but I was also able to ponder my role in God’s epic, and I can pass my own tales of spiritual journey to the next generation.” More >>

Pilgrims on the Via Dolorosa (Seetheholyland.net)

• Thomas F. Jones, Jr, executive director of Stadia: New Church Strategies, a national church planting organisation in the United States, records his impressions on a 2010 pilgrimage:

“Like pilgrims since the time of Constantine, we travelled to the Holy Land to experience a renewed call to discipleship by walking in the footsteps of Jesus. We visited places like Capernaum, Mount of Beatitudes, Tabgha, Caesarea Philippi, Nazareth, Bethlehem, the Old City of Jerusalem, Stations of the Cross on the Via Dolorosa, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Temple Mount, Jordan River, Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, Garden Tomb, and the Dead Sea. We visited these holy sites with our spiritual eyes and ears open, expecting that Jesus would meet us in fresh and new ways, and indeed he did.” More >>

Joy Cowley in the Holy Land

Filed under: Documents — 12:23 pm

New Zealand pilgrims see Jesus wherever they go in Galilee

by JOY COWLEY
NZ Catholic: July 15-28, 2007

Christians in Israel call the Holy Land “the Fifth Gospel”. They say that Jesus speaks through the landscape, thus opening up the other four Gospels. We found this true in ways we’d not expected. There we were, 47 NZ Catholic pilgrims, in the land of Jesus with Jesus. The four Gospels would never be the same for us.
Our arrival at Tel Aviv airport had been surprisingly easy. To encourage tourism, Israeli authorities have made security checks less intimidating. We walked out of customs, into the care of Harvest Pilgrimages’ avuncular agent Gabriel, guide Salah and driver Obadiah. By the time our bus wound down through the streets of Tiberias to the shore of Galilee, we were as excited as children on Christmas Eve.
Early morning by the Sea of Galilee is filled with peace. Some of us were up with the birds — trees shaking with twittering sparrows, swallows criss-crossing the sky, white herons flapping above the water. As the sun came up over the Golan Heights on the other side, and spread itself over the lake, we knew that our Lord saw such a morning as he cooked fish on a charcoal fire. Later, we would eat the same kind of fish — telapia, known in Galilee as St Peter’s fish.
That first day, on the way to Mt Tabor, our bus stopped briefly at Nain, where Jesus healed the widow’s son. A woman followed by a goose and two cats opened the church door for us, while several children appeared with hands held out like cups for shekels. We obliged. Why not? We were in celebratory mood.
We climbed back in the bus and minutes later were on the top of Mt Tabor in the Franciscan Church of the Transfiguration, with its beautiful mosaics and sense of light. This was where Bishop Pat Dunn celebrated Mass with his cousin, Fr Tony Dunn, and, like many other churches we would visit, it has great acoustics. Our singing seemed to spiral up around the walls to echo in the mosaic-rich ceiling.
This was where Jesus allowed two of his disciples to see the radiance of his divine nature. We remembered friends in our prayers and felt privileged to be there.
That afternoon we went to Nazareth and the Church of the Annunciation, then the church at Cana where Jesus performed the first miracle. This is a popular place for the renewal of wedding vows. Because the church was full, we stood in the garden while Bishop Pat took couples through their vows. That night at dinner, no one volunteered to turn water into wine, but we found good chardonnay and merlot from the vineyards of Mt Carmel to complete the celebration.
On day two we stayed on and around the Sea of Galilee. In the morning we boarded a large wooden boat that looked as though it had sailed straight out of the Bible, borrowing an engine from the early 20th century on its way. We chugged towards a kibbutz on the other side but first stopped in the middle of the lake for prayer. Air and water were still, diamond bright with sun, and as Bishop Pat read from Scripture, we saw Jesus everywhere — asleep in the boat, calming a storm, walking on the water, with his disciples rowing to the other side.
I reflected on “the other side”, the Decapolis which was pagan territory in Jesus’ time. Our Lord had seen his ministry as being only to the lost sheep of Israel. Yet in the pagan territory of the 10 towns he healed and taught, and people believed in the God of Israel.
What made Jesus change his mind? Scripture tells us it was the Syro-Phoenician woman who wanted healing for her daughter and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I gave thanks for that woman who made the good news of Jesus Christ available to the Gentiles.
The boat chugged to the jetty and we entered a kibbutz where we saw the 2000-year-old boat found in mud during a drought year. Back on the bus, we went to the excavated city of Capernaum and the church built over Peter’s house where Jesus stayed.
Some of us spent time in the ruins of the nearby fourth-century synagogue built on foundations of the synagogue where Jesus taught. In the hot, still air, the foundation stones seemed alive with his words.
The next stop was at the Church of the Primacy of Peter, on the shore of the lake, and here we had Mass in an outdoor chapel — a stone altar, stone seats in a circle under a large tree, the lake shimmering in the background. In this place, where Peter atoned for three denials with three statements of love, we too made our commitment: “Lord, you know that I love you.”
Because the West Bank road was open, we were able to drive around the western shore of the lake, through the Golan Heights, and back to the Church of the Beatitudes, before a visit to the baptismal site on the River Jordan.
The next day we made an unplanned return to the Church of the Beatitudes. We’d spent the morning at the crusader town of Akka (Acre) and the Carmelite church built over Elijah’s cave. Liturgy that afternoon was prepared for the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes, but the venue was not available.
Our guide Salah took us back to the Church of the Beatitudes where we had Mass at an outdoor chapel on the hillside. The wind shook trees, flattened grass and clouded the lake with spray. We rejoiced in its energy. How often had Jesus walked on this hill in this wind?
We returned to the hotel, exhilarated and renewed, and were not surprised when Bishop Pat said he’d just looked up the ordinary readings for the day. What were they? The Beatitudes, of course.
Again, Jesus had been truly present in the Fifth Gospel — his turangawaewae [a Maori word meaning “a place to stand” or to feel connected].

Next issue: Jerusalem

Pilgrimage ends at Jerusalem but inner journey continues

by JOY COWLEY
NZ Catholic: July 29-August 11, 2007

Bags were loaded on the bus as 46 pilgrims, under the spiritual direction of Bishop Pat Dunn, prepared for the journey from the shores of Galilee to Jerusalem. We had been journeying with Jesus in his ministry. Now we were going to the region where he spent the first and last days of his Incarnation.
We had been travelling together for over a week and had become family to each other. Our days in Rome and Galilee were enriched with prayer and Eucharist, and warm with humour. Many of the lighter moments came from the Dunns — the bishop, his brother, Joe, and their cousin, Fr Tony, SM — who share genetic laughter.
Our co-ordinators Pat and Suzie McCarthy seemed to clone themselves in order to take care of each one of us. We didn’t know when they slept. And there was something else — a warmth cocooning the entire pilgrimage as though we were being held by something we did not want to name for fear of diminishing it with words.
The bus left the rich Jordan valley and travelled south through hard, dramatic desert to Jericho, where we looked at excavations of the city in Joshua’s time. The sun was turned up to fan bake and, apart from the green garden patch around Elisha’s spring, Jericho, ancient and modern, was cooked to the colour of dust.
Back in the air-conditioned bus, we moved on to Bethany, about two miles outside Jerusalem. Again, the past became present to us and we were in the company of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, good friends of Jesus.
Archaeologist and scholar Yigael Yadin has evidence that Bethany was once a village for Essene lepers and other outcasts. This could be so, for it was in Bethany that Jesus had a meal with Simon the leper. There is also a tradition that Lazarus had some disability. But we were not in Bethany to fill gaps in history. We were with the timeless Jesus, who was returning with his disciples from the Batanea area to the tomb where he would raise Lazarus from the dead.
We stopped in a narrow street and negotiated hazardous steps down to Lazarus’ tomb. The original entrance to the tomb is now closed up, part of the wall of a mosque, although the tomb itself is believed to be original.
Some of the holy sites visited are approximate, others actual. How do we know, for example, that Ein Karem is the birthplace of John the Baptist and the site of the Visitation? Our guide Salah explained. In an attempt to erase Christianity, the Romans built temples to Roman gods over the places venerated by the followers of Jesus. The temples served as markers for the Byzantine reclamation of holy sites.
We celebrated Jesus’ birth for most of our second day in the Jerusalem area, which meant going through the wall to Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity. The high barrier cutting off the West Bank was covered with slogans, pro-Israeli government on one side and anti-Israeli government on the other, reminding us that this little country has never known prolonged peace.
But there is peace in abundance at the holy places. At Shepherds Field, we had Mass outside under the trees, and the angel song at Jesus’ birth seemed very real to us.
Conflict in Gaza gave us time to reflect on the tension of opposites: The child in the manger and Herod; Jesus and the Pharisees; a holy city and car bombings; angel song and gunfire.
Evil is a certainty but, somehow, it is tied to goodness. My perception is too limited for understanding, yet if I imagine a state of perfect peace, I see stagnancy. There is no growth without tension. It is a condition of human pilgrimage.
We were aware of this the next day when we journeyed with Jesus to Calvary. The morning’s walk through the old city began brightly enough, with crowds moving through security checkpoints to the Pool of Bethesda and the Wailing Wall where Jews from all nations were praying.
A group of Moroccans celebrated a Bar Mitzvah with drums and shofar, clapping and song. Married Hassid women with shaven heads covered by turbans rocked with their prayer books. Every crack in the wall was filled with bits of folded paper — notes to God about broken relationships, financial problems, babies, health, and maybe a word or two of praise.
We moved on through the old city and our pilgrim sky darkened. We had previously visited the House of Caiaphas and St Peter in Gallicantu, where Peter denied his Lord. Now we were doing the actual death walk with Jesus, the Via Dolorosa and the Stations of the Cross. Again we met the tension of opposites.
On both sides of this ancient road where our Lord carried his cross to Calvary were merchants trying to sell us stuffed toy camels and souvenir Jerusalem bags. Did traders also follow the crowd that condemned Jesus?
Mass at the Church of Calvary brought us to the heart of our faith. “Lord by your cross and Resurrection you have set us free.” We rested in sombre mood in the silence between the cross and the Resurrection. Here was the supreme example of the mystery of good and evil, horrifying darkness evolving into eternal light.
That night, Bishop Pat arranged for us a Holy Hour in the Garden of Gethsemane, where we wound back time again to keep watch with Jesus. For many of us, this hour of silent prayer with readings and Taize chant was a peak Jerusalem experience.
Our pilgrimage was almost over. We had time at the museum Shrine of the Book where we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls and a model of Jerusalem in the second temple era, plus a visit to Masada and the Dead Sea; but the journey with Jesus seemed to come to completion with a visit to Emmaus.
At Eucharist we were the disciples who walked with the risen Jesus to this place and our hearts burned within us. But had not our hearts been warm with his presence every day?
The last night was tinged with sadness — farewells, hugs, some tears. Still, it was only the outer journey of this pilgrimage that had ended. The inner journey would go on and on.

Schindler’s grave

Filed under: Israel and Palestine - In Jerusalem,Locations — Tags: Catholic cemetery, Emilie Schindler, German, grave, Jerusalem, Jews, Mount Zion, Oskar Schindler, Righteous among the Nations, Schindler's Ark, Schindler's List — 3:11 pm

Jerusalem

Oskar Schindler’s grave (Seetheholyland.net)

One of the most-visited graves in Jerusalem belongs to Oskar Schindler, the German factory-owner and Nazi Party member credited with saving the lives of 1098 Jews during the Second World War.

His grave in the Catholic cemetery on the southern slope of Mount Zion is visited by Jews, Christians and people of no religious faith.

A complex and conflicted man, Schindler was an unlikely candidate for heroism that involved risking his life to save others.

Born into a Catholic family in Moravia, he was unfaithful to his wife with a succession of mistresses. As a businessman he engaged in black-market dealings and bribery. An ethnic German but a Czech citizen, he worked as a counterintelligence agent for the Nazi armed forces (for which he was jailed by Czechoslovakia) and also collaborated in the German strategy for the invasion of Poland.

Ironically, Schindler’s less endearing character traits equipped him to ingratiate himself with Nazi officials for the sake of his Jewish employees.

At least nine lists were drawn up

Oskar Schindler in 1947 (Freeinfosociety.com)

After Germany occupied Poland in 1939, the opportunistic Schindler moved to the Polish city of Krakow and took over a Jewish-owned enamelware factory.

Because the factory was close to the Jewish ghetto he was able to witness the brutal German oppression at firsthand. “And then a thinking man, who had overcome his inner cowardice, simply had to help. There was no other choice,” he said after the war.

Schindler built up his workforce with Jewish forced labourers from the Plaszow labour camp, bribing officials to ensure their wellbeing. He and his wife Emilie especially cared for those who were old or weak.

Part of Schindler’s Krakow factory in 2009 (Jongleur100 / Wikimedia)

In 1944, when the inmates of Plaszow were destined for deportation to death camps such as Auschwitz, Schindler obtained approval (after paying the necessary bribes) to move his factory to Brünnlitz in Czechoslovakia, on the pretext of making armaments.

The names of the workers chosen to move to the new factory formed the “list” made famous in Thomas Keneally’s 1982 Booker Prize-winning novel Schindler’s Ark and Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Academy Award-winning movie Schindler’s List.

In fact, according to Schindler’s definitive biographer David M. Crowe, at least nine lists, constantly changing, were drawn up in late 1944 and 1945, and they were drawn up by other people — although Schindler had given guidelines as to who he wanted included. However, without Schindler’s efforts there would have been no Jewish workers to be listed.

Declared Righteous Among the Nations

Schindler’s Brünnlitz factory in 2004 (Miaow Miaow / Wikimedia)

By the time the war ended, Schindler’s considerable wealth had been spent on bribes and black-market supplies for his workers and he was reduced to receiving handouts from Jewish organisations.

In 1949 he emigrated to Argentina with his long-suffering wife, his current mistress and some Jewish friends. After a farming venture failed he returned alone to Germany and established a cement factory that went bankrupt.

In the 1960s he began annual visits to Israel, where he was feted as a hero, but he was in poverty when he died in 1974, aged 66, in Hildesheim, Germany. It was his own wish to be buried in Jerusalem.

Emilie and Oskar Schindler in 1946 (Wikimedia)

Emilie Schindler remained in Argentina, living on a pension. She died in 2001 during a visit to Berlin, aged 94.

In 1962 a tree was planted in Oskar Schindler’s honour in the Avenue of the Righteous at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. But it was not until 1993 that both Oskar and Emilie were officially recognised by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.

Visitors leave stones on grave

Schindler’s grave in the Mount Zion Catholic Cemetery — not the Protestant Cemetery further west, as some guidebooks have it — is within easy walking distance of the Old City’s Zion Gate.

Entrance to Mount Zion Catholic Cemetery (Yoninah / Wikimedia)

Walk out Zion Gate towards the bus parking lot. Take the road on the left until it joins a major road called Ma’aleh Hashalom. Follow this road down the slope of Mount Zion until you come to a high stone wall on the left with a wrought-iron gate. High on the gate is small sign reading “To Oskar Schindler’s Grave”.

For times when the cemetery is closed, the Muslim custodian’s phone number is painted roughly on the gate.

The cemetery is on two levels, with circular steps leading down to the lower level where Schindler is buried. Many of the graves are of Franciscan monks and nuns. Others, as their Arabic inscriptions indicate, belong to Arab Catholic families whose family trees date back hundreds of years.

At the edge of the top level stands a large cross. Facing the cross, look down on the lower level at about 2 o’clock. The flat slab of Schindler’s last resting place stands out from the other graves because of the stones left on it by visitors — a Jewish custom that is also followed by many others who come to pay their respects.

The stones often partly cover the inscriptions, which read (in Hebrew) “Righteous Among the Nations” and (in German) “The Unforgettable Lifesaver of 1200 Persecuted Jews”.

Open: Usually 8-12am (closed Sunday)

Tel.: 0525-388342