Now our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem

I rejoiced when I heard them say:
"Let us go to God's house."
And now our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is built as a city
strongly compact.
It is there that the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord.

For Israel's law it is,
there to praise the Lord's name.
There were set the thrones of judgment
of the house of David.
For the peace of Jerusalem pray:
"Peace be to your homes!
May peace reign in your walls,
in your palaces, peace!"

For love of my brothers and sisters and friends
I say: "Peace upon you."
For love of the house of the Lord
I will ask for your good.       Psalm 122

This is the psalm pilgrims prayed as they entered the walled city of Jerusalem. So after our 80 minute walk from Tantur (it was so hot) and entering the city through the Jaffa Gate we too prayed the psalm, remembering our “brothers and sisters and friends.”

A final valley to cross and then the climb up to the walled Old City and the Jaffa Gate

We immediately got lost in the labyrinth of alleyways that make up the old but fascinating city of Old Jerusalem. First stop was to find something to drink and a sit down. A cool real lemon and mint drink fitted the bill… Leona is already scheming what to do with her next crop of lemons!

Finding things in the old city is not easy but then you discover other things you were not expecting…like the Syrian Orthodox Church of St Mark, which supposedly was where the Last Supper was celebrated. I say supposedly, someone I met there said this was the second Upper Room they had visited that day. However, the where is not so important as the what it recalls. The Syrian woman who looked after the church also told us that this was the site of house of the mother-in-law of the evangelist St Mark. It was a beautiful church – no photos allowed in the church… she then sung the Lord’s prayer in Aramaic, the language of Jesus and the language they still use for their liturgy.

The Upper Room of the Last Supper in the Syrian Orthodox Church of St Mark

From there we tried to find the place where we had the lemon juice and had a lunch of falafels and salad in pita bread. Very nice!

Then we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Tomb). This is really an ancient church and the crowds were huge and loud. It wasn’t a particularly reflective visit. We think it will be better visiting there with a guide.

Looking up into the dome of the Holy Sepulchre

The tomb...

Next we walked down the Via Dolorossa (the sorrowful way), the path that Jesus took with the cross to Calvary. At the end of that we found the Church of the Flagellation and Church of the Condemnation. Mid Afternoon Prayer and the Divine Mercy were being prayed in Italian with bits in English… it was a rather nice end to the day.  

We left the City through the Muslim quarter and the Damascus Gate and caught an Arab bus home… the Jewish buses are big and flash articulated buses. The Muslim ones tend to be much smaller and rougher looking.

The Damascus Gate

A day at home tomorrow.  

As we write this the mosques are calling people to prayer… a rather hauntingly beautiful call tonight.