Fr. Forlano’s Blog

 We celebrated Easter Sunday mass of the resurrection, in the empty tomb of Jesus. This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad, Alleluia!

 Another visit.  Dome, Katholicon (Greek Choir), Chapel of the 40 Martyrs (?). 

 

 

 Our guide recommended that we go to the Austrian Hospice for the best strudel in Jerusalem.  It was a real treat! Then we visited some other churches not on our itinerary including the church of Ecce Homo built over the place where Jesus was on trial before pilot and the Church of the Flagellation

 We completed the stations of the cross inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  The last stations are the crucifixion at Golgotha, Jesus is taken down from the cross and prepared for burial, and Jesus is placed in the tomb. Here are the pictures of Calvary, the slab of stone on which Jesus’ body was prepared for burial, and the tomb.  We then celebrated mass on the altar next to Calvary.  And then we went inside the tomb where Jesus was laid.  

 We left the hotel at 4:30 in the morning to walk the Way of the Cross - the sorrowful Journey of 14 “stations” Jesus took from his trial before Pilate to his crucifixion and burial.  The Via Dolorosa took us to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  

 The church of Saint Anne is the most well preserved Crusader church in all of Jerusalem. It was the only one not destroyed by the Muslim conquerors.  The church commemorates the location of the house of the parents of the Blessed Mother, Anne and Joachim, and the birthplace of Mary.   The church has amazing acoustics. We sang the Lourdes Hymn and the Salve Regina. (Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes).  The chapel underneath the church commemorates the birthplace of the Blessed Mother.   An archaeological dig next to the church uncovered a first century pool used for ritual washings.  It is believed that here is the pool by which Jesus healed the man who was paralyzed for 38 years.  

 We then went to the upper room which was the place for the Last Supper, where Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples.   It was in this place where Jesus instituted the Eucharist, instituted the priesthood, and returned through the locked doors after the resurrection to grant the disciples the power to forgive sins.  It was here also where Mary and the disciples were praying when the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost.  There was a church on the spot that was later turned into a mosque in the 14th century. The place can no longer be used for prayer by any religious group. Since the 1960s, it has been taken over by the Israeli government.   In the Upper Room, we read an account of the last supper and renewed our priestly promises.

 After Jesus was arrested, he was put on trial in front of the Sanhedrin at Caiaphas’s palace.  He was kept in a dungeon overnight underneath the palace.  It is outside of the palace that Peter denied Jesus three times, and then the cock crowed.  Here are first century steps that in all likelihood, Our Lord used to descend from the Last Supper through the Kidron Valley to the garden of Gethsemane, and then was taken on the same steps back up to Caiaphas’s palace.  We prayed Psalm 88 in the dungeon.