Getting My Religion On
*NOTE: once again, the picture display is kind of funky. To see the huge version, click on the photo; to see the caption, which has a lot of information in it, you might need to scroll down a fair amount, and look on the right-hand side. Sorry!*
Hi again everyone!
I played tourist yesterday, and went down to the Old City again. I wandered my way down to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which is the supposed site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. It is an amazing, stirring place, and I happened to walk in just as some Franciscans were starting a procession through the church (which is really more like a series of churches than one unified church). So I of course tagged along, and so I got to see all of the sites accompanied by Latin chanting, incense, prayers, singing. Which, honestly, is probably how it was meant to be seen! Although, I followed them a bit too far and ended up stuck in a mini-mass in a side chapel. But that in itself was an experience, ha!
Anyway, it was really amazing, and I got to touch the rock Jesus was crucified
on, the slab where they laid his body, and his tomb itself. Jesus’ tomb was one of my favourite parts, at least from the outside. It is a strange, dark, ancient looking building, nearly lost inside this beautiful classical rotunda. The sense of strangeness, or not belonging, really heightens the feeling of mystery around it (in both the conventional and theological senses). Inside, however, it was a bit hard to feel anything, as you’re only granted in a few at a time, it is VERY small, and there is a guy in jeans and a t-shirt whose job it is to yell at you to leave after a few seconds. I started to feel bad for taking the turn of people for whom it was a more meaningful experience, like the two women who were in front of me: sobbing Ethiopian pilgrims. What was actually more moving for me was this side chapel off the rotunda, called the Syrian chapel. It is nearly entirely bare, except for a cracked and dusty shrine in one corner, and a strange looking, two foot high tiny cave in the wall. Inside the cave there are a few candles and a bronze censer… and two tiny Jewish tombs (graves, really) from the same era as Jesus. It honestly gave a better picture of the kind of place that he was buried, before that tomb was singled out and surrounded by the chapel. The only picture of them that turned out was with the flash, so it ruined the atmosphere, but at least you can see a little.
Remind me to tell you about it in person – I feel like I’m not doing it justice.
Anyway, after that I walked down to the Western Wall, which was so fun and strange and LOUD! It was right at the beginning of Shabbat, and the sheer joy on the faces of so many people was totally contagious. I bit the bullet and went into the women’s section of the courtyard in front of the Wall instead of just squinting through the fence, and joined a few groups of people singing Shabbat songs (most of whom were American Birthright kids, haha) and dancing in a huge circle. The men are not supposed to hear the women’s prayers, so they have these groups of young guys who stand near the dividing fence and try to sing
and dance louder than the women. The girls took it as a challenge, but seeing as the women’s section is about 1/8 of the men’s, we were doomed from the start!
Finally, I made it through the crowd to the Wall, and I got to lay my whole hand on it. The stones were warm to the touch, the exact temperature of human skin. It was strange and really touching. It ended up feeling like all the hands that were pressed against it were warming it together, even though I know it was just the sun.
So there is my piece of schmaltz for the day! Hope you enjoy the pictures! I wasn’t granted to take pics because of Shabbat (there was a menacing looking guy who went around tapping people on the shoulder and going, “NO PHOTO.”), but I snuck just the one right at sunset.
Love, Jordan
More Source:
SongMeanings | Lyrics | R.E.M. - Losing My ReligionShould I get my religion changed on my ID card? - Yahoo!7 Answers
Losing My Religion: My Struggle With Faith and Sources of Hope ...
Religion Test | What Religion Should You Be?
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Submited at Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 at 6:00 pm on Middle East by jessica
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