Via Dolorosa

How do you write a blog after you’ve seen, smelled, heard and walked the Via Dolorosa?  Or touched Golgotha?  I have no idea.  I’ll start with something else…

Today we explored the Mount of Olives.  Surprisingly, in a Christian church here, I saw the most beautiful artwork I’ve ever seen.   Maybe that shouldn’t surprise me, but I guess that was not on my expectation radar.  Most of the group said it was in the range of okay to awful, so that tells you about my taste, but I still can’t quit thinking about it.  I’m not going to post a picture of any of it because A.) I don’t have one right now, and B.) you would probably think it is awful too.  J

There’s a lot going on at the Mount of Olives.  From there it’s a beautiful view of the Old City of Jerusalem.

It’s also where Jesus wept and where he sent for a donkey for his ride into the City.

There are thousands upon thousands of Jewish graves located on this hill too.  It’s staggering.  We also saw the church of the Pater Noster.  The Lord’s Prayer can be found here in every language I know of.   The last place we saw before leaving the Mount of Olives was the Garden of Gethsemane.  This was beautiful and also one of the first places we’ve had to fight crowds.

I could write an epistle on every item from today.  That would be no good to you unless you want a free nap, so I’ll continue hitting the high points.  (Send me questions if you have them.)

The afternoon was consumed by the Old City again.  We entered a different gate this time – the Jaffa Gate.  Here we found the Via Dolorosa.  I’ve always loved the songs about this street that I heard in church at Easter, but seeing it in modern day Israel is quite different from the images I had in my mind.  Christ's walk ended at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher - Golgotha.

More adventure tomorrow.

Love to you all.