Happy Pentecost, everybody! Last Sunday, my brother and his friends got to spend Pentecost in Jerusalem. It’s fifty days after Easter and, to make it even better, it is also a Jewish holiday called Shavuot, which is 50 days after Passover. Fun!
My brother walked over to the Mount of Olives and went to the Garden of Gethsemane, which is where Jesus went to pray before he was arrested. My brother said it was a beautiful little garden and that it smelled very nice! I was glad to know that, so that even if it was a dark night when Jesus was there, He still got to smell some really nice things!
There is a big Church at the Garden of Gethsemane. There’s also a big stone in front of the altar that could be the place where Jesus prayed. My brother said that the little iron fence around it looks like the crown of thorns.
The windows in the Church are actually made of alabaster. They sure are pretty with the light coming through them!
Up the hill from the Garden of Gethsemane are several cemeteries. I didn’t even know this many people had ever died! My brother said that people still like to buy plots there even though it’s now very pricy real estate!
Further up the hill is a Church called Dominus Flevit, which means “the Lord wept”. I think Jesus cried another time when His friend Lazarus died, but this time was when He was sad that Jerusalem did not want to be like little chicks that He could protect under His wing. It makes me sad, too!
Down the hill is an Eastern Orthodox Marian Chapel. It was way down in the ground, although my brother said that when it was built it was on top of the ground. Over all the years, the level of the earth has risen. I thought that was odd at first, but then I remembered that I have a couple of toys in the backyard, and if I don’t move them around, they can get stuck in the ground. And that’s only after a few months!
My brother went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for evening service. His friends Suzanne, Pris, Nancy, and Robert went with him. He said that it was amazing! It wasn’t like a service back home: first, the priest came over to the slab where Jesus laid and then they moved over to the tomb. Everyone was holding candles.
Then, they went to a chapel for some prayers and then to another chapel where they had Eucharistic Adoration. My brother said that he wasn’t sure if they might have accidentally crashed someone else’s party, but he was sure glad they went!
On the way back to the hotel, they went by a spice store. Look at that pyramid, all made of spices. I hope nobody sneezed!
The spices were nice, but this is my favorite picture. Meat!
I celebrated Pentecost by standing guard at the pool. It was very nice. Fifty days after Easter, fifty days after Passover, and 100 percent fun!
Love, Winston