Holy Land Pilgrimage Day 6 Part 1, Tuesday June 6, 2023

This was the day we went to the Old City of Jerusalem. We did a lot, so I decided to break it into two posts: Part 1, and Part 2.

We started out on the Mount of Olives. There is a large Jewish cemetery there. There is also a nice view of the Old City wall with the Dome of the Rock behind it.

The Garden of Gethsemane is at the foot of the Mount of Olives, between the mountain and the city wall. Kevin taught from John 18:1-11 at this ‘A’ site. Then our group had an hour to individually find a spot in the garden to pray and meditate in the place where Jesus took his apostles to pray before his crucifixion. This was one of my favorite stops on the trip!

Adjacent to the Garden of Gethsemane is the Basilica of the Agony aka The Church of All Nations. There is some beautiful religious art there.

Next we walked into the Old City of Jerusalem via Lion Gate. Our first stop in the Old City was the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus healed the paralytic. Kevin taught from John 5:1-8. This is an ‘A’ site.

The Church of St. Anne is adjacent to the pool. The Church of St. Anne is served by the Society of the Missionaries of Africa. They are commonly called the ‘White Fathers’ because they wear white robes for their habit. “Saint Anne’s acoustics, designed for Gregorian chant, are so perfect that the church is virtually a musical instrument to be played by the human voice.” (I stole that sentence from the web!) Even our group, with no practice, and mixed musical talent, sounded good. Don’t believe me? Here’s the video (thanks to Kristi for providing the video):

The ‘Stations of the Cross‘ are a traditional devotion used to commemorate Jesus’ passion and death on the cross. They consist of 14 stations, with each station representing an event of Jesus’ passion. In Italian, they are called the ‘Via Dolorosa’ (the ‘Way of Suffering’). In the Old City, the 14 stations are placed along the streets at the traditional locations where they occurred, and it is popular for pilgrims to follow these stations to walk the same steps Jesus did during His passion. On this post, I show pictures of the stations up to station IX. The remaining stations are in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which will be in the next post. For each station, I show a street view, and a close-up. For some details about the stations in the Old City see here, and here (and a million other sites).

Station I is at the seat of Pontius Pilate in the Antonia Fortress, which is now a Muslim grade school. Across from the school is a complex which houses the Church of the Flagellation (aka Scourging), and the Church of the Condemnation and Imposition of the Cross. I’ll call those Station I and Station II.

At Station VII there are two Franciscan Chapels. At Station IX is the Coptic St. Antony Orthodox Church. This is one of a complex (to me) maze of churches around the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

It was a moving and inspiring experience to walk in the steps of Jesus on His way to the cross. There were the distractions of people going about their everyday business, and street vendors commercializing the site, and I know there are skeptics who question whether these are Jesus’ steps. But for us, we will always remember this, especially every time we pray the stations of the cross at our church.

In the next post, we’ll continue with the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and on to the City of David excavations.