Holy Crap! It's Holy Thursday!

My Easter marathon begins! Today is Holy Thursday, traditionally the evening on which the Last Supper was celebrated. Following Jesus' final Passover meal, he and his disciples proceeded to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives for prayer. It was here that Judas betrayed Jesus, and Jesus became a prisoner of the Roman authorities. Bible fast-fact of the day: the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke all specify that the Last Supper was a Passover meal, but the Gospel of John fixes Jesus' crucifixion the day BEFORE Passover. The Church favors the synoptic tradition.

Ironically, my Holy Thursday began at the Western Wall, where a unique bi-annual ceremony was taking place--the priestly blessing. Led by the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, the kohanim (Jews who trace their lineage back to Aaron, Moses' brother and the first High Priest) recite a blessing over the Wall and the people of Israel. The Western Wall plaza was absolutely packed with people--I had to stand in the women's section just to be able to take pictures. On the plus side, I discovered that my camera can take pretty good videos. I've embedded a video of the kohanim benediction below.

After the benediction service ended, we returned to the Coenaculum (the Hall of the Last Supper) on Mt. Zion. It was already thronged with tourists, which explains why the man-in-yellow walked into my picture, below (but look at his face!).

We attended Holy Thursday mass in English at the Ecce Homo convent (for the Sisters of Our Lady of Zion), built under the arch at which Pontious Pilate presented Jesus to the people ("ecce homo" = "behold the man"). I have already photographed the church from the other side of a glass window, but it was very cool to finally be inside. What's more, before mass we wandered through the convent's museum, which is constructed in the Herodian water system used to bring water to the Temple Mount. The first picture below show me standing in the huge cistern. A picture of the church follows. Mass included, in addition to the regular foot-washing, a special hand-washing ceremony that was made available to all the attendees.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we proceed on foot (= Jesus style!) to the base of the Mount of Olives, where the Church of All Nations (also called the Basilica of the Agony) is found in the Garden of Gethsemane. I've been to the beautiful church twice before, but I had never seen it this packed! The first picture below shows the huge crowd of pilgrims gathering out front of the church over an hour before the Franciscan prayer service began. The service itself was conducted in multiple languages--Latin, English, Italian, German, French, Spanish, and Arabic. The third item is a video of one of the hymns during the service. Note that it may take a while for these videos to load.

Tune in tomorrow for Good Friday updates, including the REAL Stations of the Cross with Franciscan brothers, and the Good Friday memorial service in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.