A Very Marian Day

I feel like I'm running a day behind on posts, but that's alright. I'll blame it on the time zone. There's a lot to say right now, since everything is so new, but I'm guessing things will cool down a little bit as time goes on. 

Yesterday, (the 30th), I got to see some wonderful things with Patty (a fantastic tour guide!).

First, we went through St. Catherine's/The Church of the Nativity. While Nativity Church is shared among a few sects, and Catholics hold only a small area, St. Catherine's is attached to the Grotto of the Nativity as well and is much larger. It also has caves beneath it where St. Jerome worked when he was translating the Bible. Sweet.

You'll have to forgive me that I haven't taken any pictures there yet. I'll get to it eventually, but for now I just wanted to look with my eyes for a while. 

Then on to some serious Marian beauty. The Milk Grotto was truly beautiful, and Patty told me some sweet stories of women being cured of womanly health problems there.

Check it out:

Right on the way home (about half a block away) we swung by Saint Joseph Street, said to be the path by which Mary and Joseph would have entered Bethlehem. It's clearly paved now, etc., but still kind of great:

So, all that said, the absolute highlight of the day was what came next. Abu Ramsey, a friend of Patty's and I think somehow related to HCEF, invited her (and me, by extension and Patty's kindness) to a procession at his church in Beit Sahour, right next to Bethlehem. 

When we got to Our Lady of Fatima, his church, things were awesome. People were putting flowers in front of their main shrine to Our Lady, but also there was a smaller one that would be used in the procession (do forgive my poor photography):

The entire church filled up by 7, when there was a rosary followed by a vigil Mass for the Solemnity of the Visitation. (NOTE TO LITURGINERDS: Yes, I'm aware it fell on the same days as Pentecost this year, so I don't know how legit this whole deal was. But considering I'm a fool and these people are part of one of the oldest Catholic congregations in the world, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.) (NOTE TO OTHERS: The Visitation is a sweet feast the celebrates when the Virgin went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, about 30 miles from where I was yesterday. Elizabeth saw her and said "Hail, full of grace.")

I was so happy to be able to celebrate the Visitation because of its connection to Elizabeth, my patron saint, and because I just think it's beautiful. 

Mass in Arabic will take some getting used to, but Mass is Mass, so I am so thankful. 

So, on to the procession. I swear to you all, they were singing Immaculate Mary, in Arabic, up and down the streets. It was beautiful. 

The procession paused briefly at a well in Beit Sahour where Our Lady is said to have appeared to draw water a few times. Note, this was recent apparitions, not when she would actually stroll around Bethlehem back in the day. 

At the end everyone gathered in the courtyard of the Greek Catholic Church, where I have no idea what was said, and then they gave out all the carnations that were with the statue of Our Lady.

 

The beautiful day wrapped up with tea with Abu Ramsey and his family in their most welcoming home. It was truly delightful, and there was also a lot of very interesting talk about the conflict, perceptions of Palestinians in the US, and Obama. More on that later. 

Good night, and a happy end to May, all you Marians out there. If you haven't seen it, you really must watch this.