Hope Echoes: Mount of Olives on Tuesday Morning

As we loaded on the bus Tuesday morning I took a picture of the mosque tower that woke me up every morning. This was our second to last day of touring in Israel.

We were headed east to the Mount of Olives.. See the store? It labels the Mt of Olives.

We were headed to a high point on the Mount of Olives overlooking the city of Jerusalem.

We went to the church of the Pater Noster, the Lord's Prayer.

There are versions of the Lord's Prayer in every language.

There is a cave where tradition holds that Jesus taught the disciples. One of these teachings was the Lord's Prayer.

We had a few quick minutes to go into the cave.

I am not sure why I took photos of the the Lord's Prayer in different languages.

But, I took several. It was early in the morning, cold and spitting rain.

Old English?

This was the inside of the church. It was plain.

We were all photographing many of the versions of the prayer.

The simple design had its beauty.

We were the only pilgrims there that chilly morning.

I thought the fish planters were a novel idea.

Looking back toward Jerusalem. In the center if you look closely you can see the Temple Mount.

From this location we were looking over the Kidron Valley toward Jerusalem. There is apparently a way to walk through the narrow lanes down the Mount of Olives, but given the rain and the slippery streets the decision was made not to walk down.

We stopped at an overlook to have a group picture. Nobody road the camel that was offered for rides. Most camel rides cost about 50 or 60 dollars. Seemed a bit pricey.

We looked over to Jerusalem. Flowers were being planted for the spring.

Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are in the back center of the photo. Then below in the wall around the temple and old city. Then there are Arab graves across the valley. The green is the valley. Closest is a Jewish cemetery.

This photo is with another camera of the same cemetery looking from the Mount of Olives toward Jerusalem.

All the Jewish graves had little doorways. Our guide couldn't explain why.

Using my camera lens, I took a closer look at the mosque.

The clouds were gathering overhead.

The guide told us that Jews wanted to be buried on the Mount of Olives because the Messiah is supposed to return there.

There is still room in the cemetery for more graves.

This is looking back up the Mount of Olives.

And again the Mount of Olives.

This destination was down the hill quite a ways. We were looking up at the wall of the temple.

And this destination was the Garden of Gethsemane. There were very old olive trees in the walled garden beside the church.

Our guide said that the olive trees were tested to be about a thousand years old. Not from the time of Christ, but not modern.

She told us that olive trees did not die and were usually not cut down.

The leaves of the olive trees look like silver. When we were in Bethlehem at the olive wood factory they said that they did not cut down the trees for the wood, but only took branches that needed to be removed. Olive wood is very sturdy, it is said not to crack or shrink.

This is looking up at the city wall from the gate outside the church at the Garden of Gethsemane.

The inside of the church was dark and ornate.

The ceiling looked like the night sky.

Mosaics on the floor again. I would say that I wonder why we don't do mosaics on the floors of churches these days, but they would be so expensive to do.

Sonia our guide was very knowledgeable. As both a Christian and a Jew she had an unusual perspective.

This rock is traditionally where Christ prayed while his disciples slept.

Another look at the ceiling.

Another look at the stone where Christ prayed and wept and sweat blood.

I felt really empty there. I had no desire to stay and pray, and I thought that I should have. I just wanted to leave that place. The church was so dark and cold.