Hope Echoes: Navity of the Lord

Bethlehem is in the Occupied Territories, under Arab control. Our Jewish guide could not travel with us to Bethlehem. We picked up an Arab guide once we got there.

On the way out of Jerusalem for the day our bus was in a tiny fender bender that involved much shouting between our driver and the injured party. VP Pence was expected in town the next day. The posters across the street were welcoming him.

We got our first view of the walls of the old city.

Not the best photos from the bus, but the only view I had.

As we headed toward Bethlehem, I took a view of the city in the morning light. All the buildings are covered in limestone, giving the white appearance. The apparent puff above the tall building was a reflection off the bus window.

We went into the Occupied Territories which have only a small Christian population these days. We went to a factory store that sold olive carvings.

The owner told us that the hand carved pieces were expensive, thousands of dollars, but the machine carved pieces were more affordable.

I bought the machine carved pieces, avoiding the ones made in China.

Nativity scene was thousands of dollars. No way could I afford any of that.

After an hour we got back on the bus. We passed a familiar sight. The Colonel was smiling at us.

There were looks of fences around things in the Occupied Territories.

Our first destination was the Shepherds' Cave. This is a fountain of the shepherds. Those are not real sheep at the bottom of the fountain.

Mosaic at the entrance to the cave. I know that Latin phrase.

The shepherds cave is a church. We had Mass there.

I don't usually take photos during Mass, but this was such a touching scene, I couldn't resist.

I feel like this picture is titled--The Miracle of Salvation.

The floor of the cave was covered in ancient mosaics.

The colors of the stone is amazing.

Little displays were set up around the edges of the cave.

These are obviously artifacts.

But there were no labels to tell us what they were.

More little displays around the edges of the cave.

More mosaics.

Up above the cave was a modern church of the shepherds.

We didn't have Mass there, but we went in to see it.

This was our guide. He was an Arab but he had been to a Catholic college.

Inside the church were murals. The shepherd's joy!

The nativity.

The angels announcing to the shepherds.

Shepherd;s fountain again.

This was an Our Lady's Garden. I couldn't recognize all the plants. I think one was lavender and another one rosemary.

Still Christmas in Bethlehem. They took down the tree that day.

We went next to the Church of the Nativity.

The church tower of this old, ancient church.

The very top. I am not sure about the flag.

And right in the area a mosque. It seemed like all my rooms on this trip overlooked mosques. I heard the loud call to prayer early every morning. No way would I miss the bus.

Our guide giving us instructions before going into the church.

To get into the church we had to duck down. Once the door had been large enough to ride a camel through it, but it was made smaller to prevent looting. These days you would need to be a hobbit to walk in without ducking.

It is called the humility gate.

Our guide held our heads to keep us from bumping on the door frame.

We got in to see an ornate Eastern Orthodox church.

I can't even imagine all of this silver and candles.

We had already had Mass in the cave which was really special, but this would have been a great place to have Mass also.

The various religious orders have disputed restoring the church so not much restoration has occurred. But recently there was an agreement, and restoration has begun.

This is a very old mosaic picture that is being restored.

We got in line to see the cave of the Nativity in the basement of the church. A procession was going on and we had to wait on the stairs.

I happened to be in the front so I got to observe it. I wish I could have been part of it.

It lasted about a half hour. This pushed back our schedule, but church is church.

This silver star is the spot where Jesus was born according to tradition. The spot.

I had seen pictures of it before and the skeptic in me would say, really, the spot. But, I can't explain how overcome I was to be there.

The blue arch is over the spot.

Across the hall is this spot which is where the stable, the manger was by tradition.

The manger was here.

In this cave, under this church, Jesus was born.

Some of our tour touching the spot.

And back up in the church, looking at the mosaics.

Ornate church of the Nativity. It was so big I can't even really show it.

In part of the church as they were restoring it they discovered these mosaics. They were covered for some reason I didn't really understand.

We waked on the wood floor above these beautiful mosaics.

Collecting and organizing stones in these colors is still astonishing to me.

See these elaborate designs.

And close up.

Plans for restoring the church.

The restorers were up on scaffolds.

They were doing touch up painting on these pillars.

It was a big restoration project.

An angel mosaic was up by the windows.

And more angels.

As we left, I tried to show the various versions of the doors to the church. The big door could have let a camel rider in. The arch could have let a horse back rider in. and the current door isn't big enough for a person to walk in without ducking.