Pentecost Sunday

We began today with Morning Prayer in "the compound" chapel and once more, we didn't sound half bad. David is our cantor this week and he managed to keep us in tow as he led us in the last day of the Easter season.

At 9:15, we met our bus and Dan led us in the rosary as we swung our way west to Abu Ghosh. Abu Ghosh is currently a nice drive from Jerusalem with very good restaurants and a lot of Israelis come to them if they want good Arabic food and a sense of being a bit out in the country. Historically, it is the place of Kirjath Jearim, where the ark of the covenant rested on its way back from its captivity by the Philistines. The village is crowned by a large statue of Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant, as she holds up a statue of the Christ child.

The Crusaders believed it was the site of Emmaus and they built a beautiful early Gothic chapel here in the center of town. As you can see from the photo, it is currently framed by a beautiful landscape. The remains of the frescoes which once covered the walls are clearly visible, as you can see from the photos of the inside of the chapel. Current restoration guidelines call for showing only the original preserved pieces, but there is enough there to give you a sense of how splendid they must have been. I was most amused by the modern light fixtures in the midst of the ancient decor and edifice. It foreshadowed what was to come: a splendid infusion of a magnificent Novus Ordo Mass.

Benedictines care for the chapel. Here, a double community, men and women living in separate houses, come together to pray. And, as some have come to expect from Benedictines, they did not disappoint. The Liturgy was chanted in Latin and French and the monks were hospitable to us, as in other years. The abbott thought we were Germans, since a German group came in also, and the Gospel was proclaimed in German as well as in French. Later, in our review of life, one of our group suggested that the liturgy we experienced must have been something like the ideal hoped for by the Fathers of Vatican II. It was really lovely - perfectly executed, and in a prayerful, deliberate, flowing manner, yet nothing sloppy or stiff about it. I especially enjoyed the communion meditation, a vigorous hymn sung by a schola of the nuns and monks. The readings were canted. The Sequence was marvelous. Almost 2 hours passed, yet it felt only slightly longer than an average Sunday Mass (including the Homily in French, which I do not speak.)

After Mass and some visiting of the gift shop (after all, what visit to a monastery would be complete without at least considering a purchase of their products) and site, we walked over to one of the local restaurants where we ate very well. There were probably six different kinds of salads or spreads before the main dish, which was chicken, roasted with onions and garlic in a fresh bread wrap. Desert was fresh watermelon, the fruit of the season. Coke, in a glass bottle, featured in many of our meals.

We had a quiet afternoon and finished with Evening Prayer and the Review of life. It was a good Pentecost.