Today in 2 Parts: Mass at Bethlehem’s Milk Grotto, Abraham’s Tomb in Hebron, Herod’s Herodion and more

by Steve Ray on February 17, 2020




Well we’re off to a good start here in Jerusalem. We’re staying at the Notre Dame hotel and this morning we takeoff for Bethlehem in the south. We started at the shop so people can buy some authentic Christian olivewood and religious items. Then we had Mass at the Milk Grotto where the Holy Family lived after they moved out of the cave stable in Bethlehem (homily here).

Then the drive deep into the Palestinian West Bank to visit Hebron and the Machpelah where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are buried with their wives. Always a bit tense but always exciting. We are stepping back into 4,000 thousand years of history here.

We visited the Jewish synagogue and the Muslim mosque and saw all of the cenotaph tombs of the patriarchs and matriarchs and pointed out the hole down under the structure where the actual bones are contained.

Then we drove back north to the Herodion which was a fortress of King Herod and the place where he was buried. We had dinner in Bethlehem with wonderful lamb dinners and the Christian dancers.

PART ONE

PART TWO



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