February 21: Second Sunday of Lent

Luke 13: 31-35

Dominus Flevit (“The Lord Wept”)

The site commemorates two New Testament passages, Matt 23:37-39 and Luke 19:41-44, Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. That there was a Byzantine monastery here is evidenced by the mosaic-floored wine tank locatedoutside at the far end of the property overlooking the Kidron Valley. In front of the chapel itself is the lovely seventh-century mosaic floor depicting the “pearl of great price” being pierced and dividing a fish (the fish may be a symbol for the Last Supper). The modern chapel was built in 1955 by the Italian Barluzzi. Its dome is shaped as a tear drop surrounded by four vases in which it was the custom to collect one’s tears upon the death of a beloved. 

Down by the wine tank the view can be instructive. The Garden of Gethsemane is to your right, marked by the golden onion domes of St. Mary Magdalene Russian Orthodox convent. To the south of the Temple Mount is the City of David. Behind the golden Dome of the Rock mosque is the double-domed Church of the Holy Sepulcher: the smaller black dome is over Golgotha and the larger grey dome is over the Tomb of Christ.