March 25 Good Friday

Please see the previous post. Therefore, Jesus, the Lamb of God, died at the time the Passover lambs were being slaughtered at the Temple.

The Garden of Gethsemane

The Garden of Gethsemane
As you continue walking carefully down the busy street from Dominus Flevit you pass on your right the convent of St. Mary Magdalene. It is well worth a visit, but is open only 10 a.m. to noon Tuesdays and Thursdays. The garden where our Lord prayed and was arrested is further down the street to an immediate left. Note that it closes its gates sharply at 11:45 a.m. only opening again at 2:30. It is almost impossible to kill an olive tree and the root systems of these trees could go back 2,000 years. This is assuredly the Garden of Gethsemane which means olive press. From Byzantine times or before a certain broad rock was associated with Jesus’ prayer of agony that the cup be taken from him. The drawings at the church’s entrance depict the Byzantine and Crusader churches upon which this modern Church of All Nations is built. Around the rock is a crown of thorns with birds in their posture of submission willing to drink from the chalice. It is a space to be quiet, and pictures are allowed except within the gate to the rock which you may enter to kneel upon this space hollowed by tradition with the permission of the Franciscan on duty.