Day 8 - Monday
We set out
today for the shores of Lake Galilee, to walk in His footsteps in the
countryside. We started by buying stuff for a picnic at a supermarket then past
Migda (the modern spelling of Magdala where Mary came from) to the church on
the (supposed!) spot where Jesus fed the 4000 - where there is the Church of
the Multiplication Of the Loaves & Fishes (AKA Mensa Christi, or the Table
of Christ) which has some wonderful Byzantine mosaics on the floor. The rock
which He 'used' as a table was the altar of the original church, but was
reduced in size and moved during the re-build by the Byzantines. It is now
under the current altar. Rather commercialised, including a souvenir shop &
carp pool.
From there it
was a short walk to the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter (where he had the
triple question 'Do you love me?') - somewhat less commercialised and we were
able to paddle in the lake - which most of us did. Shoals of (very!) small
fish, but no-one was able to catch one! Confusingly, of the two churches, this
was the one with a tablet engraved Mensa Christi... but I guess he needed
something on which to break the fish he had grilled. The wind started to pick
up & the lake got noticeably choppier, so it is easy to imagine that it
could get quite rough in a strong wind.
Next we went
to the Greek Orthodox Church at Capernaum (as of the Wedding) for lunch on a
table shaded by a trellis of vines, & with the lake at one end. Very nice.
The church itself was amazing - barely any wall not covered with frescos
all depicting scenes from His ministry (plus one of the death of Mary, and a
wonderful 'doom' fresco).
Our final
place today was the Mount of the Beatitudes, where we had a short reading of
the Beatitudes from the 'Message' translation, followed by an extract from a
book by Elias Chacour with his 'interpretation' of the word translated as
'Blessed'. He believes the original Aramaic word is an active word meaning 'get
up and do something' in order to get the reward referred to in the second half
- makes sense to me! After that we had a bit of time to wander and wonder, including
looking at the church, which has a circular interior with an inner circular
sanctuary. In the outer ring a choir from California was singing ‘a capella’ -
and beautifully! A real bonus... This was definitely a place of peace, even
with the tourists.
After that it
was back on the bus for the trip back to Nazareth to our hotel. Supper @ 7 and
then into the town!
Reflection:
Today was the only whole day when we were not getting a ‘political’ input –
purely a chance to walk in his footsteps – though I found our chances of doing
so somewhat restricted by property boundaries – not surprising these days, but
still a bit frustrating. Again, interesting how close together the various
locations are – though still a fair step if on foot. A ‘reflective’ day – time
to think over what we had seen & heard, and pray about it.
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