Evening came and morning followed; the third day

Yesterday, the three of us walked around the northern section of the wall around the Old City. We started with Mass and morning prayer at home. This is photo of us: Fr. Bartholomew Hutcherson, myself and Fr. Steven Maekawa. This is toward the end of the walk. To your right is the Temple Mount & the Dome of the Rock; to your left is the Mount of Olives. Bart got a lovely photo of a white dove perched resolutely above the Damacsus Gate: hopefully, an auspicous sign for the trip. It took four boys about a minute to get it to move.

Needless to say it was hot! It really was amazing to see how close everything is. Yesterday was meant to be more of an orientation than an in-depth visit to anything, though we did visit the Holy Seplucher, St. Ann's and the birthplace of Mary. Fr. Bart takes oodles and oodles of photos and has posted them, if you would like to see them.

Today will be our first day of class. After our walk (and a nap!), we got down to work studying for today's class on John the Baptist. (See my previous posts for our class schedule.) We joined the priory community in the Bascilica for evening prayer (vespers). It was enchanting (no pun intended) to hear the brethren singing in the beautiful church. I felt like a Novice, having simply to sit and listen, since it's been twenty years since I've studied any French! The friars and students of the Ecole have been most welcoming.