Photos: the "Palm Sunday Procession" down the Mount of Olives from Bethany

Happy Easter, everybody - Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

As I conclude this Holy Week 2006, I am at a loss for words--and quite stunned, actually--over the feelings and insights and experiences that have occurred in my life these past eight days. I knew this would be a special Holy Week for me, living as I am in Jerusalem, but the power of being in these actual places added to the reality of what happened to Jesus 2000 years ago and I was impacted more deeply and emotionally than I ever anticipated I would be.  It’s terribly hard to put into words, but here are some images and reflections that I’ve put together to try and convey to you something of the magnitude that this week has been for me:

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, I joined in the Palm Sunday Processional walk down the Mount of Olives, with literally thousands and thousands of other believers, waving palms and singing praises--in more languages than I could count--dancing and moving along with complete joy, beginning in Bethany, on the back side of the Mount.  It was one of the most exciting experiences I’ve ever had with an assembly of Christians.  My friend, Cynthia, and I walked beside a French monastic group of men and women, who had guitars, an accordion, flute, and drums and tambourines, and they sang the entire way--over an hour and a half!  Songs we know (Hosanna, Shout to the Lord, We Want to See Jesus Lifted Hight, etc.), so we sang in English as they sang in French.  When we got to the bottleneck at the place where the road starts to go down the Mount of Olives, toward Gethsemane, I looked up the road behind me, and it was jammed with people all the way to the bend who were still coming from Bethany--and below me, way down at the bottom of the Mount, people were already streaming out and up toward the Old City itself to the street leading to the Lion's Gate, to St. Anne's Church where the procession ends!  Probably 2 miles altogether. “Baruch haba b’shem Adonai!” (Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!)