Day 1– Hail, Mary…

 Two reasons for the title…first, today we focused on Mary, here in her home town of Nazareth and second, some of the showers we encountered today contained hail—not large, but recognizable as hail. The suitcases are still MIA, so roommate Liz and I are washing out our undies and hoping that our suitcases show up soon. Evidently 22 of our 24 made it to Tel Aviv, and two are,still in Istanbul—Liz has an Apple tag in hers which says that one in Istanbul is hers. I expect that they are waiting for the two left behind to arrive before making the 1.5 hour drive to Nazareth.

Church of the Annunciation

There have been some lovely moments today.  In the morning, we saw two churches—first, the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation—there were some beautiful icons there. This  church is located over an underground spring, which according to Eastern Orthodox belief is where Mary was drawing water at the time of the Annunciation. The spring is still active today. If you go downstairs into the crypt, you can see the water still flowing… 

Basilica of the Annunciation

We next went to the Roman Catholic Basilica—a newer building consecrated in 1969. It was built on the site of what was believed to be Mary’s family house where she was visited by the Angel Gabriel. We were there in time for the noonday Angelus procession by the Franciscans. The courtyard gallery of large icons offered by Catholics in many countries around the world was impressive. I particularly liked the ones from Indonesia, Wales and Ukraine. 

So the Greek Orthodox believe that the Annunciation happened at the well and the Catholics believe she was at home. Our guide, Fadi, suggested that it could be both! That sounds good to me.

We had lunch at a popular local restaurant called (predictably) Holy Land Restaurant. Then we went for tea at Ghada’s Corner. Ghada is a remarkable Palestinian woman who has training in anthropology and is passionate about various cultures, particularly in this region. The bulk of her current offerings are creations made by women—I bought a small embroidered purse made by a woman in one of the large refugee camps populated by Palestinians whose homes have been destroyed/occupied by Israeli settlers.

Walls of 1st century house?

We went back to the convent where we had a tour of the remarkable archaeological finds located under the building. The following article explains the site better than I can in this space: https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/sisters-nazareth-site but the author approaches his work scientifically, and my own perspective is one of faith. 

Seeing these possibly first century ruins gave me “good goosebumps”  These could be the original stone walls of Mary and Joseph’s house in Nazareth. Of course, we will never know, but at least I can imagine…

I am beginning to understand why the Holy Land is called “the Fifth Gospel”…

Just as we sat down to dinner, 22 of our 24 our suitcases arrived. Mine was one of them. Unfortunately, snowstorms in Istanbul are complicating the return of the two that were left behind. Liz and Joyce’s bags are still MIA, but sisters help sisters, right? Within 20 minutes, she had appropriate “loaner outfits” for the next couple of days!  I also discovered that I had a minor problem—I had my suitcase, but the baggage handlers managed to mangle the TSA lock I had bought—the numbers wouldn’t line up. I needed a heavy duty cutter of some kind to get into my suitcase! I was sure I would need to find a maintenance person. But within 5 minutes of sending out a plea on our What’s app group, my “sister pilgrim” Katherine was at the door with a handy implement that did the trick. Need help? Ask a woman!

It’s getting late and I must end. No pictures in the blog today (Pictures inserted after I got home!). But I took lots. The internet here is wobbly, and complicates the sharing of large files. I will find a better way, but not tonight. Tomorrow, we head north to Galilee, with a stop in Cana.

Later—- I woke up very early this morning at 4am  to a thunderstorm, dozed off but was awakened again by the call to prayer from the neighboring mosque…after that sleep was elusive , so I worked on getting pictures on the blog. Try this link and see what you think….

https://share.icloud.com/photos/07aFuHS2M1wK_MRlxH-YJoILA