A world wind day seeing lots of things in and around Jerusalem. First, was a very emotional and moving Mass at Gethsemane at the rock was Jesus sweat drops of blood. You can see/hear Fr. Gavin’s homily here. From there to the top of the Mount of Olives where Jesus taught his disciples to pray and ascended into heaven.
From there we went to the Western Wall on the eve of Yom Kippur–very interesting! Then lunch at Ramat Rachel Kibbutz. Our next stop was Mount Zion or we visited the Upper Room and the Dormition of Mary.
Some free time followed and then we gathered on the roof of Jerusalem for dinner—the 4th floor of the Notre Dame Center in the open air in an elegant setting was good food and wine overlooking the Holy Sepulchre in the Holy City of Jerusalem. It is the Eve of Yom Kippur!
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The doctor said she still had a chance of responding to the chemotherapy and might conceivably live for a few months, possibly even six or more, but that a year would be miraculous. In light of the urgent state of Renee’s condition, we talked about accelerating my entrance into the Catholic Church. It didn’t look like there was much time.
The reason I moved in that direction was that New Age philosophy holds that there is no hell. New Agers believe we reincarnate through many lives until we become perfect. This made the New Age attractive to me, not only because it presented reincarnation as a bold adventure where you get to go to exotic places and be exotic people, but because believing in reincarnation allowed me to escape having to believe in hell.
