Brian Hamilton-Vise

Ein Karem

“An idea came to me from heaven during Mass this morning,” Father Louis said when we got in the car to leave Latroun Abbey on Thursday morning. Since it was the feast of Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth, we should visit Ein Karem–the traditional site of the visitation–rather than Emmaus. Leo and I agreed, so we made the twenty minute drive to this little village outside Jerusalem and the steep climb up to the Church of the Visitation. Ein Karem was, Father Louis explained, a Christian village built around this holy site–until 1948, when the residents were expelled by the Jewish newcomers. He did not elaborate, only shook his head with some grief.

But the town still houses several Christian orders, and on this day the small streets were filled with pilgrims. A Russian Orthodox church stands majestically farther up the hill. Across from the entrance of the Visitation Church, the Magnificat is painted on the wall in dozens of languages. Together we offered these wonderful words of praise, in the same place that Mary herself uttered them, in English, Spanish, Syriac, Italian, Latin, and Arabic. We said a silent prayer in the church itself, listened to another group sing mass in the sanctuary, and headed back down. Together with our Trappist guide, we passed Orthodox monks, Franciscans, and some sisters of the rosary on the way, and each bowed to the others.

1 June 2007 | Comments (0)
Tags: Holy Land 2007