WAILING WALLS: PRESENCES OF A GOD WHO JOURNEYS WITH HIS PEOPLE IN THE MIDST OF SUFFERING AND THE QUEST FOR TRUE FREEDOM

A CHRISTIAN, A JEW AND A MOSLEM: EMBRACING AS BROTHERS AT THE WAILING WALL (KOTEL) Papal visit leads to embrace between Christian, Jew and Muslim at Wailin...

The Palestinian "Wailing Wall" and Some Not-So-Preposterous Prayer For A Repeat Spectacle of Collapsing Walls

A revered, age-old ritual every pilgrim to the Holy Land performs is to pay a visit and pray before the "Kotel" (a.k.a. The Western or The Wailing Wall). The "Kotel" is all that remains of the second and last temple of Jerusalem after its destruction in 70AD. It is believed that praying before the wall and touching its boulders is the closest one could get to touching and connecting with the Lord.

All these are very eloquently and quite radically expressed in the Holy Father Pope Francis' surprising move to stop right in front of the infamous concrete partitions Israel has installed around Palestine which are reminiscent of the Berlin Wall during the pre-unification era of Germany. This he did before proceeding to the Manger Square where he is scheduled to celebrate Sunday Eucharist.

The sight of the Roman Pontiff, bowed in prayer against the Palestinian Wall, declares therefore that God is just as present in the suffering of his Palestinian children and all efforts at peace-building and search for justice,  as His presence is said to permeate the boulders of the Kotel.

Midway in this pilgrimage, the Palestinian and Israeli presidents have already agreed to meet up with the pope at the Vatican in June of this year.

The phenomenon of crumbling walls is not exactly new for the "people of the bible."

May we witness once more the spectacle of collapsing walls much like that of Jericho of old.

Ut Unum Sint!

DEO GRATIAS, a prompt fruit of the Apostolic Pilgrimage: Israeli, Palestinian presidents agree to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican in June | CTV News

Israeli, Palestinian presidents agree to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican in June | CTV News

The Real Face of Jesus From the Shroud of Turin: CHRISTOS ANESTI!

Sanctuary, Like Oxygen, Is Important

upload, a photo by F. Po Ng on Flickr.

It is important
to create for one's self
a sanctuary,
a holy cave,
a sacred place.

It is a matter of survival
from daily savagery
for one
to be able to seek refuge
from the insanity of it all;

In a place, somewhere,
within or 'with-out'
where it is kinder'
milder;
where one finds rest,
solace,
light,
love.

Where what stares you
in the face
is not a condescending arrogance,
nor hurting disrespect,
but rather
a loving gaze,
an understanding gaze,
a compassionate gaze.

Sanctuary,
like oxygen,
is important.

An Orthodox Overview on The Holy Icons

In the Orthodox tradition the icon is not merely an adornment in the church building or an object to be used in worship: people pray before it, they kiss it and treat it as a sacred object.

In spite of the existence of icons from distant antiquity there have at various times been tendencies opposed to the veneration of icons. In the seventh and eighth centuries these tendencies culminated in the iconoclast heresy that was condemned at the Seventh Ecumenical Council. The perennial accusation of the iconoclasts against the venerators of icons was that of idolatry. The basic argument was the Old Testament prohibition to depicting God: ‘You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God’ (Ex.20:4-5). It is obvious, however, that the words quoted are directed at the idols of pagan peoples who worshipped them.

The New Testament is the revelation of God Who became man and Who could be seen by people. That which is invisible cannot be depicted in images, while that which is visible can be depicted as it is no longer the product of fantasy, but a reality. St John of Damascus presents us with the notion that the Old Testament prohibition of depicting the invisible God points towards the possibility of depicting Him when He becomes visible: ‘It is obvious that when you contemplate God becoming man, then you may depict Him clothed in human form. When the invisible One becomes visible to flesh, you may then draw His likeness... Use every kind of drawing, word, or colour’.

The iconoclast heresy of the eighth century was a continuation of the Christological heresies discussed at earlier Ecumenical Councils. The defense of icons became a defense of the belief in the Incarnation of Christ, for iconoclasm was one of the ways of denying the reality of this Incarnation. For the Orthodox, the icon is not an idol substituting the invisible God, but a symbol and sign of His presence in the Church. The Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council concurred with St Basil the Great in saying that ‘the honour rendered to the image goes over to the Prototype’. The Council insisted that, in bowing down to the icon, the Christian does not worship wood and colours, but the one depicted on wood — Christ, the Holy Virgin, the saints. There is therefore nothing in common between idolatry and the veneration of icons. The icon is not something standing before the human person as a sole and self-sufficient object for worship. It is not even something placed between the person and God. To use the expression of Fr Paul Florensky, the icon is a window onto the other world: through the icon the human person comes into direct contact with the spiritual world and those who live there.

(The Holy Icons: An Online Orthodox Catechism, Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate)

(photo credit-Andrew Gould, Orthodox Arts Journal, July 12, 2012)