I've been trying to post on the stations of the cross for two days with difficulty, but as I do not worship the blogging gods, they curse me. Parting from the usual way things are done, below (this post) is the introduction to the post directly below. Read as one for coherence' sake.
Friday morning of our pilgrimage we departed the center early to be able to celebrate Mass at the Ecce Homo Basilica and to make the Way of the Cross. In my earliest posts, I addressed the safety situation, so I won't rehash that here, except to set the scene. You get used to seeing guards with machine guns on patrol at checkpoints and throughout the Holy Land, but it is frankly reassuring if you're on the anti-suicide-bomber side of things. And in general this presence is no more oppressive than it is in say, Rome or Paris. It's a thing you see and don't think much about.
Until the Muslim Sabbath. Entering the Old City (and by a different gate than the one we'd planned, because some entrances to the city are closed) was a little frightening Friday morning, because the entire perimeter was surrounded by armed Israeli army and police. Speaking strictly as a pilgrim reporting her spontaneous reactions, I must say I found it hard to credit claims that Islam is a religion of peace when everyone is so fearful on its holy day. No extra guards are required during the week or during the Jewish & Muslim days of worship. But as I later discovered, the U.S. State Dept. actually forbids its personnel to be anywhere within the Old City between 11 and 2 on Fridays, so volatile are the worshippers. Everyone understands that whether or not there will be "incidents" depends entirely upon what the imams say Friday morning, and the city was especially tense because of the Danish cartoon protests. There had been a series of "incidents" involving the beating of Christian pilgrims on the Via Dolorosa since 'Toongate made the news in Jerusalem. In retrospect, it was quite naive of our group to be where we were at the time we were, and I don't recommend it to you when you go, but in our case the saying that the Lord takes care of fools and weaklings held true. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
