Holy Land Pilgrimage 2

On Friday night we stayed at Stella Maris Guest House in Haifa.

Their sacristy

This is a Carmelite convent and in the small chapel are these images that I presume are Carmelite Saints.  Above are the guys and below are the gals.

John the Baptist, Elijah and Elisah

The view of Haifa at night from the convent

These two are actually looking out the window of our room.

The dome of the main church.

The main altar sits above a cave or crypt where Elijah supposedly lived.

The crypt under the main altar

The view of Haifa during the day

It is a convent and these are the Dancing Angels of Peace.

 After leaving Stella Maris Guest House we took off for Cana.  Oh wait this is just a office building on the way

Our first stop on Saturday, 10/22, was Cana.  The church there is fairly simple.  We had Mass there.

No, Sister is not saying Mass.  Just setting up the altar.

These gals may have been hoping to have their wedding at this church.

 After Cana we went back into the desert and headed to Sephoris.  I had not heard of it before.  It is a town that one of Herod's sons tried to build.  It was not successful but is significant because it is so close to Nazareth.  It is likely that since Nazareth had only around 150 people in it at the time of Jesus that Joseph and Jesus might have found work in this neighboring community that was just being built.  I can imagine Jesus making some of these mosaics.  Anyone who can create our universe can surely make a beautiful image of part of it.

All that is left of this town is ruins and these mosaics.

This is ancient street that was used enough that there are grooves in the stones from the cart wheels.

 Many of these mosaics have particular Egyptian themes.  Other are more Greek.

Centaur

Cool shades on a sunny day.

The prickly pear are growing like crazy.

So is the aloe.

This is supposedly Hercules getting drunk.  It was not smart to challenge Dionysus, the god of wine.

They fixed this building up so you can see the whole area.

This is Fr. Andrzej Wyrostek, from Poland but working in the Rapid City Diocese.  He speaks Polish, Russian, and English.  He came in handy as a translator several times and has a great sense of humor.

The View.

 

 Next we went to Nazareth and visited the Church of the Annunciation.  It is beautiful.

The doors.

This crypt was built in the place Mary probably heard the Archangel Gabriel.

This is a picture of that happening.

Looking up into the main church.

Here I am next to the entrance to what might have been where Mary heard Gabriel.

This is the main church.

There are images of Mary from many different countries.

The dome

These next pictures are from the Church of St. Joseph which is just around the corner .

There is a grotto underneath that they think might have been St. Joseph's work area.

There were no power tools.

Then we went to lunch down the street.  Guess where.

This is in a little synagogue that Jesus probably came to and then said the words of Isaiah were being fulfilled in their hearing them from Him.

This is the Cana Baptist Church.

Shopping center in Nazareth that probably wasn't there in Jesus' time.

Israel's version of a Quick Shop where we went for supplies.

I just took pictures of the beautiful flowers.

The Cana Greek Orthodox Wedding Church.

That night, 10/22, we stayed at the Mount of Beatitudes Guest House.

    Nice gardens and good food.  We had Mass the next morning in the garden rather than the domed chapel.

It had a beautiful water fountain.