The falling asleep of Mary

.

Everything ready for today's Feast of the Dormition of Mary at the Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem.
Happy Feast to Catholics and others who celebrate today.
(Orthodox Dormition on the Old Calendar comes on August 28.)
Please see more about the Dormition (aka Assumption) in my earlier post and also here.
.
And to us Jews, Shabbat shalom.
Something for everybody today.  :)
.
Update:  Sr. Dr. Vassa Larin just wrote a moving Reflection about Mary.
A few paragraphs, called "A Mystifying Beauty," -- worth your while.
.

Jerusalem Day

.

Happy Jerusalem Day!

Here is the view from the roof of the Cenacle on Mt. Zion.
This is the Upper Room where only yesterday Pope Francis celebrated Mass and then headed for the airport and back to Rome.

On the ground floor, exactly under  the domed Room of the Last Supper, is the traditional tomb of King David where Jews worship.
At some stage the place also became a mosque, to complicate matters further.
Its minaret is on the left of the photo, towering over a nun in blue.

The big church is the Dormition Abbey; its bell tower is seen in the center.
Click on the labels below this post for more about these important Jerusalem holy sites.
.
(The towers are for ABC Wednesday.)
.

The sun behind the towers

.
The longest day!
Happy June solstice.

These mid-month days our City Daily Photo bloggers are having a Festival of the Solstice.
.
The photo here combines four of the five classical elements:

AIR - The very air vibrates from the frequent chiming in the bell tower of  Dormition Abbey and the five-times-per-day call to prayer of a muezzin atop the mosque's minaret.
EARTH - Below the roof with the minaret is King David's tomb, well grounded on holy land.

WATER - Even farther below, ancient subterranean cisterns capture and keep the rain that falls on Jerusalem's Old City.
SPIRIT - The Spirit mingles with the past and present inhabitants of Jerusalem--Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Fire we don't need;  Jerusalem has been burned to the ground too many times already.
.
Update:
FIRE - As RuneE in Norway just now reminded me, we DO have fire in the photo.
How could I forget that the sun behind the minaret is a big ball of fire!
.
(Linking to SkyWatch Friday  and City Daily Photo.)
.

The smells and bells of The Church

.
For today's Feast of the Assumption I took my visiting American friends to the Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion.
We were greeted by the joyful pealing of great bells.

After the festive Mass (in German, English, and Latin) in the magnificent church (over a hundred years old),

we all went down to the crypt and there were some more prayers, with the new Father Abbot (from Ireland) and his Benedictines facing

the reclining figure of Mary in her dormition.

The monks gave everyone a little bundle of greenery, symbolizing the beauty and joy of God's creation.
.
For more photos and impressions about this place and this feastday, please see my labels below (Mary, Dormition Abbey.)
.
Bonne fête!
.

New Abbot at the Dormition Abbey

.
It's not every day you get to see a Rite of Abbatial Blessing.
Yesterday the Dormition Abbey was packed with monastics, high-ranking clergy, ambassadors, and many guests for this very special Mass.

We were asked to "resist the temptation" of taking photos during the prayer.
The spoken and sung word was in Latin, German, and English.

The Benedictine monks of the Dormition elected Father Gregory Collins OSB, a monk of Glenstal Abbey (in Ireland), to be their sixth Abbot.

The Glenstal website says
"While Benedictine monasteries nearly always elect one of their own monks as superior, the monks of Dormition have a tradition of calling monks from other abbeys to serve as their Abbot. Abbot Gregory is the first native speaker of English to be chosen.
He has been elected for a term of eight years."

The service began in 3 pm sunlight and ended in evening semi-darkness.
As the organ played and the recession began . . .

. . . suddenly a flower rain began from the center of the high dome!
Heavenly!

But it also reminded me of the saying "I never promised you a rose garden."
This new Irish abbot will have the special and heavy added responsibility of trying to keep and even add to the fragile peace of Jerusalem.

Indeed, the little icon picture souvenir of the occasion and the booklet for the Mass both had in a large font:

"pray for the peace of Jerusalem".

What a gorgeous doorway for Monday Doorways.

Everyone exchanged happy greetings in the courtyard and then headed for the generous buffet tables and bar inside the hall.

Special banners were twirling around in the evening breeze.

For more about the bell tower, monastery, and church (also known as Hagia Maria Sion) please see my earlier posts.
.
The Order of St. Benedict has existed 1500 years.
This part of yesterday's Abtsbenediktion was very moving:

Presentation of the Rule
Bishop Shomali [of the Latin Patriarchate]:

Take this Rule
which contains the tradition of holiness
received from our spiritual fathers.
As God gives you strength
and human frailty allows,
use it to guide and sustain your brothers
whom God has placed in your care.

Presentation of the Pontifical Insignia
Bishop Shomali:

Take this ring,
the sign of faith and commitment
so that sustained by firm courage,
you many keep this monastic family
in the bond of brotherly love.

The bishop puts in silence the mitre on the head of the new abbot

Bishop Shomali:

Take this shepherd's staff
and show loving care for the brothers
whom the Lord has entrusted to you;
for he will demand an account
of your stewardship.

UPDATE:  See the official photos here:  http://dormitio.net/aktuelles/fotos/showGalerie/index.html?entry=galerie.36

Do souls grow bigger in heaven?

.
Behold Mary, fallen asleep, in the crypt of the Dormition Abbey.
.
Today, at the Dormition and at many other churches in Jerusalem and around the world, Christians celebrated the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.
.
You are welcome to see the ceremony in progress as I photographed it in 2007.
.
In another earlier post, I was amazed by a strange old icon of Jesus holding a tiny little Mary. You might enjoy the unraveling of the mystery.
.
UPDATE: Blogger Malyss just taught me how they celebrate the day in Nice, with boats full of flowers carrying the statue of Mary!
.

The Dormition comes alive

.
The week-long 2nd annual Jerusalem Festival of Light is in full swing.

The white light bells swing back and forth as the real bells inside the tower ring out.
It was so beautiful! Wish I had taken a video for you.
Koby Rosenthal is the light artist who created it.

For more about the Benedictines and their Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion please click the label below.

.

More about the Light Festival coming soon.

.

Zero degrees C in Jerusalem tonight

.
I braved the driving, freezing rain this afternoon to go up to Jerusalem.
An American friend is here on a whirlwind guided tour and this was the only free hour she had.
.
The group's Inbal Hotel enjoys a view of Mount Zion.
That is the church and bell tower of the Dormition Abbey on the horizon.
.
Here is the Dormition up close. The basilica was dedicated in 1910.
.
Pastor Suzanne dragged me out into the cold and wind and rain to visit the Old City and, just outside the Old City, Mount Zion. All for night shots.
Can you tell that my friend is a photo blogger? :-)

Hagia Maria Sion, as the Dormition is also called, is an abbey of Benedictine monks.

Their website is in German and English.

For more pictures and info you can also click my "Dormition" label.

.

Jerusalem is beautiful by night!

.

Hungarian in Jerusalem

Hungarians celebrate August 20 as St. Stephen's Day. Stephen was crowned King of Hungary over a thousand years ago.
This I learned at the always-enjoyable and ever-educational "Every day's a holiday? why wait to celebrate?" Great site, new everyday!
.
The side chapel that last year sported a wreath in Hungary's colors is in the crypt of the Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion.
Can anyone help me with the meaning of the inscription?
.

The falling-asleep of Mary

.
To the Marys, Marias, and Miriams -- a blessed name day to you.
To Christians who are celebrating the Assumption of Mary, a happy feastday to you.

From the day's liturgy at the Dormition Abbey, in Latin and German, with the lovely traditional Gregorian chant notation. Enlarge the photo and see if you can sing along. :)
.
August 15 fell on a Sabbath and since Israel's buses rest on the Sabbath, I could not get into Jerusalem today to observe the celebration of the Assumption of Mary.
You are, however, welcome to see the pictures from my year-ago posts here and here.
.

Onomatopoeia

O yes! O is the letter of the day. Welcome to ABC Wednesday,

where bloggers have fun playing with the alphabet. You can try too.

Oi veh, I thought, which of the many O words to choose?!
OK, let's take that big word I never know how to spell: ONOMATOPOEIA .

Onomatopoeia (from Greek ονοματοποιΐα) is a word or grouping of words that imitates the sound it describes (e.g. the animal noise meow) or suggests its source object (e.g. click, buzz, or bang). Greek όνομα, onoma, means name and ποιέω, poieō, means I make or I create, so it means name-creation.

Let's hear some Hebrew examples of onomatopoeia. My favorite is bakbuk. It means bottle. Doesn't it sound like liquid being poured from a bottle? bakbuk bakbuk bakbuk
BTW, this is also my favorite liqueur: chocolate! A tiny bit mixed with soda water or even milk, yum. Or on ice cream.

A tiftuf is water dripping, leaking. Or a light rain.
After years of drought Israel may soon run out of water. This tiftuf in the photo is at the Mekorot national water authority station in my village, of all places!

Tof is the onomatopoeiac Hebrew word for drum. Tof-Miriam is what we call a tambourine or timbrel.
This Miriam is one of the female Bible heroes portrayed in a dome in Jerusalem's Dormition Abbey.

Gur is a lion cub or a puppy. Grrr

 
Zvuv is a fly. Well, actually this is more a picture of a stinging insect. What he did was zimzem--he made a buzzing noise.

Has is the verb asking you to hush. Sha, sha means shhh, be still.

Rishroosh is the sound of waves lapping on the shore, like above at the Sea of Galilee.

The most well-known and well-loved use of the word is in the song by Hannah Senesh. (Can be heard on YouTube.)

ELI, ELI (Halicha L'kesariya)

-----------------------------
Eli, Eli

Shelo yigamer le'olam:

Hachol vehayam

Rishrush shel hamayim

Berak hashamayim

Tefilat ha-adam.

A STROLL IN CAESARIA

---------------------------

Oh God!

Let it last forever,

the sand, the sea,

the lapping of the waves,

the glitter of the stars,

the prayer of men.

(translation by anonymous)
.

A still-small soul

.
Yesterday's post was about the celebration of the dormition of Mary. The outside of the Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion looks like this.
.

A widely accepted Christian tradition has it that Mary fell into slumber on Jerusalem's Mount Zion.

When Kaiser Wilhelm II visited the Holy Land in 1898 the Turkish sultan presented him with this piece of land. The German Benedictines then built this church, finished in 1910.

The massive towers give it a look of a medieval fortress. And indeed, whenever I see it I start humming Martin Luther's famous hymn "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott," "A Mighty Fortress is Our God."
Israelis come to concerts in the church for its fantastic acoustics and wonderful organ, one of the largest in the Middle East.

This centuries-old icon for the feast is called "The Dormition of the Theotokos" [Theotokos meaning "God-bearer" in Greek].

The image below is taken from the website of Balamand University and Monastery in Lebanon; the icon's full story can be found there.

Once, when searching for the meaning of the figures of the icon, I read something which struck me as an amazing idea:

"Who is the little baby being held by Jesus? It's a depiction of Mary's soul, small because it is only her first day in Heaven." - [Italics are mine!]

.

Feast at the Dormition Abbey

.
Today is a big feast-day. In some countries it is even a public holiday.
.
Catholics call it the Feast of the Assumption. According to their Catechism, Mary, "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."
.
Eastern Christians use another name. According to a good Greek Orthodox website, "The Feast of the Dormition of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary is celebrated on August 15 each year. The Feast commemorates the repose (dormition and in the Greek kimisis) or "falling-asleep" of the Mother of Jesus Christ, our Lord. The Feast also commemorates the translation or assumption into heaven of the body of the Theotokos."
 The Jerusalem Patriarchate is Old Calendar, as are the Orthodox monastic communities in the Holy Land. So they  celebrate  Dormition on August 28.

This post shows how I saw it celebrated in 2007 and 2006 in the Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem. I did not take pictures during the liturgy in the sanctuary. But when we went down to the crypt to continue the prayer, it was dark enough that I could discreetly shoot a few photos.

The Benedictine monks and priests and the people gathered around Mary.
.


German and Latin were the main languages.
.
Here above, a monk offers greens for a special blessing as part of the liturgy.

Afterwards, the faithful lingered to light candles or kneel in private prayer.

.

Wikipedia says,
"The Assumption is important to many Catholics as the Virgin Mary's heavenly birthday (the day that Mary was received into Heaven). Her acceptance into the glory of Heaven is seen by them as the symbol of the promise made by Jesus to all enduring Christians that they too will be received into paradise."

So it was appropriate for a "birthday" to continue the celebration with a reception in the courtyard.

As the monk said, his cowl is not just for prayer but also a good shield from the intense noonday sun.

.

Bon fete to Christians who mark this day!

.

Vs for Christians

" Voice of one crying in the wilderness." Matthew 3:13. Here at our local monastery John the Baptist baptizes Jesus. The Vulgate translation got it wrong. Should be "A voice cries: In the wilderness. . .".

  "Verily, verily, I say unto you . . . " Jesus speaks many verily verilies in the New Testament.

  Vicarious atonement--the redeeming of sinners by shedding blood on the cross. The Franciscan emblem shows the pierced hand of Jesus reaching out of the cloud, joining the bloody-from-stigmata hand of Francis of Assisi, and the Holy Spirit dove descending on both.

  Virgin Mary in the crypt of the Dormition Abbey.