We started our day at the Church of All Nations, also known as Church of the Agony. In the mosaic on the front of the church, agony is depicted in Jesus’ face, representative of the Lucan text of Jesus’ praying in the garden before entering the city of Jerusalem for the final time. Of course the church was beautiful but what really caught my imagination here were the olive trees. Outside the church is a well manicured garden filled with olive trees, rosemary bushes, and beautiful floral varieties. You cannot enter the garden but you can walk around it, getting close enough to breathe in the aromas and almost touch the plants at the edges. Side note: I wish I could post pictures for you. Once I get back to the states, I will be able to bypass the Internet issue I am having here and do so, but for now, my descriptions in writing will have to do. If you follow me on Facebook, I may post some pictures there.
I learned that olive trees are extremely resilient and grow quickly and in Israel, they are protected, meaning you cannot cut them down without express permission from the government. Our teachers told us that if there needs to be removal of olive trees due to a building project, the builders are required to move the trees. The trees are cut down, pieced apart, and replanted. Being a Minnesota girl, it was hard to imagine a tree actually surviving that kind of trauma, but that’s what they shared – the tree simply begins again after being transplanted. There was a very old olive tree when we first entered the garden gates and if you looked closely (I will try to share this picture on my Facebook page), you can see directly inside the tree – it is hollow. Inside the hollow tree you could see the gardeners tools were kept. The tree was so incredible. It’s wood was grooved and knotted, grown up in several different ways – branches that were reaching up, some to the side, green everywhere and some of the green hanging so low it is almost touching the ground below. Olive trees are not particularly tall. This one was extremely wide at the base. New branches were sprouting out from it all over. Our teachers said olive trees grow, rot in the middle while at the same time, sprouting all the new growth on the outside, which continues and continues into its very old age…they grow, rot in the middle and sprout new life out of the old! What does this remind us of??? The moment I put that together in my head, I realized why the olive tree is used so frequently in scripture! Psalm 52:8
But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;
I trust in the loving kindness of God forever and ever.
And not only many places in Psalms, also in Zechariah, Romans, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Hosea, Habakkuk, Deuteronomy, Judges, Luke to name a few.
Sixty nations came together to build Church of All Nations. It has 12 domes and is incredibly ornate inside. We came just before Mass in the early morning so we were able to hear the monks and nuns practicing their choral pieces before Mass began; it was honey to the ears. Sitting around the edges of the church, taking in the deep, woody smells of incense, listening to the hollowing sounds of the voices lifted into the domed spaces, I thought about all the sensory details of our traditions and how they give us comfort. It isn’t just one thing, it is many things all at once for our bodies, our minds, our hearts…not being one that really likes all the pomp and circumstance of Mass, after being in the garden, it stilled me in a new way. And I think that was good…it was a new branch for me.
What is a new branch for you today?
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