The Blessing

So today I got blessed by the Pope. But that happened later in the day.

            After our test in the morning, we had individual, free educational time, where we got to explore the city, and see things that had interested us in more detail. A group of us decided to walk the ramparts of the old city walls. It was so cool to walk around the old city, to see the on my left the old city, and on my right, through the notches in the wall, the new city. The juxtaposition of ancient and modern, reverent and industrial was very interesting to see from high above the city. “May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels. For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, ‘Peace be within you,’” Psalm 122:7-8.

            Later in the afternoon, a group of friends and I went down to a park in the Hinnom Valley near JUC. As we walked down the hill and tried to cross the street, we were stopped by a few armed policemen. They didn’t give an explanation, but shortly after we were stopped, we heard sirens and the rumble of cars. Emily said to us, “guys I think you should take out your cameras, right now!” We did, and seconds later a few motorcycles and a long string of official looking cars drove by. The sixth car, as it rounded the corner we were standing on, rolled down its rear window on our side. In the back seat we had a clear view of Pope Francis! He leaned over and waved at us and gave a blessing as he drove by. It all happened so fast, there were only three of us and an Israeli family. As we crossed the street on of the officers, leaned over and said to us, “now you can go back and tell all your friends you’ve seen the Pope.

            We walked down into the park and laid out on the grass, in the sun, and caught up on some reading. As we were sitting there, a shepherd came up from the southern end of the park, with his flock of forty sheep. The sheep roamed all over the park grazing around the park for ten minutes or so, until the shepherd called them back to him and took them on one of the paths out of the park.  It was so bizarre to see sheep have complete rain of the public park we were in, grazing around us as we were reading.

            Later in the evening, group of us went into the old city and wandered around the markets, and found a small little hole in the wall and got some pita and falafel. We eventually wandered back to the Jappa gate were we ran into a parade for the patriarch of Lebanon; there were about thirty bagpipers and a few drummers; the noise echoed off the walls of the old city, it was very impressive.  We ended the night by exploring the new city and went into a few bakeries and gelato shops. It was a good day to relax and explore and learn the city.