📸 Journals From Jerusalem Day 3

⛪An important aspect of the Holy Land Coordination's annual visit is to celebrate Sunday Mass with a local parish. On Sunday 19th January we journeyed to Aboud, a Palestinian village in the West Bank with nine ancient churches, and where Christians and Muslims live alongside each other. We were warmly welcomed by Father Remon Haddad and the parish community of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows.

🕯️Their pride in their community and love for their faith was a true "light shining in the darkness", the theme of this year's Holy Land Coordination.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 We were delighted to see the flags of the nations represented by the Bishops in the Coordination, which were sourced by the parish for the occasion, carried in the entrance procession by the Palestinian Catholic Scout Association of St John the Baptist.

🤍After mass we joined a parish meeting where locals shared their experiences of life under occupation with the Bishops. One young woman, who works as a nurse in Ramallah, gave a deeply felt testimony detailing how her mother passed away after being refused permission to cross a check point to get to a hospital in Jerusalem.

🙏During mass the Bishops of the Coordination were joined by Bishop William Shomali, Patriarchal Vicar for Jerusalem and Palestine, who said in his homily that the good news of Sunday's gospel passage was Jesus performing his first miracle at the Wedding Feast at Cana but that the good news of today was the agreement of the ceasefire. We pray that this ceasefire does not mean an end to war but a return to how things were before, and instead is the first step on a path that addresses the root causes of the conflict and brings justice and peace for all.