Sunday 11 November was Remembrance Sunday. Our Pilgrimage marked the day by a two minute silence led by Mgr Phelim Rowland, former Army Chaplain who is a chaplain on our pilgrimage.
We then looked around the Milk Grotto which is attached to the Church of the Nativity. The Milk Grotto is so named as it is believed this is where the Holy Family moved after Mary had given birth and it was where she nursed the baby Jesus. Tradition says that a few drops of her breast milk dropped onto the floor and turned the cave white.
Thinking about the rather practical aspect of nursing baby Jesus was something that had not occurred to many pilgrims, possibly because it is not mentioned in the Gospels. Yet, it was a chance to carry out further devotions to Our Lady and spend some time in private prayer before we got onto a coach and celebrated Mass at the nearby parish of Beit Jala (read more about that here)
Sunday afternoon
In the afternoon pilgrims had the choice to have either a free afternoon or to take a trip to The Dead Sea. Many pilgrims chose the latter and had a wonderful afternoon floating in the salty water!
Other pilgrims took the opportunity to make a personal visit to the Church of the Nativity which we had missed out on due to our itinerary change. Others took the chance to explore Bethlehem and others caught up on sleep.
The Church of the Nativity was extremely crowded and a long queue had formed around the Church to visit the underground site where Jesus was apparently born. The Church of the Nativity was built in the fourth century and original parts still remain, it has not been altered and rebuilt as much as other churches we have seen.
The site is under the altar and pilgrims have to descend some steep steps before finding the spot marked by a silver cross on the floor. The crowds once again made this a difficult thing to experience reverently. Yet as one pilgrim pointed out "even though there are so many people, and even though they are pushing and jostling, the very fact that they are all here means the recognise the importance of the site, and that is a good thing to experience, even if it isn't as quiet or reverent as I would like personally." Another pilgrim merely pointed out that as we are from England we like queues. "No one else likes queues though, so I didn't really mind that it was a bit hectic. An orderly line would have meant it took even longer!"
On Sunday evening we were treated to dinner at 'The Tent Restaurant', close to the Field of the Shepherds. As well as some great local food, some pilgrims dressed in local dress, participated in a bit of dancing!
Monday morning will see those who have not yet had the chance be given an opportunity to experience the crowds at the Church of the Nativity before we move from Bethlehem to Jericho to have Mass at the Site of the Visitation and visit the Baptismal site at the River Jordan. From there we will travel to Galilee for the final stage of our pilgrimage.
