| Day 10 continued.... |
| After a lunch of pita, St. Peter�s fish and dates, we drive along the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Lunch had been interesting, especially the waitress�s description of how St. Peter�s fish is prepared: �First, you pick it up from the sea, then you dip it in something, then you take it out. That�s it.� During our drive, we pass a church that convinces me there is a church for everything: The Church of the Miracle of the Swine; here it was that the herd of swine flung themselves into the Sea after being possessed by the demons Jesus had exorcised. Past the church we see rolling hills to the right, the mist covered sea to the left. We have arrived at Tabghe. The first thing we see is an olive press made of local stone. Black olives are placed on the stone, and by the agency of a wooden lever and the help of a donkey, a large stone is ground over them to produce oil. Water is added and the oil is skimmed off the top�the first press is virgin olive oil; there are a total of three presses. The remaining two are less than virgin. (Wine is pressed by foot so that the pit won�t be smashed�that would cause it to be bitter.) We enter the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, described in Matthew 14. It is built over the ruins of churches from the 4th and 5th centuries. In front of the rock the churches were built on is a mosaic of the loaves and fishes. This is a new mosaic, completed in the 1980�s, but was done in the traditional method. The artist is Egyptian, so the mosaic is more reminiscent of the Nile than the Sea of Galilee. Some of the floor is original, and some is restored. |
| We go through a gate that our guide, Roni, unlocks for us, and walk down a long, gravel path to a stone altar under a thatched shelter facing the Sea of Galilee. Here, we have Mass; the responsorial Psalm is Psalm 40, my favorite; the Communion hymn is Pescador de Hombres.After Mass we climb down a rocky embankment to the shores of the Sea of Galilee. |
| Back on the bus, we drive to Genosar, where there is a boat, found in 1986 in the Sea of Galilee, which dates back to the time of Christ. On the way back, we see Mount Arbel rising up jagged against the twilight sky. Josephus writes that Jews hid in the caves there during the uprising, and rather than fall into the hands of the Romans, they jumped to their deaths. Driving through Nazareth, we decide en masse to stop for liquor. Eli, our driver, pulls up to a grocery store, but the owner has just closed it to go home and eat�finally it is night, and he can break his fast for Ramadan. Seeing a busload of Americans descending upon his convenience store, however, persuaded him to fast a little longer, and in a few minutes the door was unlocked for us. Almost everyone bought wine, and we emerged from the store, joyous, bottles clinking and clanging. Back at Kefar Ha Choresh, we have dinner and retire to Faye and Jim�s room for an evening of drinking, which could only have been improved it the talk hadn�t turned to money and politics. Afterwards I sit out on the steps, smoking and studying until Father Greg walks by and we talk. |
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| Mass on the shores of the Sea of Galilee |