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Revered Jerusalem Church At Jesus Crucifixion Site Comes Alive In Ce

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  • Revered Jerusalem Church At Jesus Crucifixion Site Comes Alive In Ce

    REVERED JERUSALEM CHURCH AT JESUS CRUCIFIXION SITE COMES ALIVE IN CENTURIES-OLD NIGHT CEREMONY

    Newser
    http://www.newser.com/article/d9v3grmo0/revered-jerusalem-church-at-jesus-crucifixion-site-comes-alive-in-centuries-old-night-ceremony.html
    May 31 2012

    By DANIELA BERRETTA | ASSOCIATED PRESS

    Revered Jerusalem church comes alive at night

    After the last tourists leave the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in
    Jerusalem's Old City at nightfall, a little-known but centuries-old
    tradition unfolds at one of Christianity's holiest sites.

    Clerics from the three largest denominations represented in the church
    _ Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Roman Catholic _ gather each night
    for special prayers reserved for the men who take care of the site
    where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

    Starting at midnight, clerics and monks sing and pray for hours,
    their chants echoing through the cavernous chambers of the Holy
    Sepulcher's darkest rooms.

    "The door of the church is closed, no pilgrims, no tourists, it's
    very quiet," said Father Isidoros Fakitsas, the superior of the Greek
    Orthodox Patriarchate at the church. "It's amazing to feel the liturgy
    with no people, only the monks."

    Isidoros said he has attended the services for 21 years.

    The preparations require a rigid routine. Before the first prayers of
    the new day, the Christian shrine needs to be cleaned, and maintenance
    work has to be done.

    The clerics sweep the floors, replace oil lamps and clean candle
    holders, after thousands of pilgrims visited throughout the previous
    day. Occasionally a small number of devoted pilgrims help them with the
    cleanup and are permitted to stay and pray inside the church all night.

    The early morning mass is a tradition associated with monastic life,
    said Father Eugenio Alliata, professor of Christian Archaeology at
    the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem. "Mostly monks and
    religious people want to pray not only all the day, but also all the
    night, or part of the day or part of the night. It is part of the
    desire to pray without ceasing because prayers to God must be given
    all the time, day and night," Alliata said.

    Father Fergus Clarke, the guardian for the Franciscan community inside
    the Holy Sepulcher, said the night prayers require a certain amount
    of personal sacrifice, but also bring greater spiritual fulfillment.

    "That's a wonderful vocation ... to be able to do something like that,
    to know that while people are sleeping, others are praying," he said.

    The night liturgies inside the Holy Sepulcher are regulated by a
    consolidated tradition: The Greek-Orthodox start to celebrate mass
    inside Jesus' Tomb at 12:30 a.m., before handing over to the Armenians
    and then the Franciscans. The Greek Orthodox liturgy at the tomb is
    the longest, lasting for about three and a half hours; the Armenians
    then take over for an hour and a half and the Franciscans for another
    half hour.

    The night service is subject to some variations. On the feast of
    Saint Matthias on the morning of May 14, for example, Catholics lead
    a procession to Jesus' tomb during the Greek Orthodox liturgy.

    Sounds collided with one another that night. The celestial voices of
    Armenian priests rose from their wing of the Church as the sound of
    a Franciscan pipe organ came from the opposite direction.

    Competing for attention is nothing new in the ancient church. The three
    main denominations that share the church jealously guard their turf,
    and an air of mistrust lingers as each group makes sure no one else
    crosses into their space.

    While the Tomb of Jesus and the main passages of the Holy Sepulcher
    are considered common spaces, the three main religious communities
    each own a part of the church: The Chapel of Saint Helen, near the
    place where Jesus' cross is said to have been found, belongs to the
    Armenians; the Greek-Orthodox Church has ownership over the largest
    part of the church, including the Altar of the Calvary, where Jesus's
    cross was raised; the Franciscans own the Chapel of the Crucifixion
    where Jesus was crucified, along with the northern part of the Church,
    where according to tradition Jesus appeared to his mother.

    The church was first built by Roman Emperor Constantine in 325,
    at the site where the tomb of Jesus was believed to have been found.

    Constantine's structure was destroyed in 1009 by Muslim Caliph
    al-Hakim. A 12th century restoration by the Crusaders gave the Holy
    Sepulcher its current appearance.

    Life inside the Holy Sepulcher is regulated by a complex maze of
    norms that are often subject to different interpretations, said Father
    Samuel Aghoyan, the Armenian Superior of the Holy Sepulcher. At times,
    tensions have even spilled over into violence, with monks pushing
    and punching each other.

    "We keep almost awake at night here to see that things are done
    properly, on time, that no one will trespass the other's right by
    doing things that he's not supposed to do," said Father Samuel. "So
    we have to be careful and watch what we do or what they do."

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