Light Tour God Round: Jerusalem Tour with John Morton

At breakfast John talks about going on a tour of the Western Wall Tunnel, which was actually a wall built by Herod shortly before the birth of Jesus, as part of an expansion of the city of Jerusalem . Over the centuries it was built upon, and like so many ancient cities all over the world it was eventually buried by layers of new construction. I guess that someday people will be touring some pretty deep tunnels in Manhattan.

Gradually, the group grows as the word spreads, until we’re about 35 people strolling through the narrow streets of the old city. We tour the tunnels, walking through dark stone alleyways and underground pools with a local guide.

When we emerge, John decides to start touring some of our other favorite places from past trips in Jerusalem. Generally these are where some Biblical event was said to have taken place, and then a church was built in that place. Sometimes the exact site is known and sometimes it isn’t. We go to the Church of St. Anne (supposed birthplace of Mary, mother of Jesus), Church of the Flagellation, (supposed place where Jesus was whipped on his way to the crucifixion), and then we walk along the outer perimeter of the wall surrounding Jerusalem to visit the Golden Gate at the eastern end of the old city. This is the place where some clever people predicted that the Messiah will enter Jerusalem when he returns, so some other people who thought they were even more clever figured that if they blocked it with stone and surrounded it with a cemetery, they could prevent the Messiah’s return. (We’re a race of geniuses.)

At each place John does a seminar or moment of peace or blessing, and we plant light columns, so if the place isn’t a genuine holy site already we’ll make it into one. (Just like when J-R says that if he doesn’t tell you what you want to hear, tell it to yourself. If you’re not in a holy place, make it into one.) At the Church of St. Anne the group sits quietly and then spontaneously starts singing “Alleluiah” as we used to do on PAT IV’s. In each of these locations I feel John’s calm infusing and influencing the place. Part of visiting a holy place is keeping it clean, and part of making a holy place is cleaning it up. So either way we’re a cleaning crew. Taking out the garbage.

We end up at the Golden Gate at sunset, John talks a bit and we do a group photo, then go around the rest of the outer wall to our hotel just before dark. Good job.
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