Madaba is known for its Byzantine mosaics, which are located in several archaeological sites around the city. In fact, Madaba is known as "The City of Mosaics." We only had time to visit one, but it was breathtaking nonetheless. We visited the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George.
This beautiful basilica church is known, in particular, for one very special mosaic: The Map of Madaba.
If you look somewhat in the center, you can see a line of trees. That is the River Jordan. |
The shores of the Dead Sea (in the center)
Even now, as I look at these pictures and upload them, it hasn't really hit me what I am seeing and experiencing. I stood where Moses stood (according to Scripture). I saw the mountains and sea and land that he saw. I am beholding the very land where the Bible happened. I don't even know what to say as I ponder that...
After all this we celebrated Mass in a small chapel on the hill, behind the basilica. It was quite beautiful.
And now we are in Petra, and will begin our tour of this place tomorrow. Two reflections come to my mind. The first is something the tour guide said. He said to us "You know, Moses did actually get to enter the Promised Land. Does anyone know when?" When there was silence, he replied "in the Transfiguration! So don't give up; things may work out in the end." I had never thought of that; that in the Transfiguration (and we will visit Mt. Tabor where tradition holds that took place) Moses did finally enter the Promised Land. The Spiritual Life is not merely about an end; it is about the journey as well. How we experience God in our everyday lives. My Spiritual Director. Fr. Chuck, often says to me "God writes straight in crooked lines." In other words, things may not make sense to us, but to the One who knows all and sees all, everything is ordered. Moses may not have entered the Promised Land in his time and way, but he got there nonetheless.
Which leads me to my second reflection. During my Pastoral Year, my prayer life suffered a great deal. The prayer life in the seminary is very regimented, and being in a parish where there is no regimen of prayer, I never really adapted to it. As I have re-entered formation, I have been trying to get "back on track" and rebuild a prayer life. I have been very frustrated with myself, because I seem to not really find my prayer life all that important. Instead of committing myself to take time and prayer each day (outside of communal prayer) I find other things to do. Today as we were pulling up to our hotel in Petra, we passed a Muslim man on the sidewalk who was praying on his mat. Just on the sidewalk. We also passed a barbershop, where the barber was doing the same on the floor of his shop. It struck me: prayer for these men is not something apart from their everyday lives; it is part of it, just as work and walking are. I feel truly inspired by these men to rediscover the longing of my heart...and just pray...and just be...with God.
Tomorrow, Petra.
Peace!
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Reading about your travels so far has made me really happy for you! What a wonderful opportunity to "walk and see" Scripture. Know that you're in my thoughts and prayers.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Chris! Thanks for sharing. That is a very interesting insight about Moses having made it to the Holy Land, I too had never thought about of him making it in the Transfiguration. And also your observation about the muslim men praying regardless of where they are at, what a great challenge for us. Anyways keep enjoying, meanwhile I'm about to go to Psalms class, do I need to say more!
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