The place I most wanted to visit in latter years has been the Holy Land. So in my Jubilee Year I booked myself on Kathleen Somers’ pilgrimage from Coolock and arrived in Jerusalem.

The Walls of Jerusalem

The first thing that struck me was how stone was so much a part of the landscape both in the city itself and in the rural areas. I began to think of this stone and how everywhere on the planet it holds the story of each local area and forms the contours of each place. And here too in the land of Jesus the stone holds the story of where he lived and died and was buried and rose again.

On the Temple steps we sat and remembered how the young Jesus sat there as was the custom and discussed his faith with priests and rabbis. We thought of  Mary and Joseph frantic like any parent would be, in search of their child.  The stones beneath knew it all. They have held the memory and have carried it into every generation.  I said a quiet thank you to them as we left.

Steps of the Temple

An enormous rock is part of the Mount of Olives and we imagined Jesus falling down onto the rock as he looked into the abyss of his coming suffering and death.  The rock was the chalice that received his sweat of blood as he prayed for strength and courage. It was a moving moment for us to touch that rock as we prayed.

Mount of Olives, Gethsemane

We spent a few hours in the desert and tried to imagine what forty days must have been like in the heat and with little or no shade.  Once again the stone was everywhere. We wondered if Jesus had walked on these very stones and asked ourselves where he might have found water.

Desert scene

We met some friendly Bedouins – perhaps he did too – did they lend him a donkey or some shelter from the midday sun?

At each step of this sacred journey as we moved through the life of Jesus on earth, the stones and rocks were our friends and they cried out their testimony of the events we hold sacred. They helped us to remember how the God of creation came to live among us as part of  creation.  Now we can sense God’s  love at every turn of the road and in everything that is.

The Annunciation

If we should forget we know that the stones will cry out. 

Rosaleen Hogan rsm
South Central Province