CHRISTIANITY’S MOST HALLOWED SPOT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 91, 20 April 1946, Page 4

CHRISTIANITY’S MOST HALLOWED SPOT

JERUSALEM’S SHRINES ARE AGELESS (Specially written for “The Chronicle”) The thoughts of millions of Christians turn instinctively each Easter time to Jerusalem, scene of the great drama of the ages more than 1900 years ago. Throughout that Jong period the city has known few periods of peace, and again to-day, as in the time of the Romans, is a storm centre of conflicting racial interests. But. differences of race and even creed are bridged there by the presence of the holy places which perpetuate the story of the Crucifixion and Resurrection—the Garden of Gethsemane, the Street of Sorrows, the House of Veronica, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There have been many changes In the ancient city through the centuries, but a great number of the places associated with the story of the Crucifixion have become grouped together in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There are to be found the Pillar of the Scourging and the well in which St. Helena discovered the Cross. Today Mount Calvary* is simply a raised platform in the church, reached by a flight of stone steps. The Tomb of the Saviour is housed under the huge dome of the building, in an immense shrine covered with hundreds of votive lamps.

One of the historic buildings of old Jerusalem which has changed little is the House of Veronica, which is reached by walking along the Via Dolorosa from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. To-day the House of Veronica is a chapel of the Eastern Orthodox Church, but in it can still be seen a niece of the original road along which Christ went to His Crucifixion on the first Good Friday. The chapel also contains a striking reproduction of the famous “Cloth of Veronica.” which is painted in fawn and sepia tones on a large loosely draped canvas above the altar. GARDEN OF GEIHSEMANE

Outside the city walls in the Valley of the Kedron is the Garden of Gethsemane, which has remained practically unaltered through the centuries. Behind the yellow stone wall enclosing this hallowed area are neatly laid-out flower beds and pathways, and eight ancient olive trees from which leaves are plucked every year to be pasted on souvenir cards wnich the pilgrims to the holy places take away with them. The Garden of Gethsemane has been placed in the care of the Franciscan monks, who tend the flowers and olive trees. After the oil has been taken from the fruit of the latter the monks use the pips to make rosary beads. Priests and monks of several Christian churches, men of many different races, add colour to the scene around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, ownership of which is shared by trie Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian, Coptic, Syrian and Abyssinian Churches. Many of the rites performed are of ancient origin, and visitors come away from the services with the feeling that they have participated in ceremonies which have a significance all their own because of the historic places in which they are held. MODERN CITY GROWS But alongside the Jerusalem of hallowed Christian memories has risen a new city complete with palatial hotels, cabarets, cinemas and modern shops. From the up-to-date Zion Cinema it is possible to walk out of the 20th century through St. David’s Gate into the past, represented by the old walled city. The present, however, continues to encroach upon the historic Jerusalem, and many of the old buildings have disappeared in recent years. However, despite the turbulence of wars and countless civil disturbances, and the restless changing of the old for the new, Jerusalem remains Christendom’s most hallowed city, and will remain so as long as mAn remembers the great events which hannened there 19 centuries ago. Each Good Friday and Easier week-end servp to remind Christians everywhere