Brian Hamilton

Latroun Abbey

When we arrived at Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning, touchdown around 3am, a Lebanese monk named Father Louis was waiting to pick us up. Father Louis is a delightful man—with an impressive mastery of English, French, Hebrew, Arabic, and as part of the Maronite rite, Syriac. He drove us back too the Trappist monastery at Latroun, where we had been provided a place to stay, insisting on carrying our heaviest bags, offering a delicious homemade fruit juice to quench our thirst, and after showing us to our room, bowing and urging us to prayer for the monks’ conversion. After 45 minutes of sleep, we awoke for Lauds and morning mass—sung in French, which is the common language here. This abbey’s mother community is in France, and from what I heard before coming, the language is maintained as an alternative to the more freighted options of either Hebrew or Arabic. The day was spent mostly in quiet, of course, catching up on jet lag, hiking a few trails just around the abbey, joining in silent meals with the other guests, and praying the hours with the brothers. It has been a restful way to begin our stay in the Holy Land, and what better introduction to the spirit of this place than to pray the psalms?

Now it’s Thursday morning, in the quiet hours between morning vigils (sung around 4:30 here) and lauds (which will begin at 6:30, in twenty minutes). It’s the feast of the presentation of Mary the visitation of Mary [come on, the prayers were at 4:30am and in French!], which meant an especially long vigil including a reading from the one of the Fathers. (Which Father, neither Leo nor I managed to catch—again, all the liturgy is in French.) I haven’t yet learned whether a particular devotion to Mary is part of the Trappist tradition or just of this place, but a strong devotion certainly exists. Among what little art there is, images of Mary holding the baby Jesus predominate. Most prominently, and this Leo has explained as normal for Trappist architecture, an enormous statue of Mary carrying Jesus—and this Jesus clutches a cross even as a child—sits inset at the front of the church. Last night, to conclude Vespers, all lights were turned off save the one behind this statue, and the monks chanted Regina Coeli: beautiful. After Lauds and breakfast, the same Father Louis will take us to Emmaus, to pray in the church there, and then drive us to Bethlehem University where we will stay for the next few days. It will be our first encounter with a checkpoint, as we cross over into the West Bank, and we will pass through with utter ease thanks to the robe that Father Louis will be wearing. This time, then, we will not experience what stress and what fear the wall has caused for everyday residents of this region. Still, it will be an interesting sight—to be filled out later when we cross alone.

The hope is to post a number of other, more specific stories, along with pictures. Perhaps later today, if internet access is to be easily had in Bethlehem.

30 May 2007 |
tags: Holy Land 2007