The glorious pilgrimage

I'm sorry to say, dear pilgrim, that I cannot take you all the way on this last leg of the rosary pilgrimage. But let us go as far as we can.

The Holy Sepulchre - the Resurrection
We finished the sorrowful pilgrimage up in the Calvary Chapel, and from there it's only a short distance to the Tomb (or Sepulchre) of Jesus (cf. John 19:41-42), within the same large church. Go down the steps to the ground level and head on past the marble slab on the floor, which marks where Jesus' body was prepared for burial (John 19:40). Alternatively, if you've just entered the church, turn left at the aforementioned marble slab (I'm giving detailed directions here because so many pilgrims get a bit lost, there being no signs in the church). Bearing slightly to the right, you'll come to the 'Edicule', which houses the Empty Tomb.

The Edicule, which houses the Empty Tomb

When the Christians were first able to build a church on this most important site, they didn't do what we would probably do today, which is to preserve the tomb in its original appearance. This was partly because the place had been damaged by the Temple of Jupiter the pagan Romans had plonked on top of it, but also because the ancients had different ideas from us about how to do honour to holy sites. So they quarried away the small hillside, leaving only the rock immediately surrounding the Tomb. This was then encased in an ornate construction, which like the church as a whole had to be rebuilt twice in its history. The result confuses some pilgrims - I've been asked several times, "Excuse me, what's in there?"

The proper answer to that question, of course, is "Nothing." Pilgrims come from all over the world to visit the Tomb not because Jesus is there, but because He isn't. If He was there, the Tomb would be no different from the tombs of prophets and holy men that Jews and Muslims visit, rather than the place where everything changed for ever.

The queue to visit the Tomb always seems to be longer than that to visit the Rock of Calvary - I guess people prefer the Resurrection to the Cross. A good rule-of-thumb is that if the queue extends about halfway around the Edicule, it might take about an hour to get in. If you have the time and the patience for whatever wait is involved, you come first into an entrance lobby. In the centre of this lobby is a plinth containing a section of the rock that was rolled away from the door of the Tomb. Beyond, through a low opening (mind your head!) is the Tomb proper. A marble slab covers the limestone slab on which Jesus was laid and from which He rose to new life. You're only allowed a few moments there; but take at least one moment to give thanks for your baptism, by which you were buried with Christ and rose with Him to walk in newness of life.

Mount of Olives - the Ascension
It's a climb of about 100m from the Garden of Gethsemane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives, up to traditional place of the Lord's ascension into heaven. Although that idea of 'ascension' is not to be taken with spatial literalness, as if heaven was actually somewhere 'up there', the hike up the hill helps to underline the metaphorical truth of ascension. (But if you're not fit enough for it, you can take the 275 bus from near the Damascus Gate.)

Going down the Mount of Olives on Palm Sunday

The view to the east from the Mount of Olives rapidly becomes desert as the land falls towards the Jordan and the further lands of Moab and Ammon, so it was an important vantage point in time of war. To the west, however, is an iconic view of Jerusalem. The golden Dome of the Rock in the middle distance occupies the spot where the Temple stood in Gospel times - an uplifting sight for many a Jewish pilgrim, but a matter of grief for Jesus (Luke 19:41-44). That Temple of stone remained on earth while the Temple of Christ's body went into heaven.

Venerating the footprint of Jesus

The Chapel of the Ascension was taken over by the Muslims many centuries ago, and a small mosque still stands by the entrance; but it's open to pilgrims (and the entrance fee compares well with those charged by many Christian-owned holy places). Most of the site remains open to the sky, as originally designed, but the central Dome of the Ascension is closed over. Inside, and puzzlingly off-centre, a section of limestone is exposed. It supposedly bears one of the footprints that Jesus left behind when He ascended from that spot. Two thousand years of pilgrims touching it and kissing it, however, have left any original imprint rather unclear. (The other footprint, by the way, was apparently chiselled out and taken to the Al-Aqsa Mosque over on the Temple Mount.)

You can usually take as much time as you want to pray here, so long as you leave space for the other visitors coming in and out. This is the place where, in the words of the Exsultet, heaven was wedded to earth. The Ascension does not mean that Jesus parted from us - rather it means He is universally available.

The Upper Room - the Coming of the Holy Spirit
After Jesus ascended into heaven, the apostles "returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey away; and when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying"(Acts 1:12-13). Retracing this route involves going down into the Kidron Valley and then slowly up again to pass south of the Temple Mount and eventually to what is now called Mount Zion, with the dome and clock tower of Dormition Abbey as a landmark.

We had previously visited the Upper Room to recall the Last Supper; but now we enter it after remembering the transformative events of the Death and Resurrection of Christ. Like the apostles and the other disciples, we have come to pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised. Although today's Upper Room is almost certainly larger than in those days, the fact that about 120 disciples gathered there indicates that the original room certainly wasn't tiny either.

Celebrating Pentecost in the Upper Room

Before the 1948 War, the place was being used as a mosque, and it still has its mihrab (an alcove indicating the direction of Mecca). On the opposite side of the room is a model of an olive tree, with some branches lopped off and new shoots growing - it presumably refers to St. Paul's image of the Chosen People as an olive tree (Romans 11:17-24).

The day the Holy Spirit came is noted, among other things, for the way in which all the people gathered in Jerusalem at that time were able to hear the disciples praising God in their own language. That miracle is usually seen as signifying the fact that people of all nations would become disciples of Jesus Christ and that the Gospel would be proclaimed in every language on earth. That is now being fulfilled, and even on an ordinary day in the Upper Room you can hear different groups of pilgrims praying and singing in their various languages - an echo of that first Pentecost.

Mary's Tomb - the Assumption
Just round the corner from the Garden of Gethsemane, on the way towards the Lions' Gate, the pilgrim can go down to the Tomb of the Virgin. The current church used to be the crypt of a larger church, and you have to descend some stairs even to get to the door of the church, and then down a longer flight of steps into the depths of the earth (as you'll have discovered by now, disabled access isn't really a thing in the Holy Land).

Our Lady's tomb is to the right when you reach the bottom. As with her Son's Tomb, the surrounding rock has been quarried away and a small chapel built round it instead. And like her Son's Tomb, this tomb is empty.

Pilgrims praying at Mary's Tomb

Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox churches all believe that both the soul and the body of the Blessed Virgin Mary were taken into heaven; but for the details of that there are some different traditions. Some believe that she went up to heaven without dying, like Elijah; but the majority tradition is that she did die first, like her Son. Again, some locate her tomb in Ephesus; but most have her death, burial, and assumption taking place in Jerusalem. My favourite story is the one in which St. Thomas is the only one of the Apostles absent when Mary dies and is buried. On his return to Jerusalem he asks for her tomb to be opened so that he can see her body - but they find the tomb is now empty.

In any event, her Assumption is a reminder of how close she was and is to her Son. And it's also a reminder that one day all tombs will be empty.

Despite other similarities, the Tomb of the Virgin is not as busy as that of Jesus, so you might be able to spend a few minutes praying in there. If not, however, there's a place you can sit just outside the tomb, with a partial view inside.

Heaven - the Coronation of Our Lady
Our pilgrimage began with Mary, at her home in Nazareth. It will also end with Mary, at her new home in heaven. But not yet. I cannot take you there as I have done for the other places on our pilgrimage. God willing, however, we will meet there one day, when our earthly pilgrimage is ended.

It has been good to visit the earthly Jerusalem, "but the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother"(Gal 4:26). "And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars"(Rev 12:1).