Snow keeps us at home

On Sunday, December 1, 2013, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem asked the faithful to pray for rain. The country was parched. Ten days later the storm arrived, cold, rain and more snow than has been seen in decades. We thank our Creator God for pouring out this blessing on the land that needs this blessing of water.

The snow has kept Jerusalemites at home. Many activities of the Hebrew speaking communities had to be cancelled: the Thursday evening lesson in the Jerusalem kehilla, the priests’ meeting that was scheduled for Friday morning, the meeting of the team that visit the prisons on Friday afternoon, the catechism classes in Jerusalem and in the Divine Mercy Chapel in Tel Aviv, the retreat day in preparation for Christmas scheduled in Ein Karem on Saturday morning…

We pray during these days for the many who have no electricity, no heat, not enough food. In a special way we pray for those who have no homes, the poor, the asylum seekers and especially the children and the elderly.

At mass, in the Jerusalem kehilla on Friday evening, the entry song, sung with great fervor, was from the Song of Azaria, in the Book of Daniel: