Angels we have heard on high ...

The Church of the Visitation, where Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth.

That's right, you guessed it ... I spent yesterday touring Bethlehem and the surrounding region. As you know, Bethlehem is under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority and Israel has built a separation wall between the two regions. So, yes, we had to pass through a security check-point leaving Israeli territority and returning. More about this experience in a future blog.

The well at the Church of the Visitation.

We began our day by visiting the Church of the Visitation. This would have been the location of Zechariah's home where Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth to tell her that she was with child. As we climbed the hillside of Ein Kerem to reach the church, I realized the great distances that Mary would have travelled, with child, to visit Elizabeth - and with the heat and sun, how difficult this must have been for her.

The interior of the Church of John the Baptist.

Our next visit was to the Church of St. John the Baptist. This is the location of the birth of John the Baptist. Here, we descended into a cave below the church where the event is said to have occured.

The altar at the site where it is believed John the Baptist was born.

We had the opportunity to pray and reflect on these two events.

"When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb."

The entrance to the shepherds' fields where the angels announced the birth of Christ.

We then went to the site where the sheperds were tending their flock by night and a throng of heavenly hosts appeared to them and announced to them (ritually unclean, lower class citizens) that their saviour had been born.

The altar in the chapel at Sheperds' Fields was a Canadian gift.


Lunch at the Shepherds' Tent Restaurant - myself and Don, a priest from the Anglican Church of Australia.

After lunch at the Shepherd's Tent Restaurant we made our way to Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity - such familiar places we have all seen on Christmas Eve on the news and during the broadcast of the Christmas Eve Mass. The current basilica was rebuilt in its present form in 565CE by the Emperor Justinian I. We descended into the grotto where tradition says the baby Jesus was born.

The interior of the Church of the Nativity.

Entering the Church of the Nativity requires you to bend down and pass through this small door, placed there to prevent soldiers on horseback from entering the site after the Samaritan revolt of 529CE - it is the oldest continuously operating church having been rebuilt in 565CE.

A steep descent into the grotto under the Church of the Nativity.

Praying in the grotto at the Church of the Nativity.

Manger Square outside of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

The Church of the Nativity is shared by the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Churches. It is the oldest continuously operating church.

The 14-pointed silve star under the altar in the Grotto of the Church of the Nativity is the place where it is believed Jesus was born.