On Sunday, July 6th, our group traveled to a village west of Jerusalem, Abu Ghosh, to worship in a Crusader Church — that is, a church built during Crusader times (12th century). Why go there? For one thing, the acoustics of the church were wonderful. The chanting of the French Benedictine monks and nuns from that church, accompanied sometimes on a special kind of harp, sounded beautiful in that sanctuary. But for another, Abu Ghosh is the leading candidate among 4 (or perhaps 9) sites to be the place of the biblical Emmaus. Yes, the music and worship was beautiful. They also baptized two young children. In mid-service we processed into the crypt below the church for the baptism around an altar set atop an ancient spring that may also have served as a “mikveh,” a place for ritual baths. They didn’t use those baths for a baptism by immersion, but there was still something quite moving about us processing around that ancient place for the baptism. The service was an “ordinary” Catholic mass (in Latin and French, so i didn’t understand much), but it still was moving for me to commune in the place (or, the leading candidate to be the place) where Jesus was recognized by the two disciples on Easter Day “in the breaking of the bread.”
