Ascending the mount for the Ascension prayer

On Wednesday, May 16, 2012, a group from the Jerusalem kehilla ascended the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem to pray vespers at the place of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. At the end of mass, the group left the home of the kehilla on Rabbi Kook Street and marched in the direction of Damascus Gate. There they boarded a bus that took them to the top of the Mount of Olives. In the courtyard of the place of the Ascension, they were warmly welcomed by the young Franciscans who were awaiting the pilgrims there.

The members of the Hebrew speaking kehilla gathered in the small chapel and sang evening prayer with great enthusiasm and deep devotion. The joy to be in the very place where Jesus ascended into heaven filled all the participants. During the course of the prayer, young people from the Arabic speaking parish arrived, accompanied by their parish priest, Father Firas, and Brother Ayman. They came together with the Al-Raja Group (Hope), the musicians of the Arabic speaking parish. The meeting was moving and friendly – a great blessing at this time of the liturgical year at the very place where Jesus takes leave of his disciples and sends them into the world.

"For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near" (Ephesians 2:14-17).