Come to Israel, Day 6

Our next stop was The Garden of Gethsemane, which is a totally walled garden.

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We entered into the public garden, where a sign at the entrance starts with Jesus’ words and explains that this is the spot where Jesus asked his disciples if they couldn’t even pray with him for one hour. Leo said that he left his disciples there while he went up to the rock and prayed.

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Inside a niche in the interior of the same wall was a pillar that marked the spot where Jesus was arrested. The convent to the right of the garden maintains the path where Jesus walked from there.

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Leo explained that the Garden of Gethsemane means the olives pressing place. Here the entire hill of olives was pressed into oil in a single day. An ancient olive press was discovered in the valley nearby.

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 Walking through the 2000-year-old trees, we came to the side entrance of the Church of the Agony (also known as The Church of All Nations.

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As we entered, we noticed a lovely stained-glass window showing a cross and beautiful images on the walls of Jesus and the Apostles, and one of which was of Judas kissing Jesus.

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This place is called the Church of all Nations because the Franciscan Church was built with donation from many nations. It sits at the base of the Mount of Olives and was built in 1924 by Antonio Barluzzi.  The interior of the church is a mixture of Islamic-style domes and the Christian Basilica of the Agony in the front.

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We made our way to the main altar, which stands behind the actual stone of the agony, where Jesus prayed, and even sweat blood.

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 Leo stated that the alabaster stone shines moonlight into the church at night, probably through the stained-glass center of the dome above the altar.

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While we were not allowed to touch it, we did get to pray in front of it.

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After praying, we exited through the other side door – and to our amazement found the rest of the alabaster rock continued right alongside our path! An image near the rock showed just what it would have been like for Jesus to have prayed on that rock – it basically ran out of the side of the church and ended with a scene of Jesus praying.

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Now we left the original Garden, crossed the street and entered a private garden of gethsemane (owned by the convent) through another gate. We walked along an uphill path to the top to celebrate mass.

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Here, Leo explained how the roots of the olive trees can produce a whole new tree from the same root – thereby making the tree last thousands of years, even if the initial tree doesn’t.

   From here we could see all of Jerusalem, and Leo again pointed out the golden dome. And right above that was the Golden Gates – two walled up entry gates into Jerusalem (in the old wall).

    Leo said that the Israeli Christians believe that Jesus will return and open those gates first!

It wasn’t until we were leaving the whole area, that we had a chance to see the entire church behind us – which was filled with columns holding up circular ceilings, (13), that of course on the inside covered with mosaics.

Tomorrow begins the Via Dolorosa…