Three postings in one day !

More about Bethlehem .... 

The main reason pilgrims visit Bethlehem is to see the birthplace of Christ.  The Church of the Nativity is huge, with crypts, tunnels and hidden areas below ground level, as well as the vast church above.   Because of the huge numbers of tourists visiting, it is frequently  necessary to join queues and slowly shuffle along for more than an hour.   But on this visit, the church seemed more crowded than on my previous visit in 2012, I suspect because the interior space this visit is full of scaffolding and screening as a major restoration is taking place.

Restorations and cleaning have revealed beautiful gold mosaics on the walls, as well as the paintings of saints on the red limestone columns, painted by the Crusaders.   The iconostasis is typically Greek Orthodox, with icons and lamps and glittery 'bling' .... such as we never see in our Welsh or English Anglican churches ! 

The real purpose of our queueing was to go into the crypt and see the actual birthplace of Christ.   To the right of the iconostasis are some steep steps leading down to the Grotto of the Nativity.   Its strange how these sort of ancient places have an 'aura' of their own, but last time I was there, at the top of the steps, I had a sudden and very urgent desire to remove my sandals .... probably remembering what God said to Moses: "take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground" - it certainly seemed the right thing to do, so I went bare foot into the crypt.

Going down to the grotto ....

                                           ... and the star marking the actual spot where Christ was born.

I asked Bp. Dominic what the 14 points of the star represented, and ever the tease, he said they represented the 14 pains that Mary felt as she gave birth !   Obvious he'd never had a baby !

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After all the crowds and crush of our visit to the church, I got up early the next morning (hotel right next to the church) and went back into the church about 6.30 (it opens at 5 a.m.) and was able to wander around by myself in the peace of an almost empty building.   Much better !

Leaving through the 'Door of Humility' ....