One memory that stood out in my mind from my time in Jerusalem was the Last Week of Christ’s Life Field Trips. One of the stops was the Dominus Flevit Church: this church is a Franciscan church commemorating where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Our group always sang a hymn at every site we went to. We especially loved singing in the old church because the amazing acoustics made us all sound so much.
As we were walking around this church and getting ready to sing, a Franciscan Monk came up to our group asking who we were and where we were visiting from. No one could understand what he was saying but I had heard him say hello in Polish. I learned the word on my mission in Montreal, Quebec which had a lot of immigrants from Poland living there. So, I knew this monk spoke Polish. I asked if he spoke English but he shook his head. I think I then responded to him in French because that was my habit when someone tried to speak to me in another language from English (it was a habit I picked up on my mission). And guess what? It turns out this cute little elderly monk spoke French also! So, here I was, in Jerusalem, speaking French to a Polish Franciscan Monk.
I asked him if we could sing a song in the church. He didn’t say yes but he asked us to follow him. Our entire group followed him to a little room at the back of the church where there was a small pump organ. He sat down at the organ and told us to sing. I don’t remember the hymn we sung (we most likely picked something he would recognize). He followed along on the very old and out of tune pump organ. It was a beautiful experience worshipping together through music.
Story by Karla Wasden Kelsch who was a student Summer 1997
Photo also courtesy of Karla
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