The day started very early as we had to get in line with pilgrims from all over to see the Temple Mount. Currently, land is worshipped on by the Muslims, and they close the site to non-Muslims at 10 a.m. in order to allow for worship. So, the lines gets very long, very fast to visit. While in line we were able to see a bar mitzvah celebration processing by.
Then, the beautiful Dome of the Rock at Temple Mount. Called Mount Moriah in the Bible (2 Chronicles 3:1) this was the site of the temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel and Herod. It is also one of the most holy places to Muslims, only behind Mecca and Medina in importance, as it is believed that Mohammed went to heaven from this spot.
(Disclaimer: To put words to the rest of today is quite difficult. Each of us had a different, personal, maybe meaningful, maybe spiritual experience. The locations signified along the Via Dolorosa are historical proximities, as the city of Jerusalem from Jesus' time was destroyed. And even many of these spots are now debated as to being where they truly should be. The most powerful moment for me lay outside of the Via Dolorosa, the traditional path of the Passion. That moment fell beneath the Antonia Fortress on an unearthed stone road which Christ walked on in his final hours.)
The Antonia Fortress was a military barracks built around 19 BC by Herod the Great named after Mark Antony. This site is now connected to a convent called Notre Dame de Sion. We climbed down to the basement to see large cisterns that laid beneath ancient Jerusalem and supplied water to the city. Then up some steps to a space just below the cistern vaults. Above the vaults lays a beautiful pavement made with huge stones. This road is believed to be the "lithostrotos" (the Pavement), which is mentioned in the Gospel account of Jesus' Passion (John 19:13). 
To think that Jesus walked down this road, cross on his back, tears in his eyes, sweat and blood on his brow. He walked down that road for you. He walked down it for me. And it made me crumble to the floor. I held the floor because I could not hold him. I knelt on that stone and just kept thanking him over, and over.
(This site is listed out of order from our day's journey. It was visited after stations 1 and 2, but I'm taking editorial license to keep the Via Dolorosa together.)
Via Dolorosa, or the Passion walk or the Stations of the Cross, originated in pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Early on, a set of seven scenes was usually represented by the current numbers 2,3,4,7,9 and 14 from the list below. The standard set from the 17th to 20th centuries has consisted of 14 pictures or sculptures depicting the following scenes:
1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus carries His cross
3. Jesus falls the first time
4. Jesus meets His mother
1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus carries His cross
3. Jesus falls the first time
4. Jesus meets His mother
5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry the cross
6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
7. Jesus falls the second time
7. Jesus falls the second time
8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
9. Jesus falls the third time
10. Jesus is stripped of his garments
11. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross
12. Jesus dies on the cross
13. Jesus is taken down from the cross (Deposition or Lamentation)
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb.
9. Jesus falls the third time
10. Jesus is stripped of his garments
11. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross
12. Jesus dies on the cross
13. Jesus is taken down from the cross (Deposition or Lamentation)
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb.
Stages 10-14 are all inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The site is revered as Golgotha (the Hill of Calvary, shown above), where Jesus was crucified, and is said also to contain the place where Jesus was buried (the Sepulchre, shown to the right). We will visit another place believed to be Golgotha later.
An Upper Room chapel is on the site believed to be where Jesus and his disciples shared the Last Supper. Here we read aloud the story of the Last Supper and sang "Let Us Break Bread Together". 
We returned to the Temple Mount and crossed a courtyard, passed the ritual baths, to the steps that took people up to the Temple entrance. Visitors in Jesus' time had to pay a half-shekel tax to enter and make their offering. Jesus sat on the steps of the Temple frequently and spoke to his disciples. These steps are now referred to as the Teaching Steps, where rabbis and teachers frequently sat and taught while other gathered around. Several of the original steps from the time of Christ are still there today and we were able to sit there and reflect on his teachings. (Matthew 22:34)
Just passed these steps is the Western Wall, known as the Wailing Wall. A portion of the wall was left after the Romans destroyed the city. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D., Jews were not allowed to come to Jerusalem until the Byzantine period, when they could visit once a year on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple and weep over the ruins of the Holy Temple. Because of this, the wall became known as the “Wailing Wall.” Now, known as the Western Wall, it is a place of rejoycing and prayer, as the last accessible relic of the last Temple. People come here to pray, to remember the oppression of the Jewish people and to leave that pain and their prayers behind. 
People write prayers on paper and place the between stones in the wall, knowing that they will be prayed over by God and all those who come to this place. To stand there, to hear the prayers being spoken aloud in dozens of languages, to watch those placing prayers and to place my own. It was like being caught In a thick presence of God. I was, in a word, overwhelmed. The sight of women weeping. One woman held her phone up to the wall as I imagine the voice on the other end sent prayers of their own.
When we arrived back at the hotel we had a short lecture from the hotel's Israeli manager on his view of the Israeli-Palestian conflict. He explained the political views and that the wall was built for protection of Israel.
