Anniversary of Resurrection Day

Today is the birthday of one of my cousins... I mentioned this event in my blog last year...

April 5 is also a significant date for Christians: It's the date of  the resurrection of Jesus - in the year AD 33.

Some years ago, I visited the garden tomb - near the Old City of Jerusalem - where some believe the grave of Jesus is.

The second site - historically considered to be the tome where Jesus was buried - is inside a church within the walls of Jerusalem's Old City.

The last evening my son and I were in Jerusalem (in October 2008), we ate in a rooftop cafe in the Old City. I took pictures of the view from the roof.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is across from the scaffolding in the photo to the left. The tower being restored is part of the Lutheran Church - and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a few steps away.

One might wonder why it is inside the city walls. The answer is that, although Old Jerusalem has long been a walled city, the location of the walls has changed over  the last 2000 years. Churches were built on many holy Christian sites - among them, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, inside the current walls of the Old City.

When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire (rather than the worship of the emperor himself), the mother of Emperor Constantine, whose name was Helena, visited the Christian sites in the Holy Land, building or beautifying churches in many places. This happened 1700 years ago, about 300 years after Christianity began.

She also built one on the Mount of Olives - referred to often in the Gospels.

I wonder if it's the church we visited...

The Mount of Olives is across the valley from the Old City... A beautiful sight to see!