account of the teaching of the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:1-4). The church contains over eighty versions of the Lord’s Prayer in different languages. Further down the Mount the beautifully located Church of Dominus Flevit is located, commemorating the point at which Jesus wept over Jerusalem. The church itself is built in the shape of a teardrop! The Garden of Gethsemane, located by the Kidron Brook at the summit of the Mount, on the natural walking route between Bethany and Jerusalem, is where Jesus prayed before His arrest. As with the other traditional sites, we cannot be sure where exactly this happened, but the area in question is really very small, and pilgrims visiting modern-day Gethsemane can be certain that they are within a stone’s throw of the place where Jesus went through such agony before His arrest. Gethsemane means “olive press,” and very ancient olive trees still grow in the garden. One of the most impressive churches in Jerusalem has been built on this site - the Church of the Agony, or, as it is usually known, the Church of All Nations, reflecting the considerable international funding that went into its construction. It was constructed in 1924 on the site of two earlier churches, a Crusader oratory deserted in the 14th century and, prior to that, a 4th-century chapel. Its sanctuary contains some exposed rock, venerated as the place where Jesus knelt in prayer. If not the actual site, it cannot be a great distance from it. There are many fine mosaics here, depicting the events associated with the spot, including the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, which led to His arrest, trial and incarceration at the House of the Jewish High Priest. While it is impossible to say with any certainty where the House of the Jewish High Priest was located, many think it may have been to the west of the city, on the edge of Mount Zion, where a modern and very recently renovated church run by a French religious order now stands. Named St. Peter in Gallicantu (St. Peter and the Crowing of the Cock), it was built on the site of a sixth-century church and is surrounded by many excavated cellars, stables, cisterns and other such items dating from the Herodian period. For some 1500 years, the site has been associated with Jesus’ encounter with the local authorities and, perhaps more importantly from a spiritual perspective, with Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus, and Catalan pilgrims nearly 700 years ago mention Gallicantu as the site of a beautiful church. The current church is situated at the top of a flight of old stone steps dating from the first century, and if indeed, this is the site of Jesus’ first imprisonment, it is almost certain that the steps there are those He would have been forced to climb. Excavated rooms found under the church that may well have been cellars, or even dungeons, in which Jesus may have been held until Good Friday morning.
Via Dolorosa From here, the story of Jesus moves to the possible site of Pilate’s palace and the fateful walk down the Via Dolorosa. Jesus was taken to Pontius Pilate, who ultimately condemned Him to be crucified, and one of the highlights of many a Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land is to follow the steps that Jesus took to His death. There is far from total certainty as to where Pilate’s palace was located, but over the centuries, tradition has located the site of Jesus’ condemnation, and His subsequent walk with His cross, to the place of execution at Golgotha. Pilgrim tradition has led to a devotional practice known as the Stations of the Cross - a series of fourteen stations associated with Jesus in the last hours of His life, from His condemnation by Pilate to His burial, and many Anglican and Roman Catholic churches have paintings or carvings of these adorning their walls. Although the Stations reflect prayerful tradition rather than historical certainty, they can be moving and helpful, especially when visited in Jerusalem itself. Excavations have revealed a large stretch of Roman pavement near the possible site of Pilate’s palace, and many groups now start to relive the Stations of the Cross from this point, mindful that Pilate brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, known as Gabbatha in Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke) and also known by the Greek name of Lithostrotos. From this point, the traditional route of the Stations winds through the Arab heart of the Old City until it reaches the place where Jesus was nailed to the cross, crucified, died and was buried. Two thousand years ago, this was outside the city wall, but the place has since become incorporated into what is now the Old City, and the last five of the Stations are all in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Pilgrims can now visit the new wing of the Terra Sancta Museum in Jerusalem’s Old City. This museum, on the Via Dolorosa, has a vast collection of archaeological
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