We were given free days for the next two days in Jerusalem. Early Sunday Morning, many of us attended the Latin Novus Ordo Mass that is held at the Tomb of the Resurrection at 6:30AM at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Some of us also attended a Melkite Rite Divine Liturgy in Arabic at the Melkite Catholic Patriarchate in Jerusalem. Later in the day, I went to Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion, right around the corner from the Church of the Cenacle where we celebrated mass the first day when we arrived. Dormition Abbey is under the custodianship of the Benedictine Order and it commemorates the Dormition (also known as the Assumption) of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the end of her life into heaven. Pope Pius XII declared the Assumption of the Blessed Mother as a Dogma in 1950. The Assumption basically holds that at the end of her life, the Blessed Virgin Mary was assumed body and soul into Heaven through the power of Her son. This stems from her unique role in Salvation History as Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception (being conceived without original sin), and also her example of perfect discipleship to Her Son. Eastern Catholics hold that Mary's soul was briefly separated from her body then reunited before being assumed into heaven whereas other church fathers hold her body and soul was never separated in death before the assumption. The specifics of what actually happened in this regard has never been formally defined by the Church, all that has been defined is that Mary was taken up to heaven body and soul by her son at the end of her life.
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| Mosaic of the various women from the Bible who played a key role in Salvation History |
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| The Place of Our Lady's Assumption |
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| The Icon of the Dormition of Our Lady |
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| Altar of Our Lady, Queen of Apostles |
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| Altar of Saint John the Baptist |
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| Main Altar at the Abbey |
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| Outside the Abbey |
Later in the Evening, we all had the great blessing of having a Holy Hour at the Basilica of the Agony in the Garden of Gethsenami.
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