hug is noted

I entered the Church of All Nations in the Garden of Gethsemane, and spotted Father Placido sitting at his post in a dark corner to the left with a tiny lamp lighting his desk as he read (or prayed, I did not know which). When he saw me standing in front of him, he stood up, hugged me and cried, so happy he was that I came to visit him. With my bum knee (look for an explanation in another post), he welcomed me in, listened to my woes, and brought me a chair to elevate my knee. Unreligiously, I moaned, “No, not His will, but mine be done!” I was in agony, you know. Did God not see that? Father took me to a seat in the sanctuary around the rock of agony, where a Spanish group was having Mass. I looked at the rock during Mass, and was grateful for Communion. Father brought me a cane to use on my way, and called a taxi, so that I would not need to walk back to the hotel. I asked him to draw me a map to the place where Sister Salvatorina is buried (that will be in another post as well). There were only two things that I “had” to do during my three days in Jerusalem: see Father and visit Sister’s grave. On the map that he drew for me I asked that he write a note to Judy, the teacher from St. Lawrence who came to Jerusalem with the HOPE teachers last year. Placido and Judy hit it off immediately when the three of us prepared for Mass last June. They shared hugs and smiles then. They remain in each other’s memory still. “Ah, Judy!” he said wrote his note