A Glimpse into the Ancient World

Today, after Mass and breakfast, we traveled south on one of our longer bus rides to the ancient ruins of Tel Arad. The outpost was divided into two sites - a fortress at the top of a hill and an old city towards the bottom. The fortress was constructed in the Iron Age and contains one of the few pre-Solomon temples located in Israel. It was interesting to see how the temple was arranged on an east-west axis just like the temple in Jerusalem. The sight of the ancient altar was a reminder that our ordinations to the diaconate will be occurring soon and that we will be serving at the altar where the Sacrifice of Mass happens.

While we fill up our water bottles at the nearest tap, the ancients didn’t have such a luxury. In the desert one has to be creative to have a constant source of water. The inhabitants of Tel Arad solved this problem by building cisterns to hold any water that fell. As we descended into the cistern, I was amazed by its depth. Such depth would have brought gladness to Tel Arad's inhabitants during the dry season.

Later in the afternoon we were treated with a gorgeous view of the Great Rift Valley over-looking the Dead Sea. A little haze hung over the mountains in the distance, but when the light hit them they uncovered their beauty. While we could have stayed for hours, we were hungry, so we stopped for delicious buffet style lunch in the modern city of Arad. 

Know of our constant prayers for you all.