Hello everyone from Rhodes, Greece, where we detoured because of the general strike gripping the country. We’ll double back to Athens tomorrow. I am trying to finish this before we leave the dock and move out of wireless range … and in time to get down to dinner with the wonderful Guideposts group. Did you know they like to feed you on cruise ships?
Later I wandered the ancient quarter of Rhodes, where there are many churches and fortifications built by the Knights of St. John. So much history is interwoven here … the Greeks, the Romans, early and medieval Christians and the Ottomans. It is almost too staggering to take in.
But yesterday at Ephesus was even more amazing and inspiring. At first I was put off by the sheer number of visitors to the ancient site but then reminded myself that in its day Ephesus was a teeming city of a quarter million; only fifteen percent is currently excavated.
That status as a city is exactly why Paul journeyed here and preached, why he undertook the danger and rigors of such a quest. It was awe-inspiring to stand on the spot at the amphitheater where the Apostle himself stood to preach the Good News.
But perhaps the most moving of all was a visit to the house where Mary is believed to have spent her final days. A simple stone structure from the first century A.D. on a hillside overlooking olive groves and a whitewashed village below. A good and peaceful place, humble but lovely.
It is not known for certain that this was Mary’s home. The only confirmation comes from the divine visions of a deeply devout paraplegic woman who described the site from the bed that she never left.
Unlike Ephesus, whose history is quite well-documented, Mary’s home has to be accepted by the heart and taken on faith. Which I think is as it should be. It is surely a place of serenity where one can quite easily believe that the mother of Christ would be at peace.
There’s the dinner bell. More from Athens, then Israel.
P.S. Want to see more of my photos from Rhodes and Ephesus? Take a look at this slide show.
